Marriage is changing, from who can get married (37 states now allow gay marriage!) to who actually ends up doing it. Only 26% of millennials are married, a sharp decrease from 36% of Generation X and 48% of baby boomers, according to the Pew Research Center. But marriage isn't obsolete — in fact, in many ways it's thriving as we re-evaluate what the institution really means to us.

And with re-evaluating marriage comes re-evaluating weddings. The Knot's "2014 Real Weddings Study" found that couples are foregoing traditional wedding customs to modernize their nuptials through their choice of rings, dresses and officiants.

That includes — perhaps most importantly — the vows. Couples today are taking cues from badass brides like Amelia Earhart, who banned the word "obey" from her 1931 wedding vows, and reciting promises to one another that reflect the partnerships they strive for. Here are 12 real-life couples who vowed...

1. "To split the difference on the thermostat."

Why it's awesome: When Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston got married, Pitt pledged to "split the difference on the thermostat." While that partnership didn't last, as we all know, it was a lighthearted vow that highlights a crucial element of modern marriage: compromise. The key to a happy marriage is learning how to meet halfway.

2. "To be a true and loyal friend to you."

Why it's awesome: Marriages weren't always about intimate, caring partnerships between equals. But we know well enough now that the happiest, most long-lasting marriages are those in which partners see each other as friends (even studies have proven it true). Jevan's vows to Alithea, shared by the Knot, are a reminder that the bedrock of friendship is what makes a modern marriage stand.

3. "To communicate fully and fearlessly."

Why it's awesome: Among the traditional promise of partnership and faith, real-life couple Anne and Gabrielle told the Knot they vowed "to communicate fully and fearlessly" as spouses. In our modern world, we have seemingly endless ways to communicate — text, email, Skype, Snapchat — and yet still have to work to connect. Sitting down face-to-face, making eye contact and being vulnerable with one another is still crucial, as is being honest without fear of judgment from your partner. Emojis aside, that's what really sustains a lasting relationship.

4. "To grab your **** even when we're old and wrinkly."

Why it's awesome: As we become more open about sexuality (thank goodness), it's only natural that a wink and a nudge find their way into the wedding vows. In an open thread on A Practical Wedding, Zach and Kate shared their vows, which included the promise "to hit on you in awesome accents and grab your **** even when we're old and wrinkly." This promise to keep the spark alive even years down the line is no small thing. After all, studies have shown that all it can take is a simple touch to maintain a ****** connection.

5. "To value our differences as much as our common ground."

Why it's awesome: Love is a powerful force to bring people together, even when they're divided by cultural background, religion and, increasingly, politics. As society grows more divisive and we hold tight to our views, it's valuable to remember that our differences don't have to actually divide us, as these vows from real-life couple Greta Christina and Ingrid, told to Patheos, show.

6. "To continue to love your children, as if they were my own."

Why it's awesome: A marriage isn't just a vow to one person, it's a vow to an entire family — future and present. In 2011, Pew Research found that more than 4 in 10 American adults have at least one "step relative" in their family, including a stepparent, a stepchild or a step or half sibling. These adults are just as likely as others to say that family is the most important element of their lives. So it's no surprise that people have been adapting their weddings to encompass the commitment to an entire family, as Sara M. did in her vows, shared on Offbeat Bride.

7. "To comfort you when the Falcons lose and drink beer with you when they win."

Why it's awesome: As Mallory summed up so perfectly to Eddie in their vows, shared by the Knot, appreciating each other's distinct interests and actively sharing in them together makes a huge difference. It goes beyond just putting on the Falcons jersey: Sitting down for the game and sharing a beer is what researchers would call "shared leisure," and it makes a big difference for marital satisfaction. That football game is more than just a football game.

8. "To never try to hurt you just because I'm angry or tired."

Why it's awesome: The chaos of our lives means lots of stress, lots of late nights and lots of exhaustion. (Unsurprisingly, Gallup found that 40% of American adults get less than the recommended amount of sleep.) That can actually wreak havoc on a relationship, which is why it's all the more important to anticipate the challenge. Sarah's vows to her husband, which she shared on A Practical Wedding, are a promise not to take out her stress and exhaustion on him. Instead, she vows to trust him throughout the chaos, "even when we veer from GPS directions, schedules, itineraries and to-do lists."

