off the beaten path

            lately my heart has been bending           bullets with breaths and killing time      i know that life and death            aren’t opposites but they’re              intricately connected composites of               one another and that light and dark are          not opposites for they exist simultaneously    and that bumper sticker religion of coexist is  ironic because living on earth is evidence                that coexistence has been our reality                since fire covered layers of earth              covering layers of fire            i’m not giving up the unearthing of truth              as it births itself giving life to light        fathom with me that God was never born                God doesn’t have a beginning or end                    God is not a seed with an origin                        God doesn’t have a source           as a bullet traces it’s origins in a barrel   the barrel from metal and the metal from the earth i know light is the absence of darkness and darkness is the absence of light calm indicates the presence of chaos as chaos is a testament to calm

the air in my lungs isn’t feminine

nor is it masculine our רוּחַ is divine

i understand the struggle many

face in accepting their bodies as

they are because we are more than

our bodies it’s when you cease to nurture

your Spirit that you begin to reject

your body as it is fearfully and

wonderfully made not some accidental

genetic embodiment of biological

calculations you are not an accident

you are not worthless you are here for a

reason you are worth it

keep breathing and don’t stop believing

this is going to be a happy poem because

all of my other ones are neutral you read them

and feel your own emotions but this poem

i’m telling you is a happy poem so don’t be

afraid to let your face do that awkward thing

where the corners of your mouth spread and

sometimes your teeth show and your nose

crinkles a bit and the corners of your eyes

wrinkle it’s okay this is a happy poem

reminding you that it’s monday and it’s okay to

/səˈrēn/

and remember the distance of the

ocean from these words