"We can be WE" - A Poem

Can't you love me for what’s in my heart
How we're the same
Not how we're apart

Can't you see inside and realize
We all see through
Different colored eyes

Our skin is never the exact same hue
How can who I am ever threaten you
Why can't we seem to live and let live
Instead of forcing our narrow perspective

Don't you see how boring it would be
If we're the same
Everyone like me

There would be nothing to light the fire
To infuriate
Or to inspire

None of us love in the exact same way
Whether, lesbian, straight, bi or gay
A transgendered person has the same soul
Who am I to tell them how to feel whole

Why must we fill our hearts with hate?
Life is too short
Love is innate

All of us thrive beneath the moon and sun
Very diverse
And all of us one.

Don't define yourself through my choices
We all have Independent voices
You can be you and I can be me
Even if we differ we can be we

"State is a Fear of Mind" - A Poem

Your happiness is fleeting
Only fake faces meeting
When you stand within the swarm
A cliche standard greeting
When you hear the sheep bleating
They demand that you conform

When your free thought is a threat
They'll make you live to regret
That you dared to cut from the fray
You see, the way life is set
When you don't live within the debt
You take their control away

But still we're all buying in
All wearing the same false grin
As we hoard what we don't need
When our excuses wear thin
While we hate our own skin
and sink, still clinging to greed

Take but a moment and see
How tolerant we can be
And evolve for all mankind
Believe that we can be free
Not just you or I, but; we
If we just refuse to stay blind

and remember

State is a fear of mind

Ryan Nikkel

(written while on retreat, title is not mine but something a friend wrote which inspired the poem)