27

Present tense. We love. Future tense. We will love. Past tense. They're strung with the force of expectation or the weight of disappointment; each ready to snap forward with progress or to fall heavily with our hopes.

The past is layered heavily. Perfect. We loved. Pluperfect. We had loved. Future perfect. We will have loved. Perfect was never meant for now, only in faraway dreams and long gone realities. 

There's a little if, if we had done this or that. If we met a condition or were finished and it's something past. We had loved, and now it's lost. We will have loved, if we had done it right.

Imperfect. We were loving. Incomplete, interrupted, infinite. Possibilities still exist for the unfinished and the unsure. Potential exists for better or for worse.

I'll laugh at those who want perfect love, because it's been completed, gone. I'll take the imperfect, the continuous quest towards perfect, which anyone wise knows is never done.

26

I've been away for a bit and I may be for a few days more. I've got a lot to think about and more words and worlds to explore. 

You'd be proud of me I think, but that doesn't matter. I'm not doing any of this for you. If the days turn into weeks, and you don't speak to me, I'll understand. I was never one for plans. 

I'm just running on the winds and riding on the waves. I've got places to love and people to see before I do anything. I'd take your hand and maybe your heart, if you wanted to come with me.

If not, that's fine, you'll stay grounded here. Rooted strongly, deeply, so I could maybe find you. If I don't, that's fine too. There wouldn't be much to say to you. This world would still be yours, and the world of dreams would still be mine; so long as the winds never die.

25

Don't fear the thunder off in the distance or the sounds in the night time grass. Forget the howling winds that race through the night and lap and tap the glass. 

Remember only the star kissed sky and the shy moon with unwavering eyes. Be brave, little one, there's nothing but magic when the dark draws near.

24

I'm sorry I've been too busy to write, or mostly to just write well. 

I've been out finding new reasons to love the world. The more reasons I find, the more I want to show you. That's all it is isn't it? I wouldn't call it falling in love, I'd prefer to call it discovering. The more wonder I find, the more I'd like to show you. Then again, I suppose it's like when I've watched you fall in love, the more you want to show everyone why.

The trick it to rediscover the reasons you love every time. 

23

We say goodbyes everyday and pay them no heed. We bid adieu to one time friends and those who cycle through. The seconds become allies or foes as we become conscious of our farewells. 

The seconds are comrades as we see the future together, and quickly change as we move towards the end. The more we spend with them, the more they take of us, if they take of us. 

22

Silence.

The heaviest, deadliest, fullest word.

21

He loved the world more than it could understand. He felt the potential in the soil when he kneaded it. He tasted the satisfaction after a day's hard work. He heard the unsung songs in the first notes of her voice and saw the beauty growing there. In the world he saw everything wonderful, possible, beautiful it could be and felt glad.

But he also saw how quickly and terribly we deterred ourselves from responding to the potential he felt. Our inability to grow and learn consistently and wholly deprived him of the sweet satisfaction he craved. He grew angry that the world chose the worst of itself instead of its very best. 

He loved the world so much, he refused to watch it go to waste. He sealed himself instead his castle, or tomb, depending on what we wanted to believe. 

20

The cold, crisp air stung more than the last words you said to me. I tried to choke it down but it came back up in a sob. It stung going down and coming up, like the needles when blood is drawn.

I needed you, like water through my core. I wanted you and I just desired to know if you wanted me too.

19

I watched boats sail on the tips of daylight dreams. They floated on the lavender seams of the sky and sea. Their paths may parallel walkers in the streets, or cross like hands held quietly. The sun stroked the periwinkle twinkles that rippled the sea. Both wakes and waves turned to blush like I did when you looked at me. 

Dreams may dart away at dawn, but dusk is where they start.

18

I'll share my queen sized bed with you. And we'll stay up and talk till two! I may fall asleep before you ever do, and I promise I'll try not to drool on you.

I'll bare everything to you, what's in and on my chest. We'll have no secrets between us so that we may lie closer still.

Hold me here so I can hear your heart beat. One for in and one for out. Breathe in breathe out, keep the count here with me.

