The Luckiest of Them All

Talking to him was similar to writing.

I didn't know how to articulate how I felt
until I looked him in the eye
and built up the courage
to put pen to paper.

Anything short of complete and utter honesty
would be wildly insulting.

He is all of the
words
worlds
and bravery
I never knew I had inside of myself.

We unearth the truth in each other
and that's why we we're the luckiest of them all.

We found wells that ran deeper than
the streams most others dreamed of.

I was his well and he was mine.

I think that's what everyone is searching for.

How lucky we are indeed.

The Day My Bed Swallowed Me

I was afraid to sleep in my own bed.

I'd climb under the sheets and get all situated
only to find that the person I loved wasn't there.
Only in my head.


I don't know what's worse.
To hide under this mountain of sheets
until you come back or to rip this bed off
like a bandaid, every morning and
convince myself I can handle this.

Standing Up

You get up
and you fall down.
So you cry and you heal
but at least you know the growth is real.
Put a band-aid on your knee, wipe your tears.
You fall down
but you get back up.

My New House

In the face of love

everything in my body shook

like a house on stilts 

in a hurricane.

But I'm not worried.

A new house is coming soon.

Found Her in the Forest

You walk in and see her.
She's fierce and confident and
carries herself with a silent strength.

You ask others about her.
Most don't know much.

They tell you she has scars
on her hands from holding
her war-torn heart together,
she's got gun powder
caked under her fingernails
and calluses on her palms
from all the grenades she's
tried to stop.

They tell you she fought to be where she is and you like that.

You don't see her as they do.
You see her as a brick wall about to fall.
Strong skin but a heart more
tender than the most delicate garden.

She's shown her forest mind to few and they've always run.
But not you.

Shes hid in her forest for as long as she can remember, like a pearl
that didn't want to be found.
But you did.
You saw her.
And that's how.

That's how you got the girl.

So Much More

We wanted only a taste of the ocean, she wanted more.
When we had our backs turned she swallowed our shoes
we left behind the shore.


She always gets what she wants.
The shore and so much more.

In All My Years

They say we're all just trying to survive.

But why?

In my own personal experience 

I have found that "surviving"

dissects your heart from your soul,

making you bitter and resentful. 

In all my 20 years

this is what I have learned:

do everything you can to avoid

a hard heart, buy the shoes, make eye contact, 

forgive the boy that broke your heart and

be kind to everyone you meet.

The world looks too much like the hands of a skilled tradesmen-calloused and hard.

The world doesn't need more calloused, it needs

more compassion. 

Life's too short

to just survive.