Midding
I sit and listen
Yes, I am okay
Yes, I am awake
No, I don't care to speak
My anxiety prevents me from doing more
Than sitting and listening
So I observe and learn
They wonder how I know so much
Since I never speak
But I'm always there
Listening and learning
Throughout childhood I sat and listened
To the adults discuss the world and its problems
And so I learned through the osmosis
Of their words entering my ears
And catching onto the fibers of my brain
I still sit and listen
Even today as an adult
They think I should "participate"
But I am happy and content
Where I am
On the edge
Of the crowd
Observing and watching
Everyone and everything
Without having to waste my energy
By opening my mouth
To express the thousands of thoughts
Racing and running through my head
I am content simply being
This is America
Land of the free, they say,
And home of the brave.
What is freedom?
And what makes you brave?
I have seen war and hate:
Scars on our country.
That is not freedom,
But is freedom free?
I have seen fear in the eyes
Of children and wives,
Of brave men forced to live
In poverty and silence.
That is bravery:
To dwell in a place
Where you are different
And hope to become one.
E pluribus unum,
They say.
Do we mean that?
Do we want that?
A melting pot
Of cultures and peoples,
The huddled masses
And the tired and the poor.
This is America,
Not the billionaires and tycoons.
It is the tired mothers
Working to feed their children,
The desperate fathers
Coming home too late
After working two jobs
And paying their children’s way
To a better life,
An education.
It is the immigrants and silent faces
On the streets of the metropolis
And in the fields and the factories.
This is America.
Silently loving you
I'm used to playing pretend
Hiding pain and holding back tears
This isn't any different
Yet I can't let myself lose you
Even though it burns
I hold on to the flame
While hiding it from the world
Hoping in a miracle
A distant future
With you by my side
Dreaming of dancing in black and white
Echoes of a life I don't know if I get to live
I'm already in mourning for the possibility
Of losing you
I write a word for every tear
I shed a tear for every moment away from you
What have you done to me, my love
I fall asleep thinking of you
And my thoughts turn into dreams
I finally have the hope of seeing you
Pictures don't do you justice
And after so much time
I'm forgetting your voice
And the way you move
Every part of you that I love
Is slowly slipping away
In my dreams you return
And I can see you again
But every time we are about to touch
On the brink of seeing sparks
I wake up and remember
That you are far away and not allowed
And I live with the fog of a memory
Of your hand touching mine
And of your breath on my lips