People inspire me...

So I write about them.


For Saum:

There's a man with laughter in the creases of his eyes
And yes, she is certainly his daughter
A form of beautiful ripped from the pages of magazines
With a grace inside of her that flies
Holding a book of prophets in one hand
And drunken hilarity in the other

She is lightening and memory and merry-go-rounds

With a perfectly flawed soul worn on her sleeve
She follows the sun with adventure
Speaking the words I wish I knew
Through stories the mouth can't tell fast enough

She thinks in poetry
And I can only wish to some day love with the same intensity she does

It's the red jeep secrets
And moonlit talks that let us escape,
And dig deeper
And pounce on a life much to large for our eighteen years

Oh but she'll do it
Because as the city lights woke her
She fell in love with the world
Floating on electric nights she could only sleep for a moment
Never tip-toeing through life
Or apologizing for crossing the brink from comfort to confusion
As the wind swallowed up the bird's songs and played them like banjos

She is rare

One of those
Who can talk about life like a bowl of pink light
Shining from the valley
That others just call morning

In a school where people grow like weeds
She is the name that comes to mind when I think of how a person should be

One of those
Whose got a fire like I've never felt.
An offbeat sense of humor, inherited from her mother,
A smile that spreads to the eyes, a characteristic from her father,
And a messy, blemished beauty all her own

She is not just words
She is soul

A barefoot dreamer
With Lebanese gods dancing in the sunlight of her thoughts

One of those
Who changes your life just by being part of it
Because home is wherever she is.




For Brooke:

Stripped down to poetry,
Surrounded by words,
She will apologize
For engulfing us with happiness
When all we want to do is watch
The glitter dance on her eyelashes
And that beautiful smile of hers spread
To the apples of her cheeks,
An image so stunning that to her didn't used to feel like home.

But now she's stuck in it.
She's stuck in that smile
Because she deserves nothing less.

Hell, she deserves all of it...
For the compliments that pour from a mind filled with distant dreams
Like a mirror reflecting back all the best parts of her.
For a grace
That leaps from the page and reminds me why I continue writing.
And for quiet confidence
That glows in the silence of every smile she walks by
Echoing the remarkable beauty that she will forever insist she doesn't have.

If you're looking for someone to envy
Stop searching,
She's right here.