The Protector

I am the eldest daughter.
I will protect my sister
Will everything I have.
I will sit in my room
And cry,
Not because our choir director
Destroyed my joy in singing,
But because he is stealing
Her confidence and joy
And I can't stand
In-between her
And that bullet.
I will encourage friends,
I will bolster hope,
Even if I have to lie
Through my teeth
That it will be alright
Because if I don't
I haven't tried hard enough,
Haven't bled enough,
To keep those I care about
Far, far away from any pain.
I will hide my own sorrows,
My own concerns,
Because they are burdens
I do not wish upon myself
So how could I wish them
Upon my friends?
Thus I protect
And refuse to be protected.
But slowly,
I'm coming to realize
Just how unprotected
I have made myself live.

If ice cream warms
The cockles of my heart,
What does that say
About the temperature of that part?

I have terrible form
When I run
But I don't care.

I'm not trying
To win any races anymore.
Now I run for joy.

I run for the joy
Of those few seconds in the air
With the wind in your face
And heart loving each moment.

Legs stretched out
To take as much ground as possible,
I will run because I love to

My Dance Teacher

He's like an uncle,
Or that family friend
That somehow became one of yours.
He looks out for me
Even as he teaches me.
He's not just a teacher,
That much is clear.

I keep him laughing;
It's the least I can do.
And like a proper uncle,
He makes me laugh in return,
One who won't let me escape
Without words of wisdom
That I'll carry with me all year.

Holding on too hard
To what I must let go
And forgetting
What I must remember.

After 7 years,
I finally
Saw a vista
That made me
Fall just a little
In love
With this city.

This city,
I've resisted
With all my might,
Flinging its grasp
Back into the night
Of my pain.

But today,
In the fading dim,
Through all the stress
And annoyance of the day,
Coming over that weak hill
To see the small skyline
Against the sky,
That was a small,
Small,
Comfort.

I'm tripping over
My own two feet
In my race
To get back home,
Back to school.