I sit and listen

Yes, I am okay

Yes, I am awake

No, I don't care to speak

My anxiety prevents me from doing more

Than sitting and listening

So I observe and learn

They wonder how I know so much

Since I never speak

But I'm always there

Listening and learning

Throughout childhood I sat and listened

To the adults discuss the world and its problems

And so I learned through the osmosis

Of their words entering my ears

And catching onto the fibers of my brain

I still sit and listen

Even today as an adult

They think I should "participate"

But I am happy and content

Where I am

On the edge

Of the crowd

Observing and watching

Everyone and everything

Without having to waste my energy

By opening my mouth

To express the thousands of thoughts

Racing and running through my head

I am content simply being

Land of the free, they say,

And home of the brave.

What is freedom?

And what makes you brave?

I have seen war and hate:

Scars on our country.

That is not freedom,

But is freedom free?

I have seen fear in the eyes

Of children and wives,

Of brave men forced to live

In poverty and silence.

That is bravery:

To dwell in a place

Where you are different

And hope to become one.

E pluribus unum,

They say.

Do we mean that?

Do we want that?

A melting pot

Of cultures and peoples,

The huddled masses

And the tired and the poor.

This is America,

Not the billionaires and tycoons.

It is the tired mothers

Working to feed their children,

The desperate fathers

Coming home too late

After working two jobs

And paying their children’s way

To a better life,

An education.

It is the immigrants and silent faces

On the streets of the metropolis

And in the fields and the factories.

This is America.

I'm used to playing pretend

Hiding pain and holding back tears

This isn't any different

Yet I can't let myself lose you

Even though it burns

I hold on to the flame

While hiding it from the world

Hoping in a miracle

A distant future

With you by my side

Dreaming of dancing in black and white

Echoes of a life I don't know if I get to live

I'm already in mourning for the possibility

Of losing you

I write a word for every tear

I shed a tear for every moment away from you

What have you done to me, my love

I fall asleep thinking of you

And my thoughts turn into dreams

I finally have the hope of seeing you

Pictures don't do you justice

And after so much time

I'm forgetting your voice

And the way you move

Every part of you that I love

Is slowly slipping away

In my dreams you return

And I can see you again

But every time we are about to touch

On the brink of seeing sparks

I wake up and remember

That you are far away and not allowed

And I live with the fog of a memory

Of your hand touching mine

And of your breath on my lips