I've learned to cope with words

I melted your heart; helped you learn love. I showed you my heart, my feelings, and helped cultivate yours.

So what, Baby, if you've done unspeakable things? So what, Baby, if your name is feared in the darkest corners of the earth? The worst kinds of people hear your name and cringe. They know and have bore witness to your knife, your guns, your apathy, your bloodlust. They fear the wrath of you and your team of Ghosts. They see you, Baby, and run.

But at least you're capable of love, right? Right??

I melted the glaciers around your heart. I crossed the large expanses of sea to reach you. All because I heard your laugh and looked too long into your beautiful eyes.

I showed you that you're worth being loved. I took all the darkness in you and loved you for it all. Not in spite of it. I loved you for it.

You took that and threw it back at me. Told me you didn't want it.

I know you still love me. I know you do.

Women are not weaker than men. Our strengths just lie in a different places; different areas. You cannot see our strengths when you compare us to something we are not. A flower and a tree are both plants but they are astronomically different from each other. Both are beautiful. Both come from a seed, are planted, and grow. One withers quickly. One grows so, so slowly. You would never say a flower and a tree are the same. One would never discredit all trees because they lack pedals and colors and are not mailable. Likewise, trees are not 'better' than flowers because they are taller, more durable, and have more leaves than a flower does. If you must compare a tree to something, compare it to another tree. If you must compare a flower to something, find another flower to compare it to. Both flowers and trees have their beauty, strengths, uses, and weaknesses. Earth would not be Earth without trees AND flowers. Birds wouldn't have nests and bees wouldn't make honey.

In a world designed for men, women will always seem weaker, smaller, and less than men. She will never be seen for who she really is.

One must stop comparing men to women and realize we will never be the same. We are so, so different. One cannot exist without the other.

So, dear poet, however shall we combat this failure of a system?

Great question!

Here's my answer: you don't

The 'system' is already so incredibly broken. The only thing left to do is completely dismantle the entire thing and start over.

Raise your children differently. Tell your sons they are different from their daughters. Tell your daughters they are not your sons. Show them they have their own unique strengths and weaknesses and teach them to help each other when they are able.

Teach them that the other sex's 'flaws' are not personal shortcomings. Teach your sons to help your daughters without belittling or feeling superior to them. Tell your sons that your daughters are allowed to be smart, accomplished, loud, funny, brash, harsh, personable, strong, weak, throw a thesaurus at them and pick an adjective. They are allowed to be that way. They are women.

Teach your daughters that your sons may be all these things but they should never discredit them!

Teach your daughters to be strong! To be herself! To take no crap from anyone! And teach your sons to respect them for that.

Teach your sons to feel and cry and sing. Show them that they must not push their feelings down. It's okay to cry. That 'weakness' is not 'feminine' and undesirable. Tell them that rape jokes are not funny. That voting for a rapist makes them a danger to all women. Tell them that, to earn a woman's respect, you must first respect her. Be kind, sons. Not just to women you find attractive. That's shitty and shallow and sinful. Be kind to ALL. Not just for the approval of women, but for the Joy of God.

I asked him if he would still love me when I am old; when my body is decrepit. When I have lost my sexual appeal. When I am no longer the woman I am now. When I have lost my beauty, my youth.

When my eyes have seen the world, when I have gathered the wisdom I lack now. When my hands have created so much art. When my face is wrinkled, the lines of my smile permanently etched into me.

When my bones are fragile, my muscles weak and weary. When I can no longer stand on my own. When my hair is grey and my teeth are no longer white. When my hands shake and my mind wanders.

I asked him and he said he didn't know.

And yet, I held on.

Show me your thorns and I'll show you my hands, ready to bleed.

Willingly, I stretch them out toward you. You and pain you hide.

Let me see your darkness, beautiful darkness, and let me love you because of it.

Shatter my world. I'll willingly stand by while you do.

Loyalty like mine, I fear, you will not find in anyone else.

Anything you'd tell me, I believe. You could tell me a million lies, but I don't think you would. Ever.

I don't think you would lie to me.

Why? Because I see you.

I see you. I see you. I see you.

I will never stop looking.

My eyes are filled with the horror of love and sadness when I look at you too long.

I know you see it, the screaming emotion in my earthy eyes. I know because you look away.

I see you and choose to love you. You see this and look away.

