Metamorphis

Your smile fades,

happiness leaving your face

until only blankness

 remain.

You're not the person

I know.

My friend

 had disappeared,

and in her place

is a stranger. 

What happened?

The times we spent together

are distant memories.

How I wish

we could go back;

that our separation

never happened.

I look away,

too painful to look

at the face that I recognize,

but barely recognizes me.
At the face that seems
so familiar,
yet strange.

Silence hangs
between us,
heavy with
unsaid words and regrets.

I put on a mask
and smile,
waving good-bye
to the friend
who wasn't.

Lighten Up

We are so

pessimistic;

complaining about

the most inane

reasons

and ignoring the 

big problems

in the world.

We often ignore

the small blessings

everyday brings us;

things that

 makes us smile

for at least a moment. 

We forget

to remember those

light-hearted moments

and dig ourselves into

our own graves.

We have to be reminded

that happiness comes in 

the smallest of packages,

scattered through out 

the days.

So lighten up.

We all need to. 

Stand Out

We hide who

we are

inside

because

we are afraid

will not fit in;

that we would be singled

out in a society

where difference

is not

normal.

Yet if

no one was 

different

and no one dared

to stand out,

what

would ever change

or be interesting

in our

lives?

Grounded

How I wish

that I could grow wings

and fly away

from the horrors

we call

society.

That I could escape

the cruelty,

brutality,

and inanity

whenever I needed;

so I would not feel

that humanity is

doomed.

Yet I stay

grounded,

never truly free,

and I must embrace 

these faults

to appreciate

the blessings.

Fighting Children

Determination set 

in their faces,

they set out to their

doom

of trauma

and death.

Trained as soldiers

and 

are tossed into battle

where they are expected

to survive

and win.

The mirage

created of

invincibility

is quickly shattered

when caught by gunfire;

they may fight 

like soldiers,

but they die

like who they are:

children.

I was in Book City today, when I spotted a book about child soldiers called "They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children." The title really caught my attention, as well as the cover. It had the picture of a child soldier holding a gun and wearing a fuzzy pink teddy-bear backpack, mouth open and a determined expression. What shocked me was that this boy looked younger then I was.

The Boundary

Imagination

and reality

separated by a line so

fine

that the two

blur together.

We have no

distinct boundary

where truth

and false

ends

and the other

starts.

What we think

is the finish of one

is truly just the middle

and we must

dig deeper

to even get an inkling

about how

subtle 

the differences are. 

What is Real?

How do we know

that what we see

is not the figment

of someone's imagination?

That what we call

real

is not a dream

or in

the edge

of consciousness
of a person?

That what we dream

is a fake, 

made up world

from our subconscious

and not the other way

around?

Perhaps the world

we always thought as 

twisted and impossible

is actually normal

and the world

we consider

authentic 

is the

insane

one?

I just watched the movie "Inception" and it totally messed with my mind. I was left with so many questions about what was real and what was a dream that someone created. What was the thing that we called "reality" and what was "fake" or "untrue".

What if someone did find out that the world we consider "real" is actually all a dream, and the crazy, impossible world of our subconscious and imagination is reality? 

Monsters

Monsters.

Our fears embodied 

in grotesque forms.

We create them in our stories

and 

imaginations,

a figment brought to life.

A way to cope

with our

worries and doubts,

and a form where 

we can defeat

them.

But does destroying the monster

truly get rid

of the fear

it exemplifies?

Or does it just hides it away

until it comes back

to haunt us once

more?

They and We

They came.

And conquered.

Capturing our land

and sending us off

to far away places,

where the soil is barren

and basic necessities 

are gone.

They claim the land is theirs,

that they had discovered it.

They pretend we had never existed.

They take our children

and make them renounce their beliefs

and dreams.

They beat them,

hurt them

physically

and emotionally.

They tell us that everything they do is right.

That white skin is perfect

and any other colour

is dirty.

If any of us try to fight back,

we are destroyed,

diminished.

They commit genocide without

spilling a drop of blood.

They tell us we are wrong.

But we are not the ones

brainwashing children

or stealing things.

We don't kill people who

go against us,

who don't believe in what we believe.

We are not the evil ones.

We are not the cruel ones. 

We are not the ones that

conquer lands

and destroy people and homes.

Look inside and see

who we truly are.

This is pretty much a generalization of what happened in North America, South America and Australia when white people came and took over. 

Pleas of a Hitler Youth

Please.
Forgive me.
I didn't want to fight.
I didn't want to kill.
I tried so hard
to run away from this carnage,
only to die now
at the hands of my own comrade.
Blood and bodies
of friends and enemies
haunt my dreams,
faces of a thousand
victims
making me scream.
Remember,
I'm only a kid,
not an adult.
I'm not a monster
that's heartless.
I'm a human.
I'm one of you
who has seen too much.
Forgive me.
Please.

