Water.

[a work in progress]

If my heart was the earth,
you'd be the water.

You'd not only be the vastness of the oceans,
but you'd also be the trickling brooks in the center of the forest,
the morning dew on the grass,
the source of longevity for the flowers in the vase on the mantle,
the base of everything we drink,
the sixty plus percent of our humanness,
what hydrates us,
cleanses us,
keeps us alive,
but can just as easily kill us.

I will dive into you and get lost,
swept up in the undertow,
caught in the tears swept gently off of the
cheek of a broken soul,
precipitation and natural disasters,
floods and hurricanes,
running through the sprinkler
or jumping into a pool with all of our clothes on.

Water, it is impossible to survive without you,
for I become parched and weak
when you are gone.
Drown me
or revive me,
just know that your existence is
what keeps this lonely planet alive.

Breathtakingly Beautiful.

I can't be sure what inspired it,
if it was years of being teased by the kids at school,
or coming from an nontraditional family,
or having all of America's 'sexiest' women
be pale skinned, stick thin, model types,
but she told me last night that
she is afraid to talk to men, because
she is scared that they will not think she is
beautiful enough.

Her face, pain stricken brilliance
pointed in my direction,
eyes burning through mine as
she gently stated the nightmare that she lives in,
terrified of reaching out because of what
she believes she is lacking.
And somehow her brown skin
curved over cushioned bones,
thickness over winding hips,
muscular thighs that still sway when she walks,
don't all translate to beautiful.

Lovely, don't you know that it doesn't take
blonde hair and blue eyes,
pale skin and visible ribs and hipbones,
or a perfectly placed beauty mark
to make you gorgeous?
There is love in those big brown eyes,
strength in your intellect
and passion seeping from your pores,
and if anyone ever tells you that
you aren't beautiful enough,
then they obviously have yet to learn
what beautiful really means.