9. "I have called you my life partner, my significant other, my longtime companion, my lover. ... Now I vow to love you always as my lawfully wedded husband."

Why it's awesome: The vows said by George Takei and longtime partner Brad Altman at their wedding, after the passage of marriage equality in California, were unsurprisingly moving, given they were 21 years in the making. As couples, straight and gay, wait longer to get married (and cohabit in the meantime), labels like "husband" or "wife" are less crucial for defining the relationship than the moments a couple has shared. Takei and Altman's wedding was not proof of their commitment, but rather a tribute to the commitment they had already demonstrated — a truth echoed clearly in their vows.

10. "To be your partner in all things, not possessing you, but working with you as a part of the whole."

Why it's awesome: If we're really striving for egalitarian marriages, then recognizing the equal amounts of work required by each half, as partners, is crucial, especially as women's participation in the workforce keeps growing (57.2% compared to 69.7% for men in 2013). In order for both careers to receive equal focus, a promise not to "possess" but to work to support each other is key. Much like Amelia Earhart refused to use the word "obey," real-life couple Alex and Michelle promised to be each other's "equal in all things" in the vows they shared with the Knot.

11. "I will love you no matter what makes my blood circulate, or even no matter what provides my body with oxygen."

Why it's awesome: Traditional weddings tend to be religious occasions, but with increasing rates of atheism and marriages across faiths, religion is taking a back seat to a more personalized expression of commitment. As of 2013, only one third of couples opted to get married in a church, and even more are removing religion from their vows. But that doesn't mean the vows don't appeal to a higher sense of faith — in the other person or in the world, as these scientific, "atheistic" vows, translated from Swedish and shared on Reddit, prove.

12. "I see these vows not as promises but as privileges."

Why it's awesome: Marriage might have been necessary decades ago, but these days it's more of a choice. So it's only natural that the vows we recite — traditionally a list of duties and obligations — actually reflect the happy choice that marriage now is for so many.

Yuval and Dina chose to frame their vows as honors, as they shared with the Knot: "I see these vows not as promises but as privileges: I get to laugh with you and cry with you; care for you and share with you. I get to run with you and walk with you; build with you and live with you." With between 40% to 50% of marriages in the U.S. ending in divorce, it's more important than ever that couples remind themselves that being with their partner is a privilege in itself, and one to never take for granted.

Source: http://www.graziadressau.com

In the 4th grade I did a research project on endangered Asian elephants.
I observed her ivory face and elephants bones
And the way her heavy feet flattened the truth as she ran.
She was Amelia Earhart and was deathly afraid of heights but soared through the sky,
Off the swing and thumping onto the gravel.
She wore stripped yellow flats
And fought the boys on the school ground.
Her body all banged up with bruises and scrapes
Were achievements in her book.
Thump as they hit the gravel,
Thump as she walked away.
Her face plastered in foundation
From a cracking foundation
The house of cards she  built on the second heartbeat in her stomach fell softer than the thump thump of his tiny heart
She was an asain elephant afraid of a mouse.
She used to say cherry blossom in Japanese to prove that she was fluent
But I knew her father was american and that she was lying
Hiding his last name behind her mother's as if it brought her shame.
I helped her hide the body of her unnamed child.
Kamikaze pilot diving straight into the ground with a thump.
The planes came crashing down the day I found out and you flew back home
The pacific ocean was a bowl of curry and he was a grain of rice at the bottom
Her chopsticks avoided him with every bite
I watched as this denial gripped her sweaty palms.
Everything she ate came back up her throat.
Vomiting this truth out wasn't something she could endure
The news was a ghost pepper too scorching to swallow even the first time
So she picked the cherry blossom bud from herself and left him to wither before blooming.

to make another poem
about love
is no different from
making another
song about California,
people don’t buy it anymore.
they’ve seen enough already,
knows it like the
back of their hands.
still,
there are
souls out there
that have gone mad
and lost,
doomed for all
eternity
and so they
say. . ,
the only justice
that could ever be done
to them
is no other than just another
lame-*** sap
poetry about love
that never fails to deceive
whoever knows who.

