there's a moment

there's a moment where i feel like i'm in a movie because you could not be anything but a star and we are spinning and everything else blurs

your forehead is against mine and my feet hurt in the very best way and it's hard to stop smiling when all i see is you 

courtyards become palaces and i'd show you the courtesy and curtsy to be your queen there's a moment and it's like infinity 

April

gave me life 

light after 

dark times

beautiful 

though stormy too

still dependable 

and true

trying to write about a feeling

you're hearing the song with your ears but feeling it in your chest
you're sliding between clean sheets

your cheeks hurt from smiling
your stomach is sore from laughing

you're waking up to the smell cinnamon rolls baking
you're finishing your new favorite book, and staring at the ceiling until your mind stops reeling

your tongue is tickled with cotton candy
your throat feels rough from singing at the top of your lungs, and from the bottom of them too

you're racing down the sidewalk; you won't be the rotten egg today
you're winning the class game of Jeopardy; take that other side of the room

your fingers are sticky from melting pop-sickles
your freckles are starting to show in the sun

you're trying to write about about a feeling
you're remembering why you're alive

earth day

when you were little you wrapped a blanket around your shoulders
and called it your super hero cape

your home planet has one too
atmospheric conditions perfectly created
to unconditionally allow the conditions for your life

but with the release of
chlorofluorocarbons
chemical reactions leave ozone depleted
uv radiation streams through a chink in the armor
you have torn your cape

just this morning you put your bread in the toaster oven
marveled at the perfect temperature

your home planet has one too
a greenhouse effect that effectively
keeps you out of the cold

but with the release of
vehicle exhaust
gasses absorb more heat then expected
long frozen icecaps begin to melt
you have burnt your toast

when you grow up you'll have a junk drawer
where you'll dump your unwanted stuff

your home planet has one too
natural cycles decomposing leftovers
to create nutrients for more life

but with the altering of
systems
lands fill with landfills and
fallen trees let erosion run wild
your drawer is breaking at its hinges

when you wake up tomorrow
the holiday will be over

your home planet will feel it too
you'll recycle, maybe
reuse an old watering can

but with habits unchanged
ignored
a planet suffocates and
we go with it
until tomorrow never comes

household axioms

I always put on my parking break,
but sometimes forget to lock the door.
My sister talks in her sleep,
and sometimes even snores.
My mother drinks coffee in the mornings.
My father prefers water or tea.
These facts of existence
Make up collective personality.

pluto kids

pluto was once a planet
until the scientific community changed it's mind

pluto continued to rotate, unphased
still a chunk of rock and ice

but a generation who knew
My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas
felt personally affronted

a generation told they could be anything
until they couldn't
felt the pain of their own growth being stunted

gifted and talented to sad sleepless scholar
just reclassification
we travel on like pluto
tired but
unshaken

to my sister, the eleven year old

little bean you are
sprouting up
you are bright and stubborn and
one hundred percent spunk

you are kind but not always careful
sometimes you make me scream
you are beautiful; there are galaxies inside of you
more than you will dream

there are often grumpy mornings
snapping at you about dirty laundry
sometimes i'll rat you out to mom
and be sorry-not-sorry

little bean you are eleven
which even sugar-coated, is tough
but you handle it with more grace than i ever did
and you will always be enough