I will not be sleepy
until you're emotionally stable enough to hang up;
I promise.

Do you mind if I sing out loud?
The world doesn't want someone who is too sad,
but it doesn't care for someone who is too happy either.
It's unnatural, and it's fake.
I'm a liar
because I say 'I love you' enough that I have no regrets?
because I look in the mirror and smile at myself?
because I sing out loud.

I must tell you I took the less beaten trail yesterday;
I skipped through trees and jumped o'er streams to see the water run.
It seemed to me that adventure settles in to stay
within my heart, oh, how I love this shining yellow sun.

The truth, my dear, is that I am still very much a child,
and though I love to play dress up I'm still a baby girl,
traipsing through my memories carelessly in denial,
hoping you find me dancing here beyond the cement girth.

My mom calls it
endearing,
the way that I pull people towards me.

I’m beginning to think that perhaps
she is correct.

I apologize for tempting you to love me.

They say home is where the heart is,
But my heart’s in a million places
All at once like pieces of a magnet,
Drawing together and pulling apart.

These fragments are sharp to touch
Stuck in fingernails and achy paper cuts,
They get in the way, some self-destruct
Once they’ve already been left in the heart of someone else.