Sweetheart, I know you'll lay with me but I know you'll never fall asleep.

Dear iPhone.

You can't hold me the way my lovers do. If I drool on you, that's a hundred or so dollars, maybe two. Applecare? Yes, so 50$ since I'm not a fool. Same price if it's tears not drool. I can't buy your love but I'm taking all of you.

Through you I bear my secrets and my dreams into the digital, virtual reality. let's snap and chat and I hope you'll like what you see. To your opposing, eyes I've shown everything.

Let me chirp and tweet my mind in 140 characters, anymore than that is for amateurs. Maybe we can tumblr through the sheets and giggle at your place or MySpace.

iPhone, you know where I am, a blue dot on the move. But if I turn off the services, I disappear from view. don't worry, I'm only right here.

Our phones become both sword and shield against anyone who dares reach us. I shouldn't hold you near, right here. They may not know I'm reaching out to them too.

17

The final breath before the note, before you choose to sing. The final breath before you belt or blare some melody. Will your voice tremble like your knees did that night? I hope they don't, I hope it soars, and rings out loud and clear.

I've heard your voice do that some time ago, and maybe it was a dare. I remember you called out to the stars, the midsummer air carrying your declarations further than the sea. I could only laugh at your antics until I was breathless, laugh-less, done. The skies twinkled in delight and once we were finished, we moved on, gone. No point in lingering on and on.

I hope you sing that note so well, so they'll hear you like I did. I hope that it hangs in the air and captures everyone; whole, soul, full. 

16

Do you remember when we squish-squashed our toes in the mud? When the dirt bubbled up as we laughed as much as we could run? How about when we played with the sprinklers to our mother's dismay, and grandma could only grin since we watered her greenery that day. The hose was our greatest ally and and we marked the walls with water. It was hard to say who was having more fun. We had the water up to our knees, and the flowers just giggled, tickled by the breeze. 

I remembered the blanket-capes and building block shields that we made one day. We ran around the garage times three, with the street lights up and the dark sky, rainy. Dad was working in his office then, so we had to save him for dinner in ten. Our neighbor saw the spectacle of you and me, and asked us bemused, "Is it Halloween?" It wasn't, we smiled, and continued our quest, since who knew what monsters lie ahead.

You told me you were a robot once, and I believed you completely. You told me you lived in the mountains by home, and if I left the room and closed my eyes, you'd be gone. I'd leave and come back and you'd still be there, and I believed when you said you teleported there. 

Some things never change. I still am gullible and believe everything and you still have some of the best stories. I may be a little disappointed you're not a robot; since I've always wanted to teleport. We've still got our monsters, and we've still got our dreams. We've armed our tongues with swords and bolstered our brains with shields. Either way, I know we'll be fine... Beaming triumphantly. 

15

Courage is chameleon, disguising itself, knowing quite well we might reject it. Courage swallows up our demons, flying through our heads. It is exposed when we say hello for the first time, even though our fingers and toes tingle at the newness. Courage doesn't know if it's excitement or hesitance, drinking in only the thrill. As the conversations continue with our strangers, and transitions to friends; courage hides itself in the quiet offerings of ourselves. We trade our dreams and hopes, our failures and faults. Courage is coy then, as it usually is. The potential for rejection still looms here, and it always will. 

This chameleon shows itself most when we desire. Whether we argue or cry, want or need, we are requesting -sometimes begging- for something outside ourselves to make us happy. We are exposed most fully during these moments.

Our chameleons face the challenge fleeing, or succumbing and becoming the demons it's consumed for us. Courage sits at the fulcrum of which we balance our fears and our fantasies realized. Sometimes our desires align with another's so well... and other times they could very well tip the scales and cause everything to crash down.

Courage is also knowing how to not to crush someone else's chameleon demon too.  

14

Whispers your wants into the wind, building castles in the sky. I don't know how long these castles will last, the clouds change too quickly. They morph between my fears and your dreams until they scatter, splattered playfully. Let's big them bigger and better, we have no limits.  

The sun's rays will turn the cloud-walls to gold. When it disperses, let us hope that it leaves a prism of dripping gems as it floats away.

