Tree

I was completely convinced
You and I were watching the same tree
While I was caught up in the
Gentle sway of our leaves

Your gaze was fixed to our shallow roots

Part

Every day I resort back
To trying to make sense of it all
Trying to place you in my best reality
All the while ignoring my favourite dream

In which you played no part

Hand

You magician
Imagine how beautiful
A torn sofa and an old mattress
Have become at the turn of your hand

I can hardly bear their sight without you

Sorry

Before you
I was losing life energy
You sealed the vile and left me
With extra tape

So why say sorry when I owe you thanks

Lose

In the beginning I only give
As much of me as I can afford to lose
But everytime you probe
Deeper inside me than anyone else

I end up losing more than I knew I had

Footsteps

I've been in this dark forest so long
The sound of any footsteps but my own
Are my greatest fear
I can't handle you behind or in front of me

Though I could get used to by my side

Down

He's withered down his sensitivity
Girl after girl
Now that nothing excites him
It's not finding his heart that matters

But understanding how it once worked

On God

There are many gods I don't believe in
And a couple that I do
Some people think that means
I don't really believe in any

I think it just means I believe in more than you

Stan

He gave us boys and girls
That silly notion what we could be
Something more than human
That underneath our masks

Were heroes of the unlikeliest sort

Cravings

My recipe is heavy
On the salt
Good for cravings but as lovers age
I'm only enjoyed in small doses

However repeatedly

Warm

Inside you is a girl
Fighting to undress
From the woman you wear
To protect yourself from cold men

Who were once warm boys

Capture

I mean where do I even begin
Your face is a poet's despair
A beauty my words can never capture
Yet your smile is a poet's delight

A beauty that had forever captured me

Confidence

There is no forest
Only the daily deliberate delivery
Of nourishment to desirable life and
Starvation to its pollutants

Confidence is grown in the same manner

Night We Met

My expectation was to have my
Wide-eyed thoughts of whom I might seduce
Crushed by circumstance and introversion
Instead it was every night before the party

That would reduce to cliche

Shoulders

Last night I felt so unsafe
In my own bed
Like any moment could break me asunder
Tonight, between your shoulders

The same bed feels like my fortress

Math

Have you even done the math
Counted how many hours you spent
Chasing her affections and then
Claiming with your typical audacious pride

You don't have time for all this shit

Touch

Does he really touch you like I do
I mean this without ego
There's time later for jealousy
I mean when he touches you do walls crumble

If the answer is yes, go

Spills

Everyone gets lost in their own
Admiration for your perfection
I think even angels deserve vacations
From being angels

I want to get lost in your messes and spills

Enough

From you I can only expect
Waves
Always enough time to learn my lesson
Never enough to avoid your crashing

Gentle enough to reconsider the shore

Selfish

Legs asleep under yours
Hair constantly in my face
Hoping you never move
However selfish either of us feel later

These moments were worth stealing

Reward

You rewarded all my love for you
With complete neglect
You rewarded her neglect
With all the love you kept from me

And ask me now to reward your honesty

Craving

That smile of hers
Undeniable to the craving spirit
Like flaxen hair in the afternoon
And long black curls after sundown

A bounty for light and heavy hearts alike

Facade

Hair skin and fashion
Underpin all that we have
Too many tears sure
But honestly too many prideful smiles

Over a facade we've built with no foundation

Concern

If I'm writing
Sadness
It's because I can now
It's because I'm happy

Don't manufacture concern

Seen

All I know is for the first time
Someone wants to see me
As much as I want to be seen
Which I haven't felt with you or anyone prior

I pray daily for a reason to pass this up

Knew

When I saw him I knew
I was in for another season of nonsense
I didn't really care whether he'd be
Good for me or good to me

I just knew he was already part of my story

Tepid

Treat love as you would tea
Where too hot and too cold
Can both be tempered by time
But beware lukewarm

Tepid hearts need immediate care

Walk

My greatest fear is separation
Between destiny and destination
The union of which I think is
Every reliable description of true happiness

How could I ever be the one to walk away

Destination

Love is fuel
Running on empty has caused a stall
Which over time has led to atrophy
And in turn a longing for a return home

Which is at least closer than the destination

Scrub

I may have lost your scent
Having taken off your sweatshirt to wash
However I lay here sweltering
Overclothed in your embrace despite

So many attempts to scrub away your stain

Ashes

How many months more of
Strict dedication to you
Will it take to quell
This burning guilty flame