The stereo lights are neon and remind me of a book
I read in middle school. I can't remember the title,
Only that nostalgic comfort of a book that relates,
dictates your own inner workings and schemes. It's
Difficult to find this emotion in modern-day fiction;
Do you ever miss the moss behind your ears when
You're watching an actress snort her way to gold?
Amelia Earhart has always inspired me. I like to
Associate with the theory that she chose to lose
herself in that triangle, immerse herself in a lost
Island life style. Even Brooke Shields made a life
stranded, and though it's just a movie, aqua water
And sandy hips appear, reappear in my dreams. I
can build a fire with a palm tree and the palms of
Your hands. I can build a home with leaves and the
beauty of your blink. A coconut kiss is precious.
Amelia's an explorer, a woman who understands
her destination. Surely she couldn't resist the dusty
Beaches once she flew miles above them. Friday's
are perfect for losing past transgressions, so I can
Comfortably pretend this ***** stream is the Mississ
-ippi and I'm floating on a raft made from the peach
Core. Is there anything better than a high?

She's manifested today like a ghost
appearing from a haunted house.
Desertion is that inhabited manor
from which the voices in her head
urge her into exile, urge her phantom existence.
Sitting upon the berm overlooking
the beach and lighthouse of Coos Bay,
she wishes she could ride the setting
Pacific sun to New Guinea or beyond.
Below five athletic young women
contest the physics of a soccer ball,
imagining the red-white lighthouse a goal.
In other times she'd ask to join them,
but she must lose her personal history now,
remain hidden in plain sight.
The loneliness of this subsistence
a charnel house blackening her heart.
She's Amelia Earhart about to crash
the Yukon's heartbroken cry.

Amelia Earhart has been found again
Steve Jobs is locked away in a hidden vault
There’s gold aboard Der Fuhrer’s secret train
Which is buried beneath an earthquake fault

Albino monks inspire Trump’s every plan
The Queen is one of The Lizard People
The Pope belongs to the Ku Klux ****
(His 666 is on every steeple)

Satan is aboard an unmarked U.N. jet -
It must be true; it’s on the GossipNet!

We fought wars, standing beside husbands and kings

Our Suitor will be no shallow man, with just money to buy rings.

Life has enough pains for us, but why? I ask you

Amelia Earhart was no man, yet across the atlantic she flew.

We have given birth to mankind

And can destroy it in a blink.

Don't underestimate us darling,

We are stronger than you think.

We fought with dark lords and GODS, when it came to that!

We stood up and brushed ourselves, when consequences laid us flat.

We solved mysteries as common people and, fight we did.

We built Trust, Trust which takes ages to build.

Yet there we stand, ignored and unloved.

Margaret Thatcher was no man, yet proudly, she governed.

It was a WOMAN who picked you up,

When times made you sink.

Don't underestimate us darling,

We are stronger than you think.

I'm sorry if this seems long-winded but everything I write is short
because I'm not used to speaking without you cutting me off mid-sentence and I must get these weights off my chest before they crush my lungs
like the pressure that surrounds me as if I'm a deep sea diver
and you are the ocean. I used to liken you to things like that.
The ocean, the color blue, famous women that have courted my heart
from their places in the history books:
Jeanne d'Arc, Bonnie Parker, Amelia Earhart.
But the wars you wages in my name were lost and my name could never rally the troops like God's.
And the banks we robbed never satiated your expensive taste when everything I could offer you was more brass than gold
and for that I am sorry.
I never wanted you to get lost in the ocean. Your plane crashing somewhere in the vicinity of Howland Island where you sent out your last cry for help
and it choked for life in the static of my busted ******* stereo.
I know that this is coming out in pieces and my stream of consciousness
lacks the stillness that Nature tries to instill like a watchful mother
but I can't help the way all of these words and sentences keep bringing
you back to life and I know now that I will never stop
because what can Nature tell me about the way your lips moved
when you whispered my name.

I know Henry the VIII had six wives
   and that bees live in hives.
I know blue and yellow put together make green.
   and that the populations the biggest it's ever been.
I know the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
      is the greatest sentence on Earth
    And that male seahorses give birth.
I know Neil Armstrong was the
     first man on the moon
and that the dish ran away with the spoon.

