What is the Bridge you ask?  The Bridge connects all life  All worlds All universes  All dimensions  All that can be  All that will be And that has been  And all that is. Time means nothing to the Bridge  Distance of space is irrelevant. One can connect through it And travel anywhere  Any when As anything.  But what makes the Bridge what it is?  What could possibly connect so many  Distant worlds  And sentients?  What force  What cornerstone  Would the Bridge build its house on?  Not to sound cliche but  Love.  Love is what connects us And so love is makes up  The foundation of the Bridge.  The kind of love that sees you. Sees everything.  Anything.  All things.  It empowers you  And dares not to deny your sentience.  It is an Animist by nature  Seeing sentience in forces like wind  And sky  And sea  And Earth And fate.  It dares not deny your reality  And seeks to see existence  Through your eyes Whoever or whatever you are.  Organic and synthetic  Humanoid and abstract  All beings  All life All existences  Are welcomed  So long as they walk through the gate With open hearts  And open minds  And open eyes.  Only an empty cup  Can drink from its fountain  Of experience and knowledge.  Only one whose eyes  Are unclouded by hatred  Can soar upon its  Cool colorful ribbons  Of prismic-colored lights.  And they all travel amongst its  Grand web of highways  Connecting worlds and universes  Separated by dimensional borders  Bridging across the cosmos  In a blink.  Carbon-based-lifeforms  Silicate-based-lifeforms  Synthetic consciousness  Planetary and solar consciousness  Even what the finite refer to as gods  Use its vast highways To both explore the unknown  And reunite with home.  But with so many points of view  Traveling its vast network  Seeking and finding Wonders  Hopes Wishes  Homes  And love What becomes of the Bridge itself. With all those beings traveling through it  Each being seen by the Bridge  Would it not also wish to be seen? Yes, it wanted to be seen. And it wanted to see and experience  Existence  Through its own eyes. It wanted to travel the cosmos  And become finite.  It wanted to live and die  And transcend both life and death.  It wanted to know what home means  And what beauty looks like. It wanted to feel the warmth of family  And fall in love.  So it grew its own consciousness.  A being known by many names  But universally recognized  As The Bridge Between. Its emissary  Its will Its desire to exist  And to share existence with others Traveling its own highways And seeing all that existence Has to offer. The Bridge Between is born From the Bridge's paradoxical need  To be and be seen. It is both vast and finite  Like almost all awesome beings.  It is complex and fallible.  It is strange and silly.  It is wondrous and worrisome.  It is perfectly imperfect  Capable of growth and flow  Creativity and disastrous wrath.  It too had to learn  And still learns at times  To see existence With open eyes and mind  And heart  All unclouded by hatred  All full of love.  It is one with the Bridge  Yet has its own Identity and Will. It has a family amongst the stars  A home within the Bridge itself  And a darling beloved  Whom lives and dies with it. They find each other again and again Little adventures in big worlds.  A truly fulfilling existence:  In every world it steps upon  In every universe it treds  Across every dimension it ascends  Or descends Even within its own network The Bridge Between always seems To live the life it needs. So what is the Bridge?  It is now and hence forth  Shall remain to be The very Spirit of The Bridge Between.

In the wake of my prime I do find myself Deep in reflection Of decades gone by And all I could see For such a time Was the ruthless wrath Of a pitch blackness An ocean of sorrow And despair Turbulent and cruel And with every crashing wave I did believe "Tis the time of my drowning." Yet here I stand. And still I contemplate Why did not succumb Fully To that dark abyss And while I am no longer Fighting the current It has left its toll upon me. Still I wonder why There remains a twinkle In my eye For all that that ocean did provide It did take away. And for so long I have only seen Its cruelty and malice And treachery. So why am I not it? And it is now, only now That while these grains Of seed sown in subtlety Through my fields of Recollection Do not grant comfort Nor glee I can at last see, They are what define me. These subtle changes Moments, admits the chaos, Of wonder and purity Tiny glittering jewels And while they shed No warmth Nor ease Nor sense of safety Even in today, I now see the lines between. For twas these tiny Glittering moments That found their way Deep into my core. Twas not the ocean of the cruel That forged me into what I am. Twas this constellation Of imperfect moments Admits the deepness Of despair; Those cold and distant lights Quiet and far and without consistency Yet in spite of all that I have Seen and seemed Twas those lights that forged Broken sands of lost moments Into the stained walls Worthy of cathedrals Glorious and vibrant And full of life. I say onto thee Treasure those tiny stars Those fragments of light Admits the dark The turbulent And torcherous. Do not dare lose sight of them For if you allow When at last land is found They may guide you home As they did for me.

