Poem a Day for April - 24

I am the Frankenstein’s Monster of my life lessons, brought back to life and staggering. This arm is the time I realized that I am a horrible liar. This foot is from the summer that I fell in love for the first time. The fingers of my left hand are stitched clumsily to me, each one a fingertip lesson of what not to touch.

This elbow told me to stop skateboarding. This knee is aching for the swimming lessons I never received that would help me save drowning children. The entire right leg is green, tattooed, and drags a furrow in the ground behind me, immobilized by the wolf trap of commitments I cannot avoid.

This eyelid is from the times that I dressed up as a man and it can’t stop winking. This smile is from the summer I sold used cars to old women and learned everything I know. These ears will always hear the sound of air rushing past my first and only suicide attempt. These cheekbones are from a young man that looked a lot like me.

My liver is from Scotland. My lungs are from the mountains. My heart is from you.



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Poem a Day for April - 25

Every person that inspires you. Ever idol. Every shining example that you think you could never be. They’re all thinking the same thing.

“I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

Every leader that leads by example is hoping that inspiration will create copies. They hit the targets, exceed the limits, and break new ground in with aspirations that they will soon be one face among many. They want to start a movement where everyone’s full potential can be realized.

Overachievers do not want to be lonely. They are trying to pass the torch. These people want you to do it for yourselves they way they did. They are screaming for you to exceed your already amazing potential. Every leader wants to die knowing that he or she is leaving things in good hands.

It never goes down like that.

How do you look at your idols? What do you see?





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Poem a Day for April - 26

You say, “Clothes are important because it’s always good to be able to take something off.”

I say, “Your decisions affect me.”

Divided by elements, one might conclude. You’re on the boat. I’m on the shore. You live there. I live here. The boat can come in and visit but it’s of no use on dry land and I can’t tread water for too long.

Or we could go further. You’re a fish and I’m an earthworm. Both of us down in the dark, completely at home in our surroundings.

But worms are put on hooks to catch fish so maybe let’s not go there.

If you’re a prairie picnic in the summer, then I’m a hospital hallway.

You are independent and clear as hope in an orphanage. All colours look good on you.

If I reach for you, you are there. It’s when I can’t reach for you that I need you most.

Turning your fears into a conversation is one of the surest ways to cure them.

Letting my feelings collapse into definition is one of the surest ways to negate them.

You are velvet awards, dimly lit business lunches, plaid coats and smokey restaurants. Hotels built like race tracks and beautiful elevators.

I am hamburgers at midnight, website reptiles, flipper logic, and rain on heritage-home windows. An unlabeled chart on a dusty shelf.

Wedding presents might as well be paper clips in my hands. Baby shoes turn into old hats right in front of my eyes.

The problems of all relationships are ours. Let’s keep going.






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