On the day you were born 
There were a million riots in heaven 
Angels stood in front of Gods house 
Holding picket signs with your picture on it
They were yelling…
No human should be allowed to be that beautiful

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

I wont tell you that your beautiful 
I’m sure you’ve heard that a million times 
But I will say this 
Your smile is a house that I would like to visit more often 
And your hugs feel like the home that I’ve been searching for my entire life 

When she scraps the magazine covers off of her skin

When she plucks the dandelions from her veins

When she releases the pennies from the subway tunnels underneath her eyelids

And cries like a broken wishing well 

She will stitch her pain to wind

And wait for u to breath

She will rip a question out of the soil in her throat

And ask whether or not u think she is still beautiful

And when that moment kamikazes onto your doorstep

Unfold it like a letter from somebody you don’t recall giving your address to

Pour yourself a glass silence

Look her in her eyes as if you were having a starring contest

With the best parts of a life that you’ve yet to experience

And say….

Yes

When she says that u are like every other man

That she’s every met

The jellyfish swimming in her words

Will still-frame the 7-pound muscle inside of ur chest

Your pride will start walking with a limp

Your heart will need crutches   

And her name will gyrate in ur stomach 24 hours before a storm hits ur city

The insult will play ur internal organs…..like an organ

When she looks at the clearance rack of items in her life  

And tries to put u on a hanger next to men with inferior fabric

And amateur stitching

She is clearly forgetting

The mountains that you have placed in wheel-barrels

Simply because she asked you to move them  

Remind her that ur collar still tastes like salt

From all the oceans that she has cried into ur shoulder

Show her the bags underneath ur eyes from all the nights you’ve spent listening to her talk about her crippled relationships

Make her look at ur hands

Let her see the residue of the super glue that u used the day her self esteem turned into a model airplane with no instructions

…..And then walk away

1

Buy her flowers

It may be the first time she’s ever had them

2

Call her by her name

Sometimes we forget who they are

And need to be reminded

3

Don’t tell her that your different

That’s what every man says

4

Show her how different you actually are

5

Tell her that she’s beautiful

6

Tell her that she’s beautiful

7

Tell her that she’s beautiful

8

Tell her that she is beautiful

9

Woman often forget how beautiful they actually are

10

Make sure that her hand is the fist part of her body that u every touch

11

When she comes to u with a problem

Don’t try to solve it

Sometimes listening is the only answer she actually needs  

12

When something breaks

It often has jagged edges that will cut u if not handled properly

Women are not much different

13

Find out what her favorite song is

And give her a reason to fall in love with it all over again

14

 Show her that u love her

15

Tell her that u love her

16

Mean it

 imagine that your husband is nothing like me

I bet he likes mornings

Probably drinks coffee

Works a 9 to 5

And has really good credit

I imagine that he’s a book

Full of pages that are dying to be turned

A confession chamber with a voice box

A walking newspaper with a headline that reads “Yea, she’s with me”

I bet he tells you all of his secrets

Kisses you in public

And holds you like the steering wheel of a new car

Right before your turn the key for the first time

I bet you never have to worry about where he’s going

Or where he’s been

I bet you love him for all the reasons why our relationship failed 

This body is not a bomb shelter

It’s more like a straw house waiting for a gust of wind or a big bad wolf

Anything strong enough to blow it into pieces

I’ve spent the my entire life trying to be myself

And I’ve come to the conclusion that I have no idea who that actually is

Every day I try to fit my anorexic ego into the costume of a confident man but these fake smiles irritate my skin 

 I’ve got a conscience with a speech impediment

A heart stutters like a Volkswagen with a bad transmission

And a reflection that won’t allow himself to look me in the face because he’s too ashamed of all the things he will never be

I’m a rose bush in the winter

A garden full of hasty decisions

There are bags underneath my eyes full of apologies that I haven’t found the courage to give

I’ve confused women for parking spaces

Treated sex like a fire escape

Forgetting that eventually I have to go home

I’m more comfortable on a stage than I am in my own bed

I’m more comfortable in airports than I am in my own room

Most days, I wish I was invisible 

Other days I’m scared of disappearing 

“Envy” is when you see someone who walks around with a pocket full of “that should’ve been me””

“Hate” is what happens when you put a shotgun to the face of understanding and it cowers in the corner

“Truth” is everything you tell yourself when you realize that no one is looking

“Courage” is ripping your heart from your chest and saying “here…hold on to this for me”

“Trust” is when u jump into someone’s arms knowing they would never let you hit the ground

And “Love” is a tablespoon full of hemlock that I’ve been dying to try

I believe that “Faith” is doing what you love for a living and watching the bills pay themselves

“Memorable” is vodka and ginger ale at 7 am

With 2 of your best friends on a plane to a city that you’ve never been to

“Failure” is when you talk yourself out of doing something great

And “Victory” is standing over the school bully after he stole your favorite pencil

I’ve come to the conclusion that “Content” is when you look in the mirror shrug and say “I guess things could be worse”

“Happiness” is a girl that I’ve been chasing since I figured out how to run 

 And “Success” is the red gumball inside of a machine that I’ve been putting quarters in for years  

When I was 14

My friend Adam stole a dictionary from his English class

He brought it home and we set it on fire 

I later realized he was a Pyromaniac 

But since then

I’ve been defining things for myself 

Stars never actually leave

It’s just that our eyes can only recognize them when its dark

We  notice them when God lets the night of its cage

Unleashes the moon

And unplugs the day

I suppose that makes you a constellation

We should call you sky

Because you are consistently raising our sons by yourself

I’m sorry that many of our men

Have grown comfortable with choosing freedom over family

But thank you for being a tablespoon of beautiful in a bowl full of ugly   

Your are a mustard seed

A nickel in a wishing well

A coconut tree in the middle of a desert 

And your existence is a music note

That our society is still learning how to dance to