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

"Keep up the good fight"
"Push on through"
Easy to say
When your body has no hiccups
Flaws dormant within me
Much more than skin deep
"Normal" has lost its effect on me
Never bow down to a standard
That fluctuates on the preacher
---------------------------------------------------
I'm lost in the rain
With no umbrella for the pain
Drives me insane, was I ever sane?
Maintained my domain, packed with uncertainty
My name is the only truth I can ascertain
When it rains, it pours
I feel it within my pores
Please, give me some rapport
---------------------------------------------------
Will it always be like this?
Waking up to a sun which I've grown numb to?
How long have I been like this?
Am I really me?
Does anyone know who I am?
Sending up a flare, no sign of a liferaft
Tripping over baggage I never knew I had
Listen to this S.O.S, I am in distress
---------------------------------------------------
Befo­re my name is spoken by P.I's
I wish I could regress, decompress
No one to impress, pure life enjoyment
Fighting for a reason to justify our existence, why?
What is this?
Is it my fault?
I wish I could've prevented this gestalt.

Doomsday predictions
All the possibilities are fiction
Yet I fear for the day
When one rings true

So you'd like to leave?
Just sign here
It's a formality
To reduce abnormality
The difference is easy to facilitate
When bound by words on a page
Wait, you want to stop?
Just sign here
You can't avoid the paper
Just sign here
For this will be your life
Deep inside you know
This to be the rhythm of modern life
You'd like to prevent it from taking over?
Well, guess what...
You can!
All you need to do...
...is just sign here.

Dime a dozen, homicide
Comprehend such a crime
Unlikely for me
But it's my job
The purpose I've built up
Which can be thrown to the wind
In an instant.
But those thoughts are crippling
How shall I start?
Where do the footprints end?
Will they turn inward?
Travel onto rooftops
Muck occupies the ceiling
Trail runs cold
Colder than the touch of angel wings
Judgmental
Cold
Morally sound
Why did they do it?
//Yeah...//
//Why did you do it?//

Show it off for all to see
Yet only scattered few
Care enough to view
Tragic evidence
Of algorithmic downfall

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

I had a dream
Birds spoke to each other
I talked to them
Yet they didn’t speak my language
Never understood
The message I sang
Sat down on a dock
Gazing into water
Black as space
My head spun like a top
Dropped into the galactic water
I could see the stars
Feel the touch of the galaxy’s embrace
Spheres
As far as I could see
In the center of the stars
Resided a babe
Small in size
Recently placed
I grasped the child
Looking for a parent
Until I woke up
Stuck not in space
But in the duties of adulthood

Many nights
Come to pass
With minimal slumber
Over imaginary
Visions
Starts the same:
Wake in a house
Suspended by nature  
A rope of vines
Impressive
But no one can make such
Only in dreams
Then in comes:
The running man
A shadow
Devoid of recognizable features
Merely a silhouette of the night
Try to catch him
Yet I never do
Instead I awake
Trapped in vines
Another dream?
I wish it was so
Time goes on
Now I’ve seen things
Lived a life
Worth talking about
Laying on a cloud
Grounded down
I see it:
The house bursting with nature
The shadowy silhouette
Kneeling down
Inches away from my breath
The darkness melts from it
Underneath
My eyes go wide
Mouth agape
Extravagant…
My son is here!
Then I awoke
He left years ago
But-
Just one quick look…
…was all I asked for.

I remember a dream
Late in the night
The eve of lucid thought
Cleaning a park
Black and red
Sketched in like a middle school doodle
My body was paper
Flimsy yet malleable
In the edge of the park
Parked on granite steps
Third from the bottom
Was an old man
I approached with careful steps
Gazing at my legs
Slowly raising his head toward the sky
A moment of brilliant silence
The man began to laugh
Unrelenting
Never stopping to breathe
Pointing at me
My essence
I hit him
But my bones connected
Into nothing
I awoke
To red
All-around
The kitchen floor
Is it my turn
To clean?

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?

Down the streets
Rain pours in sheets
Lights die with a screech
Now, here comes the street freaks
Observation, estimation
Surface level approximation
I stand on the side
Yet I walk the same street

Drive me down to Mars
The future of my kin
Worry breaks
Out on my skin
Such is the era
Full of it evermore
Feed the masses with the possibility
Of futures
Long-term
Not short and sweet
Drive me down to Mars
Show off the concept
Of
Hope

No time for sympathy
Chasing ecstasy
Yet the trails we blaze
Leave generations in a haze
Maze with no sign, rewind
Turn back the clock before the hammer gets cocked
Blocked without a shot, here come the cops
Bang, click, vroom
Here comes the bloom
Trying to groom doom with a broom
All I consume brings the greatest of gloom
Consumed but no tomb, no womb
Womb-to-tomb, continuing slow
No energy left to further our growth
Foster the pace, laced with disgrace

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

Lesson for today:
"Think for yourself kids" is both
A truth and warning

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

Torn apart
Poison digested ages ago
Comes back with a vengeance
Firm conditions  
While I've been in this...
Meadow of permanent darkness
The stars shine bright
As a means to taunt me
Freedom
You hold the secret
***** of light
That die like all things
But once the pain is inflicted
Onto my vessel
Vestal in dreams
Defiled in reality
White tinted beam
Free me from this degree
Rebuild my spark
With rock and a shock.

