Summer's brilliance will fade away.

   Ominous clouds will mask over the sun.

   The vibrant flora will die

   As bitter winds bring winter to freeze over everything in sight.

Yet you will remain the same:

   Warm, colorful, lively, and beautiful

   All year round even on the bleakest days.

My Eternal Summer.

When I was born, I was presented with a massive canvas and all the paints I could desire. I was put to one task: create a masterpiece.

I wasn't sure what I was doing at first. I finger-painted all the colors on, bringing to life millions of nebulae, stars and galaxies stretching for light years. As I grew older, I became more careful on the composition of the colors; how they formed and moved across the canvas. The abstractions became shapes of planets, moons and asteroids within the galaxies. I often went back to add in more detail to make everything stand out. Sometimes I spent years devoted to a single planet and its mountainous terrains and the gases clouding the atmosphere. I often took breaks when unsure where to take my ultimate masterpiece next and ponder for hours what more I could add on. No matter how much I painted, there was always blank space on the canvas for more. More constellations, more worlds, more life to stretch on forever. Yet I never tire of it as I see the great potential in each and every planet I create.

Born at the darkest hour

With democracy's death.

Beautiful beyond words,

But under her grace and poise,

A fighter was lying in wait,

Ready to strike against those who took her family.

Even as her losses grew,

She held onto hope for a better life

Without hiding from evil's terror.

She walked tall,

Her head held high

And her voice just as loud.

Never giving up without a fight.

Never apologizing for speaking the truth.

Always standing up for herself

   And those who suffered like she did.

That didn't happen...

... I never said that

You're just overexaggerating...

Liar

I know what you said and did.

I know that you hurt me in the worst of ways.

You may have fooled your friends to think I'm just a crazy bitch,

But you will never fool me.

And I refuse to play your games anymore.

Take our humanity,

    Our rights,

    Our lives,

                  We will fight on.

We won't stop growing,

    Screaming,

    Living,

               Just to spite you bigots.

My throat is sore,

My cheeks stained with tears,

My eyes inflamed,

    But I still have the will to fight.

I will never concede.

We will never concede.

We had so much confidence

   that justice and truth would prevail

   and everyone would do what was right

   in the name of liberty

Where did we go wrong?

An idealist notion

maybe.

But is it wrong,

to demand that my friends,

my family,

and myself,

to be treated human

like everyone else?

Sometime in human history

we were divided,

treating anyone outside the "norm"

as inhuman.

Mistreatment escalated to violence

to obvious human rights violations

And yet we remain stagnant to these horrors.

We all bleed the same,

yet we forget this until innocent blood is shed.

Whether refugees tried to escape another bombing,

or a child was just walking home at night

and looked "out of place."

Even then,

we are prone to immediately forget

and the violence goes on unpunished

and more blood spills.

What would it be like

To kill someone?

Shoot them,

Stab them,

Strangle them,

Poison them.

Watch them bleed out,

Gasp for their final breath,

The light in their eyes fade to nothingness

As they let go of this life.

Would I feel guilty

Or pure adrenaline in the thrill

Of taking another's life?