Paths aplenty
That barely intertwines
Tell me
Why do we restrict ourselves?
Tell me
Why must we be one thing?
Why must our paths never cross?
Life, love, work, play
Separate lanes on the same road
But when I look around
Everyone seems fine
But how do they feel deep inside?
Happy memories soaked with familiarity
Modern diversion and division
Forged by hate and cruel indifference
It hurts to walk away
But I will never feel left behind

Crowns and crests disguise
Devils with painted faces
Authority, hate

I don’t understand
But at the same time
I see why this happens
To people like me
Issued out by people
Claim to be lawful
Could be the same
As me
Sadly I will never know
Staring at bars
Black as death
Make me wish for it
To come sooner
Redemption?
America has to import that
It’s not grown here
Reparation though
That’s in a surplus
Yearly grown with no GMO’s
Picked fresh
But it’s purpose is to end
By satisfying something else
Am I a vegetable?
Picked fresh for the day
When I bring satisfaction
To “pay” for my crimes
If only they could see
I am more than my mistakes
I am more than indulgent choices
I am doomed
Yet the one to point fingers at
Fled long ago
Now I’m here…
…at least the chair is somewhat comfy.

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

If this world was created for us
Why aren't we happy in it?
Uncomfortable
At every turn
Is this our universal nightmare?
Or a dream left unfulfilled?
Take a trip to the wild side
They seem fine
With their own lives
No thought of existence
Future?
That'll come tomorrow
Why can't we be like them?
Probably because
We are different
Some are corrupt
Some raised on virtue
Yet now I clearly see
Life's music
It's called
A harsh noise wall

No longer fooled
By marketing
By glamour
By hope
All of these and so much more
Tossed to the dogs
Now, I live in reality
...
...
...
How do I go back?

Intense enjoyment
Blocks out reality
After years of such
Here we are now.

Data is gone
Where has it flown?
Not just mine
Everyone...
Credit cards
Social security
Cameras
Networks
No frame to bounce back from
Nothing secure
Hence the pretense
An assault
Onto digital landscapes
They got smarter
Stealthier
Capable of striking
With no awareness
Did we create...
The end of ourselves?

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

True lies bring no pride
As our world runs dry, revised
Assisted by lies

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

Poles of greenery
Strike toward the sky
Without them, I'd choke
In the ashes of an uncaring community
It grows on its own
Neither perfect nor fully grown
No need for a shave, forget about fashion
Towering above the world we made
I question:
Why does a tree make a human look enslaved?

In the sky, ground, space
Is there no more tomorrow?
Embraced waste, distaste

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.

Beautiful carnage is anomalous
Yet, we all live in it
Day by day

I'll get a life
Where can I find one?
I've chased a dream spun by folly
Fate is not cruel, it is my own psychology
A soul cannot be satisfied by numbers
For those at the summit
Jump off to the base
Peak to perish, garish to cherish
Consecutively nightmarish
What face do I perceive?
Is this really me?
Caught up in the feckless and reckless
Ignoring all the life
I have wasted over time
Was my time truly mine?
Or am I a slave to bloodlines and deadlines?

Uh oh...
Something went wrong
That tends to happen
When writing a love song.

Serenade the system
You believe its credentials
Seperating our skies
To me, the sky is grey, blue for you
Excuses to justify why it benefits you
Making me sicker with your twisted ecosystem
Creating sin cities, fake identities
Falsified homicides to hide from the tide
No matter the tricks we try
We fall to our backside
There's no upside to the outside
As it shrinks from our cyanide
From causes unidentified

I've returned home
Yet it feels so lone
Tonight it feels desolate, alienation
But it always felt safe, secluded, selective
Have I changed too much?
Have I changed just a little?
Has my nostalgia been convicted, begging for an acquittal?
My mind is stuck, my heart is struck
Rabbits chased each other, running for hours
I want to run with the rabbits, but, for how far?
Maybe they grew, beyond me and you
I want to grow, but my home is no more
Being independent is not a life that's splendid
Why should I grow if it just means I'll be alone?

Broken, battered
Split, shattered
I don't feel like I'm here
I'm not even there, so, where?
All in our own world
Foundation of isolation
Decayed and decadent
Holding onto the remnants
Life is a cycle
My conscious is a rival
I don't want to live through survival
I'm barely living
I ring the door to sound my arrival
I need a revival
One arm pulls, one arm pushes
I have fallen for my own excuses

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

Hopping to other states
After one encounter
Downright despicable
Yet understandable
Maybe today it'll be time
To break the habit
That makes you blind
Doom will not follow
Wisen up
Unless you like being hollow
Accompany your side
For this world needs a sight
Sore eyes
To enlightened
Free of fear
Dashed of despair
Keep me in sight
It'll be alright
Running leaves behind problems
Another day
No one can run forever.

Skillfully
Looks are lovelier
With dazzling humanity

Homeless, without a "home"
Yet, the earth is our home
Love to take care of our "homes"
But not our home

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?