I know that peanuts are present in dynamite
  and that Einstein wasn't always right.
I know you shouldn't bite off more than you can chew
  and  that Tom Crapper invented the loo.
I know that Ben Franklin flew his kite into a storm
to prove that lightening's an electrical form.
I know that goldfish have a three second memory span
   that my dad will never be a Man United fan.
I know that Eric Clapton went Knocking on Heavens door.
  and that the Swiss aren't helpful in a war.


I know the Russian Prime Minister's Vladamir Putin.
I know who discovered Penicillin
I know that seven times seven is forty nine
    and that the French enjoy their wine.
I know ostriches lay eggs bigger than their head
   and that pencils used to be made from lead.
I know flowers survive because of  photosynthesis
  and that Chuck Norris is good in a crisis.
I know that Darwin didn't say we came from apes
   and the story of 'The Great Escape. '
I know you should always let your conscience by your guide
   and the tenth main cause of death is suicide.

I know that lemon is an anagram of melon
   and that Guy Fawkes was a convicted felon.
I know that life the Universe
    and everything is forty two.
   That I'm too old to play Guess Who.
I know the reason for having a leap year .
   and that Beethoven couldn't hear.
I know Walt Disney was afraid of mice
and that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice.

I know Pluto was stripped of it's status in 2006
and that some problems just can't be fixed.
I know Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly a plane
that diamonds are harder than John Mc Clane.
I know that Americans dial 911 in an emergency
that more monopoly money is printed than real currency.
I know the electric chair was invented by a dentist.
And that Josef Stalin ruled with an iron fist!

I know that cats have nine lives
and that Elvis Presley could really jive
I know that no one does drugs like Charlie Sheen
that I couldn't survive a day without caffeine
I know that an insufficiency is called a dearth
and that some things cost more than their worth.
I know Neil Armstrong was the
     first man on the moon
and that the dish ran away with the spoon.

Phileas Fogg,
On a brigantine sledge,
Braved the Omaha wind
As it twirled.
So, Jules Verne might say
That a full eighty days
Is plenty to travel the world.

Amelia Earhart
Crossed the sea –
The quickliest feat
…For a girl –
In twelve hundred forty
Short minutes, you know:
Others failed, but gave it a whirl.

Rosemary Doyle,
Our wonderful mum,
Exceeded these
Feats of grand scale!
She has crossed oceans faster,
Breezed over Great Plains,
And – without perspiration – prevailed!

Carefully, casually,
She raised five kids:
‘Neath our burden
She never collapsed.
Loving and giving
Us lives we are living.
Have there – really – eight decades elapsed?

Octogenarian?
Silliest word:
It sounds like
A sea creature’s vet,
But if you want true fun,
Then just orbit the sun
Eighty times, like our mom:  It’s no sweat!


© 2Mar2018 DracoTalpus
For Rosemary N. Doyle
On the occasion of her 80th birthday

do you ever wonder how many stars there are
do you try to count the hair on your head
will we ever know why people stop falling in love
what happened to amelia earhart
what lies in the bottom of the ocean
was atlantis ever real
is there life on the moon

perhaps we'll never know,
but i believe that if anyone could find the answers
it would most definitely be you.

My grandmother passed too early
Cancer
And my mom went to get checked
I think about her death too often

How can I live motherless like her
With no mother to coax me through

I imagine my head in a lap
My hair being stroked, only,
It’s not her, It’s Amelia Earhart
And she’s singing to me about journeys and daughters
I imagine the grieving, days of just sitting
And then one day getting up to paint the
whole house blue

It starts with a room
With the extra paint in the attic
Amelia’s not freaked
She sits on the couch eating an apple
And I scrub the walls
With coat after coat of briny breeze

The funeral is hell
My father would want a closed casket
And I’d just imagine her in there
Hands still warm

I’d want someone, and Amelia would stand next to me
Still in her suede flying jacket and goggles
She’d squeeze my hand and whisper
She’s lucky.
Or something like that

I'm young and in love
with disjointed sentences
mosaic symbols transforming
deliberations into expository
railroad tracks, crossing paths (with)
black jazz cats in the 20's to write the music a little differently for each note,
to ride a little Titanic eye contact
until Earhart makes it home.

