Defy the
Ever-changing rules
Or live your life
In paper shackles.

Trapped indoors,
Unable to ignore
The outside world
Calling —
“Come out and play.”

There’s no need
To change for me —
Just hide your flaws, please.

I'm confused.
Having never
Asked for your input,
I considered it
Suggestions —
Not law.

For the good of us all,
When confronted
With hate,
Intolerance
Or injustice,
Never just stand by
In shame —
Retaliate.

Burdens of morality
Birth survival's duality,
Unnecessarily
Weighing down necessity
With doubt —
When the one true choice
Is to live.

You cannot expect
To duplicate
My experiences
By retracing my path.

Sometimes I wonder
What binds us —
All we seem to share
Is an abundance
Of resentment.

Custodian of pain,
Too deeply hurt
To bare the grief —
Why keep suffering
Those pages filled with
Unshared words
Alone?

When short on
Fact or effort
Round your fractions down —
Half-assed attempts and
Half-truths
Will never add up
To a whole.

Their perfection
A conscious choice,
A deception —
They are but
What others wish to see.
Smiling, waving,
Stubbornly tending their garden
With their houses
Aflame.

I refuse to confess,
Knowing full well
My thoughts —
Unspoken, yet apparent —
Already
Betrayed my weakness.

Wars may be won
With subterfuge —
But not hearts.

Time leashes
All whose
Best features
Show in reflections.

Originality —
The art of obscuring
The ways in which
You shuffled and twisted
The known
To make it
Seem new.

Forbidden fruit
Withers.

Her moods, unpredictable.
My hunger, insatiable —
Our love built
On foundations, unstable.

Absence
Breeds
Apathy.

Respect is
Making the effort
To understand
Another's anger.
I learned
All about yours
But doubt
You'll ever
Take the time
To know mine.

Her happiness,
Even fragile and tainted —
Rainbows set against
Black skies —
Could set my soul alight.