The 500th Poem

I remember when I started this.
The moment this sounded like a good idea.
My face numb from the freezing rain
As I walked across this tiny town.
I remember thinking I could never do it
But I’d try nonetheless.
I thought there wouldn't be enough inspiration
To spread across the last 12 months
But here we are.
I wrote more than I imagined I could about my heart.
Not enough about my past.
All too much about that certain boy.
 But I’ve done it.
500 poems in a year.
500 poems like time capsules
Taking me back to where I stood when I wrote them.
500 poems,
Good,
Bad,
Beautiful,
Ugly,
But 500 nonetheless.
And today when I stood in that spot again
Saying goodbye to the past year
And the town that made me
I realized
I’ve got at least 500 more in me.

Summer Rising

I can feel summer rising in my veins.
Ferris wheels and long night talks.
Screams in the dark and long hearty laughs.
T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops.
Road trips to nowhere just to have something to do.
I can feel the summer rising in my veins
And my only wish
Is that you would be here to share it with me.

Holiday In Your Head

I want to take a vacation in your mind.

I thought a lot about living there once 

but I don't think I'd like the weather.
I want to spend a few days in your pool of distrust and distraction.
I want to sleep between the sheets of your self-image and self-worth.
I want to take your voice home as a souvenir.
I once thought I’d like to live there
but now I think I’d just like a holiday in your head.

Electricity

I feel like my skin is full of electricity.

Currents running through me to say that I am alive.

That things are headed my direction.

That life is finally looking up.

Like the goods things

Well the good things are coming.

But the problem with electricity is that its unpredictable.

It hops and skips and runs amuck.

It can feel like one thing

And then be something different all together.

So I’m shaking as my skin fills up with electricity

Praying that it doesn’t break through.

Praying that for once in my life

This current running through my veins

Is real.

Is meant for me.

Is bringing the good things. 

Learning to Get Over

I wish someone would’ve told me what it felt like when I was young.

The act of getting over someone.

What it felt like to not hate them anymore.

But to still feel that twinge where they’ve claimed a part of your heart forever.

I wish someone had told me it was gradual.

So I didn’t spend so many days slamming my head into walls

To drown the pain of them out with new pain.

But I guess that’s part of growing up.

I guess that part of being an adult.

Knowing the only way to wake up and not think of them

Is to wake up so many days with them being the only thing on my mind.

But I’m old enough to know now.

Old enough to know that love like that sticks to you.

There is always going to be a place in your heart where they fit.

A place only they have claim over.

I am old enough to know that now.

And I’m old enough to know the reason they don’t tell you this when you’re younger

Is because it can’t be taught.

It can only be learned.

Learning to Fly

I remember the first time I wandered out on that branch.

I stood gazing down at the rushing water below.

And when the branch broke and my wings failed me I thought I saw the rest of my life.

A life full of falling and crashing and burning and breaking.

But its not.

Sure there is a lot of falling.

A lot of uncertainty on these ledges.

But someday my wings will work.

Someday I’ll fly.