Compress these highs and lows,
into melodic notes, dancing up (and down)
the Christmas tree, ornaments from
the time you were only three.
Days before we met, days beyond our starry-eyed goodbye,
Love is a gentle thing,
and you were such the words I'd pray to whisper in the night, on beaches made of all your favorite colors.
I want to be the way you see me,
I hope you never feel alone.
And what a treasure it was,
to speak with the princess,
instead of staring at the castle.
Soft cheeks instead of hard stone,
(cold glass, icy masks, distant hopes.)
But instead of distant,
You were close.

Earhart is static.
In Pacific attics,
searchers hunt smoke,
fold maps, pragmatic.
But the search for fires stoked
with brush is done. She provoked
the upper angels unprepared,
and was broken.
It’s so clear, all the air
over this sea: no twist or glare
blots the view for miles,
though magnetic snares
****** with fields of smiles
the wayward compass, routes
drift from proscribed aisles.
Did she ditch in the blue mute
expanse, flare's salute
a last hope to unwind miles?
Planes get drawn back. It's moot.

Wonder Woman [93]

Oh man, Man has certainly caused too much hurt already,
from Founding Fathers, to embezzling Wall Street Brokers,
in every possible way, abused every position of power ever in, even abused other men, especially in prison showers,

crossed every line, desecrated the divine feminine,
no one was spared even the ****** Mary was deflowered,
turned natural leaders into anomalous submissives,
outgoing confident women into inward awkward cowards,
as the outrageously courageous became doubtful cowards,

Man hurts the same Ones that birthed him, how awkward,

how many wars have woman started,
how many drilling expeditions have been led by females,
guess it’s fitting that Men do the invading & the drilling,
intruding into other turf & Mother Earth, Devil’s in the details,

Men have a crave to invade, they enjoy entering everything,
like a Hermit Crab into a seashell with a Napoleon complex,
& I’m a Man, so I’m guilty by association, which is why I feel ill,
I am so ashamed, that I’m even embarrassed to have a *****,

I regret so much of Collective Man’s past aggressions,
it’s as if I’m having a past life regression filled with regrets,
holding guilt from the visions of my past bad decisions,
tired of bad decisions, I’ll never upset another set of breast,

tired of making decisions, tired of leading expeditions,
I’m tired of going to a beautiful place like a clear blue lake,
where instead of harmonizing when I arrive I just start fishing,
why this impulse to search for things & beings to take,
to catch beautiful things, to bait, then hook, then take them,
why do I think the meaning of life involves killing,
when we all know no problems will be solved if they involve,
forcefully taking the life of a living being that’s not willing.

What’s wrong with me, are all Men predators,
do all men, or at least most, want to conquer mountain tops,
hook fish & eat steak ****** rare, this blood lust is just fckt,
I view us with disgust, this forward progress is backwards,
I mean even this otherwise beautiful blank space here,
can’t be left alone without an impulse to add ink black words,

well blah blah blah, & hardy ha ha ha,
it’s so sad that I’ve gone mad, but hey I’m still glad,
because the home team’s still winning rah rah rah,
got all the trophies, all the glory, all the power, all the fame,
all the Women have been laid, all the Beasts have been slayed,
all the Money’s been made, all the Players have been paid,

So what? So what now?

Now that all lands have been conquered, all awards acquired,
all mountains climbed, & all the battles won?

Now what? What now?

I’m King Don Juan Gangsta Baller Man, KDJGBM for short,
I got girls at every club, & players on every court,

So what?

Got gold chains,
& money wads wrapped in rubber bands,
got a flashy car complete with beige leather trim,
it’s fitting the skin of a cow wraps around the ride that I’m in,
given that we’ve killed the Holy Cow to get the cream,
because we don’t hold anything sacred anymore,
well nothing except for the All Mighty Dollar,
made all this money but don’t know what we made it all for,

I guess we made more money to make more war,
treated fellow Men as enemies & fellow Women as ******,
I guess absolute power does corrupt absolutely,
& at the end of the day really what was it all for,

because once we’ve neglected every Woman in our life,
& treated wrong every Woman that ever treated us right,
& we’re home alone dying inside with no one by our bedside,
who will we run to nurse us back to health & hold us tight?

