Love is

Love is watching from afar
letting him struggle
because he has to learn himself

Love is taking the 3 a.m.
call because his
anxiety is spinning out and

dark thoughts are creeping in
Love is always
knowing that you'll pick up

the phone and never expecting
a thank you
because it will never come

And being OK with that

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 21: love or anti-love

operating system

is it just a quirk
in the system
that those who are dying

on the frontlines of injustice
across our country
are mostly black and brown?

or is it built into
the system to 
oppress those with skin tones

darker than the colonizers who
stole this land?
I'll say: it's no quirk.




--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 22: quirk

My nature

The forest calls
beckons me to 
stand beneath the

canopy, drink in 
the evergreen expanse 
feet planted like

roots, one with
nature because i 
am nature, i 

am the primal
predator buried in
my DNA, my

home is here 
among the redwoods 
and ferns, fresh 

air, fresh water,
fresh thoughts, fresh
mind, free, free

free, free, free



--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 18: message

circulation

we're all just breath
breathing each-other

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 19: 6 words

Zookeepers

There is nothing exotic 
about caging tigers or people

poverty is a zoo 
and the keepers long ago

threw away the keys
allowed the wealthy to watch

the destruction of the 
poor, parentless, miners, minions, slaves

calling the infighting feral, 
innate in the incarcerated as 

a class (a species 
inhuman and different from themselves 

completely), and not due 
to their unnatural imprisonment 




--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 17: exotic

Chasing waterfalls

The last time I felt 
certain about something 
was when I left the city

and felt the freedom of
the open road
pulling me into lush forests

to chase waterfalls and follow
creeks that knew
far more about where they

were going than I did 
had seen more
life than I ever would


--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 16: the last (blank)

Carry on

He still visits me
in my dreams
loves me as if he

hadn't traversed an
ocean and
decided to leave

our baggage behind



--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 15: dream

Unbounded

I don't like checking boxes
(I'm an "other")
or drawing inside the lines
(let me free!)

I don't like tucked sheets
(it's too constricting)
and "don't do ___ signs"
(now I want to)

But the older I get
(please don't ask)
the more I crave ritual
(but not routine)

Turns out, I like structure
(predictability not monotony)
and prompts and poetic forms
(forced, focused creativity)

Until I don't.

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 14: form/anti-form

Bottled spirits

They say he
had his demons
I saw them
on his face

anguished, angry, ashamed
they feasted on
the memories he
could not share

there could be
no exorcism for
the pains he
would not speak

only the spirits
he drank released
them temporarily until
they became our demons too

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 12: spirit

World pieces

There might be dark forces
currently at play
but there is also light

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 5: purpose

Pool party

the sex was a lure
sure, it grew into love
but it never should have

we watered that love
with kisses and long distances
that became a pool of longing

a refreshing drink
for parched hearts

a place to splash and play
but rarely linger

we fed the pool
with tears when we parted
and missed the cool

escape we had created
looking for oases
in others instead

never inside ourselves
never where it could actually be found


--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 6: trap

Space walls

We've had the 
luxury of space
for so long 
that it seems 
a right and
not a privilege.

We've had the 
burden of space 
so long that 
we believed it
was alright to 
ignore each other

We've believed that
proximity was a 
burden and not 
an opportunity to 
remember that connectedness 
is actually our 
most natural state.


--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 7: lucky or unlucky

Speed demons

The woman who drove saw
only hazy blurs.
Shapes, not faces.
Cars, not people.

The woman who ran saw
what she wanted.
Signs, not stores.
Next, not now.

The woman who walked saw
everything she passed.
Smiles, not bodies.
Gatherings, not crowds.

The woman who sat saw
all there was.
Service, not shops.
Love, not people.

--
April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 10: the blank who blank

About face

Sometimes I think he's hiding
from the world.
But I think he thinks

he is protecting the world
and people around
him by hiding himself instead.

--

April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 9: ekphrastic

Earth Mark 2

what if the future has
already happened, that
time isn't linear but looped

what if the apocalypse already
happened ... multiple times ...
and our fear is memory

of the past not anxiety
about the future
for we have already lived

that what if. we survived ...
or didn't ... but
keep hitting reset until we

get it right, until we
remember to remember
that we are the reset


April PAD - Poetic Asides Day 8: future