Awake and dreaming
Dreaming while awake
Awake while dreaming
But reality keeps me dreaming
Of a better place where we have meaning
Now all that remains are illusions
Justifying ourselves
By removing feeling
While the successful look down
To feel something
So cruel and smug
To fill years of disharmony

Can't fall asleep
Fear?
Of what?
Nervous
About nothing
Maybe I can't
Bring myself to sleep
Under universal conditions
All others follow
Too much on my mind
Full platter
No chance to make it leftover
Instead
You're on my mind
Yet your's is gone
Dusted away
From flames and heroics
I miss you...
Dad.

A wonderful wonderland
Colossal depth
A center of wonders
When we learn how they work
The magic is drained.

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?

Self-reflection
Drives course correction
Why limit to the old and grey?
They have less time to change
We have one life
Irrespective of all drives
Bring no pain to others
Some people have a dream
But will they ever go to it?
Can you fulfill something if it exists in jest?
Time versus success, why are our skills discussed?
I wish I knew the answers
I wish that I could help you
But I was born into the world
I never helped form you

Artistry is wasted
On a modern mindset
I'd love to make what I want
But then I'd forgo:
Food
Water
Rent
Bills
All the things which drive me to pills
For in a twisted place
You have to contort your face
Eyes growing wide as the flame fades inside
Creations only matter in the frame of collectivity
Forgive my hostility
Creativity has given way to reactivity
To make a living, I rely on opinions
Of people who never shared my vision
If it was my decision, I'd envision a revision
Bringing back the soul and reviving life
When asked, we ask for less
Submitting to the hollow visage of progression
But in the race of life, heart and soul are left behind
What segregates life from those who never lived it?
I'd say I wear a mask
But that implies I can detach it
Co-dependent relationship comprised of battleships
If being a farce was a test
I'd bring home the championship.

Later years
Could be happy
Could give up
Could rest
Could be productive
When that time comes
Invest in peace and security.

Adrift on the ocean sea
Wondering
If I will ever be?
Trapped and confined for safety
Are we living to carry out our dreams
Or because we have nowhere else to be?
All in time
Saved by pride
Falling down
Drowning
All alone with your feats

The face of a demon
Heart of an angel
Hark the call of brass and bones
Trumpets sound for the cataclysm
But now, our end
Marks the beginning
Of a brand new stage
To make history
No archangels can remedy the destruction
For it too, brings creation
Creating chaos to create beginnings
Seems so backwards
Yet fits succinctly
Fear no death
For it gives us meaning
To cope with consciousness
These are the rules we have written.

Don't shake this hand
Caked in moisture
I'm sorry
I didn't want this either

Wake up
Get out of your chamber
That makes you lamer
Cook mediocre breakfast
[Burnt]
Like every time
Get in the shower
Clean every inch
[You burnt the toast]
Brush the bones
Out of your skin
Pain that's akin
To a lengthy equation
[Can't believe it]
Get on the bus
Travel down the lane
Toward work met with disdain
[You burnt it like always]
I burnt it
Down to embers
Maybe home is where I'll go
This isn't my stop
[Your collar's out of line]
[You'll soon run out of time]
[Already half-way]
[Down the throne]
The bed is where I belong
[Sorry boss, I'm ill]
Work will be done
Just without me.

Profit for pain
No other way that we have seen
Systems that won't change
Because it benefits the insane
Draining out
Fields of corpses to sustain
An evil that was never tamed

I pray your day
Goes as planned
Planning is something
I never had much mind for…
Mind…
Oh yes! My dream
Walking patiently forward
Toward a blanket of twilight
All I could sense
Cold touch of faint wind
Over time I finally spoke
A garbled sentence
Greeted with an echo
First it was mine
Then a reverberation
Of voices I didn’t recognize
At least not yet
Touched my ears
Earmuffs?
I don’t own a pair…
I could hear?
Such an odd experience
The intensity increased
Till the force of the symphony
Pushed me backwards
Landed headfirst onto a rock
Rough and uninviting
Then I awoke
Unable to hear my breath
Like always
The status quo remains the same
Will it change?
Boy, I hope so
Truth is that…
I fear I’ll never know
Even if I said yes
Who will believe a man
With no way to hear it?

