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
