Here are the works given to me for publication

"You Know When You've Fallen in Love"

You know that you've fallen in love,
When every morning as you wake,
The sun is shining, though the sky may be grey,
When getting up becomes a pleasure, not a chore,
And when every new day seems like a new adventure.

You know that you've fallen in love,
When every moment is the dawn of a new era.
When a smile naturally replaces a frown,
And the light which shines from your face
Illuminates those who are in your presence.

You know that you've fallen in love,
When a lost battle becomes a challenge,
And a challenge becomes a victory.
When nightmares become dreams, despair becomes hope,
Enemies become friends, and hate becomes love.

Dedicated to Becci.

You had no reason
To treat me this way.
I gave you all I had,
But still you wanted more.
You wanted the one thing
That I would not give you.
We shared everything,
Except one thing which I kept
Locked away, out of your reach.
One day, when the time was right,
I would have given it to you.
But you couldn't wait.
The one thing I kept for myself,
You stole.
I opened my heart to you,
But you wanted so much more.

Baby, will you think of me,
When I’m still and dead?
Will you bury yourself in guilt
And think of what you said?
Well, now that I have cancer,
And I’m slowly losing health,
You know that I’ll forgive you
But can you forgive yourself?

Baby, will you cry for me,
When life gets you down?
Although my body won’t be there,
I’ll always be around.
And when you get in trouble,
Or have a tricky task,
You know I’ll always help you,
You only have to ask.

Baby will you search for me,
While I’m hidden in your mind?
And baby, please remember me
Whenever you’re unkind.
If you are ever nasty,
To someone that you hate,
Remember to apologise
Before it gets too late.

You only see what you want to see.
If something worries you, you turn away,
Pretend it's not there,
Pretend it's not happening.
But there's nothing you can do to stop it.
Nothing you can say
Will prevent it from happening.
The wheels of life keep on turning,
Oblivious to time,
Past, present and future dissolve,
Mixing together to run away,
But as you try to run with them,
You get caught up in time.
And as the wheels grind to a halt,
Time for you ends,
But life for others goes on.

This is not the way it's meant to be,
It's not how I had planned.
I had the whole thing scripted -
You don't seem to understand.
The words that I would say to you,
And those you'd say to me,
I had thought about the whole night through,
And chosen carefully.

I would tell you that I loved you
And I hoped you felt the same.
You were meant to say you did,
And that you felt love's fiery flame.
But the whole damned conversation
Was doomed from start to end,
'Cos you told me that you liked me,
But only as a friend.

My words, so carefully chosen
Would never now be said,
And as I carried on conversing,
I wished that I were dead.
And I guess that you will never know
Just what I'd planned to say,
In our little conversation
On that God-forsaken day.

Little infant, soon to die,
Sing the child a lullaby;

and the doctor, as he cuts the mother's skin, wonders what will become
of the child he so heartlessly removes from it's final resting place.

Doctor holding sharpened knife,
Soon to end a baby's life;

as he scrapes away at the lining of the uterus, his thoughts drift
to his own two young children, and he wonders if they are safe.

Little child, a gift God gave,
Sentenced to an early grave;

he sutures the mother, and does his best to prevent her from the distress
of scars on her skin, yet can do nothing about the scars on her mind.

Mother and baby, soon to part,
As doctor smothers the baby's heart;

and as the mother comes round, she thanks the doctor for his help, and yet
there is something missing. Missing in her eyes, missing from her heart.

He sits at the desk, and places
A fresh sheet of paper on its surface.
He grabs a pen, and starts to write.
"Dear Nikki" - he stops.
Sucking the end of his pen, thoughtfully,
He wonders how to continue,
How to tell her of his feelings for her.
He knows what he wants to say,
But as he writes the words down,
They become shallow, losing there meaning.
He reads through what he has written,
Then screws the paper up, throws it away.
Half the night he sits at his desk,
Staring at a blank sheet of paper.
In the morning, he simply writes
"I love you".

I want to hold you close to me,
And whisper in your ear.
I want to stroke your golden hair
To let you know I’m here.
I want to take your hand in mine,
And never let it go.
I want to say “I love you”,
To let my feelings show.

I don’t want nerves or awkardness,
I don’t want to be shy.
I know love makes me nervous, but
Don’t know the reason why.
I’m far too shy to mention
The three words “I love you”,
So I’ve written you this letter
And I hope that it will do.

-Alicia Mae 6/22/98