When in Rome
Do you resent
The way I smile
Overgeneralizing
Emotional reasoning
Cognitively distorted
It may not be true
Contorted views
But it feels real
When I’m with you
When you want it
The way I sing
Grabbing away at life
Never repealing
Would you
For fame
Throw me under a train
So you can have it all
Without me
Certainly if you resent me
How could you present me
To others
To the world
Too much art
Overspread
Too much good to bear
But not for
Someone else
© GÄ
If there are
No more requests
I’ll let you go
For now
I don’t want to
Slap myself
Or wear a sign
Around my neck
That says
Don’t manipulate me
With the obvious
Love story
Don’t allow me
To manipulate you
By sending charming
Hearts to hopefully
Make myself feel better
Or to convince myself
That you love me
Even if I
Made a mistake
Because I know
That you love me
I’m just really bad at
Telling myself that
It’s the truth
© GÄ
Oh my how
You look so cute
When you’re ordering food
Like a media darling
How do you adorn yourself
Every morning
How do you resist
To kiss yourself
I have no meter for
This sort of thing
It’s like taking a cool dip
After a long hot walk
To savor you
To put my arm across
Your back
To rest my chin
On your shoulder
To smell you
And feel your hair
Brush up against my lips
I’m not sure that
I’m equipped
To find the words
To tell the truth
Except to say
You look so cute
When you’re ordering food
© GÄ
It’s cold and dark
Like emotional blackmail in here
Helping the less fortunate
Especially when it’s yourself
Can be impossible
The teachers discussed him
So now
The teachers disgust him
Similar sounds but
Different problems
Are any of us unloveable?
Maybe if the macaroni
Hadn’t gotten burned
Everything would taste better
Just like if wearing boxing gloves
Means we have to fight
Maybe the distance between us
Means we won’t have to
Fight at all
Or maybe we could fight
For them all
© GÄ
Meditation by design
Obelisk by dog divine
The greatest lights
The brightest eyes
Shining back
With pure delight
Underneath a tree
Or by the water
You are a stream
You are a shrine
And a reminder
Of the beauty oh
What wanders
Here on earth
Valiant trust mixed into
Multicolored lust for life
Highlighted by the
Brightened exclamations
And the poundings
Of a heart
That never dies
© GÄ
I had to try
The very best
Not to gamble my
Pretensions away
Somehow by gathering every
Seed of my innocence
At all costs
I stopped still
In the tracks of symbolism
As if my heart depended on
Resolving all the
Meaningless corruptions
That ever existed
Deep interpretations
Percolated up
Like a punch in the gut
I don’t recall
Any black eyes at all
Just the untarnished memories
Beating like mallets
On the membrane
Of the xylophone
In my mind
© GÄ
I am reaching
My crescendo
To accomplish the things
That as a human
I thought I could not
O what beautiful joy
To uncover courage
And the ability to fly
A sonata of
Immeasurable strength
To be considered
We don’t have to
Burn our books
To find our strength
Or tear our buildings down
Even the sweetest
Tangerine still has yet
To be tasted
© GÄ
Would it be that
They should control
The meaningless things
To make us feel disempowered
Would it be that
Freakishly they could
See beneath the skirt
Of that identity
Figuratively
Observing our truths
Negate all the more
Important things
Reveal and expose
My vulnerabilities
The value of said
Credibilities crushed
Never acknowledging
What counts
Like the garden
Of my heart
Holding my hand
Kissing my face
Instead swiping
Left, right,
And all over the place
Poking at
The superficial
All the ridiculous
Unnecessary casting
Box checking satisfactions
There is
Nothing remarkable
About that
© GÄ
When the phoenix rises
And the ashes fall away
There is a clarity
That prims the sun
Like a gong
These feelings are yours
But they were also
Someone else’s before
They were yours
When your grandmother
Comforts you
When your best friend
Comforts you
When the person you
Trust the most
Comforts you
And says
Time heals all wounds
It’s because they know
And they’ve been
There before
Falling differently
One day further away
Less defeat
More complete
I am more complete
We are more unique
When the ashes fall away
© GÄ
I have a memory of when
To begin was to begin
Not to endure
Not to pull through
Just to begin
As when we fall
Back up again
Footsteps in time
Will surely find
What to begin again
Feels like
A faithful friend
When we are faced with
What feels right
A new beginning
Is renewed
With memories
That in the end
Will rise
Before the
Dawn of time
Begins again
© GÄ
Poétique 