We all have a canvas
Let me describe the pieces:
For one it was stolen
One it was broken
One had a heart
I asked if it was for her
Or for those who saw it
One had a crown
On a king most reprehensible
One had a faded landscape
It was how he saw the world
Or what he wanted to make it
One had a dream
But I didn't have the heart to say
That I could never see it
One had a fiend
They called it a "self-portrait"
One was blank
They were afraid to be one thing
Reduced to an exaggeration
One had an old man
Clinging to past days
With a love free from sorrow

Taxes
Deadlines
Evictions
Payments to meet
Grocery store exclusive meat
Up to ten dollars
Wish I could eat for free
Like the birds
In the park
Deer
In the backyard
Bats
In the darkness
If only their life was easy too
Gotta think about living
By that, I mean surviving
Protecting family with your biology
No fancy tools used to get to the same end:
Death.
Was it always like this?
Crying over the thought of tomorrow?
May be mature, but I thought it was a gift
The more I'm aware
The more I wish that my mind was bare.

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

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?

Up
On a hill so high
I'd touch the heavens
If my soul could qualify

Oh, you trapped my soul
Locked it in the jailhouse
I came here a man out of time
Today a parasite
Clinging onto the walls
Wrapped around the bars
Stone walls are my friend
Prisoners are my family
Orange jumpsuits for a uniform
Carving the lines into the granite
What time is my parol?
Tastebuds conform to the slop
No one believes my cries
This verdict isn’t mine
I never did the crime
I must have been framed like a picture
Tricked by the trickster
My lawyer was in on the plot
Helped no one but himself
Oh, you trapped my soul
When will the day come
Where I leave behind these walls?
Somedays I think
This is where I belong.

Waiting for a train
That will never come
Left the station
Disregarded the nation
Chance to fight
For peace
Safety
Sanctuary
Denied.
By the one thing to deliver me
Into corruption
Soon to be snuffed out
By me.
Others may not agree
Yet this is how it shall be
Eliminate all
For their empire to fall.

If I became
The king of the universe
Would I care for those who reside in it?
All power, all in my palm
Able to reset everything, to dust...
...
If I had a family
Would I care for them?
If I had a son...
Would I want him to live?
If I had a loved one...
Would I care for their single ounce of affection?
If I had anyone...
Would they care about me?
Can I have a typical life...
If I know the reality of it?

Stars, planets, asteroids, comets
All know their place
So, why am I the stranger...
Amidst a crowd of friendly faces?

Why must I feel
Like an alien on a distant planet
One and the same
To you.
To me, the difference is night and day
Rise up for the morning
As I weep for twilight.

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

Look before you leap
Into arms that deceive.

Lost our heart
Lost our spark
What we lose today
Resides in the dark

Be afraid
Of the man
Who has lost everything
For when you lose something
His sympathy will turn to battle malice
Alice fell down the hole
But, he embraced it
And lost self-control.

Couch
Stained with an unknown substance
A television
Channels, all the same
To static
At least that is distinct
Future?
Never put much thought to it
Windows barricaded
Outside sources breed panic
Internet
A place to hide
Safety net soon to be snipped
Yet these images...
The same
Videos...
Looped for hours
Music...
Playlist of repetition
Today is the worst
And tomorrow...
...will be the same

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.

Why do you love what you do?
One says the environment
Another genetics
Predisposed affection
Blocks for insurrection
How about
Some bias?
Entirely probable
Once loved by your parents
Now cherished by the kin
Fit to wager on the right one?
Plot twist
Last-minute savior
None are wrong
All equally right
The science of emotional expression
Pursues in different forms
Not chemically
No solid, liquid, nor gas
Conceptually
That's the way it shall be.

Hundreds die
Thousands fall
Millions tremble
Hopelessness
Heartlessness
A heart without hope
Flowers covering chaos
Love, in a mist

Running over to an island
For a sense of self
Jump off from your highland
She ran away from herself
You lustful lightweight...
...would you like the same fate?

Feeling lovesick
Good thing I'm back home
Time to atone

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

Talk is cheap
For upper echelon jobs
Talking is a paycheck

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.

