Extend Your Hands
I gave her a cup of coffee to warm her soul
“But where is my tomorrow?” she cried.
My jeans dry on tree branches blown
by the wind to dry as do my tears.
My shoes are worn from walking the streets
of desperation, despair and heartless rain.
Reality of living day to day is now my norm
loneliness is my only companion as I strive
to find an open food kitchen or a spare bed.
I have been locked out of life and have no key
I carry all I own on my back as it spills on a trail
of hopelessness and searching for what I have lost
I’m invisible, masked from vision of those who walk by
Stuffing fast food in yawning mouths, leaving crumbs
Why don’t they see me, why don’t they extend hands?
The least little kindness will help me stand once again.
#Challenge #HelpMe @DesperateSouls
A peculiar thing
When I was young and ignorant
I thought the levels of the books I read
determined my intelligence.
"No more picture books for me"
"I've grown too old for that teen garbage"
... I'm better than that
But it is not the
intricate plots
polysyllabic words
impecable diction
that defines the pages
its
the story
the idea
the characters.
That manifest in your bones until they swell and are birthed in your heart.
***
For perhaps, the adult writing that children's book knows that only children will understand the complexities of that particular universe without further explanation.
T R A G E D Y
I am lonely, but not alone. I have friends, and I have family. What I do not have is someone to hold me, not like the other girls do. Everybody around me has been kissed, held, been told those three precious words. Only once have I had that "someone", yet it wasn't love. Just an act of despair and desperation out of the need of love like the others have. He loved me but I did not love him, a mistake I will never again make. But still, my desperation bleeds through, burning me so harshly as if I were paper drenched in alcohol. I am so strong, but in my need for love, my weakness pours itself out. I know I am beautiful. I know and love who I am and who I wish to be. But perhaps this is what draws them away from me. Perhaps boys want someone whom they need to protect. Maybe they don't enjoy the confidence I have. Or maybe it is simply my quiet nature. Perhaps I am invisible to them. I do not make a show of myself. Though I am not shy, I am reserved. I will never be the loudest voice in the room. I will only speak if I feel the words are truly needed and even then, I am not often heard. Perhaps I am just another body in the crowd, a girl they barely even see the surface of with a just a quick glimpse. Oh, if only the knew how deep my soul goes. Or maybe it is my deep soul causing my wounds from this pathetic need of love. Perhaps no one is willing to dig that deep into my heart, for it would be so long a journey. And it is one no boy is willing to take. Others simply fall in love, but I am one you must learn to love. And learning to love is something I also must do, as I have never had such a beautiful thing. But the world is in a rush nowadays. Who would want to take the time it would to love me? It would be so long and so much. And though I am beautiful, I am invisible. And though I am deep no boy is even willing to look into my eyes long enough, not like they do with the other girls. So perhaps I am simply unseen. Or I am simply too much to take. But I will not change, for I have no desire to. I will wait for somebody to see me in love, someone who will be willing and wanting to take the steps into my strange world and mind. But I am impatient and I am already drowning in the deep longing love has cursed humans with. So perhaps this is simply how it is to be. Perhaps, this is my tragedy.
Hidden deep within my skin,
Is a truth, I hold within.
Inked in black upon my bone,
A spreading plague, I won't let go.
Boring farther into marrow,
Stalagmites forming, destroying 'morrow.
Close my eyes, clench my chest,
Swallow it down, there is nothing left.
Candle waning before the dawn,
Surrounded by darkness, before too long.
Carry this burden to my grave,
Which is digging itself deeper, every day.
