I admit I’m an addict My drug of habit Is sadness Melancholy outlook Dark theme sketchbooks Slow ballad hooks Heavy blankets on thin sheets Headphones and lo-fi beats And cold feet It’s all familiar to me As brokenness fills the seams I smile as the void greets me “Have you relapsed? Are you ok?”And I … Continue reading Patient Explanations #7

Love is cereal at midnight in bed watching a movieLove is talking honestly sitting on the kitchen counter and laughing through tears Love is deciding what to eat by flipping a coin and still not picking Love is arguing until you kiss and forgiving once more Because it doesn’t matter Love is having nightmares about … Continue reading A random poem for my wife

It’s raining. I know what that means I’ll relive everything that happened to me I’ll be sad Life will replay in nightmares and dreams Depression will sink in and cripple me Wrapped in a blanket I escape to sleep And dream of being free The sun will rise even as I weep It’s okay to … Continue reading I suppose

Concentration camps Labor campsInternment camps Re-education campsGulag Prison campResidential school They always have a new more palatable name But the horrors are always the same Innocence buried in unmarked graves Missing and Murdered in erasures name Indigenous genocide as settlers laid claim Manifest Destiny becomes National shame 215 and millions more were slain As lane … Continue reading 215

Love whomever you like Like whomever you love You love like whomever Whomever loves like you Whomever like, loves you You like, love whomever Love you like whomever You and whomever love like forever Love whomever you like

The apocalypse came as a rash and blister Nations mourned elders, brothers, and sisters And yet we remained The hostiles came next taking everything War until treaty or learned the whips sting And yet we remained Deception was the next tool of torment Broken treaties, unceded land, disarmament And yet we remained Concentration camps and … Continue reading Remnant

My mind breaks often Piecing it back I ask you Am I lovable I just want to be A friend, companion, or lover Not lonely again Not seen as broken Seen as whole and imperfect You know, a human

Last week there was a word shortage People rightfully rushed to buy a thesaurus Stashing pen, paper, and printer ink cartridges Publishers issuing apologies for the stoppages I placed my pen to the page on Monday And the ink blotted and ran astray I tried recording my voice out loud Playback revealed a white noise … Continue reading Shortage

I just want to matter To belong Someone to call my name And not a mental illness Not my stereotyped insanity But to see clearly, my humanity

Red hand printsWeeping sons and stolen sisters Vanished like spoken whispers Trafficked to unknown And red hand prints Police reports filed under apathy Old photographs loving memory Lost souls in bereavement And red hand prints New reports devoid of revelation Police systems avoided reformation Congress legislates in apathy And red hand prints Children without mothers … Continue reading MMIW