Sometimes I feel like
I’m a placeholder for others
Because of me
Their world stays in tact.
They’re allowed to grow, and be
While I remain fixed.
Always straggling behind
In the shadow of their success.
Tag: Poems
Categories
Platforms
Art is political
You can’t convince me differently
Because at heart, art
Is an argument
Artists want you to feel or
Think or see one way
The picture is cropped
Colors are chosen carefully
Scenes are deleted
Yet, we are silent
When it comes to disaster
Art doesn’t pay well
And we’re scared to speak
When we should be scared
To stay silent.
Categories
Balloons
Choices expand stress
The wait; the anticipation
The decision though
Pierces through the fear
Popping it like a balloon
The choice is made
And life can lift
A gentle rhythm
Inhale, exhale, and repeat
Stave off all that’s bad
It’s so hard to start
But the pounding of my feet
And the sweat dripping
Keeps me sane
Categories
Cliff’s Edge
Watching her healing
Is terribly frightening
It’s like when a child
Gets close to an edge
You want to snatch them up and
Hug them tight to you
So you’re never scared
But, that’s the problem…you see
Because the healing
Is not about me
She has to heal for herself
All I do is watch
Labor division
Is never equitable
Where kids are involved
Hard work is not done
In the moments or seconds
That come after pain
No, hard work is done
In the smile of encouragement
The breath of patience
The tears of frustration
Hard work is not just blood or sweat
Those are momentary…
Fleeting
Hard work is done
In the creation of the scar
And the faded memory it becomes
My car climbs the road
To find a spot over the trees
And all the houses
Just to catch a glimpse
Of fraying clouds burnished gold
Slashed over mountains
A sunset, bright and bleeding
It’s a reminder
Things that might seem torn
Or damaged or shredded
Are still achingly beautiful
Inevitable.
A word we use
And we overuse
Inevitable
We say; knowing that our friend
(Who’s boyfriend we don’t like, by the way)
Had a stormy break up
It’s never surprising
It’s inevitable
When a perfect movie star
Gives birth to the most perfect baby
Who’s perfect silver spoon lands them
Directly in trouble…
and it’s filmed.
Inevitable.
When the earth makes another trip around the sun
And the morning stretches and the night yawns
And it happens again
And again
Until you’ve seen 10,000 new days.
Except. It’s not. Inevitable
That the clouds will fray at the edges with that shade of pink blush from your mothers fake leather make-up bag
That same shade you’d smear on your finger and pat on your cheek until you’d made a hole in the powder.
And is now inexpertly lighting up the western sky with the same bright intensity as a two year old in her mother’s
Cheap fake leather make-up bag
It’s not inevitable
That the stars will look like that Pearl necklace of your grandmas that night in eighth grade some boy named…
Brandon
Kisses your cheek during the firework show at a theme park.
No.
Because it is not.
Inevitable.
A day so vibrant and bright
Darkened by memories
Shimmering, swirling, with violent might
So contrary
To the work I’ve done
To ensure the future sun
Hipstory 