a short

the past drags its feet behind me, it just tries to slow me down. i realize that art wasn't my fulfillment, it was a completion. all parts fit together in this puzzle called my life. a little bit of this, a little bit of that. at the center, love. and it wasn't a lie, but something happened that sucked the life out of it. we made mistakes and we didn't rectify them. and so it left, walked out the door with you one fine evening. we weren't compatible, is one explanation. another is, you need to explore more. a third is that i need to love myself first. and you too. who the hell knows. time does. maybe.

faces

i look at the picture of me when i was about one year old, next to my sister. she is holding my cheek, gently presssing her fingers into my soft cheek. it is as if she turns my face toward whatever comes from what's in front of us. and her face looks closed, a soul safe within. but my face is all open, my mouth, my eyes. and whatever will hurl its powers towards us, it will bounce off her but it will enter me. i have no defenses at all, no, my face is inviting whatever may come.

i want to tell her that she needs to grow a thicker skin. that she needs to protect herself against oncoming traffic. that she is not invincible. that she will get hurt this way. but she keeps inviting without any thought of herself.