Cowards

Cowards don’t live
because they’ve never learned how to
once, they were given the choice
to send off into the night
their worries, and all that pained them
but they chose to keep it locked up
in their minds, their hearts, their poetry
and so it was from then on
the key is still there
but the lock has rusted over
cowards don’t live
cowards choose not to

-Larry

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Children

Dear time,
give me years to make my heart like a child’s
to beat furiously, capriciously, and still constantly
to understand sadness, to look at loss
to feel every passing emotion
and accept the transience of it all
let my mind be lucid
let it never forget it was a child’s mind once
let me think with an innocent madness
and a beautiful excitement to live
dear time, let me learn to be like a child
if only to see with eyes, and to think with a mind
that can never be jaded, worn down, or disenchanted
by the trepidations of the everyday

-Larry

1

What do we deserve?

we don’t truly deserve anything
not love, not rights, truth is all perception
and morality is something conceived- emergent
but that is the beauty of the human condition
how lucky we are to receive things we don’t deserve
how divine to be the ones to give it away
love, kindness, compassion, even suffering
revel in these wonders, relish and learn from them
and when you’re ready, give it all away
because a measure of a good life lived
is being able to give back to others
the things we have, and especially the things
we thought were ours to keep

-Larry

1

Library

I look for you
Because this is where we met
If only to feel again your nearness
and how charmed I was
when you told me things
-L

All I Want

to dive into the ocean
head first, feet pointing to the sun
arms like wings, and a heart that is full
— knowing I would never drown.

-Larry

1

What Anxiety Feels Like

it begins with breathing
or the difficulty of it
stolen and sparse
it is criminal to want air
the room begins to shift
not left, not right
just spinning in the dark
until we are beyond ourselves
forgetting we exist
not wanting to exist

but we do
and we exhale
and we hold on to something
that speckle of light in the dark
and we stand up
and we move on
and we live; We live.

-L

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