I sense the phantom of affection
Like a missing tooth
I thought my heart had healed,
But any semblance of love
Has drained out
Through its cracks

-

You dream before sleeping
It leaves you with longing
Or laughing or weeping.
A dream is a book
That comes with a cheat
You can pause, or play it
Or watch it on repeat
It can take you to places
Of which you never knew
A book is a dream that
You carry around with you

-

In silver linings, little things
I'm richer than the richest kings
Dates with friends, coffee breaks
Finding it's a weekend when I wake
I tell myself everyday
'No one can take my things away'
I put my faith in little things
The all the joy they swear to bring
But when coffee spills and sunday ends
And new shoes tear and cannot mend -
With my silver linings all destroyed
What is left to give me joy -
This blinding darkness? This silence, loud?
This silver lining-less blackened cloud?

-

I know the storms can never last
Any more than sunnier days
Every storm I've known has passed
But what if this one stays ?

Many squalls and more
Have drenched me in their rain
Dragged me down to the ocean floor
Till I swam up again.

With boat and oars and mast
I've braved winds and hail and haze
Every storm I've known has passed
But what if this one stays?

In the waves my boat's been tossed
And soaked to skin in spray
For months on end I've been adrift and lost
And always found my way.

But when the skies are overcast
I ask myself, always :
Every storm, till now, has passed
But what if this one stays?

-

I know why the caged bird sings
Songs of stars and shadows
To a God of small things
With a quiver full of arrows.

I know why the caged bird sings
Into an endless night-
A trail of broken wings
And the dying of the light.

I know why the caged bird sings
All of the saddest words -
After all, it is the way of kings
To kill a mockingbird.

-

I never called home,
You painted my life
In monochrome.
The taps all drip
The rent too steep
For something I
Can never keep

-

The heart is more of a balloon.
Growing fuller, soaring higher
With every breathe you draw in
Going strained, growing pained
From the fullness within.

'Til it's stretched beyond limits
By the pressure on its walls,
A balloon pops and it drops
And it finally falls.

Breaking is for balloons-
The ones that flew, first,
As a heart must be full 
Before it can burst.

-

-HEARTBURST-

I do not think that hearts can break.

Breaking is for windows
(Showers of shattered shards shining
On the kitchen floor
Around a guilty tennis ball.)

But a heart is not a window.

It cannot be see-through 
When it has so much to hide 
With no handles you can turn
To let yourself inside.

-

I hope I'm a butterfly:
So my last days on earth
Would be my most beautiful.

-

-BUTTERFLIES-
How lucky you are
To have your mapped out
Since before the day you were born:
You eat
You sleep
You wake
You fly
And are at your most beautiful
The day you die

-