Helium

by Rudy Francisco

so she drops the quiet like a suitcase full of habits that no one wants to keep

because I know that this much melanin and that uniform is a plotline to a film that can easily end with a chalk outline baptism, me trying to make a body bag look stylish for the camera and becoming the newest coat in a closet full of RIP hashtags.

Once, a friend of a friend asked me why there aren’t more black people in the X Games and I said, “You don’t get it.” Being black is one of the most extreme sports in America. We don’t need to invent new ways of risking our lives because the old ones have been working for decades.

My mother’s accent is the most popular brand of salt in her country.

Sooner or later you will realize that you are praying to your own shadow,

So next time you bend your knees, next time you bow your head I want you to tell your God that my God is looking for him.

So somewhere there is a tambourine a drum set, a guitar all made out of things that were used to take people’s lives, but now they create a sound that puts life back into people’s bodies, which is to say, a weapon will always be a weapon but we choose how we fight the war and from this I learned that even our most destructive instruments can still create a melody worth dancing to and sometimes isn’t that also called a battle?

A bunch of dudes afraid of their own feelings, terrified of any emotion other than anger, yelling at the shadows on the wall, but still haven’t realized that we’re the ones standing in front of the light.

I am learning that the difference between a garden and a graveyard is only what you choose to put in the ground.

If they’re willing to pay three dollars a gallon for gas, imagine how much we can charge them for oxygen.

When I was a kid, dragons and droughts were two things I read about in books, but never thought I’d actually have to deal with. I was born and raised in California. And here, our models and rivers look like they’re on the same diet. Throughout the years, I’ve watched both get smaller and now I can see their ribs

If I am ever caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, just being alive and not bothering anyone, I hope I am greeted with the same kind of mercy.

Most people have no idea that tragedy and silence often have the exact same address.

when you feel like your guardian angel put in his two weeks notice two months ago and just decided not to tell you, when it seems like God is just a babysitter that’s always on the phone, when you get punched in the esophagus by a fistful of life.

Remember, every year two million people die of dehydration. So it doesn’t matter if the glass is half full or half empty. There’s water in the cup. Drink it and stop complaining.

Muscle is created by lifting things that are designed to weigh us down. When your shoulders are heavy stand up straight and call it exercise. Life is a gym membership ...

The human heart beats approximately 4,000 times per hour and each pulse, each throb, each palpitation is a trophy, engraved with the words “You are still alive.” You are still alive. So act like it.