there’s an angel on earth (an impartial observer)

come to witness the folly of humanity

to watch, unsleeping, unbreathing, unliving

(it forgets itself)

it sees the dapple of light through leaves and the rippling of fresh river water and (it forgets itself).

it goes to sleep.

she wakes up to an unbearable weight.

the world itself sits on her chest, calls her to the stand,

in a court of outdated ...

the first, the last, the light, the dark,

she was it all, she was the world,

she was your all, she was your universe,

you’re going to forget her name, eventually,

but you’ll remember her, how she-

how she looked in neon moonlight,

only existing in the nightlight hours,

only in the darkness beyond a rainstained window,

smoke in the daylight, unimaginable in the sun

how she talked with celestial w...

dying of old age is naive optimism

so wipe your nose and swallow your tears

stand on broken bones, raise bloodied hands

and die young, die screaming, a martyr

they’ll take your name, they’ll take your story,

they’ll write it down, they’ll hold it up,

they’ll turn you into something worthy of glory,

and forget you as someone worthy of love

you were a child, you were a teacher

you were just walkin...

it’s raining outside,

(i think i love the rain)

but I’m sitting inside, safe, and I wonder,

my fellow poets, do you ever think about how

in a hundred years, a thousand, your writing will be incomprehensible, unreadable

it will have meaning known only to your rotting corpse in a form of language now obsolete and outdated

and, how, if you’re lucky,

(or not)

they’ll pin your words down w...

grass stains and ladybugs

sky blue as those eyes

hands twisted in soft ground

there are words to be said,

but they won’t be

half-finished flower crowns,

stems tangled and broken,

half-finished thoughts,

i think we forgot something

but now it’s too late

lying next to someone,

their hand inches away,

you’ve been doing this for too long,

say the birds up in their tree,

you’ve been doing this for f...

savior, please,

I am drowning,

they’ve chained me to the seafloor,

and taken all my breath

savior, please,

you are the sun,

its rise your crown,

its set your throne,

you are holy

savior, please,

I am drowning,

my crown is twisted and broken,

my throne is dark and cold

I am forsaken

savior, please,

reach out your hand,

beneath the waves,

for the sun is all that is good,

for the sun is all that...

i am sitting under blue lights shaped like snowflakes

but the snow has not touched this place in years,

i have not touched the snow since I was a child-

driving away from the only home I had ever known

to fly across the country to a place where it can’t follow me

(it doesn’t snow here)

the lights strobe a heartbeat

on, off, on, off, on, off

flashing silently in the living room

with no one bu...

there’s a shovel in my hands

and grass stains on my knees

I’m going out digging

(I’m going out burying)

the moon is high in the sky

and low in the dewdrops,

there are crickets singing in the grass

(they don’t know what I’ve done)

I dug a hole six feet deep,

with crickets the only sound,

and I buried you there

(I buried you there)

there by the old oak swing,

there by the dried-up ...

i’m climbing up, up a tree,

reaching for a sky far beyond,

but oh- my foot catches, i fall,

i hit the ground-

wake up!

wake up, they say,

with wet noses and eager paws,

there’s a ladybug in front of my eyes,

and spring flowers in the air,

wake up, it’s time to go!

and I do, I wake, I go, away

I run far and I run free

through trees and forests, through lakes and sky

wings of birds on my back and ...

tired of being young,

terrified of what I’ll become

scared I’ve wasted my childhood,

mind drunken on the lies of hollywood

they say life doesn’t start till 30,

when you know yourself, happy and carefree,

but i need to know yesterday, if possible,

for colleges, the answer isn’t optional

stress is the only constant of teenage years,

minds slaughtered by constant fears,

we’re supposed to rule the w...