Faint silhouette
Static back on a background
Actual safety
Came with your embrace
Then
You fled the complex
Too caught up
In what your movement manifested
Not what my soul thought...
Of your existence
Crucial
Critical to humanity
...
I wish that was what I thought of first...
Instead
I thought of how you affect me
Feral animal
Who else will comfort my flesh?
Trapped in shackles.

The end of the world:
By alien invasion
By viral outbreaks
By global war

We entertain the hypotheticals
While the real cause
Remains unchanged

Feasibility
Brings out passivity
Passed the threshold of care
Hold on to this thought
For it's all that we got.

Virtual reality
Alternate reality
Bored with the natural world
The cure for becoming jaded
Yet like all good things
It can replace what's real
The real and the ideal
Swearing allegiance to whatever makes us feel
Immersed, submerged
Two worlds merge and one mirage remains
A twisted masterpiece
With no clear author
Two to one, two scales provide balance
Only one invokes infatuation
Initial fascination
Future rectification, the ode of a modern-day addict
Elevated past the mortal plane
Until the runway is in sight
No place to run
We all come down to the territory
Reminiscing over old glory
A quarry so gory, an even shorter story
Legacy, six letters boxed into a future
Freedom in relation to life's culmination
Only in virtual reality, broken vacation
Free of altercation, alienation
Invoking happiness while becoming more alien, desecration

A paradox
Bound by a clock
I see humans
Who lack humanity
Dramatic irony, no sobriety
Asking to be accepted
With no self-respect
Begging for rights
When they have no more left
Blaming society for going under
Isn't it a wonder, how concepts are blamed for blunders
No rod to absorb the thunder
As the reason for existence gets torn asunder

I'm sick of being passive
It's time for aggression
You said that you'd embody innovation
Screamed out to the nation
Then you crawl back to classic manipulation
This whole **** race is last place
Families who can't afford a place
Dinner with no steaks
Every day, more at stake
The tension, the pressure, the hybrid of humanity
Such a **** tragedy
AI is more human than thee
Deplorable, unforgivable
Creating more because excess drowns the war
Chained to ties, bound to lies
We talk about headlines
While the cause remains inside
Pull it from the roots, shake the whole system
I knew we were ignorant
But how did we get this dumb?

Just because
We adapt to any environment
Never means
We are satisfied with it

Clarity
Truth of the mind
Does it foster love?
Or does it foster chaos?
Lateral truth
Lateral violence
How many have died
Fighting for lies?

Love
Action
The most compassion
Restricted to 24 hours?
How about 8760 hours?

Mother's care
Filling holes
By giving life
Does a baby enjoy strife?
Fertile nature
Brings devastation
You created life
To satisfy your vacancy

Sibling rivalry
Two, spiteful jealousy
One, empty living

A creator
Must have a drive
An optimistic outlook, one who strives:

To change
To evolve
To fix

But much like fire
A creator can create, or effectively destroy

Rope snapped
During the choke
The chair didn't fall
Tilted over
In slow motion
If only it worked out
May seem self-driven
Selfishly struggled
Yet, convinced that this place
The human race
Would be better without my space  
So...
Attempted to croak
Hopped off like a frog
Searching for something to keep
Now I
Get to look forward to one more yolk

Tough waters
Full of mystery
In the forbidden depths
Lies history

Like a star
Shining brighter than all
Correlation to constellations
Together forever
Until the years burn into ashes
Dusted and thrusted away
Into a memory
Like a star
Fading and passing
But never quite going out
Even as it dies
No one will ever quite forget it all
So when I wake up
Will you still be there for me?
I want to shine like you
But all I can do is pretend
Yet it makes people smile
I shine so brightly
To call out to you
I hope that you see
The brightness of this world
Maybe I really can be like a star

People love to give advice
Yet never follow their own wisdom

Pins, needles
Suppressed evil
Butterflies lie
Despite their pride
Pointing fingers at sides
To hide what's inside
Nerves, the motive
Paranoia, the action
Blind cannot react
To such a transaction
Pure distraction
As the branch falls
So too does its spread
But if you cut off the head
Is it truly dead?

