Illness persists
Through spit and violence
An apex predator
A fraction of a molecule
Here's the equation:
Size has no correlation
To power or strength
For even the tiniest of specks
Punch in bunches
Evolving their very existence
To remove someone elses
Quite familiar, how similar...
The law of life states:
As long as life exists, it will seek to break and take
Harmony is a 7 letter word
On a fractured line
Suggestions to stop it
Fall out of range
From the moment of birth
We are proof of life, eternal strife
Beyond the clouds
Is there heaven for breakers of paradise?

How we evolve
How we create
We change every day, year, century
The progress we make
Equivalence to a millimeter
On the universes' yardstick
Waiting for the day of reprieve
Even rats can only race for so long
So long gone
Conversion into centimeters
Still, so far gone
So far to go
Only so many years until it all goes stale
Looking for a place to bail
In a locked and sealed enclosure for closure
Waiting for the day
When we wake up to a new one

Shimmering stars
In a twirling vortex
I see true beauty
Not the human beauty
Of adjustments, lifts, and edits
But natural, plentiful
I have seen true beauty
It was here all along.

When the guards of death
Escort me to hell
I will not be afraid
For I have resided there
Many years ago
A timeshare with Beelzebub
A penthouse with Lucifer
This is the hell I have been given
Not created, thrusted in

Crackling light
In the shape of a knife
Unexpected, unruly
When it shines
It brightens the world
Yet, in its joy
It may bring harm.

Pillars of strength
Founded on ideals
That reside on fiction
A desire to change that reeks of addiction
Why change everything
When we can accept ourselves every day?
Ideal? No.
Future? Never.
Past? No more.
Present mindsets immersed in reality
Aware of the positive and negative
While residing in the penumbra
For nor against
But acknowledging the truth
Then living as if it matters

A modern man
Shall be deemed more than a man
Because he is not a man
But the shell of a man
Remnant of a bygone era
Where heroes were real
And villains were defined
Until the world woke up
To the aftermath of hysteria

Hitchhikers
On a cosmic body
Caring not for the body
But the other stowaways
Searching for a new home
While the current one fights back
As a child, I'd hope we win
As a man, I hope we lose
To teach the ultimate lesson:
Wasters cannot cruise while giving abuse
We've done enough pillaging
Time for the human race to snooze

Giving life to the chronic
Comes across as ironic
Living not for themselves
But for the stubborn lifestyle
Of the life bringer
Never thinking to ask
If a life lived with a handicap
Truly yields pleasure or satisfaction
Depending on the person
A right to live
A right to die
When one is trespassed
How can the other survive?

Fighting for you
Fighting for...who?
Fighting for...
For...
Me?

Two figures
Shadows on the horizon
Clashing together
Remaining separate forever
Breaking bones
As a sign of will
Yet when the sun rises
They look out, forgetting what to do
They turn to the rising sun, one says:
"The beauty never dies, it will forever survive."
Turning back to each other
Blooming beauty brings back burning burdens
A crack and a crunch
Then, no more

Truth varies
On who you ask
A constant source
For confusion, not clarity
No wonder no one can agree
Because the lingo used
Only applies to humanity
Who swim forward like manatees
Ignoring the sights and sounds
For routine, dreams
All parts of the scene
Every act has a curtain call
When will the curtain fall?

Fake places
Fake races
Fake people
Line up by the steeple
With a fake mindset
Amidst a fake crowd
The only way to get real
Comes at the cost of prestige
How can I live when we go against our identity?
Separated by falsehoods
Nature and humanity
One and the same
Then the laws of reality
Arrive alongside shouts of
"Oh! The humanity!"
Fake it till you make it
Only goes so far
Until we become a flimsy imitation
Of the ones who are authentic

Viper, cobra
Hands of an assassin
Rabbit, hare
Legs of a runner
Combined together
Prey and predator
Uniting as one
To defy a single endeavor
To crumble an enterprise
From deep inside

Nails
Hammered into crevices
Corroding the mind
That is already scarred
Scared not of consequence
But of scolding
For releasing the pain
Brings pain to more
Yet, if it cannot be removed
What else is nevermore?

Locked in place
With a twisted face
Merged with emotional platitudes
Left to the dogs
I ponder, why did this face
Presume today
Would be a good day?

