America the great,
You need to learn to wait.
America the proud,
I can't find a humble one in your crowd.
America the beautiful,
Your eyes are so deceitful.
America the free,
You bind yourself up more than your neighbor close to thee.
There is a race that we are all running;
It’s called Life
In this race called Life everyone runs,
Some rushing and whizzing by
Others jogging, strutting, or taking it slow
On this Track everyone runs
The smart
The wealthy
The destitute
Every single person has a jersey on
Grandma with her walker
Little girls and boys hot and sweaty
The teen in her prom dress
The new mom stroking her baby’s soft hair
In this race called Life there are some hurdles
In some cases we jump flawlessly over, soaring high
Other times we will fall and come crashing to the ground
We’re injured and hurt, bleeding and broken
Then someone comes along stretches out His hand and picks us back up
In this race called Life we have a running partner
Someone who comes alongside us and stays for a while
Encouraging us and bandaging our wounds
Staying at your side to go through the hurdles, the sprints, and the jogs
People placed by the One who made the race
In this race called Life we have a coach taking us every step of the way
Showing us where to place our feet
What turns we should make and the way we should go
He is trustworthy because he both designed this race and ran it too
His name is Jesus Christ guiding us and leading us
This race called Life can be hard and long,
but it is full of joy and triumph with each step and new adventure.
I don't know what I want. I know what I need.
That is to be happy. The most simple difficult of things.
I’ve been handed a map, told exactly where to go
And the instructions are true, I know! I know,
I can't make myself believe.
I think I want to get lost. I want to take shortcuts
that end in mistakes. I want to explore
the alleyways and hills of all sorts of shapes
I want a romantic struggle, what a good story takes.
I think I want to be angry. Angry at me
not taking what I need. Angry at you.
Not giving me what I said. Angry at the world,
For being disgusting. For being deserving of hate.
But anger, anger isn’t what anyone needs.
I think I want to be unhappy.
That’s what my eyes say
at least. I want to,
be broken. Broken things are prettier
than things pristine.
I think I want to be tragic;
It would make this less a bore.
I think I’ve chosen beauty over joy,
Selfish instinct:
weak choice.
I don’t know what I want except for one thing
I want to want what I need.
Yes, that’s the one thing.
This mornings moon;
weaving itself between layers
of hills and mountains.
Though always staring,
Its craters looking through my eyes.
With a face following,
turning above furry twigs
and space
between each maple.
And I ache
for my mind to allow my
hand to reach
for a wire that will set me free.
It burns like fire down my arm,
for my muscles to
expand and glide across this valley
to feel my palms
push my body above
maple after maple.
As my heels speak morse
to the moving floor,
telling the bus to stop
where I could
run out the door.
Though this desire is always interrupted
by an unclothed mountain
Torn from the earth and eaten
by a man,
to create concrete foundations.
A wetland scattered with abuse
and broken truck bodies.
This broken valley
has never been my place.
Though the way in which
my mind travels its roads
I can finally take a breath
of the moon's light as it
becomes lost in the space
I allow my body to
sink into.
(From Scripture: Matthew 4:1-10; Matthew 27:50-53 & 60; Matthew 28)
From Alpha to Omega
You planned everything
Every heart and soul
Created to serve the King
The King that came
into human form
to deliver us all
from eternal harm
Jesus came here
For all of us
He came to heal
Set free the sin in us
Our guilt and shame
Our trash and pain
So we can proclaim
New life in his name
Denied by people
Attacked by satan
He didn’t flee here
But suffered the burden
Obeyed the Father’s will
Suffered torture to death
To cleanse us from our sin
And free us from the Devil’s wrath
His cry was powerful
The earth quaked and stones split
From the tombs rose the faithful
The skies no longer lit
Placed in a stone grave
Guarded until the third day
An angel left the guards amazed
When it moved the stone away
Two women visited the grave
To see the King
But an Angel came
Sent to inform them
Jesus isn’t here
He is not dead
Don’t be filled with fear
He rose like he said
He goes before you
Into the city Galilee
Quickly leave I tell you
For there he will meet thee
His disciples were taught
The great commission
To reach out without doubt
And make disciples of every nation
He commanded them
To baptize them in his name
Teach his word to them
Obey everything he named
From Alpha to Omega
Until the end of the age
He is with us always
No matter what we face
in autumn i think of you.
the way a leaf browns,
curls up, and floats along wind,
rustle becoming tremor becoming fall—
cold air blows spaces between branches and i wonder
which air ravaged your neurons
which air dared fly through you at night, waking you in a
Parkinsonian jolt, summer taking a nosedive
into a colder turn of earth.
i have
only one memory of you
before you could no longer remember me.
we were eating papaya—your favorite—and the dyskinesia was
still mild. you were stretching your legs, so i stretched too.
and though i truly could not stand papaya’s thick smell,
i gnawed it in solidarity,
bright summer flesh
making sticky orange smiles.
i want to pour into you what we know now, to exact
the moment of mutation and leap into your genome
and shake some sense into those strands. i want them to give you
deep brain stimulation. you should see the videos, nanji.
they’re walking in ten minutes.
they’re going from shaky hands spilling water to
easily taking sips. they go into summerland, nanji.
in autumn,
i think of you.
papayas flee from marketstands and i hope
their going out of season here means there's
a plentiful grove
wherever you are wandering.
