When I’m ready

But I’m not ready to be your wife,

and I don’t understand the part where I have to be silent to 

Please you or any other human being too afraid

To peer through their own shadows.

I’m only twelve years old, I’m not ready to be a wife.

I’m not ready to be your wife. Find a woman your age, around your age,

Who’s ready and willing to hold the weight of your stench. 

I am not the one and I am not ready to commit to

A lifetime of derailed breaths. I will not be able to speak until I’m ready. 

Praise in Transition

They say never and always, all the time, at the same time:

Fix your hair, fix your head

Go to school, put something in there

Smile at angry men, frown at happy women

Forget about broken children, no one will ever want them

Fix your arched back, fix your crooked…well all of it.

Fix your neck fix your teeth fix your skin

Don’t dream and never leave time to rest

Don’t grow up too fast, but be mature first, take care of me now

As fast as possible, fix your face, 

Fix your nose, fix your skin, did we mention skin?

Don’t get pimples, don’t be too dark, get a lighter hue 

Or You might not find a certain someone to love you

It’s just not plausible.   

Fix your eyes, keep them open wide

Keep your mouth and legs closed at all times

Except for a husband I suppose 

There's nothing to hide from such a fellow

Go to school when you’re done with that

Do your homework, forget about boys, before and after

You learn about consent.

Don’t think about boys, not even the ones who force themselves 

Onto you, be polite, know when to laugh

Smile at all times, that’s how people will leave you alone. 

Don’t follow the bad crowd, don’t go astray

Watch what you say, and don’t be too loud,

You don’t want to be labeled as that. 

Go to school, learn something new, and then go to school

To learn something the previous generations have yet to learn too

Follow your path, as in the same path I took

That got me here, giving you horrendous advice

From what I learned in school. 

Children of Drums

We fill the space with time, time with space

Confusion with substance, substance with honesty

We see your mask and fly past you. 

Visions in Paradise

We’ve all lost our eyes to the devil

Traded our vision for ignorance

So we see no evil.

Running around in silence, yelling at the sky

For answers, forever on a mission. 

It’s easier to believe a lie

While we wait in paradise for our vision. 

They Say

They say I’ll eat my shame in the daylight

And show them the remains at night.

The problem is I dream during the day and fly at night.

How to catch a dream

Well, you must never dream of your captors

They will come in droves, and they will come

With only one goal

Then you must fly in different directions

Scattering your wishes throughout your imagination

They will circle round, howling at the sun, scratching at the moon

You must fly away with everything you’ve got

Just your imagination

See how you’ve set yourself free? 

Cycles and Layers

There are cycles and layers to it

You can’t take what you want and leave me in pieces 

Stealing disrupts the orbital sway of life

Disrupting my psyche

Especially this way, makes it difficult to hide

What I see in you, what you see in me

Isn’t me, doesn’t come from you 

Isn’t for you. I am not for you.