Keep him.
Keep him, if he's your personal protection.
Especially, if he protects your heart.

When danger emerges upon you.
And you should ever call upon him.
And he appears to safe guard you.
Keep him.
If he protects your heart.

Some of the greatest guys are allowed to leave.
Then after gone the woman wants to grieve.
Never telling him the most vital or important things.

Listen.
While you have the moment.
Think.
Think hard.
While you sitting and wondering.

List all his personal qualities.
And you will come to the conclusion.
To why you should keep him.
Especially, if he protects your heart.

Cause after all the questions asked of you.
Your only answer can be to them.
That you kept him.
Kept him because he protected your heart.

He took the burden.
He wear the scars.
Just to keep you from harm.

You never compromised.

Why should I?

You never gave up your dreams.

Why should I?

You never sacrificed.

Why should I?

You never...

Why would I?

**Because I love...

There are good places
where your mind can go
and there are city parks
where little gardens grow
and there is safety
in phone calls
to your best friend
and there is more than
just one way
in which a heart can mend
and bravery can be the days
when you leave your bed
and strength can be
the times when you say
what is in your head
if you feel scared to be alone
and like Hell has become your home
there are people
and there are places
that will help you to feel better
just give me your address
and i will send you letters
your mental health is important
and your feelings matter
pay attention to the cracks
before you completely shatter

He sits being torn through words of scorn
The realisation is starting to form

Through broken letters of hate and neglect
One finds his own inner respect

Now understands what they call "forgiveness"
Even though these lines are relentless

They're broken attempts to dismay his heart
These segregate demons apart

For he is now a growing system
Growing stronger in rhythm

Accepting light in new places
Welcoming new faces

All he desires is be the best he can be
That being said
"He" is me

-Joseph B Schneider

I met a guy,
And when he looks at me
I know he sees
Him and me
Down the road
When we're old
Sitting' on that back porch
Drinkin' sweet tea
Or maybe whiskey;
Him and me
Down the road
Livin' in an airstream
Like gypsies
Blown from place to place
Never stayin' settled too long;
Him and me
Down the road
Hand in hand
Watchin' our
Sons become fathers,
Daughters become mothers,
But always our children
No matter how old they get;
Him and me
Down the road
Side by side
Six feet under
With his epitaph that reads
"Her and me forever."
And mine that reads
"What he said."

A body lies broken
On the freeway ramp curb.
A man once stood there
Asking for help
With his cardboard cutout
Plea for societal mercy.
Then a car sped too fast,  
Swerving to make the green light
It was never going to catch
In this dimension or any other.

Just a moment was all it took.

Did you know he was a soldier
Who was haunted at night
By the enclosed confines of his house
Because it too closely resembled
The urban landscape he fought in,
Faced death in, lost friends in,
Got caught in until the web of his mind
Couldn't ever forget it
Especially when he tried to sleep at night?

Did you know he came back
And tried to fit in to the community
He had been born and raised in
But found that the stares and glances
Of wonder and horror laced
With misunderstanding and pity
He didn't need but couldn't escape
Were too much for him to bear
Because though he could
Look the enemy in the eye
It hurt too much to see
His own father couldn't meet his,
And a community takes its cues
On how to treat its people
From those closest to them,
So, soon no one would look him in the eye?

Did you know all that when you passed
Where he stood every day on the curb
Asking for your pity and spare change,
Having become the uttermost disgrace
In his own eyes,
Because don't you know
He used to be somebody?

Did you know that today,
When you made a split second
Choice to speed up the turn,
He'll be buried in the National Cemetery
With an honor guard
And a three rifle volley salute,
But the chairs will be empty
And no one will speak kind words for him,
Because he's already been forgotten?

How else could you run over him,
And drive off with not a glance back??

My conclusion: you're a ******!

Today I told a doctor that time heals all wounds
he said no that’s aspirin
and if  you have have allergies
you’ll need epinephrine

Today I told a priest that time heals all wounds
he said no that’s God
also prayer and hope wouldn’t hurt
if I was no fraud

Today I told a psychic that time heals all wounds
he said to get a reading and I’d be fine
and he’d throw in a magic ball
for only $9.99!

Today I told myself that time heals all wounds
as I looked in the mirror staring my body down
It better I whispered
because in this pain I soon will drown

Listen.
I know you've lived longer
Than my short quarter century life.
I know you've seen more,
Done more, loved more,
Touched more, tasted more,
Experienced more things than i.
I know you're only trying to help.
I appreciate the giving of advice.
I know you mean well
When you say it's time to give them up,
It's time to move on,
To be my own person,
To learn to live for only myself.
But you haven't lived through
The total decimation of your family.
You haven't watched as the lives
Of your loved ones fall into utter ruin
One by one.
You weren't relegated to helpless paralysis
By the fear that you'd lose them all
And by the depression that came with knowing
You couldn't even help yourself.
You don't know what it feels like
To have the dagger of abandonment,
The shattered shards of broken hearts,
The pinpoint needles of disillusionment,
The three-pronged fork of misunderstanding,
****** into your soul over and over
By every lemon life throws your way.
You don't know what it is to stand
On the brink of death
Because if you don't have them,
You have nothing.
You still have your family.
All intact and whole.
So don't begrudge me
My clutching, grasping, clinging attempts
At keeping what remnants of a family I have
Together.
I will not let them go
Until they have to be pried
From my dead hands.
And even then, I will still be loyal.

*They are all i have.

He took my hand
And my heart skipped a beat.

Skadoosh

My world implode,
Never to be the same.

Kaboom

Now that he's gone,
How do I recover?

Bang

He was my firecracker,
My short-fused flame.