Admire Yourself
Your beauty within blossoms,
It radiates from all your bodily features,
Glowing from your facial expression,
Your white teeth making a dramatic appearance,
Your beautiful smile creating a friendly, approachable face,
Its magnificent,
Be confident,
Be yourself,
No matter your insecurities,
Love yourself,
Others will fall in love with your confidence,
Rise up,
Admire yourself.
Confusing a Penis with what a Pen is
Penises and pencils
Quills and pens
One righting shlongs
The other writing tens
Never confuse a penis
For that of a pen
One writes in white
The other (I repeat) in ink again
Don’t be led by the lead
By the pencil I said
Or be led by the penis
Though you might think her Venus
If this makes you mad
Then, my friend you’ve been had
Because my goal for a while
Was to just make you smile!
(c) BAM
The Faithful Heart
Tiny, wooden girl on the window sill,
you peer outside so tenderly
--what is it that you see?
Your wire-frame wings are bent
from children's careless mishandling,
the heart in your hands is fading...
But still you stare and your arms reach
as if somewhere out there
--where I cannot see--
is someone you have, for so many years,
in silence and tears,
been loving.
Heartstrings
These hammers strike a chord,
Deep within your soul.
This time, at least, you can afford,
You have things under control.
These hammers strike the strings,
Like matches, burning quick across cement.
These notes, they give you wings,
Free you from lament.
And as you play this piano,
The music flows through your soul,
It’s okay, it’s okay, you know—
You have things under control.
Overlooked
Don’t you ever feel so tired? Not physically but emotionally...
I feel like it’s so hard to just keep fighting day after day and I just feel like I’m not getting closer to where I want to be. Yet week after week I keep a smile on my face. Nobody knows how broken I feel on the inside.
This often keeps me up all night. I overthink and that’s one of my biggest issues. I think too much about stuff and sometimes I just can’t take it anymore, I mentally break down. Nobody sees that in me though. They see me as a happy cheerful and joyful person. I like to make people happy because I know how it feels to be sad. I’ve lived through sadness for so long and still continuing my battle. Sometimes I just want someone to hug me to make me happy to tell me it’ll all work out but sadly life isn’t like that and I’ve learned you have to learn to fight alone. Just be nice to people because it can really change a life. I know this from experience! There are too many people out there who are overlooked.
I just so happen to be one of them...
does anyone else ever feel this way or is it only me????
Toilet Tears
To Mindy, the invasion coming through the high school girl’s room door felt as violent as a terrorist entering holding an AR 15, even before she recognized the familiar voice behind the intrusion. She thought, “A terrorist would work better for me than those two right now.” Surely death would solve her angst.
Already hiding in the bathroom to avoid seeing them in the hall, the outburst of laughter coming from Angela and Terry sliced at her brokenness. With her arch nemeses within breathing distance she played possum, as a matter of life and death loomed over her consciousness. Fear consumed all the matter in her brain spilling over onto the metal stall, the ivory commode and even the rough commercial toilet paper. It rose in her throat choking her and at least her vocal cord paralysis was companionable with her quest for total silence. It was the second time that day she hid in the bathroom to avoid seeing them in the hall.
Thankfully, it was only twice a day that their classes put them in the same hallway. How many tears had she shed since she moved to this God forsaken town in third grade? In every grade there was a bully that placed her on their hit list.
“What am I doing wrong?” She asked her mother and her big sister time and time again.
“Fight back.” They’d always respond. She couldn’t. She didn’t know how to fight back. It was not her nature and she felt she must be somewhat deserving of their wrath. What other explanation could there be? So she went through each school day year after year struggling to hide the growing layer of internal scars, not making many friends, while doing everything she could to avoid a confrontation.
While both girls looked in the mirror applying lip gloss, Angela starting talking shade first.
“Dat f’n ratchet thot. I can’t even. Did you see her walk right past Kenny with dat tight skirt before? I told dat basic bitch I’d cut her if she ever goes near him. Did you see how scared she looked? That’s because she knows I’d do it and we’ll see what she looks like when I’m finished wit her.”
Terry hangs on her words like a cultist and repeats back almost verbatim, “Yeah….., f’n thot…., Kenny looked…., tight ass skirt….., cut dat scared basic bitch up.