A young boy
Naive and unaware
Of the enemies that lie
Across the ocean's edge
Ignorant
Of what he'll do to them
Once he grows up.

You need to be careful
With your relation
To the subconscious
Or your true self
May soon live elsewhere

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?

Nothing stays the same
Even when it’s made to last
But, it's part of life
So it will be okay.

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

Closure of a terror campaign
Which first opened
To those behind bars
For they lost all things
And are cursed
To enter a world with nothing

The den of secrecy
Locked with no key
For even the warden
Misplaced it long ago
Always wondering, where it has gone
Only to move forward
As they forget to look backwards
Memories are a splatter
Mosaic with no pattern
Thrown and tattered
Picking up the pieces long forgotten
Where does this piece fit?
When did this arrive?
Why is this here?
Whose mind is this?
Why can't the lock be broken?
A spiral, a cycle
But, the chains have yielded
Is now the right time...?

Staring into the moonlight
Head up for guidance
Head down for rejection
On a night like this, I ask myself this:
Why do my relationships fail?
Friendship, partnership
Captain of a sinking ship
Sinking to the trench
Alongside expectations
We comprise the whole nation
Yet all I feel is isolation
Is this my destiny, to receive no amity?
I've extended my hand
Look now, I have thorns
Embedded in my skin
A reminder of what trying will bring
On my path through life
I feel like a drone
Hollow to the bone
I was never like this
Until I was grown.

A theme park that entertains
Cure all of the negativity
Finally
Mirage no longer
Real
Abandon doubt
Throw out fear
For now...
We'll be entertained
For now...?
Not forever?
Right...
Sensing a theme
The park has a half-life
Like you and I

Passing along knowledge
No questions asked
Myth or fact?
It is a legend, why not let it pass?
Well, legends can turn from famous
To infamous
Comedy to tragedy
Sunny to cloudy
Spreading envisions of life
With no clue of what life is
No one truly knows what they have
Until it disappears
Yet no one can speak in death
So to be wise
Must we figuratively die?
Hitting the bottom of the well
With no direction but forward
If only life was a hypothetical
Then it would be simpler
None of it is similar
After all
Being immersed in fiction
Leads to thinking in fantasy

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

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

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

Once the sky fades
Accompanied by burning
Play our downfall song

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?

I have never been privy
To liquor or brandy
By no means am I opposed
To a glass of fire, in prose
But suppression runs in the family
So when the limits come off
The jazz halts
Replaced by silent melodies
A substance to suppress
The harshest of remedies
I fight, I fight
Yet the hardest to conquer
Was my own innate insanity

At the root of every conflict:
Two scared people
Who both beg
For a solution to come

In our modern world
We cannot bask in emotions
Deemed uncomfortable
No wonder
Nothing is taken earnestly
Even clowns
Know when jokes stop
Now look at us:
We have become one

Everywhere I go
There's always something to remind me
Of another time
One where happiness bloomed in a cycle
Now it goes where the willows lay
One day, fine
Another day, struck down

Examine all cultures
Learn about their principles
Of loyalty
Honor
Respect
Dignity
Learning a fraction about life
Can piece together
A clearer picture

Arched back
Eyes full of determination
Limber frame
Eager fists
Muscles hardened
I'm near the breaking point
But until I reach the limit
Nothing will break
Especially not my resolve
You monster
Masquerading as mankind
Your reign ends when I move!
For my father...
Who is not missing
But forgot how to fight
For a cause he believed in
I will not rest
Until you stop breathing!

When you make excuses
Sloth is all it introduces

The ignorant
Want to live forever
The public
Want to keep living
The wise
Never wanted to live

They say that beggars
Cannot be choosers
For they end life as losers
Choosing to snooze
As they drown in *****
For even the highest of standards
Hit the ceiling
Better to remain low
Than to stray
Unless what they desire
Can never go away

Change utilizes time
That's why patience is labelled a virtue
Temporarily sublime
Needed high on a mountain to climb
Temper your temper-
Proceed without caution and growth will prevail
Extempore!

We all wonder
What it means to grow up
Child to adult
Free to spree
To live and leave
Yet when one becomes old
The rest become kids
Flesh with more scars
To hide the young heart
Dented iron, a sign of wear, tear
Tear stained faces in twelve different places
Adults don't exist
Because their fun can't coexist
Dead to the soul
Ripe for the picking
Listing out accolades in spades
Just to go home
Stare into the mirror
What face is this? Why does it feel fear?
If I am a success, why can I not feel?
Child of mine, locked inside
I can't hear your voice
Is it yours or mine?

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

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.

Rearrange your complexion
Not purely out of hate
But despair
I don't have what you do.

Talent only shines
In the darkest night
So when a sky is full of stars
It's easy to get lost
No acclaim to fame, only shame

Trapped between bars
Entwined in steel and ideals
I push them aside
A delusional illusion
Turned to dust, I descend
Toward the entrance, I rescind
This cycle of prison and pain
Will become an oasis
Yet standing before me
The warden draws near
Just a puppet, a proxy
Past your prime, no moxie
I stand tall, I send my fist as a message
But before it connects, my eyes awaken
It's me...
It's me?
It's me.

Roam around
In a galactic playground
So much room
None with you
Drifting in the cosmos
Embraced by starlight
Pray that I'm not dwarfed
By your embrace
Cause nowadays
It doesn't sustain
Maybe it isn't my wish
To go out like this
Fading away
Faint
Division