I wish I understood
Such a concept
But it's not my deal
Interrupted by feel
No matter the angle
Pray for an angel
Never shall descend
For a meager scenario
Yet to me...
It defines who I'll be.

In the back of my cognition
A memory appears:
Such a treasured time
Such bittersweetness
A choir of children sing a chorus
But I see none?
Only one, singing for no one
Yet...everyone?
No words, no phrases
Just noises
So simple, so pure
My vision grows blurry
I no longer have his eyes
Therefore, I cannot see him
But on a rare night
I hear his song
Only to weep, another night

Left in a chokehold
Shaking like a soldier
Fear in boulders
Panic smolders
Assess, respect, protect and direct
There is no safe place for the hyperactive
Distracted, safety redacted
In new frontiers
Unwavering plight
In old pastors
Unyielding fights

Children are not a medicine
Bring one alive to drive the bloodline
Not to cope, think before acting
Care for one, don't use one

Lights, so bright
A party, let's celebrate tonight
All the people I like are here
But still, there's something I fear
As people dance, sing, and drink
I can't help but look out the window
Glancing fast
Looking for reprieve
At the happiest time
Of the happiest night
I still feel no safe
As I look left to right
These feelings, so tense
It is hard to trust
When it all leads to a fight
So tired, so tired...
Maybe it's best to leave, to take flight

Today
Turned to yesterday
We wanted change
Yet all stayed the same
Our brain walked us away
From the same idea
Pestering our ways
How can a monolith be swayed
When tragedies are measured by graves
Look back at yesterday
How many ways did you
Make today look grey?

Falling down
With no floor
To carry me
When will I come down?
And

M
a
k
e

i   m     p     a   c   t
------------------------

Father, go there
The troubles are over
Go up there, please
Show up, no more hiding
I'll wait for you
At the beach covered in minerals

Show off your skills
Discover a true talent
So that when you do
Slick salesmen can make it monetary
Is this purgatory?
Talent with no passion leads to a miscarry
Scary, living life one day at a time
Because when the years go by
Your passion will fly
Not soaring high, just coasting by.

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

Finding new ways to coexist
Messages were sent, but the shot missed
Insisting on persisting
Diplomats dismissing
Insisting on resisting
Adding more labels to the blacklist
You artificial altruists
Handing out reasons to exist
By finding more to enlist
Our enemies make up a shortlist
Narcoleptic naturalists
Finding new ways to twist
A kiss into a fist

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

Sociopathy
Psychopathy
A thin line
Divides the two
To find the one
Ask them both:
Who would like to be part of history?

As numbers grow
Meaning becomes a focus
For every ten that are born
Twenty are met with scorn
When do concepts
Not apply to humans?
Is quantity not over quality?
To reach demands
Without reprimand
How can we matter
When numbers outweigh us
Have we, gone by
The time, to thrive?
When only 1% of the world matters
What about the 99%?

Discussing philosophies
Brings out antiquities
So, when discussing those who believe
That their belief means nothing
Do not discuss their way
But how they came to it

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

We've all got a job
Yet we always feel robbed
Satisfaction never stays until the end of days
One man can have the will of thousands
Only two hands to push the weight of the world
Needs no compass, creating an atlas
Life in their own hands, what divides them from a fascist?
Proverbial attacks for being an architect
How can one ant carry an apple?
How can one man conquer their criteria?
All dreams end, yet the meaning persists
Waking up, getting out
But for who? You? Them? Me?
The truth is often what we never want it to be
How can one cure division when the conversation is slipping?
Running out of solutions
So they answer with silence
...

As I get older
World gets colder
All I can muster, crocodile tears
Numb to the cries
How can I harmonize when tragedy is normalized?

Behind that splendid plain
Ice, piled high
A midnight sun, resting on top
Like a silhouetted candle
It may be cold
But it has never been so inviting.

Save the planet
Save the trees
Save the ocean
Yet...
We have yet to save ourselves
Acknowledge our fragile nature
When we cannot accept our own nature
How can we save anything?