This is how i Think an introduction

I wrote a song once, and I painted it green.

Hello, I said. My name is Everett Mills.

And Everett Mills asked me a question. 
What is it? I asked. The question? I couldn’t hear.  But I heard the answer, and wrote it down. On my hand, and in blue sharpie that bled crimson through this screen.  But it served its purpose:

i, i thought, am everett mills.  

I am Everett Mills, and I boast life.

I’ve got two eyes, hair, and so much blue that I’m drowning in these words. 

I am more than a face or a push inthehall; I am more than the human sitting next to you, with the mouth and the fingers on screen. 

I’ve got a heart, and a brain, and a pen in my hand.  I am sitting in my chair, watching the sky and dreaming these words. Because really, I dream.  And I don’t think words; I think color. I think in sunsets and sunrise, in motion picture and the speed of love.  My closed eyes light my brain with static, with electricity that shocks my eye and makes my shoelaces stand on end with the charge. 

I remember a day that takes wrinkles off of my face, that makes my eyes shine brighter and my heart humm—makes it hum like the engine of a classy old car that someone else would drool over but that I can’t guess the name of for the life of me—and while my face is turning into a child’s and my heart is getting busy I won’t tell you if those disappearing wrinkles are from laughter or from fear. 

I’m in need of a good a rain jacket, because

my soul is regularly engulfed in the inferno of possibilities, and I’m lacking good cover from the downpour of the fire hose.

And as I sit in this chair that I borrowed from the library, with my feet kicked up and my eyes soft and close and my thought drifting into dreams, and as I fall in love with this dream, I dreamed again.

Are you still there? I just thought I’d ask. 

And if I told you I care, would you believe me?

Because this is my introduction.

When I tell you that I am Everett Mills, and that I see you every day, and that you’ve never seen me once please don’t take me for a liar.  I’ve seen you since the first day, when we made eye contact and you haven’t made it since.  I see faces, and I see hearts.  Please don’t ignore the mute, and take a step away from being blind to the beating, pounding, pulsing dreams around you. Now is never too late to start—if you’re at all who you say you are and if you’re even human at all like your dreams,  crushed and caught, claim you are-- Show that you care. 

It’s a new year.  We’ve got a fresh start, so you can start over for real.  You don’t have to be the fake or the jock or the shy girl in the corner.  Start here, with this.  Don’t be shy in your words; use them well, make them count, but don’t stress- you’ve got no shortage of blog posts and words and clean slates. 

And so, I care.  about you, and about the person next to you, and the boy who has never said a word, and the girl who hides in the daylight and the one who refuses to hide, and I care that the world is round and that humans are living in fear in Nigeria, and in our neighborhoods, and that things go wrong even in Paris. 

I CARE.

And this is my introduction.

And I care that you are real, and that you are brave, and that you are

Incredible

so please:

Don’t ever judge an introduction. Not by her eyes, not by his height, not by the name of the poet. 

And don’t ever judge yourself.  People aren’t stone—they change and if you’re human you can be

whoever and whatever you want to.

Remember that I’m an obsessive singer with a less than average voice, and a tendency for running late and that THAT’S WHO I AM, and that your voice, your clothes, and your backpack don’t determine your destiny, and that your passions and quirks are as beautiful as any endless opal sky in the American west.

            Because even if you don’t appreciate them, someone does.  And they’re

Stunning.

And now my ramblings are over, and I’ll go tie up in pasture for a while and give you a rest from the sound of my voice and my endless opening tirade, for which I painted several songs.
I believe that this one was green.

Good Night, and

sweet dreams from Everett Mills