Early Graduation

Highschool.

It only lasts four years.

Usually I'd say that's more than enough.

Make it shorter if you can.

Usually I don't think about people drifting.

Usually I don't think about being the one left behind missing.

I don't think about the terror of graduation,

Of leaving behind the lifestyle of public education.

For twelve years it's all you've known.

It's stayed the same, but you,

You've grown.

For all these long years you've done what you can,

And now your life is waiting for you to command.

It's at your fingertips now,

You can almost grasp it.

There's no use in worrying.

We've all always been destined for hell in a handbasket.

The world is out there calling

And it's calling out to you.

It's nearly time to show that desperate world

Just what it is that you can do.

That first one is the hardest step,

But take it without hesitation.

Because when it comes to the important things,

Like kindness, compassion, and a little bit of madness,

You qualified for early graduation.

Ocean

Swirling blue ocean.

What do you hide in your dark

Mysterious depths?

Promise of a Golden Dawn

We all need a dream sometimes,

Because sometimes reality sucks.

It's flat and boring and depressing.

Dreams take us away from that.

They have light, angelic wings that span across the sky.

Sometimes the world is dark and cold.

Sometimes we have to go it alone,

Despite all the people that would love to help us.

The only thing that can never be pulled away is a dream.

People need dreams like the world needs dreamers.

A bright, shining light.

Something good, barely in the distance.

A reason to hold on.

Dreams are the promise of a golden dawn

Even in the midst of our darkest days.

People hold on to dreams because dreams hold on to people,

Anchoring them in the very reality dreams are an escape from.

Dreams are what let us hope.

New Plan

I'm tired of being told how my life is going to go.

Take this class

Follow this plan

And you'll go far you know.

We've counted out the years of your life.

We'll tell you how to spend them right.

Just sit back

No need to fight.

You're all unique little snowflakes.

Now follow this cookie-cutter plan.

It doesn't make a difference how you're different

Just as long as you stay on the path.

I don't want to follow the rules.

I want to throw away the plan.

I want to make my own road.

I'll make it a better one if I can.

Growing Up is a Trap

The years of childhood are shaky and indefinite.
You never know how many you will have.
Too often they end too soon.
Society calls you an adult at eighteen.
That doesn't mean you haven't already grown up.

Growing up is a trap.
It's forsaking fun for responsibility.
It's giving in to the darkness of the world around you.
It's getting rid of the part of you that most dares dream.

Far too often, childhood ends far too soon.
Almost as often it can come back.
Maybe the laughter of any child will trigger it.
Maybe the laughter of your own.
Maybe something else, entirely unknown.

Regardless of the cause, the effect will be the same.
You'll give off that childish laughter
As you play some childish game.
And you'll know in that moment, some things
Some things never have to change.

Growing old is necessary,
But growing up is a trap.
There's no reason you can't get the spirit of childhood back.
You can't avoid responsibilities
And all that with them you gain.
But you don't have to lose the light and laughter.

   That,
          I think,
                    Should remain.

Midnight Inspiration

Frantic midnight inspirations.

Those are the best kind.

The scribble on the nearest piece of paper the second your eyes fly open kind.

The unfounded, unbridled kind.

You don't know where it came from

But you hope it never leaves.

Black Coffee

I didn't like black coffee at first.

We tend to reject things that are bitter, 

Or that make us feel bitter.

But sometimes bitter things make us better.

A beam of light is seen most clearly

When the world is at its darkest.

I didn't like black coffee.

I didn't like a world not diluted

And coated with sugar.

I didn't like it unsweetened.

But that bitter flavor of reality is sometimes the sweetest,

Because the deepest bit of truth,

The texture that lured you into coffee in the first place,

Is what tastes the strongest.