13

We hold on to our all our goodbyes. We tap them and eke out of them every single drop we can squeeze. We harvest them for no one but ourselves, savoring the seconds as they slip out of the hands we have to hold them. Our minds are simple sieves, only holding on to simple needs.

Time urges us on, as we're only visitors here. These moments were only stops to some destination unknown. If nothing else, time is a gracious guide and lets us relish what feelings or emotions our pauses bring to us. 

Even though we linger here, we know we can't stay for long. Living isn't staying here, and we can't stay; time is always moving on. Let's seal parts of ourselves in the words that we say, the photos that we take, and the laughs that we create. If time takes me to a separate place, at least somewhere we knew we had those days. 

12

I know you've seen the summer trees, where the sun makes gold their green leaves. The glow was trapped as the sun kissed each one goodbye, or hello, depending on how this story is supposed to go.

The sun reminded us everyday that summer was not here to stay. At least we can watch the green leaves burn brighter still, when they slowly turn crimson as the weather begins to chill.

Let's try not to fall while winter comes. I might go somewhere warm and follow the sun. But you know, maybe I'll stay here while the snowflakes float through. Especially since I hear that the falling snow glows too.

11

Peel me away layer by layer, and strip me of my shields. You've let me repulse you and draw from you all the tears. As you rip into my flesh, you tell me I'm stronger than I think. With our eyes watering, I simply say that maybe I've just always been that way. As my skin falls away, your tears fall even harder; you keep ripping, telling me you can't even get enough of me. You take as much of me as I can give, until there's nothing. The tears were still falling. 

All that hid the tiny me was laid bare and foreign at my feet. 

I didn't see anything after everything I held so dearly was stripped away. Even through your drying eyes, you saw something good in my core. A small sprout, of hope or despair, who knows. It just needed to grow.

But like anything else, that takes time, and how much of it is unknown.

10

These words were thick and sweet and foreign. I rolled them around on my tongue and to the roof of my mouth, seeing if I could separate the strange syrup from myself. I could not and it only spread further as I clicked and tangled my tongue. My mouth dried suddenly, and I knew that these saccharine sentences would make me sick.  

I knew better than to let the words consume me, so I consumed them. These words would become a part of me, I was sure of it. I could feel this sweetness quickly turn to some sort of sick, and my body heaved. It was too much to keep in, but too terrible to let out. I held that in too. I was not letting the words come out and unleash unknown demons. 

I was the monster, and all the sugar and sweetness could not change that.

9

Your breath grazed my skin and it rose in anticipation. The air was charged like lightning from the sky and I held still in hesitation. My pulse quickened and thundered through my body, turning from a faraway warning to a deafening roar. A tempest was brewing between us, cycling between the rain and our clouded judgment.

Lightning had yet to strike.

The storm swirled around us as we ran from cover. Reason had disappeared with the sun too long ago. There was no where to hide now. Your breathing became erratic and the winds blew stronger still. I hushed mine, as if that simple act could possibly ground me.

Lightning struck.

My body stilled at the contact and was set alight. With the gusts at full force, lightning struck again. The expanding air and increasing closeness echoed the reverberation of our bodies so wondrously out of sync. The sweat slinked off our bodies, desperately trying to extinguish what we had ignited.  

There was nothing anchoring us now and we blew dangerously, recklessly, with the wind through the night. 

8

The darkness always took you.

The sunlight came and you came with it, dancing on the doors of waking dreams. We played as the sun stood guard from staying shadows at the seams. Even as it kept watch, the darkness lingered behind the unknown, deeper still behind your eyes. When the sun set, we were not so shielded. It became brave and obtrusive; creeping from your eyes, then reflected on your face.

Even as we tried to keep the sun in our step, the reflected sun could not keep joy the same way. As the night went on, darkness became stronger, taking you with it. It ate your insides and dulled your outsides while I held on to your disappearing hand. I called to you softly, but the fog was too hard to hear through. Though I stood in front of you, I knew you didn't see me.

The night took you as it always did, and I knew better than to stop it. If I tried, it would take me too. I knew that. I saw it.