Lesson learned

Don't ever hand over your heart to a man who doesn't live to make you smile.

1:11 a.m.

I once had a boyfriend who said the sound of my footsteps were too loud.

I once had a boyfriend who tortured me with his insanity and terrorized me on his motorcycle.

I once had a boyfriend who almost never took me anywhere, and who never gave me a gift.

I once had a suitor who made me feel like a stranger, and I once had a lover who belonged to someone else.

Now I have someone who possesses everything I want and everything I need, and what he wants from me is everything, and what he wants to give me...is everything.

I get it now. I get it all.

The Essence of Student, by Annie Kosh

I am the essence of student

I am chins against palms,

I am eyes half closed in a place between here and there.

I am groans held in,

I am minds aching for release.

I am the essence of student

My brain is the notebook everyone writes in.

I am a notebook stuffed to capacity.

I am the cry for success, and at the same time the cry for distraction.

I am the barricade in my own path.

I am the essence of student

I am laughter echoing in the halls.

I am whispers and nudges and sideways glances.

I am tentative smiles searching for approval,

I am the constant, pounding thought, "maybe I'm not good enough."

I am the essence of student

I am sneaker-clad feet propped up on chairs and arms crossed.

I am the taste cafeteria lunch leaves on your tongue,

the same taste as knowing you failed that test.

I am mouths that spit gum into trash cans and then take more,

I am passionate voices spoken out of turn.

I am the essence of student

I am curiosity etched into every part of you,

I am the spark of interest in your heart, desperate to remain alight.

I am tongues stuck out corners of mouths, pencils scribbling furiously.

I am the first easy breath that fills you when you realize it might all be worth it.

Defeeted

I always said I could never be with a man who wore cowboy boots, until I met the love of my life. He could wear cowboy boots, zebra stripped slippers, even florescent green Crocs and I would still love him the same.

More than words

He tells me he's by my side,

Fed

Blueberry jam on toast,
coffee.
Sunlit filled kitchen-
I cook for him, he plays for me.

Sweetness and fire,
breathing with ease.
nothing to want,
nothing to crave,
because everything is offered-
as freely and as often as breakfast.