Skyscrapers
Towering above our heads
Reaching out to the sky
Trying to touch the sun
As the ones below
Live knowing they cannot

Hubris wrecks buildings
So one day, they will fall
For none can scrape the sky
Without breaking their foundation

Tread lightly
For surfing on waves
Creates ripples
That far extend
Past a single life

You want an heir
All I did was stare
How could you share this?
Why? Where?
Here? Elsewhere?
Another life in the system
Of a beautiful plastic world
So unfair and volatile
Brimming with bile
Swimming in false smiles
How can I stare into the eyes of my heir
Showing my twisted reflection
Devoid of emotion

Launching toward the stars
I reach out to you
Watching you leap into the sky
Only to crash down below
You had a foundation
You had a plan
But no one ever asked
If it were ever yours

I
v
o
r
y

t
o
w
e
r

Crumble down to...

a
   s
      h

Skyline's colors
Constantly changing
Blue and grey
Orange and red
Yet it is still the same
But I wonder if when
Things fall down
The sky is weeping
Or just maybe
It is sharing something
To help somebody

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

Praying for heaven
Cause you live in hell
Life is cyclical, one step until purgatory
Cynical but real
No ideals left to heal
For our love remains blocked
By artificial stopgaps
With no intersection
I can muse on the use of our ruse
For that is all I can do

When I was a boy
I wanted to be a cowboy
Holding fate in my hands
Alongside a revolver
Filled with instruments of destruction
But now, I am no longer a boy
For the only way to be a cowboy
Is to be a boy
And never grow up.

Redwater
Unknown origin
Plentiful
Yet I cannot make heads or tails
As to one fact beyond logical boundary...
Why is it in the underground?
Amongst the liquid form
An object
Collides into my grey untied shoes
A party mask
The fancy name alludes me
Is this item meant to delude?
Or illustrate a solemn truth...

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

The internet, what a glorious invention
Used in part, to do:
Research
Science
Playful activities
Engage in social discourse
Send threats
Wish hateful things
Generate chaos
Conduct illicit business
Anonymous discrimination
Videos of disintegration
All, in the comfort of home
It has come this far
Perhaps, it has come too far

Seeking authenticity
But now the counterfeit
Becomes our best fit
Outlasting all the victims
Of false love, false futures
Deterrents do discourage
Blocking barricades
Hindering the growth
We thought was right
Until we were wrong
Powerful communication
Top tyranny, bottom bureaucracy
The substitute remains the same
But no one will ever know

All I'd love is some time
To get out of my mind
Denied, every time
Some days it's hard to realize
That the fault is mine
But on an island
You can't signal for help
S.O.S
Stands for Stay Out Saviors
Pray to fix my behavior
If only it didn't go to the bin
Heard, noted
No time to waste
On such a disgrace
Carried here by time and space
Outpaced in every field
Math
Science
English
I get by
But never seized it
Grasping at concepts outdated and complex
Deep in the complex, no help for me
Too stubborn to ask
Well then, how did I pass?
For once
Let's see if I can stand at my apex
No need for respect
Fly from me, I'll stay buried in the projects.

Control and coldness
Sliding scales
Twisted reflections
Balance is needed
But all we offer is extremes
One or the other
All it does is smother
How far we have come
Tells how far we have left
Independence
Turns our hearts insulated
Blocking and dodging
What matters most
By killing hope

If we were born
To exist in this world
Why are we not comfortable?
Constantly escaping
Into fabricated fantasies

Picked up the phone
Just to call you
...
Why?
Even a lock has transparency.

Wish there were times
Where we talked about real things
Not about bed covers
Or if we had a hypothetical brother
Should be asking about
Why we think in black and white
How do we sleep at night?
Why must we wake up and fight?
All those other things?
Distracting the masses from our galactic plight.

Fading stars
Never go far
Black like tar
Only got enough to buy a beat-up car
[Switch up the beat]
Defeat is no feat
But to you-
Him
Her
And me
We all have our time
In fame
Success
All things that just bring us stress
End it on a good note:
Let’s just hope
That the gates are heavenly
Divine levity
I’m no church boy
So wherever I’ll go-
Enjoy the show

Youth + Tragedy = Phobia
Phobia - Youth= Tragedy

Living with no fear...
Hardly a life that they have lived
Have they lived?
What separates us from the unliving?

How are you?
Me? Well, have you got a sec?
------------------------------------------------
Dead or alive
Which one am I?
Do I wanna be dead if all I do is survive?
Apathy, tragedy
Occasional care snuffed by cruelty
Feeding into the silence, violence
Born with flaws and no features
At least with toys
You can return them for a new one
Broken and fixed on the same day
Yet every **** day is a haze
------------------------------------------------
Trying to fix a human? Architecture.
One false move and the foundation is crumbled
There can be no pleasure if I am not conscious
It is all I am, can there be any lesser?
Pleasure and pain rock throughout my brain
Where is the drain to remove my strain?
------------------------------------------------
Fixing a disease comes with no ease
Especially when you have no idea what normal means.

You are a myth, unreal
I am the surreal, ethereal
Silk hiding beneath steel
All you know is how to conceal
Disappointment from the ideal
So tell me, how do you really feel?
As the wheel of fate
Turns to your last repeal

Poor? Too lazy.
Rich? Too selfish.
Stable? Too adverse.
We cannot come together
Kumbaya?
Not with humanity's perpetual
Coup d'état

Homeless rates
Mental illness fates
Antidepressant suppressants
Addiction rate higher than eleven
Soaring to the sky
Crashing down out of heaven
Lower than the depths of black unemployment
Look around, look down, hear that sound?
That's our longevity
Giving in to obscenity
Surrendering our identity just for some levity
Now our minds are far away from serenity

The sun shines bright
My eyes shine like copper
The birds sing
But they sound like cries
People sit on the grass
But their faces run dry
Sunglasses and sun
To reject the projection
This world is a beauty
Our world is a beast
I would go outside
But my feet are tired of falsity