The Butterfly Effect

Use care when
traveling
to the past, one mistake
could change history.
You may never return
to that which you once knew.
Reveal a secret and
cause a war.
Stop something from
ever happening-
the entire
space-time continuum
will be doomed.

Decisions you may consider
small, use care-
you have more power than you realize.

Threes

they say
that luck
comes in threes

good and bad and everything in between

they say
the pattern stays
and you settle in

in music and stories and punchlines

they say
two's a pattern,
that it's breakable
and when I break it; it just doesn't sit right

new fears this halloween

you grow up and
your problems get bigger
sure, that makes sense, but
nobody warns you that
so do your friends'

it's Halloween
I've learned new fears since
dressing up as a pumpkin in the 1st grade

it used to be faceless monsters
lurking in the dark,
now my friend's little sister
can't get the help she needs,
her parents don't believe that
the monster in her closet
is now trapped inside her
rattling her rib cage

it used to be big kids out
early, when we were trick or treating
but now the cops are at another friend's house
and they might take the kids away
all five siblings, while she's hundreds of miles away
the fear of separation that big is far worse
than any screams behind bushes or pranks on houses
how do you tell a 6-year-old to find a new family?

it's my last Halloween as a kid
all I see are haunting reminders
that fictional horror
ain't got nothing on reality