A disconnected fool
A dying boy
A public enemy
Broken people
Burned bodies
Scarred for centuries
Never erased

I cannot look into eyes
Not out of bashfulness
The iris tells no lies
Staring into the color
I see the stories:
A journey of chaos
A past of conflict
A presence of confusion
I cannot look into eyes
Because they never lie

Out of all the advice in life
So many say to "push through"
But when someone reaches the end
They look around
Wondering what to do
Then as they meet more people
More walls appear before them
But when they glance back
They feel no pride
For they have realized
What it means, deep inside

Familiar faces
Leave friendly places
Before having the chance
To enjoy it
For the man always on edge
Can never lower his guard
Not because of perceived danger
But out of habit and disregard
To the finer tastes
Which cannot be tasted
For his life itself, flavorless

As the music box plays
Childhood melodies
Pure joy and bliss
With a mind full of thrills
Then, I grew up
And the notes distorted

No longer
Can I taste
The fresh flavor of fun
Is it because of too much exposure?
Has my mind changed?
Has the world changed?
When will the fun come?
Is fun important? Is life important?
Too many questions with no distraction
I care about nothing
I feel nothing
I am innocent--no longer

Lionize, demonize
Always on two different sides
Never truly realize
The damage it does
To the inside
Bundle of philistines
I have foreseen the end of me
Not of body, but memories
Much too late to intervene
Ivy cannot grow without a source
But when eyes have turned away
It is too late, only soul remains
Tired of autonomy, praying for a lobotomy

Toxic sassafras
Poison to the bone, yet still
I desire it so

Malice
Come in many forms
But at its rotten core
Lies ignorance
Not to be chastised
But to be guided, educated
The way to reduce evil is not to extinguish
To foster and nurture a new perspective
That will do much more
No more breaking down doors
Owned by the most important people

Scraping the walls
That resemble my mind
I cannot think coherently
For my sight
Has gone blind
My ears
Have gone deaf
My touch
Has numbed
My smell
Has died
Toppled by nightmares
Which persist when awake
Wishing for the day
To fly away

Catch and release
As I fish, my joy will increase
Catch and release
How exotic, such beauty should be honored
Catch and release
...
Where have the fish gone?
I look down, but the veil of water
Gone.
The beauty?
Gone.
Aquatic graveyard that holds past families
I am only a fisherman
Emphasis on the "man"
For just like the rest
I prayed for a solution
Got back a jest
...
Catch and release
Rest well, be free
My hook will be alone
But now your minds will be at ease
Singing the eternal lullaby:
Catch and release.

Every day is a task
Every action is a challenge
How can I be a champ
When every day I malfunction?
Dropping the trophy on the ground
Not vindictive
But indicative of the dividends
Which I lack
A screaming delinquent
With no more words
To satisfy you
I'd say I ruin the atmosphere
But down here, it died in the first-year

Housing the deranged
Protecting the estranged
Isn't it quite strange
That we treat the broken
But never prevent the downfall?
Sanity runs away
For the ones who live in dismay

Enjoying nothing
Enjoying nobody
Taking chemicals
To change brain chemicals
Trying to act normal
In a life we made
How can anyone live on their own
When the odds are stacked against it?

Face painting in fall
Gift giving in winter
I look back at this place
With tears on my face
Not born from misery
But reminiscing
On pleasant memories
Ignorance in bloom
As I think about the past
I wonder, what happened to you?

They say we are the apex predator
As we live on a planet
Which throws disasters
Of natural elements
If we own this world
Why can our lives unfurl?
We still have some control
But for how long?
As the restrains slip
We lose ourselves to the natural law:
Every action has two reactions
But when billions of people
Throw toxin into space
We act like there's one
Like an estranged lover
We only remember what affected us
Like an aging samurai
We have lost our drive to fight

Call the laborer a slave
For they both have chains
Ones that have none, fight for more
Toiling at a place I once enjoyed
Now I sit around and think
"Will I ever see joy?"
Using entertainment to block out the hate
But my brain speaks a truth
Not even I want to hear
Going insane at a daily stage
All I own are distractions
That separates me from the membrane

I do not want to die
I want to stop existing
I do not want to cry
I want to release my emotion
I do not want to sleep
I want to cure my heart's erosion
I do not want to be weak
I want to learn how to be a boulder
I can keep saying what I want
But "want" and "do" are two roads with no guide
One is realistic
The other resides in a hypothetical, deep inside

Why do sea creatures
Wreak havoc on ships?
Is it an invasion of territory?
Establishment of dominance?
How do they perceive our attempts at transportation?
Many kinds, from distant nations
Folklore may sound fake
But the struggle reveals some reality
Nature versus our evolution
Invading territory turns life into a horror
If only we learned
From our own species glory
We may label oceans
But from the commotion
They are the ones whose loss breaks into emotion
A cycle of locomotion, a home called an "ocean"
So once the guardians come out
How can we act surprised?
Asking "Why do you disturb our home?"
We reply "Because we need more for our home."
The struggle persists, no matter man or fish.

