Too Late to Reach Out
There was a version of you and I
Long while ago
As kids, as friends
A time lost and a relationship that faltered
Just two people now who once knew the other’s world
Now I have a vision of us
I hold out my hand to you
You take it
Without hesitation
Then you’re bundled into my chest
Sobbing, heaving for breaths
The pain too much
I wasn’t enough to protect you
No one showed me how I could mend a hurting heart
I was too proud to let you near mine
I failed and failed
Over and over again
Your hand slipping from mine
Reaching farther and farther away
Too slick with sweat
I am unable to grab hold
Tears fall without permission
As you blur back into the broken pieces of my mind
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Song
It went through my head
The perfect song
Its melody filling my mind
Taking its control of my hips
Swaying it to and fro
Filing up my heart
With the care it needs
It hears me, my thoughts, my voice
And it sings back
Louder and louder in my mind
Till it’s the only beat I know
I play it over and over again
Till I know it by heart
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Empty Branch
I was once an empty branch of a tree
Barren, bark peeling off
No bird would perch on my uneven reach
I always accepted I’d forever be that way
Then came the days you’d dare get closer
And closer you got
I saw you were barren too
So I let you stay
Then that June I saw the buds begin to blossom on you
And your reason was me
I had made you feel spring again
Before I moved away to take a look at myself
My brittle branch
And I too must have felt the spring
For there too were buds
And flowers ready to open
Open for you to see their beauty
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
I’ve Read About Love
I have read all I could about love
Through the years and centuries
Flipping through the ancient’s scripts
Their so called; age old wisdom
I’ve read the men who think flattery is key
I’ve read the men who are soft in their approach
I’ve read the women ferocious in their love
I’ve read the women timid to take the next step
I’ve read how people lost love
How people found it and squandered it
I’ve read how it’s been cherished
Through the ages, their lessons, their warnings
To love or to not
The heartbreak people have cried on pages about
The yearning and want
Love that explodes from the page
I’ve read it
Cover to back
And I am the same fool
As all the poets before me
Trying to capture the sacredness
The purity, the craze, the shock
Of the love in and out of my life
I share my love on the page too
For others to read all they can on love
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
I Cry Out
I call out not to hear an answer
But to release the tension of a voice under pressure
Highly strung chords waiting to snap
I don’t let it go to find others
There is just a pain I need to let go of
The open air seems best for me
Letting out the cry I need to hear
Sorrowful and high
A sound heard all around
A voice I finally cannot ignore
And again I let out my voice
So on and so on
Till its gone hoarse
It sticks-so I won’t forget
The desperate sound
Heard by those who care to listen
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Conditions
What is this condition
That has taken root in your mind
Given to you by powers unseen
Weaving through your very essence
No longer does it hold a look
It only looks like you
This condition
Don’t let it take you over
Don’t let it drive you crazy
This condition doesn’t have to be you
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Gift
I hope I gave her some gift of happiness
In the short time we had
That my friendship gave her some comfort
In the strange cold rooms she was often in
Our laughter and play
Made some sliver of her life more bearable than the rest
For you gave me so much
So it is only natural for me to hope
That I gave you something just as wonderful back
Forever I am grateful to have had you
In the brief reaches childhood allows
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
There Should Have Been Rain
It didn’t rain the day you went
The sun was there peaking through the windows
As is expected for June and the waiting summer
I was at my lowest
In my darkest self
There should have been thunder and lightning
And god damn rain pelting the windows
But the sun in its bright brutality kept shinning
As we all cried and cried
the sun decided to still fucking shine
I thought of it as cruel
Us under a perfect day
And you not there to feel its warmth
I wanted rain
To soak my clothes through
To hide the tears I felt shame in sharing
Knowing that the universe too felt my sadness
Shared my pain
Instead I got a sunny day
For my heart to break
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Good Things
The good things coming out of me
I don’t know how they found their way
Don’t know were they came from
I’ve learned that nothing comes from nothing
It must be so that I simply can’t remember
But I see the good coming
A light I’ve hoped for
Floating just above solid ground
No ready to plant there
