.

I drew lines on your arms

the ink followed your skin like a memory

shredded dust made of needles, composed of your life

so I handled it the only way I knew how

tattooing you across my rearranged heart

foolish you truly are, letting your love . flow in someone else’s blood

I have no consent to your pain

I have none

.

I have loved you since the dawn of time,

Though we only met today

And our love is eternal in all directions,

Raising us above the world

Forever more

Animals,

True blessings in a harrowing world

They comfort, inspire, and help humans

When times are dire

Many are innocent,

Some even defenseless

Really, they just want to live their lives,

Growing and building families,

Exactly like humans do

Yet, those same humans

Pillage their homes,

Setting forests ablaze,

Showing the utmost cruelty

All of it an undeserved nightmare

As people, we must join together,

And protect these treasures of the earth

I woke up on an early spring morning and put on my cookie monster onesie. I was turning 28 years old. The sun hadn't long been up, when I received a text to come to the front door. I opened the door and my face became a beautiful reflection of the morning sun. There was a card and a balloon with rose petals encricling them on the doormat. I had never been loved like this before. So simple, yet deeply profound. He woke up early, drove 20 minutes before sunrise, so I could wake up to a day of surprises.

my best memory was first my worst. i spilled red on the canvas and it burst into 3 pieces, each one different from the other. i was taken by my mother who made sure i had enough to get me through the week. i felt weak as my journey with mental health began. i ran through the thoughts going through my head over and over again to make sure they were real. this is what i feel, i said to the doctor as he fed me the wrong pills. my heart spills red on the canvas until it ran blue.

By the time my grandfather moved in, he was in a wheelchair. However, it didn’t stop him from going on daily walks. One time we were strolling past a row of rose bushes when my grandfather motioned for me to stop. I watched as he bent down into the thorny vines and gently lifted a robin off of the ground. Silently, he pressed upon its wing and launched in in the air. I gazed in disbelief as the robin flew towards the sun. I look back on this moment as a lesson in quiet kindness.

    My heart was thumping in my chest as I focus my gaze onto my desk. In 8th grade middle school i’m in the awkward years of life but so was everyone else.

I did nothing extraordinary but put my soul into a piece of paper and gave it up to be valued by those of higher standings then us middle schoolers.  Still like most kids my age I want to feel special, 

“...you have gotten your painting in the permanent fifteen! What do you feel?”

   I look up in shock inside what to say but none the less I whispered out.

“...Amazed”

Wrapped in your arms, your warmth a stark contrast from the bitter cold December night. Our blissful sleep was disturbed by the soft glow of the rising winter sun ebbing over the horizon. I gazed out the window to a surreal scene. The world so unbelievably still, so devoid of life, covered in a blanket of the purest white reflecting the brilliant orange fire of the sun. A world ablaze in a cascade of fire and ice. The ugliness of the world melted away, like the ice frozen to the glass. To reveal a beauty that I had all but forgotten could ever exist.

Weep, mother, for your lost children. I see them, the students, young men and women of a bright new future... that would never come.

Limp and motionless, their blood staining the pavement, bodies riddled with bullets--they lie. One still grips the remains of a shattered speaker, yet another displays what they died for: 我们想要自由.

A few miles away, a young soldier sent to enforce peace lies beaten and broken, his slender frame hanging like a rag doll, eyes empty and defeated. Even he has been betrayed. Though I am privileged now, I still grieve for my lost brothers and sisters.

I sat on the edge of my parent's bed crying. They each held one of my hands. My mom and Dad both looked at me so happily. I had just told them that I might have depression.

"I'm so proud of you honey, for telling us this," My mom said her voice catching, "We're going to get through this, everything is going to be okay." My dad nodded and for the first time ever I believed those words. This moment changed my whole life, and probably saved me from doing something I would regret later on.