It is so difficult not to be sad

with the compassion for all my neighbors

loving my enemies while helplessly feeling

that my mere mortal words

have no ability but to brighten a sliver of a moment

 

Nowadays it seems that there is a struggle

in every sensation and crevice of existence

and as we are trying so hard to climb towards light

it often feels as if we are really

clawing out of quicksand, drowning in dry catastrophe

that suffocates the love from the lungs

 

I stare into people’s eyes

whenever I can because I hope they will hear

my plea for them to smile and understand

that they are human

the most beautiful of all;

I want people to know that the sadness

is normal, is a part of normalcy

is not all-defining, even when it becomes the

most wonderfully awful emotion of misunderstood loneliness

 

For me, though, it is worth it,

taking upon myself the sadness for your anguish

Washing myself clean of sorrow is easy

when I know you are clean of it as well

 

 

 

af

 

 

 

 

(written with pen on paper)