“But every morning
I wake up and worry
What’s gonna happen today
You see it your way
And I see it mine
But we both see it slipping away”
Category: Poems
Fill Me Up

Because I’m an empty vessel
waiting to be filled.
I find myself flirting with sin.
I do it by way of pen
and paper. Trying to stitch
hope into my skin
I snuggle inside words. Poetry
can’t hurt me the way a
man can. In verse, I can build
anticipation again. Doors open
inside my head. Verbs press
against me, hard and
wanton. I find a sacred niche
between the lines. Here
I take the light. Here it never
darkens or leaves.
Devotion blesses me with sweetness
and excess.
Heaven is found in scenes that are
too scary and loud to live.
I’m an empty vessel.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Romancing myself with
my poetic wooings.
Damming myself to things
conjured, a Paradise
devoid of air, the shadows of
a scarred soul, and the
language of mangled spirit
Waiting to be loved again.
-Tosha Michelle
Warmth’s Inner Light
No longer content with the
winter life and its flannel
sleep. Self and it’s terms
finally meet
She wipes away
the frost from her soul
And sees spring illuminated
beyond the cold.
Sunlight the trinket she’s
always possesed
misplaced for awhile
shine from within.
Her sepia world
long deprived of green
become vibrant and
alive again.
She walks away in blue
with plenty of heart
by the light of her own
eyes, no longer needing
to find it in another.
-Tosha Michelle
Delicate Decadence
dressed in lace
Sipping a colorful drink
Singing and swaying
to a happy tune.
Instead, poetry likes to weep
in my ear, turned out
in black with a bottle
of scotch
Miles Davis on replay.
There’s happiness in me
to be written, to be lived.
I’m never as melancholy
as my writing would suggest.
Joy is just waiting to be
unfolded like a love
note hidden in dresser
buried under layers of clothes.
One day I’ll give into
nostalgia and find solace
in the lyrical prose.
It’s just there so much art and beauty
in the exquisite feeling of
sadnes. My strictured soul
finds solace in its untamed
sweetness. Its bluesey notes
lnown to me, heard by me,
sung by me, felt by me.
The delicate decadence
-Tosha Michelle
Lessons
In honor of suck up to your love day which happens tomorrow, I give you a list. You’d rather have jewlery? Same!
Things I’ve Learned From Relationships
1. Always be yourself if you can’t be who you are with your partner, what’s the point? If you feel you have to be something you’re not to gain your significant other’s affection then this is a huge red flag
For me that means being my awkward, weird and random self.
2. You deserve to be appreciated and treated well. Never be anyone’s afterthought, second choice, or stand in. You are amazing and should be treated as such
Seriously, do not put up with neglect. Ani’t nobody got time for that.
3. Love isn’t like the movies, at least after the endrpohins wear off. Love is a choice. It’s an action. If you base your relationship on feelings, you’ll end up being disappointed or looking for the next emotional high. Feelings come and go, but real love endures and it is a conscious effort
Sometimes love is more like a day at the dentist or a walk off a cliff
4. Compromise. It’s not always about you. Consider your partner’s needs and be willing to meet them halfway.
It’s mostly about what I want though. Kidding
5. Lies and withholding information have no place in a good relationship. Honesty is fundamental along with being able to communicate in a healthy way. Your partner should be your best friend, greatest cheerleader, and your reality check
Nobody wants just a yes man in their lives unless they have egos like eggs
6. Having things in common is important and being able to blend your lives together.
Differences can be fun too.
7. Being loved and validated is everything. You need to feel like you matter and are a priority. The person you’re with should make you feel secure and cherished everyday
Everyday.. even on Super Bowl Sunday.
8. Sometimes, love hurts There will always be disappointments that crop up and growing pains as you and your partner go through your life together. This pain can serve to teach you how to love your partner better
Or how to love someone else better the next time
9. Love goes much deeper than sexual gratification. Sex can be a wonderful way to express love, but shouldn’t be the only way, or the lychpin that holds the relationship together. If you build your partnership on the physical alone, it will crumble. The superficial will never last Take time to connect on a deeper level, one that is emotional and spiritual.
Sex is natural. Sex is cool, but you can find it anywhere.
10. Sometimes relationships end no matter how much love and work you put into them. People change. Circumstances shift and hearts grow cold. It’s a sad, but the most important lesson I’ve learned is never give up, never stop trying. Love will come again.
In the meantime, there’s always books, chocolate, BOB and lists!
The Things We Do For Love
Just because😜💕💕
Saturday Music Jam
Drinking old cheap bottles of wine
Sit talking up all night
Saying things we haven’t for a while, a while yeah
We’re smiling but we’re close to tears
Even after all these years
We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting
For the first time
Ode to Grass Stains and Wildberries

We create our own joy.
Come roll around with me
in the grass til our
clothes are stained.
Til the clouds turn violet.
Let’s eat ice cream under
the stars and hold each other
until the restlessness dissipates.
Tonight let’s not battle the hardwood floors,
the laundry chute, or the dishes.
Let’s defy gravity, monotony,
the drudgery of life.
Throw away the map.
Let’s find another way.
Eat the wild berries.
Live on the breeze.
Amp up the brightness of
the moon.
Who cares if the universe
complains?
Let’s create a language
that fits us, in a land
of pine cones and sage.
Red dress on the ground
where desire stays.
Nouns infused with passion
tongue, earlobes, necks..
Shuttering hands, quivering bodies.
The sentences of ourselves.
Infinitives, unearthing new verbs
and their allure.
Upgrading our love
to a window seat in first
class.
Rethinking how.
Reordering now.
-Tosha Michelle
Just Go

Flowers of what is pollinated
by bees of what might have
been. Mundane afternoons married
to evenings of TV and ringtones
that have forgotten how to ring.
An old journal reminds her
it’s not too late
to resurrect a dream or lost
shimmer, to right her caddy-corner
heart left askew by
a lover’s hands. She grasps
for the notes under air,
leaving the past to glide
past and out the door.
She bows to the cartography of light
and presses the guidebook to
her chest. Knowing it’s time
to rise and go, to spiral out
into the unmoored and unknown.
-Tosha Michelle




