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

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

Of the life we lost
The dead, the dying, the diseased
Forgotten by us
Just to make ourselves come home
Trying to reconcile
When our hands still shake
When our walls stand firm
Tell me, will we ever be connected?
Even beyond this world
How much have we catered to ourselves?
Twisting and crashing into life
Only for one day
It breaks or creates a future
But right now
I am too blind to see
A future made from disconnection

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

Mounting responsibility
Lacking direction
Fighting for ourselves
Just to push away everyone else
Social creatures deprived of connection
Authenticity replaced by complicity
Dying plasticity
Curiosity taken by toxicity
How can we keep fighting
When childhood was our peak?
If we fight to live
How can we fight for others?
No more schemes, dropping the rhyme scheme
When did becoming numb become commonplace?
Why do we give life just to smash their dreams?
What makes us unique when we are all a statistic?
How can we love each other without profitability?
Who created the rules of our society?
When did the sunlight turn to fading dawn?

Formulaic
Fit the mold with some cutout jokes
Replaceable
Disgraceful process
As a person
I must confess
Let me explain:
Such comedy found in humorous things
Yet all concepts can be considered
Funny to one
Something else to others
Perhaps hateful
Distasteful
Force a laugh?
Means it was never funny
To none
But executive mindsets
For success in such uncertainty
Variety is the prerogative.

Angels and devils
Sing to push forward
An anthem appropriate
For making prophets
Death denies us
Delayed for the demanding
We still push forward
Conquest motivates us
Creating cognitive challenge, craving corruption
We still push forward
We all have our ones
Preventing our fall
But if they led us to a chasm
Hiding their horror
Divided by the first face
Would we still push forward?

Speaking with serenity
A frequency that my ears
Can never register
Am I deaf? Am I blind?
Deep inside, I think I'm fine
But I never was at all
I can hear your voice
It never calls to me
A world hungry for the lonely
Makes me distrust my ears and eyes
If everything can be refreshed
Then serenity dies once in a while
Reborn to suit a distorted purpose
In due time

Our reunions
Daily to rare
What changed?

Oh, I see clearly now
A new type of pride:
Family
Flawed as they may be
It only brings them closer to me

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

Starving
For a missing piece
To become at peace
We must find what we seek

You alligator
Inside two places, devoid
Of love, of virtue