Your Smile
Ever since I’ve known you,
You’ve had that smile on your face
On your best days,
It can be seen from miles away
On your worst days,
It can still be seen
Ever so slightly
Peeking through your worries and sorrows
Refusing to be suppressed
After a long day
Of cooking a dinner for many
It breaks its way out,
With that modest feeling one gets
When they know they’ve done something the best they can
With all the love they can give
It takes its shape at 6:00 in the evening,
When the sight of your family stepping through the door,
After a year apart
Makes your heart prance in jubilation
Every morning when you sit in your chair
Looking out the window
At the outside world whizzing by
With a cup of tea in your hand
That smile of yours seems to return
Without a care for what others will think,
Of a gray-haired elderly lady
Staring out of a window
As solid as stone
And at the parties,
Oh the parties,
When someone laughs as loud as a hyena,
The smile takes its shape again,
Knowing that at least someone else,
Is having the time of their life
So if you ever find yourself in doubt,
Or if you ever wonder about your appearance despite
The wrinkles on your face,
I sincerely hope you remember this,
Just smile,
And all of your impurities and troubles
Will wash away
Early grave
Lord, lord, lord, you’re going to send me to an early grave
Your frivolous tests and trials, with all my effort I have overcame
Alas, no more can I withstand, be it on water, air, or land
For one more little nudge, and I think I’ll turn to sand!
I asked my friend the other day, if his teacher was in a pickle,
Lately, she had been frantically rummaging through the class trying to find her jar of treacle
My friend responded with a laugh, “Humans don’t live in vegetables,
They stay outside in the bigger world, and some eat veggies until they’re unable.”
The next day, while I was walking, Louise through in my direction a ball,
I quickly darted out of the way, being careful to avoid a fall
Louise gave one look at me and said cheerfully, “Oh, that wasn’t for you,
James and I are playing catch, but say, how about a dinner for two?”
On the way home that evening, there was a blizzard, quite cold and windy,
I decided to don my favorite baseball cap, completely out of vacuity,
Little did I know that a well-meaning gust would blow it away,
And plop it on a tree branch, where it planned for eternity to stay
So, dear lord, I ask you, what is this game you have created,
With trickery and foolishness, you have me utterly dumbfounded,
And I know you’re probably wondering what happened to the pen in your office
Let’s just say I happened to borrow it; I’ve been able to get my homework done thus!
The ball is in your hands
Oh, will you look at that!
Steve was climbing to Cricket heaven
But he stumbled on a step and decided to cheat
Now, he's driving to the hall of shame
The twins were aspiring musicians
They went to college, earned 4.4 GPA in every class
However, they got over-confident and chose to slack off
Away they fell to the 2.0 GPA pile
What they don't know is that,
Everyone gets a chance to be on the field
It’s up to them how the game will go
So when the ball lays itself in their palms, they either grasp it or drop it
And wherever it rests, it remains, never to return again
Today I checked the news, and I saw
A hundred thousand people in protest
In support of something the boss won’t do
They shall sleep well tonight
There’s always everybody,
The intelligent and the ill-minded
Some succeed, some fail
I guess that’s just the way life is on planet Earth
Hey, you people,
Choices are a one-way path
When you begin on it, you may not turn back
So the next time you pass a playing field, and the ball comes to you
I suggest you take it and grasp it,
So that in your hands, it will stay
Avery
These days, I only see dirt,
The green, flower-filled land there once was has become dry and barren
I want to make a change, but the Earth is not in the front of people’s minds
Won’t anyone listen to me?
Around the world, leaders are becoming corrupt
They fund the rich, and ignore the poor
When those who wish for change ask for it, they are turned deaf ears
Won’t anyone hear their voices?
Everywhere you look, there is poverty,
Beggars stand tirelessly beside the roads,
Women weep for their children have no clothes,
We see their pain, we wish for change,
Won’t anyone help us?
Oh Avery, dear, sweet Avery,
Do not let these problems affect you,
You are too innocent to be the subject of condescension
Let not your youth be deprived
When you awaken every day, think of your family,
Your parents, your friends, all of those you feel for,
With every step you take, bring new breath, new purpose, new life
Such is my wish for you, young, fair child of hope