We forget
the little tokens,
the tiny nuances
the real interactions
a nod, a wave, a smile.
Here, mere transaction -
click, clack and don’t come back.
It’s all pretend but you, you are real
and I thank you stranger
for taking this time
and here, now
I feel real
too.
"The girl holding back her tears in class
Thinks maybe if she doesn't let them fall,
No one will see it
But I can see
My friend avoids the camera
Because she thinks maybe if she stays away from it,
No one will see the way she can't stand the way she looks
But I can see
The boy in front of me laughs so loud
Because maybe if everyone can hear his laugh,
No one can see his pain
But I can see
The boy next to me draws his feelings away
Because maybe if he puts them on paper,
No one can see what he's feeling inside
But I can see
I can see the pain that is surrounding this generation,
Like dust in the air after a sandstorm,
And suffocating us,
Forcing us to suffer in silence
I can see the pain,
Because I am living it too"
Thinks maybe if she doesn't let them fall,
No one will see it
But I can see
My friend avoids the camera
Because she thinks maybe if she stays away from it,
No one will see the way she can't stand the way she looks
But I can see
The boy in front of me laughs so loud
Because maybe if everyone can hear his laugh,
No one can see his pain
But I can see
The boy next to me draws his feelings away
Because maybe if he puts them on paper,
No one can see what he's feeling inside
But I can see
I can see the pain that is surrounding this generation,
Like dust in the air after a sandstorm,
And suffocating us,
Forcing us to suffer in silence
I can see the pain,
Because I am living it too"
untitled.
____________________________
sometimes i take a Shower
with the lights off.
but before i even finish showering, i turn the lights back
On,
because i remember how afraid of the dark i am.
sometimes i go to the Airport
and just sit in there for a few hours.
because i like watching people Reunite.
sometimes i cut my Fingernails way too short.
like, down to the quicks.
because it’s an odd feeling, the way my fingertips Hurt
every time i touch something.
sometimes i go out in public without my Shoes,
because i like feeling the Real ground,
not just the inside of my shoes.
sometimes i re-arrange my Bedroom,
but then i change it right back
because everyone knows that there isn’t a single
person
in the world that isn’t afraid of Change.
sometimes i try reading books Upside-down
because i think thats what it would be like if i
couldn’t
Read
at all.
sometimes i just sit and watch the Grass grow,
because we’re lucky that it even grows in the
First
place.
sometimes i do things.
sometimes i don’t.
Things You Didn't Put On Your Resumé
How often you got up in the middle of the night
when one of your children had a bad dream,
and sometimes you woke because you thought
you heard a cry but they were all sleeping,
so you stood in the moonlight just listening
to their breathing, and you didn't mention
that you were an expert at putting toothpaste
on tiny toothbrushes and bending down to wiggle
the toothbrush ten times on each tooth while
you sang the words to songs from Annie, and
who would suspect that you know the fingerings
to the songs in the first four books of the Suzuki
Violin Method and that you can do the voices
of Pooh and Piglet especially well, though
your absolute favorite thing to read out loud i
Bedtime for Frances and that you picked
up your way of reading it from Glynnis Johns,
and it is, now that you think of it, rather impressive
that you read all of Narnia and all of the Ring Trilogy
(and others too many to mention here) to them
before they went to bed and on way out to
Yellowstone, which is another thing you don't put
onthe resumé: how you took them to the ocean
and the mountains and brought them safely home.
Joyce Sutphen
when one of your children had a bad dream,
and sometimes you woke because you thought
you heard a cry but they were all sleeping,
so you stood in the moonlight just listening
to their breathing, and you didn't mention
that you were an expert at putting toothpaste
on tiny toothbrushes and bending down to wiggle
the toothbrush ten times on each tooth while
you sang the words to songs from Annie, and
who would suspect that you know the fingerings
to the songs in the first four books of the Suzuki
Violin Method and that you can do the voices
of Pooh and Piglet especially well, though
your absolute favorite thing to read out loud i
Bedtime for Frances and that you picked
up your way of reading it from Glynnis Johns,
and it is, now that you think of it, rather impressive
that you read all of Narnia and all of the Ring Trilogy
(and others too many to mention here) to them
before they went to bed and on way out to
Yellowstone, which is another thing you don't put
onthe resumé: how you took them to the ocean
and the mountains and brought them safely home.
Joyce Sutphen
The first time
you took off your clothes
in front of me, you slid
the white fabric of your blouse
off your arms and revealed
the pale ladders
of scars.
You never referenced them
directly. You said you were
lost, once. You said you
did things, once, and you
did them because they
helped you survive yourself.
I didn’t say anything,
but you took my hand
and pressed it to the
ridged rows of your flesh
and for every line you left
upon yourself and healed,
I found another reason
to call you beautiful.
you took off your clothes
in front of me, you slid
the white fabric of your blouse
off your arms and revealed
the pale ladders
of scars.
You never referenced them
directly. You said you were
lost, once. You said you
did things, once, and you
did them because they
helped you survive yourself.
I didn’t say anything,
but you took my hand
and pressed it to the
ridged rows of your flesh
and for every line you left
upon yourself and healed,
I found another reason
to call you beautiful.
Katrina Wendt
Whole
I have unrolled a
map
onto my kitchen
table
and put one
finger
where you are
and
another where I
am.
The space
between
is only inches. That
close,
I could feel you
breathing.
I could reach out
and
run my fingers
through
every strand of your
hair,
touch your lips
and
barely need to
move.
In the corner of the
map
there is a guide for
judging scale:
every inch a hundred
miles
full of roads and
rivers and trees,
the guide a sharp
reminder
that you are where you
are
and I am where I
am,
inches
apart.
I don’t cause
teachers trouble;
My grades have been
okay.
I listen in my
classes.
I’m in school
every day.
My teachers think
I’m average;
My parents think so
too.
I wish I didn’t
know that, though;
There’s lots
I’d like to do.
I’d like to build
a rocket;
I read a book on
how.
Or start a stamp
collection…
But no use trying
now.
’Cause, since I
found I’m average,
I’m smart enough
you see
To know there’s
nothing special
I should expect of
me.
I’m part of that
majority,
That hump part of the
bell,
Who spends his life
unnoticed
In an average kind of
hell.