Worlds collide all the time.
In life, you meet someone and it’s as if you’ve known them your entire life.
Why can’t this be the same with literary worlds?
What if Harry Potter travelled to Narnia and befriended the Pevensie’s?
Let’s pretend that he helped them defeat the White Witch.
In return, he invited the Pevensie’s to stay with him at Hogwarts.
At Hogwarts, Peter Pevensie falls in love with a girl named Alice.
Alice is adventurous, naive, and full of compassion.
One day, Peter and Alice are roaming the grounds of Hogwarts while they stumble upon a lake.
Inside the lake, a beautiful mermaid with hair as red as a ripe strawberry flips around in the water.
The mermaid, Ariel, spies a boat on the shore.
Almost as curious as Alice, Ariel pops up to see who is in the boat.
She is startled to see seven dwarves looking down at her.
Suddenly, the dwarves’ sister appears.
Their sister is a smart and beautiful young woman who goes by the name of Belle.
Belle looks down at her watch and realizes that her History of Magic class starts in 20 minutes.
Never late, Belle rows back to shore where Peter and Alice walk back to the castle ground with her.
Along the way, Belle greets her arithmancy professor, Miss Honey.
Now in class, Belle sits down at her desk right next to her best friends, Hermione and Katniss.
Belle wonders how she got so lucky.
She attends an incredible school and has made the best friends possible.
Belle admires the world for doing incredible things like this.
Like colliding.
Time is running out.
48 hours turn into 24.
Soon the alarm rings.
Tiredly crawling yourself out of bed.
Brush your teeth, and put on clothes.
"Ugh don't want to go to school."
Then realize.
"It's my last-first day of highschool."
Memories need and should be made with this last year, 10 months I should say.
No more complaining,
Because no regrets should be made later.
"Cheers to senior year."
My "Phat" PSA thank God for loving me this way.
Look at me aren't I pretty too? I have a great personality, even the carbs love me, they stick to me like glue! I’m more to love more to hold and care for. But who am I kidding it'll never matter because I'm not a size four.
See us fat girls we have but a few options, be funny or be made fun of because it seems that when you’re "fat" you don't get or deserve love, to laugh when they throw "punch lines"
when they feel more like punches, while on the inside saying to yourself tomorrow maybe a few more crunches, trying to remain optimistic against all of your statistics, it seems it's a crime for a fat girl to be narcissistic, why? Because it's not realistic, we are to get used to being blackballed and to accept the names we are being called because that's easier than putting up a fight.
An when it comes to finding Mr. Right for us to settle because we should feel lucky that he settled for a girl who barely peddled on that exercise bike I am more than just a pretty face not everyone can be built like bey or Kim K, I am not a fetish I am much more than what the tv tries to portray! Their frames might be skinny and attractive to a narrow mind, but I refuse to be chastised mentally or physically baptized in hate! Because of my size, so listen up this is to all that applies.
No longer will I linger in the puddle of my tears that I once cried. But now I will get back! That self-love! Bring back up! My self-esteem! Throw away! The remarks the comments and snickers! The verb, not the candy that is. But most of all! Be thankful! For God still loving me this Way!
See in Genesis 1:27 it says that God made us in his own image, so who am I or you to look at a part of me and consider it a blemish?
I'm here to diminish the thought that the pretty girl and the fat girl can never be the same person. I serve a God who on countless times has shown me I am worth it.
See what's the use in fighting to look photo shopped breaking myself down because I don't have what I "think" she's got? See there is no purpose in losing the real me, chasing the false claims of the world’s definition of beauty. I can only be yours truly and forever that I will always be, and this is my "phat" PSA, thank God for loving me this way. Thank you God for the change I see and for the love that has grown into me accepting me.
So many hard times are falling upon us
No one can get along, what a big fuss
Money has become the main priority
Crime has been witnessed by the majority
Fear is manifested here, there, and everywhere
Finding good in our world today can be very rare
But if you just take a look,
Let a small worry off the hook,
Lend a hand and give out a smile,
Find the number of an old friend and give them a dial
Go out in the rain and take a walk,
Bake some cookies, give your neighbor a knock
If you just take a look through your eyes,
You may just come to realize,
Good things can happen, and they do
You've got to be happy and optimistic too
Be grateful for the people you surround,
And with this, happiness destined to be found