Or will I fail you all the way until ashes

Ghost

I'm gonna live my whole life
And never hold your hand
As your lover, however lovingly
I die each night to this feeling

So sure, befriend a ghost

Vacancy

It's easier now
Retaining the power in our dynamic
I remind myself how
Little I actually need to feel about you

It's a matter of matching vacancy

Drug

I used to need you
To fall asleep
Now I can't sleep
Thinking about you

You're officially my drug

Same

I'm stuck
Right where you left me
Same exact place
I wouldn't call this waiting

Just not necessarily moving on

Froze

You love my stillness
Not my ripples
Surely not my crashing waves
You're only here to see your own reflection

I only froze over to convince you to stay

Ask for

You keep asking me
What I want, what I'm looking for
I want someone to give my heart rest
From my experience it's a lot to ask for

So I don't

Regret

I exhausted myself
Searching
For stillness in you
Which i anticipated from day one

My only regret is not finding it

Room

Your room is probably bigger
But mine has more space
Larger frontiers and wider pastures
Think of all we've achieved and seen

From this twin bed

Here

After our first talk
I buried my face into my hands
And asked her, why now
Why did you wait until now

To finally get here

Fire

I don't want to have sex with you
I want to kiss you
Light your flame to melt away
Your past and mine as well

I want to forget most of my life before the fire

Second

Pergatory
Is the worst
But
Rejection

Is a close second

Footsteps

He hasn't been here in months
All I've seen are footsteps
Reminders he was once here
And indicators

That he never looked back

Veteran

Oh fear my beloved
My most skilled seducer
Your embrace is soft as silk
Having grown old from our time unserved

I adorn my absence of bruises like a veteran

Raft

I'm adrift in your mind
Trying to dock against your body
Before I lose myself in waters
Deeper than I have known

Too still for my fortified raft

Without

He opens a door
To a woman I can't see
Without him
A woman I can only become

Without him

Share

I'll die if that wasn't
The best you've had
Not from jealousy
Just guilt

I meant to share

Rites

I hope to find the love
That teaches me I was
Only addicted to you
Until then I'll grieve my delusion

With all the rites and ceremony

Direction

There's a gas station on both sides
Going south and north
She'll be different
But serve the same purpose

Don't blame her for your choice of direction

Return

I left to return to you
The man I laboured dark years becoming
Is a starting point in your light
You were always enough for me

I just struggle with destination and journey

Ugly

When you met me
I was quite ugly
I had not yet been given time to
Bronze under your light or

Soften in the wake of your wind

Arc De Triomphe

The arc works by sharing in the load
Of everything between us
Making us stronger than
Either of us took on an easier life alone

It's simple science why we've triumph

Start

I'm sorry I was spent so long
Being funny
Taking up time I could have spent
Helping you feel as open with me

As I felt with you from the start

Less

I don't want him
To feel lesser than me
I just want him
To stop feeling lesser of me

How do I get there

Back

I thought of you
She had no clue where my mind was
Or why I was trying so hard
To please her tonight

I was trying to bring you back

Devoted

She's into me
I can't say I've had my best go
But I'd say she's convinced
I'll be more devoted than

Those guys who didn't realize what they had

For One

He's into me
A bit too early to take
As genuine
A bit too strongly for him to conclude

These feelings are for one woman

Struck

How exactly do you expect
Me not to be awe struck
I'm sorry, more than you know
That I am frozen here in what will become

The moment I first laid eyes on you

Entire

Don't fear it
You will not sink
In the ocean of my desire
Lay your entire self on me

Let my waves deliver from your shores

Pleasure

I want to pleasure your body
With my tongue
Almost as much as
I want to pleasure my tongue

With your body

Howl

I'll call out to you every night
Until a new neighbour complains
I can't keep this howling down
Under my skin

Better you hear it now anyway

Picnic

She tastes like fresh berries
Smells like an empty park
On a day with no humidity
Like I could just stay here

Like I'll never have a better picnic

Tea

I was scalding water
Turned to tea
Only by the time spent
With you inside me

Whether or not someone else now drinks

Public

She doesn't know me
I've shown her only covers
A made bed and tidy room
The common lie we make of bedrooms

Homes lost to the public domain

Strength

I've locked my strength
Behind your doors
I've tried so hard to open you
Only to see you've starved it of light

I guess we only ever cultivate strength outside

Pay

Money
Doesn't buy happiness
It finances it
Happiness is yours

The day you pay it back

Right

You deserve a happiness I can't offer
I mean I can't offer you
Maybe we'll say it was bad timing
I just want you to know I kept this going

