Words that saved you, shot
Poisoned your vitality
From the exact tongues

Please, reveal to me
Lake of contemplation, my
Twisted visage

Another day left to waste
Lying in wait
Purpose begins to fade
I know it is a fake
When will the ones bound by the heart
Leave my embrace?
Trapped in my headspace
No room for pace, it is all a chase
Tracing the space into the outline of a face
Long erased, out of place
Another day of being replaced
Sinking into disgrace
A life defaced

Days are numbered
Our life is numbered
Labeled from birth
Laminated by death
Do you enjoy life?
Tell me the number
How often do you desire slumber?
You feel encumbered
The pros of life have been outnumbered
The more we see, the less we care
Numerous numbers
Apathy and complacency
Loving life until we realize
We were never truly free
Cannot break our chains
When they are bonded by bone
Binded by bureaucracy

Angels and devils
Sing to push forward
An anthem appropriate
For making prophets
Death denies us
Delayed for the demanding
We still push forward
Conquest motivates us
Creating cognitive challenge, craving corruption
We still push forward
We all have our ones
Preventing our fall
But if they led us to a chasm
Hiding their horror
Divided by the first face
Would we still push forward?

Why must my friends always run?
Do they have no place to be safe?
What happened to their home?
Has it been stained by hate?
If only I could say to them
You have one life with no reset
We were never equal
The dealer poisons our hands
But with the cards we have been dealt
We no longer have to dwell
For our welts enhance our strength
I know that you want to go back
I wish I had
But as the seasons change from bright to gray
All we have left is today

My hopes and dreams
Greater than they seem
The visions I gleamed
Of a world better than me
Perfected, splendid
The world looked so beautiful
Until my eyes glanced around
To see the faces of discontent
Shattered, fractured in the wind
Trampled under our own feet
Running toward an empty seat
Illusions control all our lives
No one knows true strife
For when I glanced upon the world
Mundanity rang out to me
Striking like a lightning bolt
Deafening my heart
For the future I used to see
Was built out of dreams

Grasping for power
Trampling flowers
Holding on to all
Giving it all to one
Shuffling our lives
Creating hermits
Changing fools
Combating devils
Redefining the wheel of fortune
All to reassure
Their exit strategy
All for one, the only one who won
Those who sought to be greater
Born from cold parents
Inflicting inflammation to spite them
Now our world is controlled by tempered justice
Just for us to observe
Our incompletion

Mounting responsibility
Lacking direction
Fighting for ourselves
Just to push away everyone else
Social creatures deprived of connection
Authenticity replaced by complicity
Dying plasticity
Curiosity taken by toxicity
How can we keep fighting
When childhood was our peak?
If we fight to live
How can we fight for others?
No more schemes, dropping the rhyme scheme
When did becoming numb become commonplace?
Why do we give life just to smash their dreams?
What makes us unique when we are all a statistic?
How can we love each other without profitability?
Who created the rules of our society?
When did the sunlight turn to fading dawn?

Scorching the planet
For regeneration
Our own dictation, our own fixation
People cling on to their foundations
Rationing common sense
Questioning if they were truly free
Liberation through damnation
Whispering affirmations
Foreshadowing our confirmation
An observation of our disintegration
Will we break the cycle or be a recreation
Of our own artificial salvation?

Human versus human
We call that the past
Human versus self
We call that the present
Human versus humanity
We call that the future
Subjugating and eliminating
To avoid substitution
Destitution's lullaby
Spoken aloud, howled
Until no ears can hear
And the cycle returns
Back to the ground

Familiar feelings
Disappointment
It used to be reserved
For the faults of others
Now, it is my own
Worthless slumber
Feeling enmeshed
Never refreshed
Maybe one day will be a dream
As I wake from this nightmare
I lay my heart bear
Where have you gone?
Scaring me, everything is choking me
Rare for me to stare
Until life gets unfair
No words, no more anywhere
All the time, all my care
Put into thinking of 100 ways
To say I love you
Because you are you
For today, despair can go elsewhere

Will I wither?
Weathering the storm
Brings no warmth
Warned of war
By wells of wisdom
While I worry and wrestle
With the worst of withdrawal
Wondering whenever
We will witness wonder and awe

The flowers have bloomed
Alive and renewed, nature
Healed, what about you?

