I fold my hands.
My posture is straight.
They throw their quiet cruelties—
Expecting me to shatter
To deflate
I let the hallway echo.
Let them wait.
Their petty insults
Left at the gate.
I guard the inner strength I cultivate.
A heavy bruise.
The jagged words they grate.
They look for fractures,
Flaws to celebrate.
But deep within
this quiet, living state,
I drop their heavy anchors
to their fate.
Unbroken.
No one gets
to touch
my living soul.
Don’t wanna feel the pain of missing yesterday
When I would see your face across the room
Don’t wanna feel the emptiness inside
Don’t wanna know another day of gloom
I want to know that you are waiting for me
That you are home and I am minutes away
Don’t wanna face what the mirror knows
Don’t wanna say what I have to say
I wanna feel unbroken
I want to be the person that I used to be
I wanna feel unbroken
I just don’t understand the man that is now me
I wanna feel unbroken
Don’t want to hide from people everywhere I go
I wanna feel unbroken
I want to know the happiness that I used to know
Don’t wanna cry each time I sit and eat alone
Conversing with a tired and empty chair
Don’t wanna go to bed with no shared dream
To wake and realize that you’re not there
And how can I be whole when I have lost my heart
And how can I go on, a shattered man
I want to feel the sun shine once again
Don’t wanna feel the only way I can
I wanna feel unbroken
the shining glimmer in the eyes of hopeful children.
their dreams not yet shattered.
their soft skin, warm against the pillows of which they dream upon.
the happiness that radiates off of their small bodies.
the loudest of their laughter.
the brightest of their smiles.
still happy,
still shining.
Scared, Yet Unbroken
Scared I'll be the burden that they name,
Scared my laugh will call them to complain;
Scared they'll put my heart aside as blame,
Label me "unwanted" in their frame.
Scared my life will slip to average size,
Scared to dim beneath another's eyes;
Scared to marry only to economize,
Scared my worth will fold into disguise.
Scared to mother in a life of small designs,
Scared our days will tally like thin lines;
Scared the future's gate with quiet signs
Will close on dreams and file them under "fine."
But listen, fear is not my final song,
I am more fierce than what they think is wrong;
I will shape my name, I will stand my strong,
I will claim a place where I belong.
Not just a woman boxed to fit their plan
not merely measured by a nameless man;
I am a storm and I am also land:
owned by no one, steady where I stand.
So keep your judgments I will keep my flame;
turn your "burden" shouting into my name.
I will not vanish; I will not be tame
I will live loud, exact, and boldly claim.
When you died my heart was shattered,
leaving footprints on a soul tattered !
I stand firm as an oak tree
My roots are long tentacles
Strongly hooked into the ground
I've withstood great storms
I've felt mother nature's wrath
Lightning has forked into me
Yet, here I stand, unbroken
And I'll keep standing.
THE UNBR9KEN
There are but very few of them
the battered but unbroken.
Wise and strong, their aim never wrong
in deeds or words they've spoken
Their confidence needs no defense
it's true, it does not care.
"Rise above, proverbial dove,
your armor is your air."
They see the world through wondrous eyes
and live each day amazed.
No one can tell they've walked through hell
purportedly unfazed.
Nurture nature nomenclature,
crystals, cards, and schemes.
Right from wrong a simple song
when truth is held supreme.
Humility and empathy
All the pieces into place.
Strength of will and character,
their ego's hedged with grace.
They'll never reach their goal in life.
yet still they never stop.
They will find rest only in death.
It's lonely at the top.
This a poem out to praise the balanced nature of love
Love is a square square.
a balanced thing,
fair when it gives,
fair in the take.
Equal of measure,
for my sweet sake,
no condemnation,
Only praise we bring.
No imbalance
in this perfect ring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sheets of onion-skin parchment
absorbed spilled ink like wounds—
each stanza a fractured bone
set crooked by unpracticed hands.
the poet’s quill snapped mid-confession:
a silent scream bled into margins.
Her eyes were deep and wide like the ocean,
His were dark and shallow like the night,
Together their eyes were like the beautiful moon over the ocean at night.
They loved in secret so no one would know.
Not because they were ashamed of each other, but because it wasn't "right".
They loved in silence till their eyes told them not to.
Like the ocean and the night,
Their love was brought to light.
As the rose sleeps
The fragrance steeps
The night’s somber rain
And somewhere a sunrise as sweet
Young lovers hearts awake complete
And unbroken whilst I groan in twain
For in my hour weaves a moonless night
Upon which the scattered stars fall dim
And grief's lost shadow haunts my sight
Wandering where once she loved him
I am as strong as the wind is fierce
Though my heart is shattered
I will persevere
I loved with all I had,
and all it did was leave me sad
I will not cry, I will not weep.
I will stand tall, though the nights are deep.
I’ll gather my pieces, one by one,
And face the rising of the sun.
Though shadows linger where love once lay,
I will find light to guide my way.
I find my value to him,
Was only where I lay
In longing under the moon
All promises made.
He did deface
Awhile now he's tried to leave
Letting me fight for he
But in the end only pain remained
Broken dreams blooming in dawn light
With cold tones he said fairwell
And with that my heart broke,
Like frost in hell
Realization tore, sorrow felt.
Never did he care for me
only what I brought
So easily I was tossed aside
My pain, my longing, swept over me like a tide.
Yet still I stand, unbroken, clear,
No tears will fall, no trace of fear.
I leave behind what once was mine,
This love now past, its grip resign.
The pain will fade, the longing wane,
A distant memory, not my chain.
When the night is dark and heavy,
I still carry light inside.
Life may push me to the ground,
But it cannot take my pride.
Troubles come and troubles go,
They will not decide my way.
I will rise and I will stand,
Stronger with each passing day.
Pain may touch my body deep,
Time may steal what I once knew,
But my spirit will not break,
It holds steady, firm, and true.
So let life bring all it has,
I will face it, I will stand.
I’m the master of my story,
My own fate is in my hand.
Glory to her hands that stitched the green,
That sought the pieces of a love torn wide:
For her strong grief, a river spilling light:
For her sharp magic, beautiful and keen,
That found the fragments and refused to hide:
And knit his broken body back from night.
All things lost, scattered, shattered, and undone:
Whatever's broken (who can say why?):
She holds the pieces, breathes them into form:
She births the sun from what was not a sun:
Let life begin.
Beneath the weight of bleak grey skies,
I rise, though storms would blind my eyes.
No tide nor tempest bends my soul
Of those who stand, though hearts be cold.
Through thorn filled paths and bitter winds,
I pray my soul reborn, where hope is all.
The chains that sought to steal my flame
Are melted by a forge unnamed.
Invictis! —cry it through the dark,
A beaconed flare, where darkness dwells.
May stars bear witness, live or dead,
I've run the race, I am measured still.
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