Ivory leaves sprouting from your knuckles
light streaming through your lashes
as snowflakes braiding your stone fingers
moving reaching for the sun
bark ascends from the earth raising you
becoming you encasing you in a sheath of Laurel
roots journey from your feet exquisite as butterfly wings
hair turns to foliage Evergreen

I tried to fix what was broken
And became upset when I couldn't.
I left it alone,
I let it be,
I even changed me.
Some worked and some didn't..
Now, I must admit it
My errs have made me shameful
Because my intentions were so good;
But I was blinded, so blinded,
That I never really understood
How I could ***** anyone over
The way I did.

I turned a new leaf
And still I couldn't succeed
Because all anyone ever really saw
Was the old me

I set new boundaries and was shunned
So I opened them up and now I'm lost

I went back to the old me,
And even that ******* me.
So what do I become?
What do I do?
Because the old me
And the new me
Wasn't ever good enough for any of you.

Melting
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Entirely, as spring consumes the snow,
the thought of you consumes me: I am found
in rivulets, dissolved to what I know
of former winters’ passions. Underground,
perhaps one slender icicle remains
of what I was before, in some dark cave—
a stalactite, long calcified, now drains
to sodden pools whose milky liquid laves
the colder rock, thus washing something clean
that never saw the light, that never knew
the crust could break above, that light could stream:
so luminous,
                       so bright,
                                         so beautiful . . .
I lie revealed, and so I stand transformed,
and all because you smiled on me, and warmed.

Keywords/Tags: spring, melting, snow, winter, icicle, stalactite, underground, cave, transformation, love, warmth

I think I'm turning paranoid,
Or at least a little mean;
I question all the motives
Of those who liked my meme.

The second I get Followed,
I ****-- turn around around to see
If he just wants a "Follow-back"
Or truly likes my feed.

Don't even get me started
On social reciprocation.
IRL I don't do so well;
In virtual, I'm an island nation.

Do I just Like what I like?
Or only what really hits home?
What if it's a horrible post
By someone who loves my poem?

...do you like me? Do you really


like me?
Does it
matter?

I
don't
know

How can humility match this raging fire within?

The furnace breathes. Alive
in harmony. Hearth built strong.
Bellows balanced in a steady stream.
Useful : Proud in action and function.
My body steams
learning to trust
temperament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV-Khs9Rqxs
Listen while reciting - Enjoy!!
-----

Alchemical Butterfly
wing in the sky
eastern diamond bay
we were born this way
everyone will cry

Shhh It's all okay
Garden of God at play
megalithic dao
mirror of now
everyone is gay

I'm tired of the human race
But have love for god
I want to leave this earth
but float among space
And look back, from a pod

Im forgetting all name and form
And feeling as if I were never born
I cannot tell if it is after or before
All is now wet, I smile as it pours
Another barrier between my place and yours

But thats okay I like it inside
Closer to my heart for my soul to untie
Where there are no clocks
because people don't have the time
Life is a lie and the truth is everyone will die

So set me free from here
the land of the sun
where people are blind
the land of the gun
where humans **** their kind

My soul is a boat
Distant from shore
Bending the horizon
onward to nevermore
no body to tote