Retrieving stones
Thrown into
The lake of consequences
Will not stop
The ripples
Betraying
What you've done

From abandoned paths
Where choices passed
A zillion different drafts of me
Condemned to realms of
Could have
Should have
Might have been
Shake their heads
At who I am
With every new mistake
That joins them

Cuteness makes forget
Even innocence
Ends

Rituals of desolation
Flaunting what
But few may find
Love glorified
Sugar-coated
Placed on sale
At discount prices

Empty dreams
The heart adheres
To call nor wish
Will nor time
Loneliness
Does not get better
Yearning for
An absent Valentine

Each swallow
My body screams
Stop
My hunger
Cares not
Demanding more
And weakly
I follow

Why can't I leave
This emotional wasteland
Reduced to a beggar
Surviving on discarded
Scraps of your love

Where do these thoughts
Not mine
Keep coming from
Whose lie
Am I living

Dark rainbows
Dreams mundane
Truths painted
Black or white
Life a colorless
Gradient of gray

Some days
You've got too much to say
To fit inside
My attention span

Love beyond beauty
Purpose beyond duty
Sight beyond seeing
Life beyond breathing
Such miracles await
Beyond awakening

Like worms
Hidden from the
Light of truth
Blindly digging
Through the dirt
Unaware
They're nothing more
Than bait

Good leaders
Don't need force
To be followed

Torn pages
Can't erase
Words read
Ideas planted
What was buried
May regrow
To live
Another day
That censorship cannot
Eradicate free will
Does not mean
They won't try

I do not understand
What you could
Possibly mean
By that question
What inspired me
To follow
Was the dream itself

Here I go
Once again
Although I've failed
More often
Than is dear to me
I will not give up
Until I see
My self-set task
Complete

Expecting honesty from me
Is lying to yourself
But it works
We're both
Broken like that

There’s no honor
In regret

Tired yet determined
Second chance weariness
Denied
Obsessively
Mending broken trust
Unwilling to
Give up
Unable to accept
Love failed

Forced happiness
Only deepens
Sadness