Paperweight Poetry

The light pokes its finger through a crack in my soul They always said that cracks let in the light and also out,  But the most important thing about it is it thaws out the cold, And tells us the warmth is ours when all we feel is doubt.  -anna sluder 

There are nebulas in your eyes Comets in your hair Shooting stars in your fingertips The moon in your throat There are constellations on your skin Galaxies in your lungs I see supernovas in your smile But out of everything in the universe  Out of everything in you I never would've thought  Out of everything held together And everything that falls apart That the black hole  Would end up in your heart.  -anna sluder 

The wind was laced with daisies And she chased them across the meadow The sun growing lazy Falling down in the sky so low She murmured gingerly to the butterflies  Tender endearments of love And tossed bits of bread so high For the beaks of feathered doves She laced her hair with twigs and moss And stroked the petals of a flower As her hands fell across Bumblebees flittering that didn't make her cower This was the secret garden Behind the ivy threaded gates It was the one place she went again and again And each morning couldn't wait To tumble in the kaleidoscope of colors And climb the green branches that thrive The child could not have been fuller The little girl was happy and was alive But one day she fell out of the tree And she snapped her thin arm Like a twig that snaps noisily In the place that wasn't supposed to have harm As the bone grew back close So did the bitter herb inside That told her to listen to her woes

I wonder if shooting stars Know we can hear them descend to the earth The cracking and sudden thud from afar  As we watch them wonder at their worth In the last and worst moments of their lives When they have the chance to question it all Is when we hear their singeing cries  As they wish they didn't have to fall And I can't help but ponder If they know the impact that they make And how in their fiery grave we wander Into the the slate of earth that they break That we close it off as sacred And have people pay to step inside To stare at the pitted grave of a star long dead  Led by the voice of some tour guide I wish I could inquire If they know what stars mean to each human How they are more than balls of fire For they represent our predetermined plan  Of how the world began And how it will end If all we were meant to do is be man Or if we are supposed to be the universe's friend? I wish I could scream at the stars Tell the

I would not mind  If the magic mirror said That out of all the women it can find I am not the fairest of them who pled To know if they had the skin Or the hair of a queen The white toothed grin The beauty most pristine For beauty is simply a shell And who cares what's on the outside? For the most colors that dwell On the crust aren't worth the pride For the most beautiful of shells are hollow Like those who beg mirrors, the vain girls Over who has the greatest beauty so shallow  When it is damaged shells that hold the pearl.  -anna sluder

The sea is the heart of this earth Rivers stretching out as veins For new streams to give birth And be replenished again by the rain.  -anna sluder 

you    are    a    rock    inside    of     my     soul that    never    moves,    never    falls but     the    reason     that     I     never     feel    whole is     that    rocks      can     build    into    a     wall.  -anna sluder 

There is one flower that blooms in the winter  And it is the only flower on the tree I guess the most beautiful things grow in rigidity  Just like the love of you and of me. -anna sluder 

i lost you in between the cracks of the soul somehow you slipped from my fingers and down into my chasms where it is abysmal and cold and there is no light anywhere around.  -anna sluder 

She wears her smile on her face, Her pain on her shirt sleeve, Her feelings fall out of her mouth in a race, As if hiding it all would be something she can't conceive.  -anna sluder 

They always say, "aren't you proud?"  Proud of how far they've come is what they ask But how can I be proud of someone so clouded Proud that my daughter is wearing a mask.  -anna sluder