Who will come to our side, that’s right, likely a woman,
& we can accept them without having to understand them,
Men have done enough bad already it’s time for some good,
Women are meant to be accepted not understood no question,

& I know I’m ready to surrender & let Women have control,
so I open up, surrender, let Love conquer & let the Feminine in,

because, it’s time for some healing,
the kind that’s not going to come from the Masculine,
see the only way we’ll collectively heal our humanity fruitfully,
is with the Most High power of The Divine Feminine,

it’s finally time to let Women lead whether we admit it or not,
I’m not talking the likes of Lohan, Lopez, Palin or Megan Fox,
I’m talking the likes of Oprah, Rosa, Ardern & Amelia Earhart
because I no longer trust us men to keep dear what we’ve got,

I mean Men are reason we’re in the mess we’re in now,
so let’s not fool ourselves into thinking Man can get us out,

Man has already caused too much hurt certainly,
from Founding Fathers, to embezzling Wall Street Brokers,
crossed every line desecrated the divine feminine in every way, Man hurts the same Ones that birthed him, how awkward…

∆ LaLux ∆

I feel weak, alone,
I am as unaccomplished as Amelia Earhart was to becoming the first human being to travel around the world,
Still, I find reasons to get out of bed each morning.

I feel as alone as if the last being on earth, with no one and nothing to keep me sane.

While I see myself as priceless and alone, others see me as energized and well-known;however they are as wrong as stripes paired with polka dots.

sometimes if i listen hard enough
i can hear the sound of my bones
cracking under the weight of myself.
it feels too heavy to bring so much luggage
around with me to airports
always searching for a plane
to take me somewhere new.
i want to drop my bags and forget myself
i want oceans
i want to soak up waves and waves
of salt.
i'm taking too many pills now
that i am forgetting that i'm a person
and not a drone, that my steps
are conscious and that i can stop
when i want i can stop.
but i have to keep stepping
because what else is there to do?
what else besides walking
what else because if i stop
if i fall down i will never get up
i swear i am an airplane and
i am flying up in high altitudes
and i'm losing oxygen but i can't come down
because if i do i will crash and
nobody will pick up my wreckage.
i will be amelia earhart
i will be a mystery
i will be lost forever.

*(a.m.c.)

Going to and from somewhere not far,
I pass a couple of children on scooters
shouting, Ice Cream!
from across the street.

When I dare to raise my eyes to look out
instead of down at my shoes as I walk
I instantly see faces of strangers,
crying- Eyesore. I know they are right.

But nobody is selling what I want.
It does not seem producible.

It is not a house on a corner, the size and charm
of a dormitory, with window treatments.
It is not those shoes my sister likes with the red soles
or sunglasses my mother likes with the diamonds
or the endorphins or the caffeine or the career ladder.
I do not covet Ice Cream, the biggest or best thing,
and I don’t have romance for pipe dreams either.

That is someone's else’s dream,
unexceptional, formless, but probably fulfilling.
I hope I am never fulfilled.

In my hand there’s a digital map that orients me
in a roundabout. I am a breathing oscillating blue dot.
I can’t get anywhere from here.

Why do I not want Ice Cream or summer dresses?
Why do I not want to be out on the town, meeting new people?
Why do I not participate?

I watch people on television, traveling.
I am so scared.

I listen to Neil Armstrong radioing from the moon.

I scan the transcripts over and over of
Earhart circling Howland Island:
We are unable to hear you
to take a bearing.

Intermittent despair- what can you make from that?

I look up to see the sun caught in the tail end trail
of a jet. I wave:
Do you hear my signals.
Please acknowledge.

And then all my thoughts are frostwork and blue
with parachutes and windows on walls
and I am filled with clouds and I can’t see.

We cannot see you.

Now I know I begin and end with images,
how far across this field can my voice spread out,
extend and reach in singing, in screaming?

