Contraction

verb

gerund or present participle: grieving

is layered, is growth, is setting

aside expectations and hope and

striving for an acceptance that's

bitter, like lemons? like acid batteries?

no, I think it tastes like betrayal and

sounds like assumptions from false

prophets, the ones who are more

trickster than they are kind, more

warrior than they are healer. We

grieve loss, but what if there was

nothing left to lose? Then what,

where will we turn but into ourselves,

and what shallow graves lie there

for us to sleep in when all this time

we were more fearful of our growth

than we were invested in our liberation, 

where will we turn to in our urgency

and what does swiftness obscure

from our vision when all this time

we were more fearful of our growth 

than we're invested in our liberation.  

You're Ok?

it’s like this...

I catch myself confirming
this is not a fever dream
I don’t want to wake from. 
sweat is not pleasure or pain, 
it’s reaction, it’s response.
it’s my cue to listen, follow, 
heat with intention, focus. 

I spend this life seeking
out warmth, like the coffee in 
your eyes, like the fire in
your hands, like the sunshine
my sunflower heart yearns for.

I walk this existence seeking
out hope, like “I believe that
we will win,” like accountability
we will center, like healing
the spiritual wounds of this place.

I search this world for velvet,

finding instead so many coarse 

edges of sandpaper that just, 

it's just hard to be soft in a

world of sharp edges and

your radical love, you're radical

love is a salve I thought I

might never find in this form.

... it’s like this.

Difficult Decisions

choosing softness is...

difficult
exhausting
isolation

... radical.

it's breathing when he
tells you to be calm

it's sitting with and exploring
your rage when he says
you're taking it too far

it's loving your body even
when you feel his eyes
linger, his mouth salivate
over every inch of your

it's navigating violence
in every space, in every
actor no matter how
"other" or familiar

it's patience when he tells
you to opt out, as if you
ever had the choice.

it's resilience in exploration,
it's curiosity taking root

it's conversations for months
about consent and boundaries

it's the prayer that accountability
is a pass forward, that the sharp
edges of the world were man
made and can be humanly abolished.


choosing softness demands...


creativity
investment
hope


... radical love.

Disrupting Capitalism's Urgency

find you the ones

who love radically, 
who love others radically,
who love themselves radically 

it's messy and emotive and inspiring

and healing and small breaths in a
world gasping for air being stolen,
bottled, and sold back to us.

Where is Safety

when I'm on the ground there's
so much anger
simmering beneath
my surface
rooted in ugly
wounds,
I'm desperately
trying to apply salves,
while sinking into quicksand.