Haste not,
Let beauty brew
and bubble,
becoming more thorough
through the rubble.

when eventually I come to pass
I pray that they rip me from limb to limb
such as a flower sheds its petals
and that I may be more beautiful in death
than I ever was in life

for we only see the vibrant rose
in the fading colours of having been plucked

so take my dog tags and I'll take yours

and if we die in this brutal ****** war

don't tell them we switched

let me buried under your name

and you under mine.

(A 'thought piece' I wrote in high school)

Ok, I'm not paid to think (like the TV shouting heads), I have no real voice (vote), and certainly no credentials - but I'm as invested in America as any high-school citizen can be. I've pledged allegiance 3000 times (hhmm.. do they doubt our loyalty?) and when it comes to loving America, I'd have to say my classmates and I are at the center of the spell.

I'm afraid we're growing up in the age of hate.. the age of phony outrage where each position large or small is high noon and violence is underfoot even when policing ordinary citizens.

We won't address the multitude of old problems in this new age.. we'll just unleash a marquetry of half truths to dispute the proven until unreasoned arguments reach their paranoid fullness.

The real world is alarming enough - lets just push that away and ignore it - while we're at it lets **** shame the poor, the old, the sick, the unemployed, the hungry and the hand of mercy.

I realize America was never one moral atom bonded for better.. but those anvils that forged us appear neglected or forsaken. I'm afraid what's happening now, what we're seeing and hearing now, is a symphony of erosion - that by the time I have any say at all, the middle class will be gone - america turned slum - where even the voice of despair will be turned traitor.

We'll only be able to see our greatness in museum souvenir shops where nothing is affordable and everything is made elsewhere.

Am i lost again?
Clarity will you find me?
Vows, I held to yours.

As I lie there, I felt my thoughts going blank, the pain was excruciating, the air was freezing, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t feel my arms, legs, hands, and fingers. my eyes were closed, yet I see a flash of light, and memories after memories just flash before my eyes. Every smile, every cry, my greatest achievements, my darkest moments...

I lay there feeling the presents of many people trying to help me, but nothing was going to work, death has reached me, and that's one thing you can’t stop from happening... I felt the blood run down my face as I breathed my last breath...

The memories stopped flashing, my heart stopped racing, the light that once was shining bright darkened as it turned black... I finally closed my eyes for the last time ever, as I heard the chilling words...

“Shes gone...”

Cold and tired
But I'm covered and can't sleep
Sad and angry
But I won't let myself scream or weep