The lives we live seem unnatural
Loving materials
Giving ourselves obstacles
Voyaging to other places
Watching plastic faces
Living in the mundane
Hating the day-to-day
Doesn't it make you bored?
Following the horde
Hiding the truth under floorboards
Behaving like warlords
Only giving out money to landlords
Lord of the door, it's all we can afford
Time draws near but you were never here
Despite it all, when I see nature
It all feels natural, it all feels related

Shaking hands
Stabbing friends
Cold-hearted sycophant
All for retaliation
Retribution with no distribution
You creep, you crawl
Your claws are sharp
Your heart is dark
Your love is warm
Your touch is cold

Author of life, you
An idolized icon, me
A dead ghostwriter

21st century
Careers turn to fears
Reliance on tears, submission to beers
Acknowledging the power
Of powerlessness, cower wildflower
Your dreams rise high
Just to fall so low, tongue-tied by demise
Failing at every session
Ingestion of aggression
Here's my confession:
Depression and compression
Feeling possessed, feeling repressed
If I ask too many questions
Then, welcome to the penitentiary

Brightened sky, sunrise
Ending the start, beginning
A new end, rising

Cloudy penumbra
Don't Illuminate my heart
A husk in remains

Structure brings stability
Yet it chokes creativity
A hero's journey
Tell me which is more human, you or me?
Bowing down to ideals
Mixing up what is real
Shining bright in the light
Until you see them in the shadows
Enclosed in weeds
Exposed by greed
Until they decompose
All they will do is bleed
Freed from need
Proposed to flee

Accepting a truth
Apathy and awareness
Are all that remain

On this day, I claim
Rebellion against the life we have made
Where millions are muted, mutilated
Muttering truth to give meaning to myths
Until they ******* muzzles
Our feelings are mutual
But we are not mutuals
More divides us than unites us
Mysticism is a mystery
With no solution, only excuses
Treated like the product we consume
Thrown, discarded, mass-produced
Is this why I feel weak with myself?
If peace is mythical
Burn the world down, make it rise as a phoenix

On that final day
What did your promise mean?
You said, don't worry
We will meet again
But, the more time passes
The further you go
Why must my friends go so far?
Why must my heart be so large?
You were my world
But I was never yours
Was it a shock for me?
Not really, not anymore

Cracked foundations, damage
Celebrate, imperfection
Beautiful ruin
Guidance for the guilty
Illness instantly improved
Never sick, always maintained
Secure but unsure
What if, I offered a cure?

Shoulder to shoulder
Cracking under pressure
Looking for our treasure
Moving boulders
Seeking answers
Age makes us older
Life's enhancer
Until the romancer
Becomes a cancer
No surrender for our defenders
To pretender, to offender
Splendor so tender
Mender to spender
Shoulder to shoulder
Empowered cowards

Ivy, poison barbs
Ringing a bell, a deaf tone
Shopping for applause

Where are we headed?
What is our plan?
How can we guide a place
Built off of hate and greed?
Why are you trying?
What can be done?
How come you have no answers
To my questions?
What can you see?
How has that gleam not died?
How do you still have dreams?
Are you preparing for a scheme?
To keep us from dying?
Are we a team
Or are we just your self-esteem?

Winner's remorse, chase
Compromise wins the war, me?
The battle, a piece

Sounds less like bragging
Looking for approval ratings?
Screaming about your cars, guitars
Yelling to the world
"I am someone! Look at my accomplishments!"
You've never been admonished
Truly astonished
Not by your fame, but your lack of a conscience
Survival of the strongest doesn't apply to fame
The more you obtain, the less you have to gain
More pain, more strain
Those who look from below wish they could be near you
Those who look from above think of ways to misuse you
Me, I sit, watching you race
So tell me, tell me why
Why do you keep up this pace
When all it does is contort your face?

How long will it take
For straying from the mainstream
To cause a downpour?
Rivaling a revelry
Turning from inspiration
A greater nation
Built from breaking tradition
Just to be put back in cages
Part of a group
To compensate
For being alone
Today, punk is popular
Tomorrow, pop is putrid
We are moving along
Just to come back home

Roses red, overflow
Double entendre, conjoined
In blood or desire?