I was reading about Hitler and World War 2 when I came across this shocking fact: children and teens were used as soldiers for the Nazis. As young as they age of 10, they were trained as ruthless killers for Hitler, and were sent out to do gruesome jobs. What inspired this is that if any of the 'Hitler Youths' ran away in battle, they were killed by one of their own comrades for being a coward. Just goes to show us that we haven't come far from brutality and cruelty as we would like to think.

A Small Memorial about the Slave Trade

Our normal lives turned

upside down;

cruelty now reigns

full of bodies, blood

and disease.

We breath in death overseas,

leather cracking over our backs.

Help us.

Captured to make

cotton and sugar

for rich people who are blind

to how we have to sacrifice

our minds, bodies,

and souls.

We try to escape

this hell of a ship;

freeing our souls 

from our tortured bodies.

Remaining silent,

we must write our story

on our skin and mind.

Don't forget this shameful story.

Don't forget,

we're human too.

Rock Shelves

Giant rocky shelves

sit precariously on top of each other

creating hideaways for

creatures

and plants.

They carefully store away

the lives of lichen

and marine mammals;

carefully.

How is it

that something that seems

so hostile

can harbour life? 

(Human) Nature: Our Impact

Although we

Don’t admit it,

Somewhere inside of

Us knows

We are the ones

Who can change the

Earth

For better or for worse.

Open Myself Up

Am I ready to share who I am

with the school?

Am I prepared to face whatever embarrassments

it will bring?

Will I be able to handle the strange looks,

the ones showing me I'm different

and not just a face in the sea of students?

Will it help me at all

knowing I'm doing this all for a good cause?

A perfect person would answer

a yes to all of them immediately,

but I'm not flawless.

I'm scared about what others

will think.

I'm frightened to be picked out as someone

to be pitied and not

as someone normal.
Will I be called a freak?
I'm terrified about the fingers pointing
and the voices whispering,
about laughs shared behind my back.
I'm scared.
Plain and simple.

But what am I supposed to say?
Just,
"I had cancer,"
and that's it.
No.
I've got to be brave,
and change the world by
overcoming my petty fears
and raising the awareness
childhood cancer
needs.

In class, we're doing a "business venture" and I was placed in the Charity Awareness and Education committee (which is actually not much of a group, just me and someone else). As I realized one of the most effective way to get the message around is to go class-to-class, I saw that I would have to share who I am with the school to raise awareness for the thing I truly care about.

I had childhood cancer at the age of one; stage 4 (the highest stage), neuroblastoma, which is a type of nerve cancer. I'm healthy now, but I still have to go for annual check-ups and sometimes have my hearing and heart checked. The chemotherapy I had to go through caused me to partially lose my hair and damaged my body permanently.

Please check the website to the Canadian Cancer Foundation, also known as the Candlelighters Foundation. It would mean so much to me and childhood cancer survivors and sufferers.

http://www.candlelighters.ca/index.html

(Human) Nature: Treasure

Rare humans are ones

Who listen, united with

Secrets of nature

(Human) Nature: Contrast

 If humanity is greed,

Then nature is generosity.

For we take all we want

And nature never complains.

But our unsatisfied need

Will eventually come back

And haunt us. 

(Human) Nature: Connected

We breathe in,

They breathe out.

Exchanging what cannot

Be wasted;

A fair interchange.

Yet what type of dealer are we?

We kill and poison our

Benefactors

But in truth

We are only

Killing ourselves.

(Human) Nature: Unfair

We eat other

living things and

are not concerned

about it.

Yet why then

do we make

a racket when

other living things 

eat humans?

I've always wondered about this. We hear it everywhere on the news if some guy got mauled by a bear or cougar, but no one pays attention when we go hunt and eat other animals. Why??

(Human) Nature: Echo

There are things we can’t

change,

like nature,

and life.

Yet we foolishly try,

overthrowing the

balance

and cycles,

creating chaos

when we only want order.

(Human) Nature: Foresting

The tree stretched its leaves

Shaking maple keys

In the morning sunlight

Not knowing what was to come.

People slipped through the foliage like

Ghosts,

Carrying axes and saws,

And found the young maple.

All the animals cringed,

Hearing the tree fall

While the trees wept for

Their comrade,

And the humans, deaf to nature,

Carried the corpse away.

(Human) Nature: Static

Humans are radios,

tuned into our artificial

world

and

tuned out of

Nature

(Human) Nature: Equality

Humans have hurdled free

From evolution

But does that make us

Any different

Or better

Than every other living things?