Discarded

Did you throw an old love away…
For another who’ll never stay?
I hope you won’t have regrets,
When this newer heart forgets…
And leaves you as easily,
As you’ve discarded me.

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

Is It True?

Why is it that you’re everywhere?
I see your face in every place.
Can it be that I really care…
And there’s no more denying it?
Is this a mutual love we share,
And can it possibly be true…
That you love me the way I love you?

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

Madness

Vibrant lives have been lost and tears are flowing,
From the grieving eyes of family and friends…
Whose hearts have been forever broken.
There are no words that can be spoken…
To comfort them after this madness,
In the turmoil they are undergoing.
The sudden violence perpetrated,
On innocent victims, targeted by hatred…
Seems to have become a sadly recurring theme.
Must more innocent blood flow in an endless stream,
In the name of someone’s supposed higher cause?
When did another’s life get relegated,
To something not viewed as sacred…
That can be randomly terminated?

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

Forever Yours

I thank the heavens for you every day.
I love you so much more than words can say.
You’re the one love in this world for me.
Yours is the image I see constantly.
Without you, my life would be incomplete.
I don’t know how my heart would still beat.
I try to tell you with my humble rhyme…
That my love is yours until the end of time.

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

One Man’s Story

His house is one of the last remaining on his street…
Where many homes have fallen apart and been torn down.
He lives alone with his dogs to keep him company…
In their eyes, he’s a king with a castle, who wears a crown.
He collects abandoned items people throw away…
And decorates his humble abode with artful taste.
He forages through fast-food restaurant garbage cans,
Finding the leavings that others discard as waste.
Two patiently waiting dogs wag their tails happily…
As he shares a salvaged meal with them graciously.
Another sun is setting and closing another day…
Tomorrow he’ll begin once more, tenaciously.
Tonight he’ll sleep in his crumbling, ramshackle home…
With devoted dog companions to keep him warm.
He survives in spite of advancing age and poverty…
Continuing to bravely face storm after storm.

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

You Won’t Remove Me

I know you wish I was out of the way…
Too bad you’ll never see that day.
Can’t you see you’ll never get rid of me?
It’s a complete impossibility.
If anyone must go, it will be you.
Leaving is the one thing I won’t do.
I stick like permanent glue…
And gum on the sole of a shoe.
I’m someone you can’t erase…
You won’t ever take my place.
I’m a mountain that you’ll never move.
It’s a waste of your energy.
Try if you must but you’ll fail…
I’m stronger than you’ll ever be.

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

Is It Too Late?

Did I miss any chance that came my way?
Is everything lost to yesterday?
Was there a great price I had to pay…
For words I said or refused to say,
And things I did or didn’t do?
Have possibilities grown few…
Unlike when my dreams were new,
And I had an optimistic view?
Is it too late to compensate…
For losing time that wouldn’t wait?
Am I a victim claimed by fate…
Whose bright promise has passed its date?

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

Power Over Me

Do you like to watch me cry?
Are my tears your souvenirs?
Does it prove that I love you…
When my sobbing fills your ears?
Does it make you feel secure…
Knowing that you can wound me,
With the power of your words…
And shatter me so easily?

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

In Your Eyes

I never thought that I’d find love,
Until I found it in your eyes…
A moment so startling to me,
I thought my heart was telling lies.
How could you really exist…
After all these years passed by?
But, now I’m sure that you’re real…
As real as the earth and sky.

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama

Young Soldiers

You send your young soldiers to war,
To keep danger away from your door.
They fight the battles and shed the blood,
In foreign lands, far away from you.
They do the killing and dying…
That you don’t have the stomach to.
Then you repay them with disdain,
When they return back home again…
Their broken bodies filled with pain,
And refuse them care when they complain.
Then you wonder why they go insane…
When hope is something they can’t regain.
And when they self-destruct you say…
“I don’t know why it ended that way.”

© Mary Elizabeth Balderrama