For Me

I can always talk to me. 

I’m always there, let me never forget that. 

Or at least when I do, 

may it lead my way back. 

& if there is any solace in such an immutable truth, 

May the world do its worst. 

Let my survival serve as proof. 

— C.G. 

NOT ONE OF THE SAME 

ARE YOU AND I 

NOT ONE OF THE SAME 

SHACKLE CHAINS 

EXCLUDED FROM THE WORLD 

WHERE HOPES AND DREAMS 

START TO FADE 

A LITTLE BOY 

COULDN’T VISION HIS LIFE THIS WAY 

“TURNING” 

THE STEERING WHEEL 

ON A ROCKY ROAD 

FLASHING HIGH BEAMS 

LOOKING THROUGH SQUINTED EYES 

SEARCHING FOR LOST GOALS 

AND THE LANGUAGE THAT 

WE TEACH EACH OTHER 

WE DON’T KNOW ROSETTA 

CAUSE WE THROWING STONES 

YEAH THAT’S A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 

NO FATHER IN A BROKEN HOME 

SO HE STARTED BANGING 

CAN SMOKE FILL THE AIR 

DOO DOO DOOO DOOO 

HE YELLS 

WHAT SET YOU CLAIMING 

ARE YOU AND I 

NOT ONE OF THE SAME 

SHACKLE CHAINS 

EXCLUDED FROM THE WORLD 

SITTING DOWN 

HIS MIND START TO SHIFT 

THINKING BOUT HIS BABY GIRL 

A DADDY’S TOUCH 

AND THE MONEY I BEEN GIVING UP 

SHE TELLS ME SOFTLY 

DADDY I GIVE THAT UP 

FOR AN EVERYDAY DADDY’S TOUCH 

MY EMOTIONS START TO RUSH 

PAIN DRIPS FROM MY EYELIDS 

A SMALL HAND BRUSHES THEM AWAY 

SHE LOOKS ME IN THE EYE 

AND SAY DADDY DON’T CRY 

IT’S GONNA BE OKAY 

DON’T STOP BELIEVING 

DON’T STOP ACHIEVING 

I WANT YOU TO SHOW THE WORLD 

YOU’RE NOT THAT PERSON 

YOU WAS THAT DAY 

I LOVE YOU!! 

ARE YOU AND I 

NOT ONE OF THE SAME 

SHACKLE CHAINS 

EXCLUDED FROM THE WORLD 

WHERE HOPES AND DREAMS 

START TO FADE! 

— Dominick Reed 

Shaking memories that hang on the walls 

Big ones and small ones I can’t let them fall 

I’m running and running, the list is so tall 

My world is crumbling please Lord hear my call 

You are swept by what not matters, 

You are taken by empty words that flatter, 

You are tossed like the waves and shatter, 

You are not rooted in solid matter 

Lord, what should I do? 

I gave you an unshakable home, 

I crowned you with jewels and made you a throne, 

I gave you the heavens and all that I own, 

But you left the sanctuary to live all alone 

Lord, please receive me 

The kingdom is at hand my child, walk with me 

— Abel Linares 

How Are You Doing? 

The days are short 

But the weeks are shorter 

And the years are long 

When you realize you have nothing left 

The minutes are seconds and 

The hours are minutes 

When you have something to get done

There’s never enough time 

When there’s too much time 

Too much space 

You fill with all the time 

You’ll never have enough of 

And when the clock runs out 

You leave so many things unfinished 

Because you had too much time 

You used all your time 

Where’s all your time now 

— Ada Adler 

The worst prison is 

Not any man-made jail cell 

But life without love 

— Riley Orak 

Unmasked

Would you still love me if I didn’t curate my experience?

If my thoughts challenged and even offended your sensibilities?

Would you love me if I showed you the real me?

If I told you things that you couldn’t un-know?

Would you love me if I didn’t love myself?

If every move I made was a reaction?

Would you love me if I loved you? 

Even if only in the way I knew how?

Would you love me if I didn’t…

Would you love me if I didn’t know who I was?

If my actions didn’t always line up with my words?

Would you love me if I knew who you really were? 

If I didn’t believe the façade that you presented?

Would you love me if I wasn’t here?

Would you love me if I wasn’t there?

If I acted like I didn’t care?

— C.G.

A Kiss with Chaos

Tangible but untouchable,

Unspoken narratives fueling my imagination,

Like rain drops with no sound,

The happiest form of pain.

If I’m mistaken then I’d be the fool again,

But it’s never the second guess is it?

The daffodils watch the clock tick,

. . . .

And all I smell is cherry almond.

— Cooke

Today I am with you— 

I am yours in a sound, I am yours in silence 

In the tosses of your losses, big and small alike 

In the crashing and the thrashing and the fabric 

again and again I go, I go where you go. 

In the unweaving, unwinding, unraveling — 

I am yours in the south, I am yours in the north 

In the river within and the desert without 

In the morning and the eve just the same 

so too in time and the hours between. 

In the aching, in the endless, in the fervor recurrent — 

I am yours in this divide and the next 

In the withering of the withered ensuing 

In the beating and the breaking and the howling forever 

Over and over I am, I am where you are. 

— Shane Chamberlain 

They say to do the time, don’t let the time do you 

But it gets hard to stay divine when it keeps a part of you 

No fences or steel doors but it’s pretend you feel free 

I question how high to build since they’ll take it all from me 

A barrel full of flames speaks the truth so desperately 

Still I envy for high rises since to god I rarely speak 

My ambitions convert to band-aids for the reasons my mother weeps 

A black sheep with the wolves is where I majored for my degree 

Nostalgic about my innocence my demons use as chew toys 

Cold sweats I shake awake to them cap guns play a new noise 

A slow leak that soul whispered got me ’noided bout them blue boys 

Should’ve took my own advice I gave my brother ’bout these koo boys 

Still give you my last bit of Henny as we split another ’port 

Contemplating by any means to fiddle fiddle with consorts 

I guess that’s life and how it’s orchestrated still treat it like a sport 

It get hard to shake the bag when she check it like escorts 

— Keith Williams

Gone, not forgotten 

Broken, not unfixable 

Hated, not unloved 

— Riley Orak