Did I mention I'm a poet? I'm a poet
Please enjoy these three poems from Taking the Long Road Out of Hell! If you like these, the book is available over on my Ko-fi and you can pay (or not pay!) whatever seems reasonable to your wallet. And don't give me that crap about "but I want to PAY for it but I don't have the money~~!"
Pick up the book now, silly, and pay me back if you can. The Ko-fi can accept your payment when you have it or not and I don't care which it is. I don't write for the money, even if I probably should. I write because I never did figure out how to stop, mainly because I don't want to figure that one out.
The Stump
My brother sat me on the stump
He told me of the tree
"They cut it down years ago!
The stump's older than me!"
He told me that they cut it down
For fear of future flame
They found a mess inside the bark
And termites were to blame
When I was big I climbed the stump
I thought about my place
It's hard enough to be a boy
When 'girl' is on your face
I wished that I could be a tree
And grow so tall and wide
That they could never cut me down
And find the mess inside
When I was grown and older, though
I walked within the wood
There had been a fire, see
And the stump no longer stood
The trees that grew around the stump
Still stand and grow, if marked
Different now than how they were
Before the fire sparked
I think about the trees sometimes
That stand despite the flame
I too, see, have since been burned
And stand, if not the same
I wish some days that I could go
To walk within the wood
And see if there is now a tree
Where once the old stump stood
Light Shone Through A Glass
There were ghosts inside my closet
When I was four years old
And the house I was born into
Was haunted, so I'm told
If I have seen some things
They tell me can't have been
Well, I was raised to think
That lying was a sin
So believe me when I tell you
There is something there beyond
There's a place that we are going
Then our time is up and gone
I ask you not to ask me
What I think is in that place
For I have only guesses
And I'll tell you to your face
Each person leaves an imprint
Like a light shone through a glass
Every person leaves a shadow
For the mourning when we pass
If only in their memories
On the fringes of each heart
When there is joy in meeting
There is sorrow when we part
The point that I am making
Is a point I cannot reach
It's a place only the dead know
But the living try to teach
The living teach a punishment
A paradise, or naught
But I will kindly ask you
Not to listen to that rot
What lies beyond the veil
Is a story I can't tell
But I can promise you
It's not a heaven or a hell
If you are near to dying
Please go and do not fear
Whatever lies beyond us
Is just a different place than here
It is not for us to fear, see
But a place for us to find
I will find it someday, too
And leave this world behind
Hope That Burns
Past the beating heart of winter
Past the noise and past the light
I listen past the silence
On this endless, sleepless night
I remember praying once
For hope and peace and joy
For a new, kinder beginning
For every girl, enby, and boy
And I wonder in the darkness
That finds me on this morn
If that prayer was ever answered
Or if we are lost and now forlorn
Where is the god of judgment?
Where is a god that’s kind?
Are there only gods of chaos
For this dying world to find?
Does anyone remember
The world that came before?
Why would we go back there?
Let us ask for better, more!
Past the silence that befalls us
When we wait in pain and fear
There's a thrum of strength within us
If we listen, if we hear
Are you still waiting, silent?
Do you accept your fate?
Are you fallen? Are you standing?
Walk away from Death’s dark gate!
There is life here all around you!
There is hope that burns within!
Stop waiting and start fighting!
Joy and kindness are not sins!
I remember praying once
For hope and peace and joy
For a new, kinder beginning
For every girl, enby, and boy
I stopped praying, started fighting
There's no god we don't create
If you wait for a god to save you
You wait only at Death’s gate
