leaves burn like a wildfire

and fall like rain.

they dance beneath our feet,

and sing as our soles hit the ground.

the trees shed their green

as the pages of the calendar

reach an end.

nature shows us that life goes on

even when it feels we are stuck.

a time for family.

a time for friends.

a time that shows us what we took for granted

for the past nine months,

and how we can make up for it

in just a few weeks.

it shows us our regrets,

our accomplishments.

the highlights

and things we want to forget.

whilst nature brings its harvest,

so we bring our own.

we transform,

we die,

we grow.

we fall,

but soon enough

replace the naked branches of the tree of life

with our own green.

fall is a time for us,

and we change with the leaves.

I did not choose to live in a hostile universe, but sometimes I find myself surrounded by my thoughts with no way out. I am in a continuous spiral that only gets smaller and smaller, and soon it gets hard to breathe. I wonder why, all of the sudden, did I end up here, when it seems like just a few minutes ago I was in a friendly universe? I wonder that until I cannot think and my head gets clouded and hot tears roll down my cheeks. I cry, and I cry for hours. I do not know what is real and what isn't- I do not know to which universe I really belong. Maybe I don't belong to either, maybe I am in my own universe that cannot be explained. It just catapults me from one emotion to the next, and my heart feels torn between a life of happiness, and who I think I really am. And yet, despite my feeling of knowing who I am, when prompted to describe myself, I can't. It is like my own universe has stolen my identity, and left me feeling as though I am still the same person that I always have been. Truth is, I have changed, and with it, so has my universe. I don't think Einstein was thinking about the in-betweeners when he said those words. I think he was just thinking of the simple minds, the ones who only see two universes.

the words bubble to the suface,

but don't come out.

a flash of red and heat

across my face.

attempting to smile,

maybe seem friendly nontheless,

but the damage is already done.

"she's just shy",

they say,

as if that somehow makes it all make sense.

but I'm really just

nervous,

quiet,

unsure.

but go ahead,

shy works too.

There is no world in which our lives are dictated by someone else. To us, being independent in our lives- being able to choose what to do when we want and who we want to be- is normal. What one from another country would kill to have our lives, something that goes over many of our heads. Freedom is to not what it once was, that is for sure, but there is still an honor that comes with saying "I am an American." There are still privelages that come with those words, privelages that we take for granted. Being free, and saying the Pledge of Allegiance, is bittersweet. Bittersweet because the freedom our forefathers had fought for so long, the freedom they earned for us, is barely acknowledged. In some cases, it is even disrespected. Us Americans are not who we used to be, but we are still Americans nontheless. We use our blessed freedom for better or for worse; either way it cannot be taken from us. Freedom can be described many different ways, but the word I would use is ours. No matter what happens, there is still our freedom- a privelage and a possesion. And sometimes, there is no greater feeling than that.

a fresh

cool sensation,

deserving of a deep breath

and hands outstretched

as the green invites you

to its swaying fields.

No matter how much you try, time always manages to slip through your grasp. "Live in the moment", they say, when really the moment has already passed and a new one has arrived. How am I supposed to live in the moment when the moment is constantly escaping me? Time is no friend of mine, that has already been established. But the fact that I cannot control the one thing that dictates my life is downright frusturating. Time is always telling me what to do, where to be, and when to say what I have to before its too late. And when it is too late, instead of being understanding, time punishes me. Time is unforgiving; you do something or say something wrong, and all of the sudden what you ran through your head hundreds of times came out of your mouth a completely different sentence, and now there is no way you can take it back. The only way to fix it is with words, which time is so kind to completely erase from your memory when you desperately need them most. Time taunts you, waving its magical powers above your head, making you reach for them, only to pull them away at the last second. When yout think about it, the only thing separating you and time is numbers. Numbers that are so easily changed in math class, even subtracted from an equation altogether, are indestructible from the time the sun rises in the morning to when it sets in the evening. There is really no proper way to describe time- a dictator, a bully, a theif- except evil. But rewind your thoughts, and time becomes a completely different person. Instead of taunting you, time is taking care of you. Watching over you. Being the voice in your head when the real one is taking a break. And instead of using it's numbers to intimidate you, it really is guiding you, helping you manage your time, increasing productivty. And instead of being the incorrigible theif, time is really granting opportunities for both faillure and recovery, and a second chance. When staring at a clock, time can either be friend or foe, but it is not the numbers that decide such things, it's the person who set the clock in the first place.

@EvaT

Like a drum

My heart beats for you,

And like a the strings of a harp

You manipulate me

So that the song I sing

Is exactly to your liking.

Our love,

Though rough at times,

Is one fluid sound,

Making its way throughout the ears of many,

In and out

In and out

Until it is stuck in their head

And they are forced to sing along.

I am the instrument

And you are the musician

And together we make music incomparible to all the rest.

Together we make more than

A few notes.

We make an entire symphony.