Really hoping one day I would be right for you

Peace

We both deserve peace
After our storm
You first
I can take this a little longer and anyway

Part of my peace is knowing you have yours

Forward

All I see is you
I actually don't even know how to
Envision a life without you
It's hard to look forward

To something lost in the past

Inauthentic

You're looking for a
Safe place
I've always been rocky roads
I come across inauthentic but that's

Just me trying to be what you need

Fantasy

Sometimes I let myself
Remember I'm in love with you
Mostly though I can't handle the rejection
So the other times I Iet myself remember

Fantasies are supposed to be better than life

Rest

He's gonna be really happy
When I move on
That thought kills me
His heart will rest

Knowing I'm finally gone for good

Addiction

Will this go on for the rest of my life
I can't keep thinking about you
Every single day
You've become my deepest addiction

Though I'll never have you again

Borrowed

It's been too long for me
To hold you responsible for today
Nonetheless
You are the cause of my dark hours

Absent of the flame I once borrowed

Unspoken

I want to save you from him
From the years wasted
Trying to find me, buried beneath
His off target touches and your

Unspoken answers to what went wrong

Black Canadian

I have no allegiance
Neither loyalty nor obedience
To your flag, your blood thirsty anthem
Your oppressive military or culture

I am tired and need no permission to kneel

Companion

I have to mention this
I really admire the way you
Live your truth
It used to make me feel you were lonely

Now I see it's your favourite companion

Gift

How could I resent you
Who resents a sunset
After the darkest storm
However brief your stay

This quiet calm night was your gift

Do You Like It

This is not your best hairstyle
I love every style on you
You pull off every look
So your next one will be even better

For now though, yes it's a winner

Plot

I have to hand it to you
You've learned my body
Now I am chartered territory
Please don't ever tell me

You've plotted my final boundary

Trust

If she wanted you
You would be hers already
For me there's no unknowing that
I don't have to trust you

At the cost of losing trust in myself

Enter

Last night he entered me
Like a guilty suspect
It's been too many times
For that sort of caution

I know when he's asking for permission

Rest

I am indeed greater than you
I am your lily pad
Your rose petal
I've taken this larger form for you

To take rest not cover

Granted

All that was familiar
Has become strange
What a terrible blessing
To be granted a new life

Before even asking

Small

There are no small fights
Falling from the feeling that I am
The smartest, prettiest girl you know
To whoever I am when we argue

Is as deep a hole as I've faced

Spare

I've never looked at you
Without wanting to marry you
I don't know how to not yearn for you
I'm already powerless

Spare a kind man his fantasy

Sans La Seine

I could live my best life with
Maybe three quarters of your heart
But would stil dive, head first
Into the deepest canal

To find that missing quarter

Signs

I mean you're right
There were certainly signs
Every indication we should stop
But can you really blame us

For trying to beat that red

Lifted

There just ain't enough
Treadmills, friends or hobbies
To make me forget the way
He lifted me from the earth

Just to remind me I wasn't stuck here

Cold War

Those deadly pauses
Leaving me on read in person
The anguish of feeling like
Your next words will decide us

I just can't stomach these cold wars

Day We Met

If you asked me honestly
Whether I'd rather live
Fifty years like yesterday
Or fifty more days like today

Well, sorry to leave you so soon

Swirl

Strawberry swirls
And rocket popsicles
Our favourite flavours
Have always involved mixing

I don't mind us not being traditional

Dream

I've slept a lot better
Knowing there was no need
To hold on to my imagination
When opening my eyes to you

Was my favourite dream of the night

Bottle

Meet for drinks
To be honest I didn't think
Anything could be born from those words
But you could shoot my favourite movie

From the bottles between us

Ocean

If time and space are meshed
Maybe asking when we'll meet again
Is as confused as asking
What time is the ocean

What matters is we travel each other safely

Prince

My favourite painters
Probably all of my favourite artists
Had a certain knack for
Mixing the blues and the flaming reds

Into something new, unique, royal, purple

In The Dark

What would we have become
Without opinions
Remember how bright we were in the dark
How far we thought we'd go

When we weren't chasing horizons

Lost Faith

His arms were my monastery
I only noticed when he was gone
Like it or not my vagina was his alter
He never missed communion

I only noticed when he was gone

Watch

So many times I've
Patted my back for giving rich soil
To flowers already primed to bloom
But what a joy to sew a seed and watch