“Swerve! What did you say? Kenny looked? Did you see him look at dat thot? Angela seethes.
“Well that’s what guys do, right? They can’t help it especially with eye candy like Mindy.”
Still paralyzed, Mindy wishes she could flush herself down the toilet. There is no other exit plan for her so she tries to focus on the hope that they leave without realizing only a few feet and a metal door is separating them.
“Girl….what did you say? Eye candy? Shit. I’d spit out that piece of candy. She’s nasty!”
“YAAAASS! You’re right. You’re right. I was just messin wit ya. She’s nothing to look at.”
“He better not be checking her out if he thinks he’s gonna get wit this piece of ass again,” Angela bends over and spanks her ass. “Let’s get out of here so I can find Kenny before he leaves for football practice.”
“I thought we came in here to have a smoke before cheerleading practice?” Terry lifts her peace sign fingers to her mouth and inhales.
“Forget about that now. Kenny has got to see my fine ass so he can know where to keep his damn eyes.”
When Mindy hears them exit, the silence comforts her as it always does. She’s so familiar with this stall. She knows exactly how to pull the toilet paper without it snagging on the ancient roller. With shaky hands, she cautiously rips a few pieces, wipes her tears, blows her nose and wonders how she will get through the next school day.
#fiction
#heart
I Remember
The young girl stares upwards, turning her eyes to the stars. The only thing is, there are no stars. There remains only the everlasting feel of dark, darkness, and eternity. And still the girl is content, or at least as content as one can get without having witnessed the true beauty of the galaxy. Her gaze shifts to the side, but is met with rock. Rock as black as midnight, so starless it blends with the starless canvas of the sky. She sees nothing in the rocks, and still she is satisfied. At last she glances down at her own feet, and wonders why they, unlike the darkness surrounding her, are light.
She wanders, and wanders, until finally she stumbles across an old man, so frail as he leans against the rock. His gaze meets hers, and she sees that his eyes are full of tales so ancient, with wisdom and despair and joy and misery. They are mesmerizing, and suddenly she knows that he'll be able to answer her question in a way that will fill her with contentment, and nothing more.
"Old man, tell me why my feet are so light?"
The old man simply smiles, admiring her curiosity, perhaps pleased he would have someone to pass down his stories.
"Would you like to know that, and nothing more? Or would you like to hear the truth?"
The girl hesitates. Had she ever been lied to? Certainly not! But against every instinct in her tiny body screaming at her to turn away, she says,
"Tell me the truth, please."
The truth, as it turns out, starts with a memory. Memories of creatures foreign to the girl, with fur that covered their entire bodies, creatures that sprouted ears and tails, fins and wings and beaks. Colors the girl had never appreciated, sounds she'd never heard, sights she'd never seen, and would never see in her lifetime. All the while, she listens in amazement, eyes opened wide, her heart taking everything in and grasping onto these stories. No, not stories. Memories.
"I remember a world more vibrant than the one we exist in today. I remember when the dogs and cats, fish and birds, still lived. I remember a world before we stripped everything away -- the trees, the sky, the ground. Our humanity."
The little girl, having heard the wonderful memories from the old man, feels a surge of emotions she had never felt before. She is overwhelmed with regret, and with despair. She feels something trail down the sides of her cheeks. When she reaches up to touch it, her hand comes back damp with... She doesn't know what it is, but it is strangely comforting.
"Those are your tears," the old man says gently. "I have not seen them in such a while, I had almost forgotten they existed. Thankyou for reminding me."
And with that tears sprout from his eyes as well, pouring down in a steady trail.
This is hardly what the young girl wanted. She came hoping to leave fulfilled, but instead she is more confused than when she first came.
"I want to see those creatures too!" She cries.
The old man sighs. "Me too, young one. Me too."
*As you probably are well aware, everything above is a work of fiction. None of it is real, fortunately, but it might as well be if humanity continues down the path it is going down now. I mean, come on! Polar bears are endangered! Can you believe that in a few decades, all of the species that you've taken for granted will be gone? Never to be seen again? I can't. The question is, what will you do about it?