My Mind

My mind, it knows no boundaries as it rests and dreams of you. 
It’s not just in the late night hours that my mind finds its way back to you. 
It wakes up in the early morning hours, too, reaching out for you. 
It travels throughout the day, searching for your sweet smell. 
It often wanders to places deep within itself. 
Thinking of your smile, your hair, your lips, the creases in your skin. 
My mind, it wonders, does your mind think of it?

The Walls.

The following is a poem I wrote at a time when the grief of losing my father was almost unbearable. I was away at college and often received phone calls from my oldest sister about things that were going on at home. Though I’m the 2nd youngest of 10, I was relied on as if I were the oldest, or had all the answers, even at 19 years old. I witnessed my family grow further and further apart. My relationship with my mom was pretty much nonexistent and getting all my siblings together was a headache. We were all grieving separately and in our own ways. I had emailed and shared this with my entire family, including aunts, uncles and cousins who lived out of state. My hope of sharing it at the time with everyone was to get them to wake up and see we are not heading in the right direction. It didn’t happen right away but we eventually found our way back to each other. I have no idea if this poem impacted that at all. 

“The Walls”
2 years, 8 months, 24 days, 29 minutes
“Tick Tock,” goes the clock.
They walls don’t move,
But yet, they rock.
How do we stop it?
How did it start?
A family together, falling apart.
Now it’s clear.
We sit in fear.
I try to move forward.
Once strong, now a coward.
The clock keeps moving.
But we sit still.
They say free time is time to kill.
But what is free about death?
No time is free, no time will rest.
You either move with it, or get lost in it.
But no matter, you cannot forget it.
Piece by piece, tick by tick
The walls crumble brick by brick.
We need some spackle, or some clay,
Or maybe just one more day.
It hides within us, waiting to emerge.
Dig deep, find the urge.
Step up, speak out!
Come now! Relieve this doubt.
Stand together more now than ever.
Not one by one, but side by side.
Before the ceiling and floor collide.