Broken

You said we were one

We were joined together

Nothing could get in on us

What I found in reality

Nothing could escape

All your anger and rage

I carried it as well

All your fear and loathing

Became part of me

The happiness you first saw in me

Slowly evaporated

In the heat of your jealousy

One by one

You built new walls

Closing me in

Making my space

Tighter and tighter

Less and less I could do

Within the confines of your love

Or what you called love

I can fix this

I kept hearing myself say

Everything I fixed

Broke two more

I tried to be only for you

Against my nature

Giving myself to no one else

The more I capitulated

The less it was enough

And it all stayed inside

Until

The day I broke

And the sadness spilled out

I squeezed my heart

Over and over

And more blackness oozed

The self loathing came out

The fear flowed out from me

Much more than I realized

I had held within

As more darkness flowed out

Happiness flowed in

Self esteem found a way inside

Selflessness found a home

In my refurbished heart

The once blackened windows

Were spotless again

My love, formerly a laser focus

Became a floodlight

I’ll keep this heart

Broken but whole

To give out as it flows in

I’ll still be wrong

From time to time

There will still be sadness

But without the walls

I’ll take the sadness

And squeeze it out

To make room for the happiness

Sans walls, sans fear

Love overflowing

© Ron Simpson Jr

Our Best Self

If we do not change 

our idealized viewpoint 

of our flawed past 

we are destined 

to continually repeat 

its damning mistakes 

Change requires acceptance 

that ‘what was’ 

should never have been

and ‘what is’ 

is not enough 

or ‘what was’

and ‘what is’ 

will always be 

We must stop clinging

to yesterday’s mistakes

and embrace 

today’s new reality 

else, we can never evolve

or resolve to become

our best self 

Cast off the shackles 

of fear driven hatred

we must free our minds 

of imagined superiority 

we must accept 

the equality 

of every man and woman 

of every nation and tribe 

I do not need

to be better than you

only better

than my former self

as daily, I strive 

to be my best self  

Still waters 

Become stagnant

Inviting death and decay

Change is essential 

Life is in the flow

It is only then 

We may become

Our best self

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

January 27, 2021

The Wrong Kind of Blindness

The are numerous types of blindness

There are varying degrees 

There are even those 

Which may be considered 

A blessing in disguise

This is not one of those

To say, I see everyone as equal

Regardless of race, creed, or color

To see no distinction of gender

To make no difference of religions 

To refuse to know our uncommonness

Is the wrong kind of blindness

On the surface

The words seem harmless

Perhaps, even magnanimous 

However, they cover an insidiousness

A blindness to the human condition

A refusal to accept and thereby, grow

To say, there is no difference

To quote the mantra

“All lives matter”

Is the wrong kind of blindness

It is a blindness to the hate

Which would burn the world

Your inability or refusal

To see or understand

An issue, centuries old

Perpetuated in anger

Taking lives even today

Is the wrong kind of blindness

Black Lives Matter

Brown Lives Matter 

Female Lives Matter 

Gay Lives Matter

These lives are in peril

No lives matter 

Until these lives matter 

This wrong kind of blindness 

Has crept into our politics and policies

It has crawled into our beliefs

We have passed this fallacy to our youth

We have embraced the lie

So long as we refuse to see

We have a choice

We can be part of the problem

Or we can be part of the solution

“There are none so blind

As those who will not see”

(John Heywood 1546)

Open your eyes

Open your heart

Open your understanding 

Cast off the shackles

The wrong kind of blindness

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

January 24, 2021

Hope

I see you, fear

Skulking around outside

Trying to sneak inside

Trying to taint everything

The shadow you cast is much larger than you are

The pebble becomes a mountainous boulder

The feather becomes an unimaginable weight

The darkness becomes an all-encompassing abyss 

A simple cough becomes a dying last gasp 

A solitary droplet of rain 

portends a violent storm and raging flood

You seek to make the raging flames of hope

Merely an ash covered ember in the final throes of life

Your rains will vehemently beat the earth

As your winds forcefully lash the trees

Breathing out your destruction

In the lives of those which let

You are not as scary as you claim

Your power is in your deceit

It is in your self-replicating lies

It is in the belief of your victims

From my heart I strike at you

From my belief I cast you out

I will not be ruled by your baseless imaginings

I will reignite the fires of hope

I will refill the wells of belief

I will stand in the wind

I will face my storms

I see you, fear 

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

January 9, 2020