Making the Connection

Dedicated to me, for missing yet another scholarship deadline


I could have sworn I saw my brother in your eyes
except for the fact that you look better and haven’t come to realize
that the photograph I hold in my hand is of you,
a thousand miles away covered in disappointment, sweat, and tears.
I want to say that you look lost with a touch of anger
because I find myself in the same position, the same pain, only quieter.
These tears are salty because this report card is bad and
I just might not go to college and help the world as I’d planned.
Every C,D, and F is another itinerary cancelled
and for some reason…I don’t think you’d appreciate that.
You see my brother from another brother and another world entirely
we are connected you and I.
How I can’t say yet, but because of you I must try.
Pretty words can only get me so far
and Pretty grades can’t tell what I do out of home;
while you were playing with sticks
and breaking calcified bones
My Words have been spilling stories of Israel and Palestine
of how I wish that their governments would drop more than just lifelines
…tales of a president beyond color and past within the U.S.
of how hope could eventually ease our struggles and all of our distress.
Stories last a lifetime if the words are on paper
and as if by your persistence,
my personal library continues to grow greater.
The stories I read and the stories I tell
have taken up my time and so in school I don’t do well.
Instead, I tell people to lean, to listen now and then
Focus on the bigger picture, don’t try and pinpoint the when.
I’ll take own advice and I won’t crumple your photo
I will dry my eyes, still insisting on some greater good .
The next A is for you,
I know this although nothing is set in stone
I’m going to find myself just for you,
and together
we’re coming home.

Fuller.D

Let Our Love Light

Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light SHINE

Paper may leave pen but will always come back again

That…that is Love
Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light SHINE

Ajay sat with his pen, envisioning
his dreams would always come back again;
so he could tell stories of crumbling ancient temples
lightly dusted with sand,
retold by his father who helped to
retake the great land
from the great empire
who fought a great fight
and lost in a great battle
So they said…
but Ajay knew there was more
MORE there had to be more
to this story past told.
What about the people,
the person,
the soul?
He sat his pen down
and refused to fight the feeling of
being unwound,
the voices in his head were no longer just sounds
but people, persons, souls
urging him on.

Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light SHINE

Paper may leave pen but will always come back again
That…that is love

Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light
Let your love light SHINE

an Apron full of beans,
dry Hands shelling seeds,
lean Bodies climbing trees,
these were the things he went out to See.
Hugs coming to a standstill,
Love lost in a landfill,
Children’s laughter for a bill,
these were the things he didn’t want to Be
there, surrounding him.
MORE there just had to be more!
But questioning the past was like
questioning the World one Person at a time,
one Generation at a time,
one Memory at a time.
And so Ajay picked back up his pen,
deciding to retell the story once again;
this time for his son and his sons.
Just like his father did for him.

Paper left pen and came back again
That…that was love.

Fuller.D