Paperweight Poetry

Life is a garden And even though I don't know when With all of this spacious room I intend to bloom .             -anna sluder 

I draw your name long and winding on my arm to my wrist   From cursive to print and calligraphy in black weaves    My declaration of love exposed and not easily missed    For truly I am wearing my heart on my sleeve.   -anna sluder 

What if all the mirrors that stand before you   Are purely windows that can be seen into   But for only the other side of the glass there is a view    And as for us all we can do is wonder who is looking through. -anna sluder  

When a dandelion is stamped to the ground Their precious wishing seeds ground to dust Under the trampling of feet is where they drown  But crushing innocents that only give wishes isn't just  So when someone carelessly steps on a puff of white  And I know they deserve to be blown upon, their seeds to stray I can only think of what they've lost for a lack of sight  That the people who walk over dandelions throw their wishes away. -anna sluder 

I held up my hands to the window No I pressed them to the window No No I slammed them into the window But glass isn't soft It isn't subtle or ethereal And I didn't have any intention of an escape I never thought of escaping Until I felt the glass slam it's hands back  Why would they make it so strong? When all it is, is for us to look out of  And that's when I knew That I was in a box A one way glass cage  For  As  Many Infinite  Moments  As  I  Have  Lived I have been trapped  Caged Penned And bound But I can't break it I cannot snap the glass For I am afraid Of the blood and the pain it will draw But I am not alone in this cage For its prison walls do not limit My house  They do not have a limit And if they do Its limits are at the ends of infinity A place I cannot reach  A place I cannot touch For the blood is too much So for now  I dream I dream And I dream of a world

when I think of the color of happiness   i see your unadulterated smile    and hear nothing less   than your laugh that resounds for miles   and when you think of me   i pray that I am not the color of ache   instead I hope I bring you wonder and glee   and the ability to live a dream where you are fully awake -anna sluder 

Momma says to smile for the camera When I wore my four year old princess dress Now the smile for the camera doesn't come from mamma It comes from the interrogator when he tells me to confess And now smile for the camera is what the coroner said When he snaps the last picture as I lie dead.  -anna sluder

Who would've known that the infant little sapling tree   Would have to hold the weight of so much pain in its hollowed chest?   And that even the tree with something so small to carry   Is burdened by the fact that the smallest coffins are the heaviest.         -anna sluder 

This world is made of paper thin chances Skinny hearts And narrow twig-like thoughts But the earth is made of chubby blue skies Voluptuous waters And obese bloated stomach lands But you and I we are made of both We are meager and skeletal one moment  With swollen and bulky hearts the next  It all depends on who'd we rather be More like the world or more like the earth.  -anna sluder 

I scream for the women who have to hold it inside I sob for the women who are forced to keep their eyes dry I run for the women who only dream of the chance to flee And I speak for the women whose price for words are not free.  -anna sluder 

I miss you like the sky misses the sun at night I miss you like a land of drought misses the rain A damsel wishing and missing her knight And everything white misses the color of a stain. -anna sluder 

I dream of a land with flowering meadows A sky with endless blue A place without any foes A home with only you.  -anna sluder