Awoken in a bed
Deprived of mobility
Only a brain
Hell on highwater
Thoughts become prominent
The only muscle that remains
After years of disregard
I now know the pain
Negligence, forgetfulness
Spiraled into a death march
Bathed in a trail of tears
I desire the right to die
But is it right to die?
Living, but hardly
Surviving, as a burden
Physically broken
Only time will tell when the mind goes too
Give it three--maybe two weeks
Until the brink falls into the drink
And all things fade away as I blink

What has been lost
Can be found
But on the journey to reclamation
Present sacrifices will be required for the past
Past or present?
Discretion or haste?
Which one brings joy to your face?

A doll with needles
Painted with my initials, it is me
Taking pain from others
Stabbing it into my chest
So much of it, I want to reduce it
Normal for a little
But everyone has a lot
Extreme tolerance comes in handy
Idly waiting for something to change
Sorry to disappoint, nothing will
Allow me to be the stepping stone
On a path to recovery
Why care about myself when I can save multiple?
Life is one chance
No retries
So for now, let us talk
I can't save them all
But I can guide someone
For we all love to give advice
Yet never follow what we deliver
As someone who has listened
Let me be the one to bring tranquility

Love is essential
What can it manifest as?
Desire or joint love

The more we are
The more we unfurl the world
Humanity has lost its humane identity
Bringing up more problems
Fewer solutions
A race against time for survivability
What's the probability of our revival?
Order to the chaos
Yin to the yang
Black to the white
To win a war, you have to lose some fights.

Dear my departed
No memories remain, yet...
I never feel sole.

Sibling rivalry
Two, spiteful jealousy
One, empty living

I wish I could say
How I truly feel
But when you lose all feeling
It gets hard to describe it
Lost all my nerves, still getting nervous
A face of neutrality brings no satisfaction
How do I change a face I struggle to embrace?
The most moderate of actions
Take all the energy
Starting and finishing feels like a race
Tripping over the line, only to realize
I'm right back at the beginning.

I don't know how to hope
All I do is cope with jokes
One of a kind? Just a joke.
An ace of naught
Sanctimonious? I am not.
Pride builds foundations out of nations
Built to fall
Better to be undersold
Than to perceive yourself as a flush
While dreams get rushed
Into a joker's hand
The deck is laid out
While the house prepares to win, full house

No aspirations
Delusions of grandeur
All they give is dopamine
Which my brain resists
Going through the motions
Life is no checklist, why has no one checked this?
For when the bucket list is finished
What comes next?
Filling up a bucket just to dump out the water
Wasting oxygen on an expensive ottoman
If I could be a cosmopolitan, I'd deny the request
All it does is make my chest feel pressed, stressed
Why should I be obsessed with tests when I have no self-interest?

Drifting through space
Falling down
Into oblivion
At the end of the road
I feel no fear
For I have taken the pain of others
Stapled onto me, I feel no regret
For the lives of many
Were aided by the few, one
A single reduced to zero
The others were spared, I was always ready

The moon, I smile at you
Every time I feel alone
At least one thing never changes
After all, I still see you

High altitude
Brought to a bigger status
Here comes the panic
Higher reputation brings a sobering mutation
Babbling turns to quotations, fame incarnate
Afraid of heights, embodied in metaphor
How can I rise with a fear of heights?
Making new flights to forget the time
A daily ritual, commonplace
Fusion of melancholy and lazy days
Afternoons turn to night
Nights turn to days
I can predict these things, they keep going
But the waves drag me under
Awake till moonlight, it's cold outside
Thinking "maybe this time", like the day before
Every day is disarray, how do I get away?

Peering into the looking glass
Reflection, refraction
Dividing my face into quadrants
One side droops while the other stoops
Incongruent with my own race
Do I feel human today?
Or is the feeling returning?
Looking into the mirror
Why can I not recognize this face?
Two opposites in one, rabbit and cobra
Fierce but gentle, violent yet parental
Two halves in one whole
Yet, the pieces don't fit.

A life with no zest
Taste has been iced
Sight is no longer realized
All I hear is scratches and fakes
Smelling the rot coming from my core
In denial of the truth
Cause with fatigue, moving is a chore
Inside a pit of poets, I stand out
Raw and unfiltered to show my situation is dire
Going out for parties bring no satisfaction
When waking up is a chore, how can I live past tomorrow?
If I could find the source
I would stick it
But when the hemispheres lie on opposite ends
How can I function with a malfunction?