I have to shout to you over the noise of the television
In the form of a million other eyes
Standing, waiting, weeping
Watching our country slowly drip with wet paint
Stained in the color of loss
Peace, by piece, by piece

Smothered by your haughtiness and weak foresight
I have abandoned hope to the intangible concept of your knife
slitting the throats of a future generation
cutting out their docile voices
so only yours can be heard

Have you ever been madly in love?

The old man broke my reverie.

On the long faded green bench white with bird droppings
he was peering at me through his silver grey beard
looking oddly out of place in that college squire park
where only the dreamers at the prime of youth
would sit between classes to exchange love notes
and steal a kiss when the passion couldn't be reined in.

Have you ever been madly in love? he repeated,
and then as if growing impatient by my silence
mumbled, pausing between words,
like they stung him like thorns
it extracts a price been paying all my life
living with a void no other woman could fill
a commitment that breeds only pain
yet makes me insanely boastful
of being madly in love.

It was recess hour and the benches were being filled up.

How many, I wondered, would still hold hands
when the classes are over.

"You think I don't understand darkness?"
I know you do.
And it's hard for you.
Being rainbow in a world so colorless.
Pumping life into a heart that's bloodless.
Taking the hit even though you were faultless.
Filling yourself up to combat the emptiness.
you were patient; embraced it.
Carried the weight on your shoulders like it was painless.

I know you think we couldn't care less.
But you're wrong; we all know we are blessed.
Even when you’re not at your best, you impress.
Because when they cover you in blankets you still fluoresce.
Never giving up; your beliefs you never second-guess.
Nevertheless you feel the pressure, you feel the stress.
But you inspire me because despite it all, you always find a way
to defeat the darkness.