Her blossom under her own light

Convinced

You wouldn't know it
From how I searched your body and soul
With such urgency
But I never wanted to reach the end of you

I was convinced you'd show me it all

Jealous

There's so much pressure
To feel lonely
Causing so much pressure
To just feel alone

As happiness watches in jealousy

Tourist

I'm trying not to approach love
Like a tourist
Especially since I've lived in love
My whole life

But you're is so serene, it's foreign

Versioning

Today I will desist
In my habit of cherry picking
Both good memories and bad
Basking in new versions of a past life

While missing new versions of this life

Obligation

Today I forgive myself
For the time lost to anguish and anger
Which is a promise and obligation
To methodically enrich more moments

Per day, per week, and so on

Moral

The idea of emptiness
Carries with it a moral obligation
To transform outward judgement
Into inward reflection

Which is meditation's most subtle barrier

Stretch

Sometimes
I breathe you in
Like good food
To stretch our relationship

Make it harder to forget you

Strong

You can be a wind
And turn this beach into a desert
Or be a breeze
And turn this desert into a beach

Your choice

Chin

Battling life
I'm actually battling
Life, instead of death
Dodging all of its cruel fantasy

Catching truths on the chin though

Departure

And all of them
Better off
Without
Me

Clear for takeoff

Smile

We're too young
To see the moral
This story is way older than us
Anyway from what I've heard

We meet again and actually smile on this

Tear

Can't we go 'round one last time
He asks with his typical
Boyish innocence
She hates being the cause of those wet eyes

But knows too well what comes after tears

Sliding Doors

If she had knocked
I'd have opened
If she barged I'd break her fall
If she whispers through I'll have her say no more

Those lips need not explain

Outlook

Hey, beautiful day
Thank you for that
I don't think I could've taken
The melancholy of rain today

Today I needed a clear outlook

Here

There's no feeling together
In falling apart
No getting to where I want to be
Without walking away from

This life without you

Masterpiece

I don't want to meet someone
New
I want what we had
With less of what went wrong

Why repaint a masterpiece

Du Jour

Don't exploit the movement
You ask the cute ones to be man enough
Ask the ugly ones to respect
Boundaries you made up just for them

And ask me to guess what's on today's menu

About Last Night

You still don't get it
I was giving you permission
To save me
By showing you all the parts of me

That could use some saving

Replay

Remember those sacred moments
I can't get enough of them
Imagining them on repeat
My favourite movie

I'm okay to replay this kind of happy

Sounds Like a Choice

Nothing I would want to do is
Allowed
My heart is in prison
Sentenced for as long as

I choose to still love you

Glass

Sometimes I see the world
With God in it
Other times without
I'm not sure which is more clear

Glasses on or glasses off

Choked Up

I think you actually don't
Understand the cost of ignoring
Or justifying, or even blaming me for
Your injustices against me

I'm dying in silence by your hands

Slip

This morning I forgot my belt
Having been confronted with a sadness
That wouldn't leave until work's parking lot
One poison for another I suppose

Today's goal is not allowing myself to slip

Dating

It's four questions really
Nestled into one
What do you want
Emphasize each word individually

Behold, how different his responses

Objectified

I understand now
You were looking to become
The object of my desires
Whereas I have only ever searched

For the subject of my desires

Bargain

Time is precious but
I'm fixing to trade twenty
Of the years I had planned for myself
For ten days alone with you and spend

Another twenty bragging about the bargain

Fair Fight

You can do both
But drive me wild
Before you drive me crazy
Let's have a fair fight

Unless you're not man enough

Unlikely

I think it's you
Without even knowing for sure
It just seems too unlikely
That I'll stop thinking about you

Anytime soon

Face

I see your face
Perhaps twenty years from now
Looking different but unchanged
For me it will always appear

As the sum of my best moments

Treasures

Honestly to your body I prefer invitation
I've made no plans for arrival
Beyond not showing up empty handed
Other than that I have no expectations

But I anticipate many hidden treasures

Love and War

I hope this is the part
Where I set down my sword
Hearing through the parting clouds
That peace times approach

I hope to never return to battle

Title

You're sad because you're selfish
Even after knowing how small
Your woes are
On the scale of human suffering

You still want the most popular sadness title

Consent

Greater than the thrill
Of having your flesh
Is having you trust with me with it
Like having that single dollar from mom

To buy whatever I desire

March For Your Lives

We were young once too
The elders poured on us luxury and comfort
And we drank
Laying rest to our flame

March your fire right through our smoke

Atrophy

If kindness
Is a sign of weakness
Why is it so hard for you
To show it when it counts

