vignette

every cloud has a silver lining
and all silver will one day tarnish
as copper loses its will to oxidation - its shiny surface turning green and dusted.
and it brings me back to the third grade. mrs melbourn was my favorite teacher, ali gibbons was my best friend, and i had a crush on robbie - the aspiring actor who sat one row down two seats ahead of me. we had a visitor in class, we watched a movie with little animated dinosaurs and giant molars, we received free toothbrushes and bubblegum flavored floss, and alex curtis was the lucky kid who got permission from the teacher to not brush his teeth and chew the pink tablet and grin for us all to see. i still remember the dirty pink that clung to his teeth, a reminder that some kinds of dirt are invisible.
and i think of how just yesterday we sat together and laughed.
and we were so in love, we didn't even realize it was raining.

paper hearts

do you remember when we were young
we sat on my living room floor cutting out delicate hearts of paper
you couldn't stop, you said, until you made the perfect one
the lopsided, the glue stained, the misshapen all fell
a wispy cloud of pink at our feet

you lay the final product of years of hard work into
my small cupped hands - trembling
oh it was perfect
lovingly shaped, patiently crafted
faintly worn in all the right places

i'll treasure it forever
alongside the others
they were all perfect to me

what the wizard told me

the human heart
love, it's greatest ability
it's enemy? the world

hasn't anyone ever told you
death isn't the only thief?

life:
robs us of feeling.
steals away warmth.
are we to remain heartless?

yet life is too fragile to not love with all your might
that's what the wizard told me as morning faded into night


now i know i've got a heart
cuz it's breaking