I still wish for more
Still I wish to fly
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
A Childhood Memory
I open my eyes to the scene
The sun filtered through a window
Breaking at odd angles from the decorated glass
I sit in front of it on the stairs
They will be home soon
I trace the designs with my toes
Still not home
I sit down again
Wondering what stories they will have for me
What treasures they will share
I can’t wait till they come home
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
This Existence
Is it the silence that scares you
Of this suburban existence
A life of privilege and mundanity
Sucking the song and flight
Of you the lark
Hanging off the last tree of Eden
Needing the permission of some sort of entity
To let you live away from the subversive suburban landscape
Yet once you leave it still clings to you
They got in your head
The naivety
Comfort of conformity
Not wanting to be the firework that dares disturbs silent nights
Reality like a sport
You playing to the spectators in the very back row
The clown make-up pokes through
On each and everyone’s faces
The fool card faces you
Thinking you were immune
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
On Love
Love that takes its time
To settle in your unsettled heart
Making clear, the uncertainty you feel
Love taking you by surprise
Making you surrender to the wills of the heart
Letting love take flight
To new destinations
Love that wakes you from yourself
Invigorating your soul
Inviting it to soar together
Weathering whatever storms are faced
Love being a guide
A shield
A sword
And a home to feel safe in
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Give and Take
Life is surprising in what it gives and takes
Sometimes it can be hard to know
If it is one or the other
On the occasion it may even be both
Something given
Only to take away something else away
It finds a balance
Harmonious within the nature it operates
It knows not all things given are good
And not all things taken are bad
It is our judge , our scale
The faceless puppet master of destiny
We at the whim of strings
Pulled through life
Given and taken
Through its trials
Again and again
Given to be taken
Taken to be given
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Another Day
It is ok to feel a little uncertain
Each morning when you wake up
It is ok to feel a little scared at the day ahead
Not everything turns out as planned
But do not let that uncertainty or fear
Seep too far into your heart
That it stops you from getting up
Take it in
And let the day come
Embrace it for what it is
Just make sure you get out of bed
To meet it kindly
And humbly
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Strings of Anxiety
The tension taught on the fine threads woven across me
Electrified without power
Ready to surge and worry me
I delicately step between the lines
Not to disturb the balance of chaos and peace
Either way I cannot sleep
Without its grip tightening
Closing off the world around me
Abandoning the need for air
It takes control-unnaturally
I no longer have hold on the senses around me
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Pain
I am three shots deep
If I continue I may forget
There is a pain I hold here
In a place I easily lock away
And I can just as easily find
It makes my excuse for numbness simply justified
I don’t want to forget
Yet I don’t want the to keep the pain
The pain slowly slipping with each drop consumed
Please, I wish not to forget
All I have to remember is the pain
The pain, the pain
The same one taking another shot down
Burning through the throat
It hurts in a good way
The one akin to pleasure
The liquid poured
I didn’t say no
Quietly I drift to sleep
Not remembering the thing I kept locked away
The thing I kept close at hand
It fell down my lips
I didn’t notice it was gone
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Poet
The Poet in me grumbled
She wanted to write
To feel the release of the words unsaid
Leaving it bare and naked on the page
In the vulnerable poses of rhyme
That the people who are reckless to read
Witness the esteemed Poet
Finally tell you the truth
To give you the arrows and knives
That would make her bleed
My poet grumbles-not wanting to be ignored
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Familiar Lies
I got caught in my lie
There were too many webs I’ve been tangled in
Lost in my own deception
The masks I’ve worn -I get myself confused
She is a stranger to me now
I skip over the mirror
I assume it would lie to me too
This is what I know
What I’m most comfortable in
A skin of familiarity
Beautiful weaving of lies
They become the truth
Each one I’ve donned
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Faces
I wear the faces they gave me
They said it suited me better
Slowly it took away the reasons I smiled
It removed the purpose and courage of myself
And I curled away from the light
Till you reached out
Removing the masks one by one
When my eyes saw freedom once more
And the smile returned to my face
Enjoying myself again
Elizabeth Almeida ©2020