That bitterness is just heart atrophy

Popcorn

Love is about sharing
In each other's delusions
About what the word love means
Like popcorn

Unequally but to each other's satisfaction

Bridge

I may not have been
The better place you hoped for
But it's still in your power to choose me
As the bridge to get you there

Instead of the shelter for your demons

Voice

You should sing
Everyone should hear your voice
You should hear your voice
Instead of mine

Then you'll finally get you're beautiful

Inside

I broke everytime
With your heart
On the inside
It's my fault you were surprised

To find me shattered

1. Beyond Race

Beyond race there are other hard battles
Gender, income, religion, all our differences
The solution will remain simple
Watering the brown grass on both sides

Eliminates the need for fences

2. Harmony

The truth is race is just easy
People use easy methods to justify hate
To satisfy ignorance and laziness
I've accepted my condemnation to educate

Motivation is your half of the harmony

3. Love

Can you see
How little room is left for love
After so much furnished hurt
Still I love you, sometimes more than myself

Do you ever feel the same

4. Spice

In just my lifetime
We completely took it over
They might not want our circumstances but

For our culture they crossed those tracks

Better our spice than our spices this time

5. Privilege

I have the privilege
Of being able to love diversity
More than I fear it
In a world where media spends billions

Making fear easy and love hard

6. Necessary

You made a villain
Of all our heros
Now you've come for our only resolution
No, we'll hang on to our antihero

By whatever means necessary

7. Tradition

If I were to bring you home
My parents would just not understand
Followed by
I want to raise my children how I was raised

Racism is a seed planted in fear watered by tradition

8. Slave Trade

I honestly wonder sometimes if

It feels worse to be constantly punished

For the crimes of your ancestors

Than to be constantly punished by them

But we both know you ain't trading places

9. Dark Room

Mass-shootings, lynching, police, prison
Workplace discrimination, micro-aggressions
Congress, senate, CEO, boss, school board
Wall Street, oil, IMF, Fox, NRA, diamond trade

These negatives came out white on black

10. Maga

Take a moment

Define peaceful country

In your own words

Go get a map

And stack rank based on your new beliefs

11. Collateral Beauty

I sometimes forget
Art is always open to interpretation
And misinterpretation
Since race surely is not science

Was conflict always its intended beauty

12. Daughters

As I entered my condo elevator after work
You moved her behind your legs protecting her
Like a hungry man's sandwich
Without understanding your native tongue

I knew you just told her to fear me for a lifetime

13. Scale

And to think
With all you've heard so far
I am light-skinned and hence clothed
In immeasurable privilege and fortune

So can you scale your empathy a bit further

14. Can I Help You

I actually get a kick out of it
Whenever I intend to drop a lot of cash
I intentionally shop in a hoodie
When I'm just browsing I dress nicely

To avoid that added attention from sales

15. Mistrial

If your dad forbade you marry a doctor
Because yours was a family of lawyers
Wouldn't you object to this absurdity
On the grounds of equality

Yet for my blackness you have no defence

16. Fear

Is there a country in Africa
You want to visit where there are
No socialized caveats, no blanket claims
Of crime, corruption, disease, murder

Has Europe rendered in you the fear it exports

17. Curriculum is Capital

By twelve I knew every capital city
In Europe and The Americas, but only
Five in Asia and maybe three in Africa
You may feel this was my own negligence 

So will you help me change the curriculum 

18. My land

If I may interject
On top of being born here
I paid more federal taxes this year
Than your entire family

I'll decide which refugees enter my land

19. Tired

A lot of you are tired of talking and hearing

About race

Understand, your fatigue does not outweigh 

That of those who bear the burden of race

And your ignorance of it

20. Protect and Serve

99 Problems is more than dope lyrics
I was stopped doing sixty one in a sixty
In Scarborough of course
Gifted me my forty dollar ticket, no points

With the audacity to tell me happy birthday

21. Under One Sun

A few things came between us
All of which were to do with the sun
Otherwise we remained brothers
Divided only by time we spent

Hiding from the light that unites us

22. Did You Ever Experience Racism

To answer a burning question
I was eight when I was first called nigger
It wasn't by you of course, I wouldn't
Make you accountable for your entire race

I'd appreciate the same respect

23. Thanks

Of the nearly fifty times I've heard
Not really black
None were meant as a compliment
To my race

Should I thank you for dividing us yet again

24. Adult Accompany

If my father didn't have stern words for the
Theater manager who thought I was too
Young to watch Malcolm X I would never
Have understood my mother's stern words for