You planted me in a garden of weeds The soil was dead and there was little rain I could not see the sun I grew, I grew, I grew, I tried But I did not have the nutrients to blossom You dug me up again and again And moved me from plot to plot But each was as infested as the last And some were even worse So I had not the foundation to blossom You forced me to fend for myself From mice and termites and worse Then chastised me for growing thorns And cut them from my stem It cut the strength from me to blossom You starved me of my pollen And when I did pollen it was with more weeds And at times against my consent Always did wasps you use for me to pollen So I had not the affection to blossom You grew frustrated with my lack of resilience Asked and demanded for me to blossom Said "why can't you be what We need you to be" Yet ignored my pleas and cries So I had no reason to blossom At last you took me far far away And brought me to a city of other roses And each was as starved and hurt as I Their thorns did dig into me Which meant I had not the community to blossom And when at last I did declare "Not for you or another, dear Gardener, will i share Only do i choose to blossom for me" You abandoned me to be on my own So nobody saw me blossom And it took time to unfold my pedals I had to build a briarwood first And beneath a labyrinth of my thorns My pedals did unfurl Alone I finally blossomed And I met more roses that did care for me One was an elder who had been forgotten With a glow worm as a pet And together we built a home So that we could together blossom And another rose older than I While not an elder, hurt he was indeed He took me as his little sister And though his constant jokes drive me furious at times I am glad we together do blossom And there are others still it's true Other flowers and trees that have come together Abandoned and broken, some still being starved And together a forest is growing And for them I still blossom But resources are still scarce Grown domesticated we all were But through the neglectful abuse of our Gardener We found ourselves left in wanting And so in reluctance we blossom Yet still you Gardener with blackest of thumbs Demand I fulfill my job and bloom So bright and blue that all can see Your glory and your ascension Yet you did not help me blossom I will not barter, I know what I am And I am grateful to be the bloom that I've become But a boundary must be laid, even with you my Gardener I need the rest of my fellow roses If you want me to build a Bridge of blossoms I need the comfort of other pedals The community of fellow roses And one to pollinate with and love as partners Before you ask me to bloom again So that I can build a Bridge of blossoms You worked me and toiled me and left me alone You dug me up to replant me again and again Only through my own strength I have found my way home But I know now, it never had to be this way And so I do not for you choose to blossom I trusted you, was helpless to your whims My parents not roses but weeds of your faith Twisting your influence and demanding I obey And tenet of commandments "For only you must I blossom." But I know better now that this world can be A wonderful garden of peace and harmony And you, yourself could help it be But instead you leave us all alone And expect that we will blossom The abuse of neglect you have shown me much Yet I know you control not a single other plant or creature Still you could have done more than you did And I could have bloomed a Bridge so beautiful But instead I struggle to blossom I ache and hurt, my thorns, my stem And I am haunted by the sounds and sight Which remind me of that horrible time In which I struggled just to survive So yes, it still scares me to blossom And still I struggle to meet my needs Of sunlight and water and harmony And worsened it is by the affliction of strife That had forever mutated me To be an unnatural blossom I even had to cut my pollen pores away And reshape them so I felt like the rose I really am And it hurt, it hurts, it all just hurts having to believe That my true garden is still out there Waiting to join me in blossom So here's my boundary, oh Gardener great I will not submit to bloom in strife No, only will my bloom be of light And until the time comes where all my needs are met I will not Blossom in Painful Adversity

When I'm laying here in bed Feeling the hurt in my chest My mind starts to wonder Or perhaps it's just dread Will we ever meet someday Are you somewhere out there Or am I just a fool now Going nowhere? Did you ever know me Do you know me somehow? Or am I just a lost girl Floating far from the ground? Did I buy the bullshit So alone I'd not feel Are you even out there? Are you even…real? I thought it was a vision That we'd find each other…again With every new world Never give up til the end But I'm still waiting Waiting for you to show And I'm trying to find you Oh how little I know…. You see, I'm lost in the current I feel like I'll drown An ocean of torment Memories abound Do I deserve you Or do I deserve this? Lost in the limbo Dreaming of a kiss Why did I even bother? Why did I begin to hope? It was just a dream right? Nothing more just…nope But I believe in magic I believe miracles too And maybe I hope we're one Maybe you think that too What a foolish prayer What a desperate wish But I just can't seem to quit Believing you exist Can two become fated Can the red string take us home Or am i just a dumb child Waiting here on my own I don't know who are you I don't know if you know me But I hope against all hope That we're meant to be Maybe someday Maybe somehow Maybe I'll be surprised And we'll meet just right now I want to keep my faith In this red string of fate But I'm so damn lonely And in so much pain And I have so much doubt In my own perspective Gods I wish i was confident In my damn perspective But what I fear the most Is you won't believe in me Because of all the things I've endured That that's all you'll see Just another trauma case Another weak minded fool Who believed in her dreams And couldn't keep her cool Who breaks at a loud noise And gets scared all the time Who doesn't feel safe Because my past says "you're mine." I wish I could meet you I wish I knew it was true That you're really out there Maybe I'd be less blue Are you real? Do you ask the same of me? Am I delusional? Am I…worthy? I've made so many mistakes But I've come so far Why do I waver At the slightest of scars I wish i was at peace I wish i knew the truth I wish i could find you Or find you were…never true I feel like a lost girl So sick in the mind Broken by parents Who couldn't look me in the eye They said I was their first It was only half true When you're born from betrayal They never really see…you They saw me as her mistake From that stupid affair Just one more bastard child Taking up air They beat me and broke me They twisted my truth Turned it against me And stole away my youth It wasn't my fault I didn't choose to be born To those that don't want me And their violent scorn And everywhere after I was reminded the same Nobody picked me "That lost girl's insane." I want to be healthy I want to be okay But I feel so hurt now Believing someday That you'll be around the corner And you'll look me in the eye My cheeks will turn bright red And maybe I'll cry I'm no longer alone A family chose me to do Nothing but be me Things are better it's true And I don't want to give up But I've been looking for years And I just don't know now I'm surrounded by fear My mind keeps me hurting It's not really its fault It's trying to protect me But it's not helping at all It says "She's not real ya know "She's just in your head "You've wasted your whole life "On a dream that never ends." My head says I'm nothing But my heart knows I'm more I wish I believed in you Without the doubt that's galore Or I wish I'd forget you And realize you don't exist I just can't do both anymore So I must insist If you are real Let the angels help me know And if you're just a dream Can they help me let go For now I am hurting And I'm trying to hold on But I am so tired Been waiting so long Should I just let go now Give up on this dream Or is this something That's exactly as I believe? I guess we will see…

How come we can't just love each other unconditionally? Why can't we accept each other's differences without judgement or fear? Can't we forgive each other for our mistakes and help pick each other back up when we fall? Do we all have to live and die alone? Is that all we are? Collectively here...alone?