Disillusioned

what once was a free oasis
now comes with a charge
and although the waters
remain a vivid cerulean
my eyes cast their own shadow

Selective Kindness

If one treats you well and not others
remember that in an instant
their malice may be turned on you

Displacement Target

I am not a well into which
to pour your refuse,
your complaints,
and your judgmental vents.

Catching Up

I am tired of your complaints
your envy and emptiness
when I am here before you
thinking I was once grateful
to be meeting you again

Frustration Against Two Walls

Although my limbs
are fully-grown
and need contortion

still I find
that childhood nook
in my parent’s house
where I sat

many an hour
fuming
at the injustice of it all —

Do Not Disturb:
I’m in time out.

Limitations

Everyone sees the myriad colors
Of a free mind at work
I see the downward strokes
Of a left-handed artist

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Mr. Hyde

Restless sits my soul
While hours wile away
Awaiting the familiar ghoul
That taunts me by the day
He wears my face and pries
The black recesses of my heart
Despite my fearful cries
He laughs, “It’s just the start.”

Belief

During a crisis, I once asked my mother if she were ever happy
And with shaking voice, she replied she had never been
Since she married my father
My heart plummeted
Would I suffer the same fate?
But it must be a lie
These photographs show a woman, young and content
Brimming with joy and love for the children in her arms
How easily we believe
“We will never be happy again”
When we are sad

The Negative

Where is trouble kept?
Worry and sadness and anger
If I could, I would banish them into nothingness
But why must dislodging it from my heart
Put a shadow of it in yours?
A hydra which grows twice as many heads
As those that are cut and lopped
I heave a rusted sword and can only hope