I fought for you,
my sweet sky,
through your turbulence
as your own Amelia Earhart that you cast across your currents just to
pass the time

I floated through the patches of static
between breaths
even as my frame risked freezing over amidst the frigidity
with my last specks of warmth I cooed you to your next inhales
all the while knowing the wrath of your exhale was inevitably directed back
towards me

I see the forecast- it’s as clear as the air,
my dear deep blue,
you entertain thoughts of my plunge
amidst other travelers teetering across you at your horizon,
and as the vessel approaches
I have made my descent back
to the reality I buried
deep within the dirt

I’ll fight for you
but Baby Breeze,
I won’t fight over you

I think

I think we have high expectations for a world constantly competing
We expect to be treated fairly
And to treat others fairer
God how we wish that were true
I think we live in a world where beauty really is only skin deep but the slogans and mottos will have you think otherwise as you buy that new mascara and pass on one more cookie
And not that we cant be who we want to but because you are ranked by social class and the amount of space left in your closet
By the grade you got in science or how fast you ran the sprint in gym
I think Amelia earhart is still alive
And my stuffed animals come alive when I leave the room
I think global warming is a bigger deal then kim kardashian’s nip slip
i think we dream and dream because we know reality will never just give it to us. we have to earn it.
I think we give more to others because we expect them to eventually do the same for us
I think people with mental illnesses are seen as outcasts but I think they actually see the pain and shattered, ripped corners that the rest of the world pretends not to see
I think bathing suits are uncomfortable and the sun is a ball of light that punishes us for wearing such small items of clothing
I think we work too hard and money should just turn into snakes and slither away because that alone would solve so many problems
i think kids need more activity and less school
i think the government is ran bycorrupt leaders and one day they will be the reason we collapse into dust
i think magazines portray beautiful women making us other women feel not beautiful
but who cares what i think
it's just what i
think

This is no ordinary girl
She’s a woman fiery and free
She’s an unshakable force
She brings kings to their knees
She’s no damsel
She’s no shrinking flower
Her petals are titanium
Her veins flow with power
She’s the sun bursting through
The dawn drowning the dark
She’s Amelia Earhart
She’s Joan of Arc
She’s the brave and the fearless
She’s the unyielding light
She braces all odds
She is the courage to stand and fight

Dial dial lost in time
Call up all the lost sailors
On their sunken ship
Give Earhart a call
Way out past the atoll
Contact the ghosts
From all the wars
Contact all the evil dictators
And ask them this:
Were all their ****** wars worth it?
The financial cost, the blood and destruction
But we cannot call them
For the dead remain dead
And new wars erupt
By generals and leaders
Who want their golden glory
Five minutes of fame
And a new war
And a new battle
And a thousand new deaths
Call them and ask them:
Why?

I was there the day Amelia Earhart came crashing down
when the Titanic breathed it’s last
I have swallowed countless dreamers,
but none was like the day Icarus fell in all of his fear

When planes fall they make no noise
when boats sink you hear no sound
but the day Icarus fell was very different
his screams to his father still echo in my ears  

I am the sea
the deaths I have seen are countless
thousands fall and are forgotten
but never will I forget Icarus

Why Icarus
Why do I still hear him now
how was he different from the rest of the dreamers

I gave a speech about Amelia Earhart last year - and how we both flew over the Atlantic Ocean in the pursuit of our dreams.
I’ve always soared high in the air
feet off the ground
head in the clouds
My mind was everywhere.
I mentioned a dream that defined me and pointed me through the troposphere to LAX.
Cause before I was myself I was a dreamer
reckless, but still anxious about ending up like Icarus or a fool without a flying license
or ending up like Amelia Earhart - disappearing over the churning ocean and hearing a lotta nonsense about what went wrong with me.
Cause I’ll stay with you on the radio over future flights
Saying “Over, baby” just to grasp a little stardust from the sky when it’s lit by stars
cause now you’re my LAX.
And since then I’ve dreamed of Skid Rows and diamonds.
I’ve flown like water and watered their palm trees, a silos.
The transition was clean
no bruises on my soul to keep.
No fear of flying into the blue
Cause when I come out
I land over you.
And I think of false alarms and motels in the desert now that the tan’s come off
I will continue to dream large
having seen dream and life merge
My makeshift wings I will clutch
as I’m running off the edge.