Seven years ago today
I was rolling my eyes
As you teased your sister and me.

Seven years ago today
My best friend and I
Stormed out in anger because of you.

Seven years ago today
We were counting down
The weeks until you moved away.

Seven years ago today
I heard you laughing
Triumphantly over winning the remote.

Seven years ago tomorrow
I cried with my friend
Begging for you to open your bruised eyes.

In two weeks it will be seven years,
Since I watched them bury you.
I'm still waiting for you to come home.

-ARI

I know the little boy
that walked for miles
in everybody's shoes
and I know the Man
who speaks only
when he chooses to

I've met the laughter
I've wiped away the tears
I've sat silently
as he diligently walked
through broken years

I've met the comedian
I've met the larrikin
I've met the musician

I've met the old soul
that tells tales of woe
but cries silently
counting every tear

I've met the body
that wakes up every day
angry with the universe
but with nothing to say

I've met
the troubled heart
the irreverent lark
the messed up kid
but comforted
the messed up adult

I know my best friend
and I'll be the one
to tell those
that just saw
one side of him

That they didn't look so deep
they have no right to keep
their memories that are shallow

I've met my best friend
and...
you're wrong
just so you know

I know him
he's so strong

Stronger than the shadows
that haunts him in real life
I know him,
*he's stronger than you or I

You made a poet fall in love with you
And expected her not to write sonnets about your eyes
Haikus about the way you kissed her in the moonlight
Expected the fire in her heart not to inspire couplets
You made a poet fall in love with you, and when you left
Expected her not to write pages about the ache in her chest
Write a soliloquy dedicated to her tears
Expected her not to feel every gut wrenching moment of the pen hitting paper like your words hit her in the most vulnerable places of her mind.
You made a poet fall in love with you, and you expected her to be silent.
That is no fault of hers.

All I want is
to be happy
And if I can’t
be happy
I’d rather be
dead