Supercut
Today I break my own heart
Before I let you do it for me
And I realize I’m not really so broken after all
We are always greater than the sum of our parts
A supercut of the good things
But life is long and deep and I need more than just a mug of change for rainy days
My plants grow tall in the sunlight with or without you.
So shall I.
Happiness
My mother says, “you sound happier on the phone than I’ve heard you in a long time,”
So I start to write a poem about joy,
But I falter,
Because happiness is best served in small words and in sunny days,
In coming home dirty and going to sleep content,
In cups of tea, in chocolate covered almonds,
In plans for the future and in the plants that line my windowsill, always stretching toward the light –
Today I am better than okay, and that is all right.
Sunshine
Life never stands quite still,
Yet change never comes in a day, an hour, a minute.
Change runs like the tide,
Rivers through rock, always winding,
Finding their way back home.
There is a power in moving slowly, in taking the time to carve canyons from the mountains,
The choice to continue to move with the motion instead of hold fast against.
One sunny day in April will not change the mountains I climb or the miles I have to go.
I can only choose to hold good days in my heart and string them together,
Let life be good when it is not perfect,
Expect from myself what I expect from my plants on my windowsill –
Sunshine, water, time, to grow.
War Paint
I am afraid of crying
It could ruin my makeup and that is my war paint
My armor against the world
Today I am hungry on the L train
I have cried and hurt and been human this evening
My lipstick is smeared and my mascara must be lopsided
I am sure my eyeliner is approaching that place we call raccoon
But I will carry myself with honor
I will go home and I will water my plants because they never care if I am beautiful or vulnerable or strong
They only ask me to be kind to them once a week and give them a drink so they will grow
I am afraid of crying because it might tarnish my armor
Someday I will learn to stand tall in my own skin.
poem-a-day challenger 