Hit the age
Of a broken page
Reminding me of my cage
All I live for is a wage
Trapped in a stone age, enraged
Never quite engaged since I was teenage
Years progress but the time is hard to gauge
Not quite a sage, not quite upstaged
Yelling offstage in an outrage
Lost and encaged

Caring too much
Eclipsing a sharp silence
Asking to listen

Meek and the weak
Polished by pain
Strained by rage
Saviors of the world
Who can never quite grasp it
Strength is a strength
But weakness is a gift
Receptive, perceptive
Victim to deceptive conceptions
But always acceptive

Life is born but never lingers
Out like a light with a flicker
We have all we need, but here's the kicker
Our sparkle goes out quicker
Our hearts are sicker
All we do is bicker
Suffering shows turned into competitions
Fission is our mission
Omitting our permissions
Until we are left with suspicion
Grounded into submission
By emission and ambition

History written
From the bones of heroes
All a mystery
How we always reset back to zero
Children return to school
While adults play the fool
Faces of ghouls steeped in screams
Today's territory
Tomorrow's trauma
We are your enemy
Because of drama
No glory in gory ends
Stories snuffed, such sorrow
You are our enemy
Because of trauma
Tomorrow's drama
Spoken through melodrama
Mellow on the drama, place a comma
History written in bones
Of heroic clones
Are you a fraud or just flawed?

Always been told
That we are not machines
Yet, our world is built like this:
Routine, repair
Relinquish, revere
All fact no speculation
We must continue
But really, do we?
Here is the summation:
Becoming victims of liquidation
Just by going on vacation
Choosing vocations
Just to chase stagnation
Chasing relations to find salvation
Just to receive probation and isolation
Mutations of liberation
Lasting for long durations
We are machines, observe our foundation
Full of mutation, renovation
Life is a sacred thing
Yet, look at the pain we bring

Lone in peace, but you
Surrounded by the sorrow
Of strange personas

Beautiful technology
Dividing our diverse psychology
Are we human if we can't do anything without it?
But how could it stop?
Corporations feel elation
Once the profit lines exceed expectation
No aspiration, only calculation
Cashing in on our passion
Refashioned to distant compassion

Want vs. have
I want to do this
So I go to chose it
But when I have to do this
It makes me lose it
Freedom never freed him
Why even pretend?
Our life ends once we fend
Individuality turned to superficiality
Fighting for life, common mentality
Why is it easier to die under lax legality?
Wanting to have a choice
No matter the side
Choice is never supplied

If I disappeared, would life be the same?
Would I have fame?
Would I be maimed?
Would people be ashamed
Of the signs they chose to not see?
Lighting my heart aflame
All I see are red flames
Filled with anger
From being lame
Life is a game
One that I want someone else to claim

Depreciation
Inevitability
Appreciation

Grounding and bounding
Fear of being one thing brings
Inadequacy

As I get older, things get grosser
Called for a grown-up but I never showed up
Fear for the future
That I can no longer change
Anger for the present
Bowing to overlords for simple accords
Sorrow for the past
That I wish could have lasted
Joy becomes inverse
Now all I beg for is a reverse
Life is a gift until it becomes a curse
My existence itself is adverse
I do not want to become a role to rehearse
I want to be free, I want to converse
No chance to reimburse my debt to the universe
But as I get older, things only get worse
As I get older, death becomes closer
Maybe then, my pain will disperse
For I am the one who will write my final verse

Living through illusions
Becoming disillusioned
Leading to exclusion
Delusions and confusion
Packaging hope into an infusion
Marketed as inclusion
Executed as intrusion
Running into seclusion
Transfusion, hypoxia to asphyxia
Left with no ideas except extrusion

One way, one sole fate
Caterwaul against the fall
Torn down testament

Parasites of peace
Thrive on conflict, past turmoil
Modern banal spoils

Always moving
Nothing is fixed
Everything is a risk
Is this why nothing feels like home?
Roaming or trapped in domes
Feeling alienated, call it a syndrome
Caring about chrome more than the biome
Hollow, made of styrofoam
Never improving
Always moving

Poisoning the well
Questions are flung, words that stung
As our flask withdraws