In innocence, he gave his heart,
To a girl, a work of art.
Her smile, a radiant beam,
Captivated him, his love's sweet dream.

She moved on, to higher halls,
Where older boys, with charm, enthrall.
Their words, a sweet, siren's call,
Lured her in, beyond them all.

He watched, as she slipped away,
Into a world, where he couldn't stay.
The older boys, with confidence bold,
Took her hand, and his heart grew cold.

The chill still kissed, a fading, winter sigh,
But sunlit air held promises nearby.
A path I took, where signs of waking stirred,
A gentle breeze, a whispered, hopeful word.

Crocus cups, in purple, gold, and white,
Burst from the earth, a dazzling, pure delight.
Tulips unfurled, their painted petals bright,
And daffodils, like suns, embraced the light.

I call the wind a nuisance
It burbles and gurgles all night
Till I take antacid to let it out,
Then I feel alright.

A whisper of bone, a sudden descent,
The world tilted sideways, her strength almost spent.
A fall, a fracture, a body betrayed,
The doctor's grim words, a future unmade.

They pieced her together, with glue and with care,
A delicate puzzle, fragile and rare.
"You might not walk straight," the whispers did say,
But a fire within her refused to obey.

There was a poem
written in his eyes

even before I knew
of such things.

I, the little girl always searching
for words and meaning,

saw his language there,
the beauty and balance of life,

the quietude of few words
unfolding like blankets, rivulets,

mantles of verse and rhyme,
untangling a sadness I

could never understand, making
the world a kinder place, delivering

inspirations and courage as this
child wandered into her dreams.

A phantom ship on a sea of gray,
He drifted, unfinished, through the fading day.
The study room, a cage of stifled breath,
Where smoke curled slow, a harbinger of death.

In fields of dreams, he soared, a graceful flight,
A rumble deep, a primal, savage might.
With kindred spirits, he would fiercely roam,
But thoughts like moths, would flutter far from home.

A mind adrift, a canvas torn and frayed,
By colors swirling, shadows disarrayed.
ADD, a whisper, a forgotten tune,
A symphony of chaos, born too soon.

I went to bed and said my prayers,
Now I lay me down, free of cares.
I wished to swing from a mighty tree,
On a half-inch rope, wild and free,
Like Tarzan did, so bold and sleek,
A thrilling sight each single week.

I prayed for the rope, with hopeful plea,
But like a dope, it came not to me.
So I asked my dad, with hopeful start,
And he got that rope with a loving heart.
I was a good boy, to say my prayers true,
My dad came through, just like dads do.

The fuse is short, the wick is lit,
Soon frustration, I admit,
Will bubble up and make me grit
My teeth and want to just up and quit.

But later, ah, a different tune,
The sun will break, the sky, the moon,
Will smile on me, arriving soon,
And I'll enjoy this afternoon.

All things must pass, the wise men say,
The dark of night gives way to day,
So in this moment, come what may,
I won't give a rat's ass, hip hooray!

Moon waxing gibbous from freckled skies
As breakers roll and wash the sands.
Far, far out in the abysmal deep
A lover waits with outstretched hands.

Deep deep below she pirouettes.
Sways, graceful as a Degas girl.
Wrapped as the tide does ebb and flow
Held for all time in Neptune’s web.

Taken one night as the typhoon raged,
Sleet straight as arrows shredded sails,
Masts cracked, they splintered, decks heaved, they split
Till Into the maelstrom the hulk was swept.

So many eyes are looking at me,
all the judgement, the good and the bad.
Waiting for all this to disappear into the abyss.
But nothing is worse than my own eyes,
seeing all the anger dancing around the happiness,
twirling through the sorrow, teasing the hunger.

Sometimes, it feels good, to feel the anger
all through the waves of eyes, and the wind of ears.
I'm tired of these eyes crashing into my vision.
Tired of my ears stealing my breath.
I can only feel this way so long.