Spoken word: ‘The Lights are my Road’ by America Castillo Cruz

Joy is when you laugh so much
Your stomach hurts.
When you smile so hard,
Your eyes squint and wrinkle,
Joy is when you feel the breeze
Flowing through your face.
When you feel HAPPY
Just by seeing someone else HAPPY!

Joy is being able to smile without having to force it.
Joy is seeing the leaves turn color.
Joy is being home under a blanket
Watching the leaves fall and land softly
Against the ground.
Joy is joy,
a feeling,
an action
...Maybe a mystery.

Who knows?

Joy is like a house with a pretty tall tree,
A porch with a rocking chair and
A yard full of fallen leaves,
A mat at the entrance saying,
“WELCOME!”
Feeling the breeze slowly go
through
Your open window
Far away from
The road.

The road
It takes you to many places,
Sometimes you don't even know where.
It's full of trash with hot cement and lines.
Everyone Takes the Road!

But when it's dark no ones is seen
But let the lights hit it and
They’re the first ones to show,

When they find their destination
They don't need it anymore

They abandon it!
They leave it!
It’s empty and alone!
They get mad!

When it has so many signs to
Show the way!

But how clear can it be?

And still they don't understand
The road will take them
To the end of the world and
Back and won’t ask for anything
In return.

But instead of being happy
That you can feel the breeze in the road.
They complain about it being hard to inhale,

But nobody stops and thinks,
“Why is it so hard to breathe?”

Maybe it's because the breeze
carries everything:
The woe, The loneliness.
Even with its woe,
The road won't change
It will take you home
Regardless of the way you make it feel.
But will it be the house with fallen leaves,
A nice porch,
The smoke in the
fireplace coming
Out the chimney?
Or will it be the home you wish you never had to go
back to,
But you feel so guilty