They see a threat because I am original.

Nikki scratched at her notebook with her pen.
"J. Alfred Prufrock"
She stared at her writing, something was definitely missing.
After a little pondering she scratched again,
"J. Alfred Prufrock...is a waste of time."

The sentence gleamed at her as though she had uncovered some treasure of truth from underneath the dirt-pile of hodgepodge and nonsense that her professor was burying her in.

...."many speculate that he might have been gay" continued the professor. More dirt.

Nikki's mind wandered. Her foot tapped against the leg of her chair.
Her imagination let her lunge from her seat. Now she could jab the professor to a slow and painful death.

"Professor: Death by multiple pen jabs!" is what the headlines of the paper would read.

"I'm sorry I'm such a bad teacher" she'd say.
"You deserve an A!" She'd say!

Nikki blinked.
Reality.
No death-by-pen-jabbed professor.
Just the lonely love song of J. Alfred Prufrock and the reminder to not dare disturb the universe.

Trains Collide

Nickels

I don’t want to pick up the broken parts of you
I don’t want to fix you up with string or tape or glue
I don’t want to change the way your pieces fell
Even in your broken state, I find you beautiful

I don’t want to cure you of your shattered state
I don’t want to mend your heart, or try to make you right
I don’t want to heal you, help you or change the way you are
I just want to stand beside you as all your pieces fall

You don’t need a hand to hold or a dream to share
You don’t need a friend to listen, cry or care
You don’t need a thing, a wish, a prayer to keep you right
But that doesn’t mean you stand alone in this lifelong fight.

Rain

Trust

Gravity pulls words from your mouth
Lays them on the ground
And watches as people step and slip all over

How funny. Isn’t that what you had planned all along?

Alphabet Soup

At least one other knows.

I won’t let the words set in behind the wall
When things become real, they leave and break and fail.
I can’t let you see inside at all
You might just realize my incapacity to feel.

What happens then, when you learn I’m a fraud?
That the smiles are fake and that I laugh at God?
Where are your words when they break through the cracks
Where will you run when I take off my mask?

I won’t let the words set in behind the wall
Because most words are fake, become plastic, and fall.
I won’t shine a light to help clear up the fog
Because when you see inside, you’ll see nothing at all.