scrap off your sleep-dried eyes realize, that all you feel, all you see need not really be all you want it to be be thankful for the life you have the one you share as a gift to all of your friends all of your enemies life is harsh, life is rough, life is an uncompleted masterpiece wanting your brushstrokes, begging for your criticisms demanding to be sold at auction for your highest bid do not complain when others add their watercolor to your oil-based project be joyous for the addition of technicolor into your monochrome life be acrylic, be charcoal, be pencil-sketch be realistic your gonna get dirty your gonna be ugly

he turned on the instant messenger - only his name is showing. he checks his cell phone bill - no recieved calls. you're right, we get it. a small prayer loads his e-mail he is the empty inbox. check the history - there are hundreds of friendly e-mails. he check the phone's memory - there are dozens of saved messages. he turns off the instant messenger - no one's name is showing.

snowflakes unrealistically sprinkle down onto the warm earth I wait unrealistically emotionally down into my warm soul They set Their light gives way to a purple and pure haze Clouds break while the last crystal falls view my dark side of the moon You are just the Earth blue and green and distant I see the future stars welcoming me Don't wonder while I drift away.

A Snowflake's Plead to the Master of the House of Everwinter Father Cold please comfort Mother Water. Rest in the house of Uncle Wind and Aunt Sky. Give birth to my crystalline heart and soul. Create the masses of my siblings. Let me wonder in the House of Everwinter. Play your song Uncle Wind so I may dance with all my family. Do not let my fun end too soon. Save me from Enemy Earth. I am not ready to join the chorus of white. My voice is not strong enough to be part of the snowstorm. They will sing the overture excellently without me. I should not leave now and fall from the land of the blizzard. My fate should not be

a young girl sits on the side of the road dress torn, lights out, blood-stain nose she holds her rag doll between her legs and realizes her father still does love her even as his fists crush her mother's bones she realizes that she will be alone only twelve and the dragonfly buzzes near her bleeding arm wound the humidity is the only thing bringing her down "why did he have to stain my pretty dress" she thinks "I put it on just for him" she tears as the southern Carolina sky begins to pop with stars while she starts to scrap the black-dry blood from her upper lip mother's screaming mixes in sweetly with the bug noise from the wood