By: Allen Serrano

Rain Rising

The hubris we have accumulated from up high opened the gates.
Descending dangerously like a barrage of miniscule arrows,
we only had one destination, no matter how long it took.
I was caught up in the fall. I did not know where to land,
where to make my mark on the world.
My neck swiveled around and everyone looked so complete and ambitious.
Arms flailing like toddler in the air tumbling down uncertain, gray corridors.
If we look at ourselves, we will realize to just keep on going.
History has seen fortitude evaporate.
Plains are still parched by men too afraid and lost to make a move.
The sky knows we are special. We were let go for a reason.
To be a harbinger of a hope, to usher in a new season, to sanctify the savannahs,
to force open artificial flowers in cities of metal and people.
When we return to our birthplace, we will know if it had been worth it.
I will never find my impact if I keep on wondering how others will make it.

###

Heat

How can one just do nothing and still look so beautiful?
I am walking on ground where an angel has ran by.
How does the sun gray, turn to midnight, in the shadow of your smile?
Why does my heart race while you stand over their so innocently?
Will a silent garden ever realize? Even in secret?
I’ve been distracted by you for so long, I’ve been flying into power lines.
Sitting in a birdcage my whole life, all of a sudden I want to bend its bars.

Will my hands, lonely ships, ever learn to hug, crash into your world, a mysterious iceberg?
Do my irises have to wear snowshoes so I don’t sink into your eyes?
Where did you master the power to give me warmth without touch?
I can only imagine what it must feel like talking to you in a blizzard, knowing I will not freeze.
Do you ever wish your hands were clasped, held firm by another, air-tight like igloo?
I am a drifter with compass feet and divining rod arms.
Is this why anywhere I go to forget why my cheeks turn red, it all points back to you?

Why do I forget how to speak when I am with you?
You make my lungs skip a breath. I never know what to say.
Will this moment melt away like the cold on a lonely, summer night?
Am I a penguin who can’t balance the pebble?
Are you the firefly that shines a light but reminds me I am in the dark?
I am still trying to understand that we deserve love but we’re not always ready for it.
I have to get used to the cold and when I do, I’ll run after your heat.

###

i love (the way) you (are)

i love the way you are… a confident girl/i am sorry my actions and intentions are not in total agreement/from flustered boy
i love the way you are: unconscious of your outer beauty/i notice these things like second nature/i hope you do too
i love the way you are: not forgetting you are from dirt/but knowing not to wallow in it/calling yourself, watering yourself, growing yourself a flower
i love the way you are: nursing children like your own/strong and proud like a mother/a kind-kindling spirit

i love the way you are: a lively soul/standing in the middle of a silent snow storm/i just know you will dance in it
i love the way you are: a silver rock levitating/amorous moonstone in the vacuum of space/i admire you from satellite distance
i love the way you are: a rippling lake/with tree rings for eyes/expanding at the allure of everyday matchsticks burning
i love the way you are: conquering mountains and paving trails/kamikaze stomach and firecracker feet/you are always dive bombing in a good way

i love the way you are: a citrus fruit sitting in ceramic bowl/soaked by sunday morning/leaves perched on your branches like doves
i love the way you are: so saccharine and serine/your smile is the orange rinds left on the table/bright-eyed and wide-mouthed
i love the way you are: a tangerine sunset coloring my overcast/you have a soft heart and keep a thick skin/sun spots freckle your surface
i love the way you are: a tigress hiding in wild grasses/the dust dancing in cathedral light/a mandarin river of nectar

i love the way you are: more trusting than me in a man we both cannot see/your faith is the paradigm/i have doubts all the time
i love the way you are: everything i wish to be/i ran through hell for you and i was stupid and naive/admiration is not the same thing as love
i love the way you are: not thinking of me/i am not for you/i am looking too much into things that cannot be
i love the way you are… only the way you are/ i do not know how to love yet/ i learned that i do not love… you