I can hear the wind
passing beneath my feet and
I can see the clouds roaming by my head and
I can taste free air on my tongue-
but I can feel the turbulence is increasing in my heart the further away I get from you
and I am reminded of why I love
planes,
flying,
the window seat,
but hate traveling.

She got a new job in a new neighborhood
with new apartment neighbors
that looked at her strangely when she
wore the same pair of sweatpants every day
for 43 days straight,
new neighbors that saw her
do laundry every Thursday around 7:12 p.m.
of women's whites and darks
but yet continued to wear baggy clothes that sagged
and dragged
and new neighbors that questioned whether she was sane
when they saw her practically stripping
with every stairway step
leading to her apartment
leaving a trail of clothes that were foreign to her
and new neighbors that were greeted every day before she tried to sink back into her old life,
drowning herself in his packed-up wardrobe, ready for donation,
to get into his sweatpants for the 44th day,
into the same pair she used to wash for him
every week around 7:12 p.m.,
the pair he used to lounge in everyday after work after greeting her,
the pair he swore
were made for her,
the pair she will want to live her whole life in,  
because she knows there will come a Thursday when the scent of him
will be as foreign as the feeling of wearing jeans.

you are a candle-
you might melt at
a single flame,
but give yourself
time,
air,
you'll harden again.

The stars are lonely
on the edges of the universe-
I am not alone,
yet further away.

As the sun rises
my crusted eyelids
will break
and my chapped lips
will part,
my rested mind
will open
and you will still linger
on my mouth

I went on a two hour run one day
after my step-father told me
that no man would marry me
if I had a tattoo.
I never asked for a husband,
I never expressed want for a
spouse;
I want a tattoo.
I laid in bed for two hours that day
until he came up to my room
and "apologized" saying,
he was "joking"
and I "clearly took this stuff very seriously."
I take the world seriously.
I try very hard to emphasize just how little I care what others think about me.
I want to be sarcastic.
I want teal hair.
I would like to ink my skin.
I want to run out my frustrations, not
"get a good body for bikini season"
I eat fruit to feel good, not so
my legs will "look good in that dress"
I want a tattoo
because my body was not made for you to look at.
My body is not created every single day
for men.
I want a tattoo-
a circle just below my knuckle on my left-hand ring finger,
a reminder that I belong to me
way before,
always before,
I belong to anyone else.
I never asked for a husband,
and I certainly never asked you.

snow falls, yet not everything gets hit
nature knows some will bear the load

bark hovering over gentil leaves
nature knows some cannot survive in the cold