It burns
It burns deep inside
every drop that runs down

your back as you ignore the pain
correction after correction
being told you aren’t good enough for it

I'm not sure if the glass is half empty or half full. 
Coffee shops leave me homesick for 8 minute drives to your cul-de-sac, to your arms; you're always busy. 

I am a strong young man exhausted from my ways
I’ve been in eleven facilities but nothing ever seemed to change
Until one day I felt his grace and heard it say
Come to me my child and I will take it all away…

Twirling
Twirling-Twirling
Along with the shhing of the pointe shoe on the stage
The smooth, sweet music playing to her sharp moves.

From his lips
To the paper,
To the teacher,
To the air,
To my mind that will not recall.

A thought may amble a bit ‘till it trips to a halt,
            ‘till it ticks up a halt and a half.
Slams to a door and whatever blue-black residue flirts with the hinges,
            flirts with the hinges:
A hiccup frame for the ghost words you never said

This curving,
cynical back behind me, it’s:
A warm bench,
A warm chestnut bench,
A warm chestnut.  A cold foreboding pew.
Luster here has now turned bland:
contaminated with waltzing dust and
a reek of pages
not turned for a decade.

The sky was an abyss of gloom,
As the trees billowed in the breath of the wind.
The stars sang secrets to the moon,
Above a castle holding lovers within.
An age-old monarch was outraged by his daughter’s betrayal,

It is a wall.
It is stiff, blank. Unmoving. 
It guards the paradise 
That she knows belongs there.

It is a stone
Waiting for her, the sculptor, 
To make it mean something.

The form of letters slop and curve on a page
like a human body. 
White paper, bare skin,
The line of a belt below a belly button:
the line of a notebook just below a sentence. 

The insistent decision that
The world is beyond repair because
No longer will
Human nature fix these things.
Negativity and pessimism
Invade the land of
Enthusiasm and assurance.
The problems remain
Because
People make choices,

Hello? 
I am looking,
Through windows and doors,
Looking at trees and between the shores 
For that spark.
The little thing that ignites souls ablaze
Propels emotion to heights unknown 
Cultivates thoughts hidden.

There is crimson and blue on the floors,
Where the players shoot, shoot, shoot, and score,
In the stands the crowd cheers,
For all of Lawrence to hear,
Basketball is in our DNA,
Ever since James Nai,

When I look into the lonely night sky,
I am reminded of yesterday’s passion.
Didn’t the stars fill the sky last night?
Didn’t your face reflect
The radiance of the moon?
We made music in the air, dancing
Under heaven’s light.

Give me an unagitated evening,
where I could sleep-walk
under a light rose-petal sky,
and arrive at your door,
40 miles away,
just in time for dinner.

Have you seen her? You must have seen her,
she’s one of the trees, with all the rain
that she can bear:

Eye color? Colorado green.
Hair color? The evening sun.
Don’t mistake her voice
for the hidden opal stream.

A star-studded with nothing but dreams,
Walking the path she had laid.
Big things would come they say,
Nothing but lies through the door way.

Sometimes all it takes is
A lyric of a song 
A fragment of a conversation 
A moment captured in a photograph 
Then suddenly there you are 
Using whatever you can 
Napkins, paper, your own skin 
They become the thing 

I believe that I am tasty Hershey Bar.
I’m 4'11" and, I think I’m as tall at the great big Redwood tree.
I’m as handsome as a daisy.
When fall comes it brings multi-colored leaves that are the best to look at.
I believe that I’m a great big shiny star.

I am in love with a girl… who is afraid of breakfast,
who brews coffee in the morning like gasoline feeding a starving engine.

Her fingers dance around the machinery of her waist out of step with reality.

Not all passion is love or an action, 
it is a feeling and can be full of hatred.
The enemies of which we seek,
the monsters that we associate in our dreams are stuck within our heads.

The fans knew it was the end
Their championship hopes were looking as bleak as a stormy night
As the star player fell down in fear
There was a crack that was clear
For his leg bone was fractured with an ambulance near

I can hear the loud silence
coming from the 100s of seats.
The pristine Steinway grand sits right in front of me.
I touch the black bench and feel its leathery surface.
I sit down and realize

Things I know to be true:
I have black hair and brown eyes.
I love cashews and reading.
Being around people makes me happy.
I have a mom, dad, and one sister.
I am happy.
Some days I’m not quite so happy.
But that’s okay.
I have you.

the moment that i lost him/i threw my belongings into my backpack/grabbed my hiking boots, and headed/to the great appalachian trail/where each step i took/over the dusty earth/reminded me/of growing up//i heard my dad/in my best memories/speaking/breathing/as he walked tall beside me/and constan

Chicago, my beauty;
Chicago, my heart. 
Chicago, the deep breath of 
Every morning I start.

Chicago, my summer;
Chicago, my light.
Chicago, the way her buildings
Shine in the night.

It’s fire
It’s ice
It’s steam

It’s crowded
It’s lonesome
It’s good

It’s life
It’s death
It’s purgatory

It’s yours
It’s mine
It’s ours

It’s love
It’s hate
It’s a fine line

The diver and the coach as still as a rock
Because the diver failed her dive because she balked
The coach’s eyes were filled disappointment and fear
But do not worry she will better next year
She will be better next year

Sometimes things happen
It is a part of life
But no one said it would be this hard
Take her back to the start
In the beginning it was all fun and games

The dictionary defines a “friend” as “a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.”
So are they homework answers?
Project partners?
A list of names?
None of the above.
New definition: