my friends dragged me to the tide pool even though I don’t know how to swim they put a life vest and tire around me they don’t want me to miss out on the fun it was one of the first times I felt the splendor of a community of love
Always has never been a friend of mine because of the many lies I associate with it I’ll always be here for you- I’ll always love you I’ll always be your friend so now I never believe people who say always Instead, I look at them with cynicism And tell them, “that’s nice but I don’t believe you”
hope appears in the leaves dancing on an almost spring day and I sit in stillness and silence wondering what it means Admiring the splendor of nature before me understanding how beauty is found in the ordinary
The hands of ego and pride kept them apart They chose themselves instead of following their hearts it was tragic to see how many lies they weaved I don’t love her, I don’t love him they held on tightly to their anger, went back to their safety nets it was more comfortable to do so then to fall back into their chaos
I used to want a lover who looked at me like I was magic now I want a lover who sees the real me and doesn’t leave someone who doesn’t scare easily when I cry in front of them and instead holds me and offers me kind words of solace someone who accepts that I’m both angel and devil and doesn’t hold it against me Someone who’s persistent enough to get through my emotional walls even when I’m closed off because of trauma this kind of lover won’t be ideal and will have his own set of issues but it’s the only kind I’ll accept from now Because lovers who have looked at me like I was magic quickly disappear when a strong wind of my insanity ruins me me for them and they say, “fuck me, I didn’t sign up for this”
One day you’ll be a bad dream I’ll wake up from One day someone will come along and you’ll be a distant memory of an intense and toxic past who took over my life for a while One day I’ll be loved by someone the way you could never love me One day I’ll look back on our time together and regret every moment wasted on you One day you won’t haunt my soul and mind One day you will no longer be my muse One day is here, now and forever
I’m proudest of the woman I became on Sept 8, 2023-my liberation day
I reflect a lot on who I was, who I am, and who I will be- and I’ve reach the conclusion that I’m proud of all three versions of me Constantly fighting my demons no matter how viciously they came after me Constantly reinventing and rebuilding myself even when the chaotic earthquakes of life broke me apart I reflect on the goddess, the beast in me who always refuses to give up who continues to get and keep going no matter how hard life tries to break me down
I wrote a version of this poem in 2005. It was about my frustration with the relationship I was in at the time.
Drown in passion
I’m hanging on to my last thread of sanity trying to accommodate to our new reality I know monotony happens even in the best relationships but this feels like the death of our love Where did your yearning for me go? You used to worship me and call me Godly now I can barely get you to look at me and when I say anything, you call me crazy so I’m going to swallow my words and pretend I’m okay with this charade of love
no fuck you and your pedantic machismo- oh and PWM =privileged white male
I light a candle, put on music, and pay tribute to all that I will never be- it’s not like I’m denying myself possibilities or opportunities I’m just acknowledging certain realities I’ll never have the proper words, the necessary pretentious words of the upper class pedigree to be published in one of those prestigious journals or win a pulitzer prize I’ll never be seen as an equal in American because I’ll always be a foreigner and while this brings me a certain kind of grief I also celebrate how different I am I’ll never filter my words or fake eloquence or elegance to make myself digestible to those with multiple degrees Nah, I’m a mosaic masterpiece, with my bad grammar, my simple vocabulary and my powerful and emotionally charged phrases I’m not and never will be for those with sensitive ears or palettes and I’ll always take pride in that
it’s me and my trauma-watch out, there won’t be a story left untold
I hold hands with my trauma and show her off to everyone most people look at her with curiosity some people are horrified my family cringes and and whispers to me, “it’s embarrassing, showing her as some kind of trophy” I get mad and flip everyone off and me and my trauma link arms and skip on our way to share her story and create drama and chaos who cares if no one understands our process of how sharing her story is the key to my recovery
don’t mess with a poet-you’ll become her muse whether you like it or not
I give you a yard and you give me an inch- it’s a game of back and forth nonsense one where I respect your unspoken boundaries and need for space until one day the push back from you pulled back into a dark place I haven’t been in a while a place where my confidence breaks, a place where I start to question my worth a place when my sense of self breaks once again and I know right there and then, it’s better to give up whatever this was I’ve outgrown men who send me mixed signals