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 have no mouth
And I must scream
I have no eyes
And I must see
I have no ears
And I must listen
I have no blood
And I must live
For objects possess
No awareness.

Everyone
Wants to talk about change
Yet, no one ever wants
To embody it

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

Tech has advanced
While we go backward
An immature species
Using AI
So they can never think
Tech has advanced
Yet our lives have declined
To all of you, I ask
Is this the world we should keep alive?

Drinking beers
To avoid tears
For the fear of disgrace
Weighs heavy on the face
Embarrassment, for feelings and drinking
In this world
No one can feel
For judgment it brings

Sons of the priest
Wash water
To burn it all on the altar
Every offering, pleasing
Crumbled, into essence

Arrows flung by the youth
War commanded by the ancient
Hey, get up
We have more to conquer
Hey, get up
We have more to fire
Hey, get up!
We have more of you to spare!
But you will never command my soul

A daily mantra:
Talk is cheap, actions speak louder
Why do we trust product marketing
If talk is all they can afford?

All of my friends
Betrayed to rusted machines
Filled with corks
Screws
Lugnuts and bolts
Tragedy struck like lightning
Noose is ever-tightening
Piece of machine
Lies within my frame
Not willing
Since it was not in my billing
Above the pay grade
That an F could afford
Lost to machines
We created and now cause us to decay
I knew that I would die
But not as a ***
With no march, absence of a marching drum
Beat my flesh and bone
Weather me like a storm
Rain poured on my face
Pushed aside
Thrown to the curb
Hurts to be the one?
Shift your feet at once now
Carry on!

Would you open a door
If you knew what was coming?
Would you step on the frame
If the other side was worse?
Would you twist the doorknob
If what awaited was pain?
Pain brings progress
But all ours seems unnecessary
Necessary to progress
But all we do is beat others down
When we lift others up
We push ourselves down
But maybe, that's okay
Because in the end
Living is not ethical

Intuition
Superstition
Reflecting on rivers
Twisted by moonlight
Illusions and tricks
Among the sticks
Clarity, duality
Pieces of a mystery
The lightest stars
Cast the deepest shadows
Deception remains wrong
But it sells in bulk
En masse, selling masks
Blinded by reflections

Inadequate quality
Leads to faults
If only the mind was treated
Like a factory line
Then blind disregard
Would lead to opened eyes

Small things made us content
Until growth took over our lives
Getting more turns into a bore
When we cannot take in
Small times
Remember the past days?
Every aspect of life felt
Like an unsolved mystery
But now we have grown
Complicit and trapped
In routines that we never liked
But if this is the future
Did we ever enjoy small things?
Were we born to toil in normality?
Maybe it's too early
But I have always been too late

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?

Away
Get yourself out of here
Disgust?
Of course not.
I said...
Leave this place
I cannot hold on
Any longer
To such a
Corrupted tabernacle
I'll swallow the pain
Try not to inflict it
You weren't the one
Removed my arm
Now I'll say again
Run away
From the injured one.

Stop.
You've pushed me down
Knocked my hopes out
Into embers
Tore my faith apart
After years
Built it all back up
Like any empire
Rise
Fall
Rebirth
Yet now you come
Back to pillage
Ruin is all you bring...
Part of me can't comprehend
That you are...
...me.

Looking out
At the vast universe
Not for analysis, for answers

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

The people want hope
A messiah
Someone to look up to
In times of hardship
Death
War
Famine
Catastrophe
Gifted with the power
To create
I will make a new hope
For all to survey
Doctorate in electrical reasoning
With pure electricity
Bring forth the mechanical messiah

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

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

Glimmer and glamour
Grey buildings with vacant eyes
Advertised to buy

Impressionable minds
Latch onto broken ideologies
When the ship sinks
The captain escapes, on their backs

Everything we create
An extension of the mind
So when disconnection occurs
Pain and pleasure intertwine
The world goes into decline
While business increases, for the hotline

Reflections change perception
Make those weak, vulnerable to deception
From the moment of its inception:
Do we truly know who we are?

Misadventures
Fun to laugh at
Horrible to engage in
Chuckling at misfortune
Yet no one else can see it
Sad sacks bring back hacks
Fame off of misfortune
No wonder we're cold
Our hearts have become strongholds

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