We Played In The Rain
She was beautiful in the rain
Her hair matted against her face
Perfectly framed smiles on two foolish children
Who got caught playing in the rain
Next thing I recall was the two of us in dryer warmed clothes
And hot cocoa down our throats
Worry from the others that we’ll catch a cold
It didn’t matter
We played in the rain
What children do
We didn’t stop till we heard thunder
I felt free
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
My Words
I’m grateful for the words I have
The ones that heal wounds whether bleeding or dormant
For lines and phrases, that sing of love between two fools
The silly words that bring smiles to all our faces
I’m lucky to have them all
On the tip of my tongue
And the tip of my pen
They are the friends you find in the lowest of places
They understand the true meaning behind the words I share
I wouldn’t know what to do without my words
They are part of me
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Fraction of Love
Love is a furious fraction of me
Hopeful and blooming where it shouldn’t be
A fire in my heart, always burning
Embers never crumbling
Love more serious than a brave face
It does not make light of its duties
Deeply it ingrains a care so passionate
A heat unable to cool in another’s presence
Focused on the beat its heart releases
Taking the lead
It takes you over the edge
Where you never thought you or your love would be
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Just a Piece of Dust
One inch from falling into the edges
The places forgotten
The realm of dust and crumbs and myself
A leftover bit
What does it matter if I stay or go
If I grow or crumble more
They won’t notice
Only will they care if I the crumb
Changes to something significant and tangible
They always want more
Till you’re a speck of dust again
No longer important to them
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
No Stop
I couldn’t stop
No matter how quickly you caught me
Or how desperately you tried to convince me
I was a one way train
With no stops along the way
Going fast so it wouldn’t catch me
If I were to be stopped
Then it would all end
The delicate balance I had run away from
Would fail
I don’t think there would be enough fire
For me to start running again
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Charade
They put on a show
With ribbons and lights
With dancers and tricks
To keep the people occupied
In pleasant lies
As the mages behind the curtain
Dabble in their dirty deeds of humanity
Hypocritical in their charge
One who has seen both sides
Can understand the real clowns are not on the stage
They demand of you your life
To play into their trick
Allow them to give you happiness
They promise so much
But it costs you
To be numb and mindless
Making you become a stranger to your soul
Your heart buried
Desires snuffed
They ring their hands with power
Because they tempted you with morality
A spiritual guarantee
You so easily let them have their way
Morality meant to be found in self
Not in these walls of twisted humanity
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Self-Examination
She stares deeply through me
Examining my worth
Without even a twitch of her eye
How it scares me
How quickly you can scathe me
With a comment and turn of your face
I seem to fall to half my height
Still you stare
Thinking there is more
Than a scared little girl
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Dancer
Dancing, how you move yourself across the floor
With the languid twisting movements
Content in your own head
With no effort it seemed
All eyes followed you
Your form cutting through the air
Putting on a display of love
Of passion and its desire
Coaxing us out of the fog
You were the light we found
Dancing from side to side
Making us forget
Whatever we needed to
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
A World Without You
Too cruel of you to make me dream
Dream of a tomorrow without you
To think of the day to day
With no you to pass it along with
How deeply it cuts
To imagine being happy
With no sight of your smile
Tomorrow! Tomorrow I want you please
Please say this is just a nightmare
Be there when I wake up still
I can’t think about a world
Without you there
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
What Was Left in the Sky
It's insane to say I knew
That we'd explode across the sky
In a magnificent act
Of nobody's fault
When clearly it was our own
Not seeing the fake image
In front of our noses
And tears did fall
But only at the beauty
Of the figments of paint left
Blown-up, way up high
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Only Words To Remember
I know I can’t bring her back with these words
When I close my notebook and look up
I can’t see her anymore
The world will eventually forget your name
I’d be the one to repeat it page by page
So they wouldn’t
But I am aware it can’t change your lack of existence
How heartbreaking a world without you is
Constantly trying to build it again with you there
But for some reason it doesn’t stick
