Thanks

Thanks

by Alicia Millar

Day-dreaming

plain-faced

sorta crazy

basket case

loves to drink

and laugh and dance

glad you came

and took a chance

Three Constants

Three Constants

Alicia Millar

Thy say the two constants of the universe are death and taxes,

but I'd like to add ethnic slurs to that list.

Every day I have to listen to them making their jokes, always seasoned with contempt and disrespect - well maybe they don't have any respect, they're "just being honest,"

but why do I have to hear about how "retarded" they think Certain People are EVERY OTHER MINUTE?

That's their favorite word. Their only word. Flavor of the year. Yeesh.

It's funny to me how they can accuse those Certain People of being so "imagination-challenged,"

but find themselves penned in by such a stunted vocabulary. Like sheep in the pasture of sameness, chewing the same cud, and crying the same thing (Retaaarded! Retaaarded! Baaaa!).

So there it is.

Death, taxes, and ethnic slurs.

Death taxes and ethnic slurs.

Death taxes and ethnic slurs.

Retaaarded!

Love as an Organism

Love as an Organism

by Alicia Millar

They say they want what we have -

as if we're some kind of ideal.

What they don't get is that we're

never the same,

one day to the next:

Today, I'm fire, and you're the hearth,

holding my temper in place,

channeling the smoke, which you know is harmless anyway

Tomorrow you'll be a cool breeze

on a summer's day,

I, the reeds that bend to your will,

and could deny you nothing

The day after tomorrow I'll be water

running places, not even sure where I'm going

except that I seem to find myself perpetually damp,

but I know that on that day you'll be an amphora,

ready to catch the parts of me that try to run

(like a river)

away from it all

I could not have lived with an unmoving, unchanging, unfeeling rock.

I could not have loved one.

Goodbye Hunger

Goodbye Hunger

by Alicia Millar

Today I say goodbye to you, hunger,

I have found another way to fill up,

to grow up,

and most importantly,

to show up

for my own life

Today I ran!

Faster than you!

and all I had to do,

was put one foot in front of the other,

leaving you, to:

eat my dust, eat your heart out, and taste defeat

While my feet

left you far, far back

filling me up,

one step at a time,

by devouring the track

Prisoners of ID

Prisoners of ID

by Alicia Millar

Escaping from their keepers,

inmates fly

their motley crowns askew,

they try

to reign with rubber fists and

counterfeit logic;

build foundations in the sky

Outlandish! The keepers holler,

their voices getting

smaller,

they can not yell

over ringing bells

on motley shoes that

dance and prance

and soil the floor of order

No Mercy

No Mercy

by Alicia Millar

No self-esteem,

your gaze seems to say

- accuse, rather

as if it were a crime,

something to be ashamed of

and cause unbearable guilt.

How DARE you hate yourself?

While kids starve in Africa and the Haitians look for aid.

Those are REAL people with REAL problems.

Honestly, what right do you have?

And all I can do is offer my excuses:

Because...Because...Because...

But the reflection never has mercy.