The counsellor who said I'd be better off in the trades

25. Literally

Timbuktu is not
A synonym for nowhere
Buried deep within the soils of
Mali, by the way, are volumes

Of African history before it was rewritten

26. One

Growing up we spent one month
Learning there was exactly
One black male hero and one female too
Among the sea of slaves and villains we were

Made to believe we were the other eleven

27. Colour

Race was never black and white
Frankly I've been denied
Access, agency and even love more often
By coloured folk who can't or won't see

With less power comes more responsibility

28. Deliverance

I'm as much at home
Here as I would be in Africa
So don't furnish my space with
Unfamiliar stereotypes of crime and mischief

I never signed for your delivery

#BellLetsTalk

Don't be kind or gentle
Be an absolute brute and smash
Through each wall with endless vigour
Until you can hear what

They've been telling you this whole time

Nourish

Friendships are like food
Some are useful, necessary
Others just taste good
Sometimes those are opposing properties

Often the most nourishing spoil early

Friends

Most friends are
Time spent or time wasted
Few friends are time used and fewer time gained
Let's not try to be friends

I'd rather consider us time cherished

Gentle

Shitting on the nice guy
The gentle giant
Easy targets I suppose
However if we fall first

What remains but your worst fear

Dream

Watching you dance is
Star gazing
Attaining you is beyond my wildest
Witnessing you is enough to say

Dream come true

Tomorrow

There's a place for us
Not here and now
Certainly not yesterday's fight
So how on earth could it

Not be tomorrow

Sky

If we end what use is there
For love at first sight
Or the moon, or star-crossed anything
The road ahead looks dreary

All I hope for now is sunrise and sunset

Remember

I gave myself
A little piece of what you left me
Without even remembering
It's our anniversary

Remember when we were so sure

Pouring

I'm looking for that place
Where love abounds for the shy
Where water is poured
First for those who have yet to drink

Second for those who poured

Honestly

His honesty
Is almost dishonest
It leaves me having to inspect
How he could possibly feel this way

Without it being a lie

Beat

As my last trick I hoped to have
Lived on in your heart forever
With some loving words to remember me by
Forgetting me though is

All that will get that heart beating

Rest

Today my chains withered to
Silk over my wrists and
Between my fingers
Your hair resting in my palms as I whispered

Promises of restitution for your reprieve

Ink

The ink in my pen
Paint on my palette
I want to unveil your potential
To bring my dream to life

I have no masterpiece without you

Montage

Spending the day with you
Was like a montage of splendid cliches
I suppose this counters
My previously held beliefs around

The lost need for love and romance

Chute

It doesn't matter that I'm happy
Everything after you has been free fall
I grabbed a chute before the push
The sooner I use it the greater

My choices of where to land

Agency

In a single moment
Everything I felt for you
Went from right to wrong
A moment of your choosing

I've lost enough agency to care for fate

Territory

By the end of each argument
I come back to the same place
We're two small animals
On a really big rock

Fighting each other over territory

First

I expected my first time ever
To feel like this
And this is the first time
It ever did

I've lived so many lies

Gloss

I can say now
It's impossible to kiss you again
With the same lips
Dry as our time in the sun has made them

I could only kiss you now with gloss removed

Thresholds

He had the nerve to say
I broke him
Not a single tear in six months
Until he pushed me into willing arms

Worth more than my two seasons of weeping

Cloak

Certainly I've lost desire
Which I thought was the problem
But, once the cloak was removed
It appeared I had lost love too

Which is why I was so hungry for yours

Myth

Then you're taught about
Race
That this person is more like you
Because of their skin colour

Life is spent dissecting the truths of this myth

Para Que

From what I see
You're far more beautiful
In your own light
Than under mine

Seeing you is paradise and paradox

Welcome

I get why
You can never see me in a new light
I struggle to do the same
With you or myself

Perhaps I welcome the same darkness

Outside

Is love a thing
Outside of us or in us
It's romantic to feel that it's
Out of our control

Until it's out of our control

The Book

Do we ever love new
Don't we beg poems and ballads
To remind us of love known
I would like to finally turn the page

Without it feeling like closing the book

Mortgage

There's no free lunch
I have paid for her unhappiness
In full
Today I'm selling our love nest

There's mortgage to renew

First and Last

I'll never say sorry
I've taken on all your sorrow
I can't handle my own
All the same I wish you the understanding

That I loved you with all I had