In almost every city
I lost my youth
I made some friends
Then on I went
No worry or dread
Then there was
Sometimes in every
Other city or two
I got swept away
And started to dream
I’d dream and dream
Until I went blind
And my life became
Bright city lights
And trying to survive
I lost my values
And I lost my youth
Only to find
A stronger me
And some truth
The truth is this,
I thank God
For bright city lights
And people who choose
To live
Instead of to survive
You told me
Make that money
Take care of
Us
That means me
Stop you’re crying
Do what we need
Make that money
I’ll be smoking weed
You said I was tricking
Off
While you were rubbing
Off
Without me and I was lost
Good thing my
Sweet momma
Taught me self-respect
And how to run from tricky men
So I continue to ghost
A life without a past
Not forgotten, but forgiven
It makes me laugh
I’m not upset with me
Or even you
I never would’ve thought
But I found someone new
And I wrote him vows
And we made love
Like the light of moon
Yeah, I finally fell
And I’m in love
It was just a log of wood
That floated near me
While I was waiting at
The river
Thinking of wood
I hoped
To light my fire with
I took the log
Out from the river
I set it out to dry
It dried so quick
Before the winter
And so I chopped it up
To take and light
The log
It warmed me
I felt comfort
Safe
A light
For the night
And dawn
And soon
The log left me
Lonely
And cold again
It dried right up
And burnt to cinders
Good thing I saw
That river stream
Flowing
And another log
Just floating by
I hoped
To light my fire with
By Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Have you ever been
inside a cage
with closed doors
on the walls and
also the floors?
Have you ever stood
behind a table
with hungry men
staring at you
from each end?
Have you ever laughed
at a love so parallel
yet so alive
and perpendicular
you’re grateful for hell?
Have you ever thought
just a bit too hard
to run from love
and still
love so hard?
Have you ever?
Never have I Ever
When the world inside you
is shouting
with all its might.
Sometimes
it feels good
to stay inside.
Sometimes
it feels good
to hide.
Sometimes
it feels good
to lose your mind.
It’s not something
you want to repeat
but then
it repeats
and repeats
it doesn’t stop.
The thoughts are never ending,
the phase so incomplete
just repeating.
The truth starts to reckon
And you start thinking
And thinking
And thinking
Going further out to sea.
You then find yourself
in the dark
with the water all around.
You see the moonlight
high in the sky
it’s all that can be found.
The moon whispers,
“I get how it feels too.
I know how to swim
and drown too.
Nothing to balance.
The water all around.
Just me shining down.”
So then
I put an end
to what feels good.
I choose to swim.
I choose to feel pain
No longer hiding
I embrace.
I choose to repeat the phase
from a new place.
Then I find myself
in the trees
no longer in the ocean
drown.
No longer pushing
to feel good,
I feel free
Loved
Found
“See the forest for the trees.”
– John Heywood 🍃
Say what you want
You can hate me
I’ll carry that weight
Of hate
Because you ain’t* me
And it gots me
Like I got
The grit
That it comes with
Say what you want
You can hate me
I’m just getting
Started
Like I had a baby
Not full of hate
But beside me
It’s my ride or die
What’s inside me
I know what I got
Hate can’t find me
And it gots me
Like I got
The love
That’s beside me
*Ain’t ain’t a word and you ain’t supposed to say it, say ain’t five times and you ain’t goin to heaven. ❤
I thought I knew what I was saying.
Like I could feel my words
Falling into your lap.
And everything I’d think
Or say to you
Would tell you
How I really feel.
But when my thoughts
Became words
To leave me
Somehow they left
You as an enemy.
I only said what
Was inside of me
And you denied it
And said
My words
Lie to me.
My emotions
Were never present
When I spoke
And still
Whatever I was saying
Found you
To leave you wounded
And bruised
And naked.
And my thoughts
Feeling mistaken
Broke and left me
Like I knew what I was saying.
I saw the world
From the eyes of a misfit girl
Full of limitations, disappointments, fear
But then, my eyes were widened
To a pop
And the world spilled out some truth
So, I took notice
And I saw the world
And how it measured
Truth is:
It wasn’t fitting
It was missing
It was lost
And gone forever
When I saw this
I lost the
Girl
I lost the girl
And the world
From the eyes of a misfit girl
Kelsey With Some Jo 