How

She had a tattoo on her wrist

“Live Bravely” it said

Pink ink and a flower

“How?” I asked in a panic

“How do you live bravely?

How does merely existing

Not fill you with abject terror?

Every breath a chance gone

So much time wasted in sleep

Regrets like tumors in your brain?

How do you not feel like a nomad

Wandering the desert barefoot

Always hunting for water

Life depending on single drops

Sweet relief you can never find

The raw wide open all around you

Suffocating the light inside you?

How do you live bravely

Standing among the roiling masses

Everyone around you moving

Destiny in their certain steps

But you are somehow standing still

Screaming in their faces SEE ME

And they don’t even blink

Trying to find a way to be real

But always certain you are dust

A floating mote in a sun ray

Never meant to mean anything

Forgotten between the floorboards

How do you live bravely

When you’re sinking in the void?”

I asked, my voice choking on the words

But she had already left the bus

And my stop was miles back

I'm gonna teach you music

I'm gonna be your blues

Gonna show you how deep the bass goes

How every note that flows from the sax

Is a flavor on your tongue that

Tastes like the salt of all the tears

Shed for every love that went away

Sometimes the pain is all we have

The hurt makes us the lucky ones

Cause it had to be good to burn so bad

I'm gonna be your jazz

The high string echo in your bones

You're gonna feel the red lights

The heat of my body on your thighs

That brass that addles your brain

Knocks down the walls and stands you up tall

Surrender to the frenzy you deny

Eat of my lust till you've had your fill

Let the morning sun find us panting still

I'm gonna be your rock

Find the drum thrum in your heart

Let my body play rhythm to your lead

You'll know exactly when to scream

Don't worry if you don't know the words

They'll bloom from your soul in time

Just let yourself feel that life beat

How our song is the bond we share

With everyone who believes in love

Forgive

I’m never gonna not burn.

Shades of black,

My ash,

Gives birth to cosmos.

I am a whirling dervish,

Feathers and sparks and dust.

You cannot blow me out,

My embers always glow.

The tears you sow,

They are your own.

I’ll carry them for you,

Because I can.

Because I am

The source of all waters.

I’ll collect them all,

And bathe you in them,

You’ll be made clean.

To live in my garden,

You only have to see.

All these plants are dreams

I grew for you,

While you were looking down.

Every stone you cast,

I turned into a hope for you.

And you can only go so long,

Before you hear the burning song,

And claim your love at last.