When I was young,
I was told
I should always
Appear bold
They told me to
Show my stance
And to always
Take the chance
Then I followed
Their guidelines
It put me on
The sidelines
So I have learned
A lesson
That silence is
A blessin’
Once I learned to
The improvement
Was profound
Life is like a seesaw,
Our journey is just like walking on the seesaw
From the bottom to the top side,
You begin with your first step on the seesaw.
Every step that you took,
It became more threatening,
The higher you grasp
The more intricate it is for balancing.
When you think yourself is progressing towards the top,
You realize you are falling,
Like a rollercoaster speeding down the tracks,
Towards the unknown.
Then you find out,
You cannot always reach the point that you want to reach,
Struggling back and forth numerous times,
You perceived the intricacy and started to screech.
However, you afterward become discerned,
That you realize standing at that peak,
Is the balance point of human life,
However, how would you streak?
There might be another method,
Where somebody is holding up the seesaw for you,
It might be your family or the people you love,
Or the enemies that you had successfully couped.
I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.
And that can be terrifying.
I don’t know exactly what I want to be
Where I want to go
Or when the time to leave is perfectly right.
I don’t know what would have happened if
I approached more decisions with the courage they needed
Or if I chose a more beneficial path
Or if I fought harder for something that means everything to me.
I don’t know how to grow up all of a sudden
And satisfy someone completely
Or live up to expectations I have for myself.
But what I do know
Is that I can’t live in the past
And I’m in charge of my future
My journey
I ask that you close your eyes
and listen to the world
surrounding you
The chirping of the birds
The slow drift of the waterfall
The rustle of the trees
The light breeze
The clear air
Nature’s music
It’s calling for you
I want you to open your eyes.
What do you see?
The light blue sky
The glistening waterfall
The multicolor trees
No.
What you see is the damaged life
The unspoken suffering
Habitat’s being stripped away while you sit at home with the AC on.
Trees being ripped from their roots while you print out multiple copies of the next presentation.
I want you to change
To correct the things in your lives
The consequences
you can’t see it
and someday
they will be gone forever.
How fun it was to make them laugh and giggle,
To see the smiles on their faces,
Then they grew up,
It changed them,
Now I wonder,
What could they possibly be doing,
Staring at their screens,
Tapping them and smiling,
It’s like I was imaginary and they had gotten over me.
They’ve forgotten how much fun we had,
I remember the day we met,
They wouldn’t stop playing with me,
Now I just sit here,
Lonely
Propped up against the wall
Waiting and holding on to the last grip of civilian life.
Our heads were shaved and that was when it set in,
We were now recruits.
The swamps of both the training grounds and the packed barracks was home.
I had entered what was supposed to be a barber shop
But what barber shop has only one option?
Three chairs were laid out,
Three barbers waited parallel to the chairs.
Hair covered the floor like leaves on autumn grass.
All 18 years prior erased away with the buzzing
Sting of the razor.
Drill Instructors barked orders,
Move move move!
The words bounced off the cold, gray slabbed walls.
Simple instructions now became complex orders.
I practiced in my head how to march
Lo right layo!
I had hoped the earlier I started the faster we would march on the concrete parade deck
Filled with the footprints and stories of those before.
Soon we entered a room with grey plastic boxes stuck to the wall.
The boxes were rounded off on the edges
Stirps of plastic flakes were barley holding on the main box.
Before I knew it the box was opened and my hand on the phone that was inside.
We read off a laminated paper with instructions that sounded robotic.
I have arrived safely at Parris Island.
It was a hot summer day whenI started
my trek up the side of the grand canyon.
The powerful sun beat down without mercy
as I hiked with a companion.
Layers of history, colors twisting
and morphing as it collided to form a cliff.
My ears picked up the sound of water running
as history was carved into the stone like a hieroglyph.
I could hear wind chiming through the trees
sounding like the piano playing for the moon.
Swaying melodically in the dim lit park
with the adversity dancing to the tune.
A fork in an ever winding path was ahead.
Indecisiveness swept over me like a fog
and we went our separate ways
as my slow walk turned to a trot and then a jog.
One, two, one, two, one, two.
Feet pounding the ancient rocks,
heart racing as I peaked to see
the sun looming in back like a crafty fox.
My heart hurtled my stomach as I stopped
to see dawn approach,editing the sky
deleting stars and the darkness
like extra letters and words gone awry.
Arriving at the summit with gratitude
where there I saw my friend.
Nostalgia hit me like a brick wall,
but I smiled and started to descend.
I ask people to take in all the intoxicating smells
And hear the wind whistle like a flute
Or admire the satisfying colors that nature has painted
Hear the birds and squirrels, singing and playing
Leaves crunching beneath their feet
Feel their hearts listening in peace
And eyes satisfied with the beauty
Only to realize that the tree has no more life
Hearing the leaves crunch beneath their feet
Slowing deteriorating to nothingness.
Inviting the air that brings along a cold death
Slowly freezing all the lakes and ponds
Everything comes to an end
A flower of Vengeance,
Birthed from the embers of the hearth within
Its hues, which Majestically Mimic flames,
Sway,
As if it were faltering, stuttering,
Trying to find the right words
To say.
When distraught,
it bellows Like a Beast,
Rising from the recess
Of your soul.
It appears like a small,
Unimportant thing
A meager chore
Left undone,
Or perhaps a shoelace
Left untied.
But don’t be fooled
Look past the smoke screen it has conjured,
Keep your eyelids unfurled,
For this,
This is what it desires
It craves
To be concealed,
It yearns
To be unseen
Why you ask?
So it can sink its talons
And grow roots in your mind,
Distorting
Your clarity.
As it sets its opinion in stone,
You surrender
Your supremacy
You let it take the wheel
As it drives straight towards
The brink
Of your sanity.
Like a baby bird
Harnessed to its nest
Humans when young
Cannot see much else
Blind at first
Their eyes only see one thing
The bright light of the sun
Is all that seems to be
With the passing of time
Comes the gain of sight
Now there is darkness too
That consumes the light
Jumping out of their nest
They fall far from home
Hurt by this cruel new world
Seeing past what’s bright