Steel

Piece by piece, I put my armor back on 

It's taken years to design and manufacture.
Composed of the finest materials, 
designed to protect all of my most
vulnerable parts, the parts of myself
that rest easier in the shadows. 

For a moment I took it all off
To breathe and to feel and to laugh
I ran and jumped off of a cliff.
A leap of faith, and for a moment I flew.  
The wind granted my wings strength
and the sun warmed my feathers. 

Then slowly but surely the wind left me, 
and the sun set beyond the horizon. 
I found myself once again spiraling
down toward the ground, where my feet
should have remained firmly planted.

Piece by piece I outfit myself in steel. 
Untouchable, indestructible, and safe. 

Breathe

I run towards the roar of the ocean, 

Without fear and into the unknown.
The shells slice my feet while
The cool waves bring me to release. 

I throw my head back at the moon.
A creature of the night, I might be 
the threat you were warned about. 
Or I could be the ghost in your dreams. 

I fly with the grace of the wind,
under my wings it lifts me higher
into ecstasy, around pain, and
through the ashes and dust. 

I dance to a thunderous drumbeat, 
I am a daughter of storms,
sometimes tears leading to clarity
and sparks leading to rejuvenation.

I am wild and free and alive. 

Let's Talk

                    I know you.

Not like the back of my hand, more like the front. 
The part exposed to the world that can still tell tales and lies if you question it.
Like the souls in my feet, the ones that whisper no matter how much you want to you can't float away. 
Like the smile on my face, usually authentic but sometimes plastered there and left up to interpretation because image is everything right?

                                        I have no idea who you are. 

You're summers of joy and leaps of faith and persistence, you're heartbreak and "darling I love you,"
But you're a stranger, another shadow in the dark unaccounted for and vaguely real. 
You're great risk, great reward in a frigid wind tunnel whose gaze may already be cast in some other direction.

                                                            But I would like to get to know you.  

The Apple

I left the City of Angels to escape Lucifer, 

he was too beautiful to be true

and even his wings couldn't soften his fall.

I ran from the City of Angels for a piece of fruit,

without knowing if it would be forbidden

or if it would be my saving grace. 

The fruit turned out to be sweet,

it led me to an orchard where

the angels outnumbered the snakes. 

And in this orchard I found my beat again,

the thump, thump ... thump, thump

that I dance to in the storm.

I ran toward the Big Apple, feet blistering,

3,000 miles away from my angels

unsure if our wings could span the distance. 

I came to the Big Apple scarred and scared, 

wondering who else would be cast

from the rolling hills of Westwood.

So I took a bite, juice staining my lips

And I learned to fly across the heavens again.