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Nothing Left to Remind Me
Is there a perfect way to say goodbye
To throw out all the memories
Still there in my bedside drawer
Where does practically and you’re not over them
Draw the line
What is acceptable or not to keep
Safer just to get rid of it all
Their imprint erased
I do not wish to stew in the past
I’ve done it too much before
But all this stuff remains in my unmade bedroom
And I just don’t want to think of you
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Letting it Go
You’ll feel better once you’ve learned to let go
To live not in the sad memories
They’ve already taken so much
Life doesn’t dwell on what has happened
It exists in the excitement of what is happening
The wonderment of randomness
Thrills of the unexpected
Rising to the occasions brought forth
Appreciating each day
Whatever may be given
Despite what has been taken before
We live if we let ourselves live
Allowing it to take us along
In its beautiful, fun and joyous adventure
There is a point where it is so important for us
Just to let it go
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
An Epitaph
In the end if I can just smile effortlessly
Then I consider that enough for life
Despite how bitter and cruel it can be
If there is just enough joy that peaks through
That in the end
After its grief and turmoil
I can still smile and find that peace
I’ll gladly go to whatever awaits me next
Nothing more or less would I ask
Then just a smile drifting into my eternity
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
If Not For Happiness
What have I worked if not for happiness
What was the point of all my tears if not for peace
Why bother with anything so fickle
If grief is all it gives you
Why give myself the stomach ache of worry
If it isn’t for a fear of losing my happiness
Why would we try
If it wasn’t to find some resemblance of joy
Everything I do is to keep some sense of happiness
Intact for me to hold to when its all gone
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
Just Grains of Sand
Life is between my toes in grains of sand
Falling from my feet
Pooling under me
For a moment present, right in front of me
Then gone into the pile of memories
Forgotten along with the other grains of sand
Some stick
Some fall
It always passes too quickly from my grasp
That’s life as they say
Not meant to be bound to its past
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
What They Won’t Admit
Is it the guilt that eats them away
How they weren’t enough to stop death
Is it the pain that makes them angry
Never once trying to release it
Is it the helplessness they feel keeping them up
Bubbling into anger and distance
Is it the memory of the news gut punching their heart
Why they never kept us close
Is it because I remind them of what they lost
To keep me a stranger
Is it the numbness breaking them apart
Because I see their grief
They wear it like a crown
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Pages I Share
Real intimacy is showing you the unedited pages of poems
The maddening prose of growing pains
Sorrowful cries of grief
Papable love and lust too
These pages where the outside world doesn't dare to touch
It is without sway or influence
Just the words and sentences I want to say
or need to
Know it is love
If you read these pages without marks or dashes
That is the truest part of me I could ever share
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
The Flowers That Still Grow
It was June
The flowers bloomed around you
There are butterflies drinking
From the the broad heads of the flowers there
They are beautiful
They are near you
When I cannot be
They grow and spread their joy
Like how you once did
Eventually they will wilt back to the earth
Back to you
Once there was a June I thought the flowers would never grow
Yet it pulled through
They always do
I wish I was the one who have put the flowers there
But you’ve always had a way to create your own beauty
In a grove of grief and tears
You’ve made it into a monument of beauty
A way for us to remember
There will be better June days to be had
And more flowers to bloom
If you allow them to grow
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021
In Loving Memory
The Language of Pain
The shock of tears to a cold face
Racing to fall below your cheek
To the waiting shirt below
Everything frozen in slow motion
As your world crumbles
Tearing away the walls and beauty
Created in your mind
Your heart breaks nothing more
Just like broken glass on the floor
That safe little place you’ve made is gone
The wind has made it through
Greif makes its presence known
All your body can do is allow the tears to run
To blur the vision in front of you
But you can’t blind yourself from the pain
No you feel warm tears finding their way
Down your frozen face
It is silent and blaring
A dark and brilliant shock
You want to run
And you just want to fall
In this state
Tears are the only language your body knows
Elizabeth Almeida ©2021