Why do you deny yourself my love, so freely given.

You know my heart is yours. I've given you everything I have.

You could kill me and I would still look at you with love in my eyes.

I see your thorns. I see the darkness you try to hide. I see your scars. I see the blood on your hands. I see the pain you desperately try not to feel. I SEE YOU.

I see ALL of you. And I want all of it.

I think you can't understand that. You see yourself as this terrible, horrible thing. You see yourself as something, once known, is unable to be loved. You see a monster.

I see your monster. But when I look deeply, I only see you.

And I love you for it.

Perhaps I am too willing, too quickly adhering myself to you with unashamed devotion and love.

Perhaps. But I do not think so.

I've always felt deeply.

But I've never felt this deeply before.

Still, you said no.

I understand, I do.

But my words still stand...

When you look at me, you will see the love I have for you in my eyes. I can't hide it. And, if ever, you want to have my love, it is forever and always yours.

I am here. All you have to do is ask.

I hate the cold. I hate the cold because I am always cold. I grew up cold. I grew up cold and cold and cold.

You love the cold. You love the cold because you hate being hot. You grew up hot. You grew up hot and hot and hot.

You'll open a window in winter because you're hot.

I'll turn on a heater in summer because I'm cold.

I'd close your window and you'd shut off my heater.

Your warm hands would heat up my cold fingers. Hold them, would you? Just for a moment, won't you hold my cold hands?

Please.

Please, just for one moment, for one second, wouldn't you hold my hands?

Your eyes are so, so blue; playing on grey edges. Dark craters like flying asteroids sprinkle your watercolored irises. Specks of light grey, nearly white, twist and thread their way around the asteroids, dodging each one with precision.

The moon has a man living on its surface. Your eyes have the reflection of all your secrets; just out of reach.

I'll never set foot on the moon, it's too far off, completely out of reach. I look at it every night admiring its beauty, longing to be close to it; part of its orbit.

My eyes are a far off planet, dirt and moss. I have no beautiful moon, no ocean tides. There are no deep secrets hidden on my surface, no moon to gaze up and see. My soil grows flowers of longing, bushes of dreams, moss creeping with wishes, trees pining.

The gold specks on my irises would compliment your blue. But your craters are too deep. The asteroid belt protecting you is far too secure.

I've tasted your waters; just one drop. It was the most delicious thing my tongue has ever been given. And yet, there are entire caverns full of it that I will never have the luxury of swimming in.

Your eyes are the moon. Mine are of earth. But we're light years and light years apart.

You hide yourself well. I've never wanted to.

Your secrets are sucked into the black hole in your eye's center. The moon destroyed and gone missing.

My secrets splay out; golden, bronze, precious. But for all to see. Lush forests skirt the edges, trying to shield them from reaching out too far.

But I've never been a friend of restraint and waiting. I want my moon. I long for someone to orbit me, to bring my tides to life.

Your Moon Eyes are beautiful. But they are not mine. Your secrets are just that: yours. I will try to forget. But my heart loves so deeply. And I am afraid that every time I gaze into the night sky you will be there. Your craters and asteroids taunting me.

I will relish the view I have of you every night through my window.

Little Baby boogie-man

Hiding in the dark

No one knows who you are

You never miss your mark

Little Baby boogie-man

Only seventeen

When you close your eyes do you hear

Every single scream?

Little Baby boogie-man

If they knew the truth

You think they'd abandon you.

But you'll fight nail and tooth

Yes, little Baby boogie-man

To keep your secrets safe.

All the things you'll never tell;

How you were a wraith.

Little Baby boogie-man

You signed away your life

To gain a little freedom

Was it worth it?

Little Baby boogie-man

If given the choice

To save you from the nightmare

I would say in a low voice,

"Oh, little Baby boogie-man,

Your actions weren't your own.

The things you did will haunt you.

So, please, don't face it alone."

Tell me your secrets, Boogie-man,

I'll keep them safe, I swear!

But I see conviction in your eyes

And in my eyes, despair.

Little Baby boogie-man

I know your heart is kind.

You'll learn to cope somehow

Though you'll never leave it behind.

Little Baby boogie-man

I would gladly take your pain.

To see the things you've seen

I would never be the same.

But I'm willing, Baby. Boogie-man.

I would look at you the same.

The loyalty you find in me