This is dedicated to all those who dare reach into my darkness and pluck out the specks of light like the few lone needles in a million haystacks. Listen, I do not know if all of this life is mere happenstance or some fate already sealed and set free but what I do know is that I am grateful for the people who are by my side, however, they ended up being there. Trust me when I say, I am surprised that the circle keeps growing. I am blessed to have people who prove friendship is too prone to icebergs and dare to become family even when the blood says different. There is nothing we need more than understanding. What good is your gold in a land of the misunderstood? I have sat in a room full of laughing faces and felt like the puddle at the side of the river. The right people flow with you not beside you. How easy it is to be yourself around those who accept. Your tribe are a shaker of boxes forever pulling you out of them and never trying to confine. Your people make you laugh ugly and sing even when you cannot. And trust me, I truly cannot. Whether you dub them friends or family, the ones you love should never stomp you down, they should raise you up. And Halloween is the only time we should accept masks. This is to everybody who has helped me shed a smile or pulled laughter from the pits of me. To the kindness and generosity. Love is not an uphill battle, it is a downward slope almost vertical. So as always, I will end this with a question - are you ready to take the brakes off? Because I did and it feels glorious.

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Friendship to me is all about openness. The good and the bad. The ugly too. This poem is about being transparent and feeling what you feel and getting to know people in all their shades. This poem is called

TONIGHT

Become a room without windows and show the darkest parts of yourself.

Show me the stones that collect your blood like trophies from your knees, yes, expose the caves you crawl through - the ones you emerge from

'whole again’

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