To my dearest friend Kate

To my dearest friend,

I would tear out my heart and

Use the angelic words inside

That never roll off my tongue in the tune I want

To quilt you a blanket to keep your comfort

Through this long and gory winter without hesitation

If I thought those would help you,

But an awful creature in imitation of The Lion waits outside your window.

He sings your dreams to sleep then feeds your nightmares

With insecurity and fear,

He plagues the ears God gave you

For hearing his lovely shouted words with rumors

Behind those rumors lay innocence and fun,

But as soon as the day is done, we cry

For our strangers who hurt and lie in a grave,

We wish ourselves to be in.

We see a man who stood beside us

Suddenly disappear,

So we open our arms and cling to new strangers

We find verses stamped across our arms

But they don’t seem to take all the pain away,

I’m never really sure what to say-

Except I want to tell you how unimportant this all is,

Everyone wants to bury us in the ground,

Push us until we are six feet under the ocean,

But they don’t understand God made us taller than that.

So as they pull down our ankles with rocks made of

Words pieced together with tape so they are no longer true

We still fight, we can still breathe,

No matter how many times I read this poem to you

What matters is you know that too,

Because how does a mouth do us good if all we do

Is hurt people with it?

How can bookmarks save us a place

If we never reopen any pages?

You have to know that each piece of hair

On your head is a blessing God has already given you.

Every time a second hand on a clock ticks,

Is another second God gave you to love-

And to be loved.

It doesn't matter if it is by ten or a million people,

It is all calculated from your point of view,

What matters is you know He loves you.