I hide hurt behind a fake smile. I wear it all the time. Everyone says how I always look so cheerful. Shows what they know I guess.

Grandma once told me it's easy to overthink love, to dissect it and question it until it is no more.

If I come back to you now, can we be what we were before life’s uncertain rhythms tore us so far apart? If I return today, will your arms gather me in, or will I be wrenched away, snatched by riptide I have no power to resist? If I find my way to you, one man standing in a crowd, will I even know who you are?

Happily ever after is a concept I'll never believe in.

You gotta be crazy to open your windows, invite the demons in.

Words have power. The power to soothe. The power to skewer someone through the heart. The power to render someone speechless.

Do you ever dangle your toes over the precipice, dare the cliff to crumble, defy the frozen deity to suffer the sun, thaw feather and bone, take wing to fly you home?