I have had a lot of time to think. And I think about how I gave myself a scare, in a way. I alerted myself to reality. Even though at times it might have seemed like I was slowly dying, I think I was just making my way forwards. That's all we really do, I think. We just make our way forwards. And then we get where we want to be and we look back and we wonder how we got from here to there. Because sometimes the path is so...

I told myself I wasn’t good enough. That was my first lie, I think. As if an A minus differed from an A Or a size 0 differed from a size 00. I don’t know when I started believing myself. I think I was fourteen. I told myself that whatever I did, I did it wrong. That I should be more perfect. I told myself that the reason my teacher didn’t like me was because I was fat. The reason I wasn’t popular was because I was ugly. I...

The golden years are far from done But the blackness has set in And someone who once thought they had it won Is now immersed in sin. Black kohl lines lids of steel Silver shadow adorns one bloody eye Slate grey breaths turn Fate’s infamous wheel She used to ride so high. A shaking finger reaches out towards seemingly oppressive light A whisper, a breath, these are all things of mind They have no power here, where the body...

There was a timewhen she drank normal Coke from the plastic bottles and ate one large popcorn with every fixin’ at the movies and maybe a hotdog and if she went with her dad, she’d probably grab some Junior Mints too And then there was a time when she drank Diet Coke from the silver can and ate one small, butter-free popcorn and never a hotdog and if she went with her dad, maybe a lollipop And after there was a time when...

Once she dangled her feet in the blue water And sang around the campfire And toasted marshmallows And drank Coke And took photos of her friends and hung them on the refrigerator That was the time when she loved her sister And thought her mom hung the moon And thought boys were gross That was the year when she brought back her first “A” And never got a B And felt like the world was small with her as the only important one...

The last time I saw you, we were barely fifteen and yet gathering no attention when we took our usual seats on the rickety wooden bench at the playground on 5 th street. All the mothers there knew us, we’d been there so long, and we in turn knew them and their children. Some of the faces were more familiar than others. Your neighbor from down the street. My old music class teacher. But all the faces seemed to coalesce int...

I can't pretend that I don't miss them Not while I'm still looking at their pictures. I can't pretend I don't see them Walking past the café on fourth. I can't pretend I don't hear them Not when they're shouting. I can't pretend that I can be free Not during this agony. Sometimes, you have to love someone enough to let them go. But I can't let them go.  I still hear everything they're thinking, like a part of me has ruptu...

"I'm sorry." "I don't care." "I wrote you a sonnet." Now he has her interest. "A sonnet?" "Yeah, like Shakespeare." "Why a sonnet?" "I don't know." "Is it a good sonnet?" He looks at her, his chocolate eyes meeting her icy blue. "I don't know." "Then, why are you trying to read it to me?" "Because, it's up to you, I guess. To see if it's good." "I don't take unconfident boys. Come back when your sonnet's good." "Okay." "O...

“Who am I?” I whispered, staring at my own hands in a kind of nervous fascination, eyeing the white scars and ragged half-moon nails that I’d come to love and appreciate. I could already see them gone, thrown out of the window in the garbage, no longer a part of me but a part of where they formed, floating in the wastelands of humanity. How many people had sat on this hospital bed like me? How many had been there, waiting...

“You’re my one and only,” he promised, breathing lightly down her back. “I’ll never love another.” She smiled at him through half-closed eyes, before drifting off. Her breathing hadn’t even settled into a rhythm before he was gone. It was easy to fool girls, he mused, strolling through London’s back-alleys. He slipped inside a modest house, only to find a girl in a lacy nightdress looking up at him with big doe eyes. “I m...

“This has gone on too long,” I stood and declared.“It’s time we were a family and let our innermost thoughts be shared.”My brother turned around and my sister laughed in mirth“If you want to talk,” said she, “then tell me, what is communication worth?” “What is communication worth?” repeated I“Well it’s worth everything to anyone, even those who are shy!Communication is trust! It’s friendship and love!It’s how we speak to...

Since the dawn of timeBefore poets learned to rhymeThey have remained together yet apartFighting for supremacy in every being’s heart.One is dark like the night,Whose first instinct is to fightThe other is bright like the starsWhose light shines from afar.The yin and yang, the moon and sunCountless stories of them have been told and doneA set of opposites, of dark and light twinsThe obvious question is: Who will win?One b...

I have felt so alone, pain you would never knowPain that remains inside you, pain that will never goI have felt this pain. This pain is part of meBut this part I have never let anybody see.I am a soldier in a foreign landGoing up against my enemy, hand to handFighting for a cause irrelevant and deadWar and hatred when I want peace instead.But I stay. I do not move from my placeAnd nobody sees the agony on my faceI remain...

I took out the gun. I pointed it at Harry. “Don’t move,” I hissed. He looked straight down the barrel of the Glock 17 and whimpered. “I won’t,” he said softly. I pushed the barrel of the gun against his forehead, and pulled the trigger, hearing the shot and watching the blood begin to seep down his forehead and his eyes glaze over. But just at that moment I heard a voice. I looked up to see my mother standing over me. “Co...

Hark! the angels cry Up in the cloud-white sky Heaven looks a lot like school Even has that same slimy swimming pool. But I died today And I went along on my merry way I must say Heaven looks a lot like Masonic Ave. I opened the same doors to my classroom And in Science, I made stuff go BOOM! I must report Heaven looks a lot like science class. Later on, I was in Phys. Ed Wishing I was home in bed I must reply Heaven look...