Tear at the Fractions

I wish that you existed,
I want that you should be real,
I want to be able to look at you and tell
"I can feel."

I wait in as place as green as they be,
Unbent, unformed, and powerful.
There are trees, old and gnarled and tall,
waiting till the storms engulf,
and whip away the factions,
tear at the fractions,
bringing away the leaves.
I sit on a grey roof,
staring up to the blue,
and I'm thinking of you.

The fish swam past the fallen branch
Silver streak in muddy water,
Black lightening in the brown clouds,
Stir up the mud,
don't think nothing of it,
Don't believe what they say,
Can you trust them, anyway?

The heron jabs its beak in-
The struggle is brief,
The great blue flies away.

And I'm sitting here,
wishing you existed.

We write 'love' on our arms

I pray for strength
because time is not enough
because life throws hard punches
and I just want to punch back.

I have friends
who cut themselves,
to make the pain
more real.
And I think, "My god,
how beautiful,
this pain we call
'to feel.'"

I write love on
my arm
and on the arms
of others.
I see some scars
and I cry
a little
inside.
Not only because
I wasn't there
for them,
to stop them,
but also because I've
seen the abyss
from the bottom of it
and it's seen me,
and stared back.

And I wonder
what it was that
made them break
and why,
now,
we write 'love'
on our arms
as another way we can escape
with nothing more
that we'll have to explain-
in years in the future
to people we don't know now,
who might not understand-
since this is sending the same message,
but isn't as destructive.

Love is just a word
to send a message
about something
voiceless in its soul.
And I pray for strength
because
I want to see this through.