Serenity set camp within sanctuaries in plain sight.
Yet sometimes it’s hard to find.
Akin to the eyes of storms, they are calm amidst the chaos.
The weary traveler checks in, and leaves without a sound
Lured away by the lull of the road.
A sirens song sang from a car wreck.
A weathered fool washed the dust off in the camp
And roots grew in the mud.
Sapling tree of life.
All who will enter the camp will eat freely of the its fruits
Should they stay to see it bear.
The fool grows alongside the sapling
Yet he still wonders
What dreams enthrall sleeping giants and martyrs?

You'll never get to experience the depth of the still water until you're submerged.
The iceberg of the mind...
There are no mistakes, only lessons manifesting in various degrees of challenge.
Adversity is the crucible through which character is shaped.
Let my equanimity be mistaken for indifference,
as my tolerance is for acceptance.
Because the mountain piercing the heavens is actually a dormant volcano.

She's like a dark chocolate bar
As close as possible to being pure
While still being refined,
Presented with perfect lines
All neat and organized
To be broken and shared
So that everyone can taste her melt in their mouths
Even the over zealous biters...

Tastes bitter to me

Sitting in a communal bathroom,  three toilets, two showers,  three sinks, toilet paper rolls made only to allow one rotation's worth of single ply paper...  The condensation drips from the exposed pipes overhead.  I can overhear a club rap song played from a cell phone in adjacent stall.  Tomorrow at 5oclock am ill wake up to powdered eggs and milk, a game of chance on the age of a cup of coffee, and another 3 hour watch block.  This is how my work day begins without fail.  I'll labor or clean until lunch, tacos on Tuesday's, burgers on Wednesday,  cold cut sandwiches on Friday's,  where after I'll resume cleaning or moving objects from here to there until 4oclock. Then I'll once again rejoice in a meal.  Billy Joel said "they're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone"  we'd all toast our plastic cups to that, were there anything suitable to toast with.  Bill,  I believe this is killing me.  An hour elapses and once again I race to a second 3 hour watch cycle.  The clock strikes 8:45pm and I'm free.   Free to bathe,  shave,  and climb into my middle triple bunk in an aisle of 6, to rest my weary head,  set an alarm for 5AM and repeat the process.  This is the life in which we volunteered ourselves.  Thank you for your servitude.

Why can we not live
We survive, we get by but...
Why can’t we live?
A circle hits a square,
        Without edges.

I can’t help but ask:
Is this it?

I toss back my chemical charm and I wonder
What more is there?

Let us find out together

We wander in different directions.  

breathe

I need something, I need nothing
I need everything:
What even is that?  

Let it be anything
Let it be everything
Maybe I’ll learn to let it be

Gimme some air
Prey to god I don’t choke
I’ll cough up toxins

Keep it real
      Don’t trivialize

It’s victor’s birthday.  He’s one today
Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

I’m 26 and it’s tricky
Ain’t it simple though?

Clean our ***** souls
Over a few liquor shots
We won’t remember

Let it all pour out
Drowning our stability
We won’t remember

Choke on memories
The only thing that we own
We won’t remember

But somehow we know
They will never go away
We still remember

We woke up to greet each other with animalistic ***
Then drove to a nearby suburb
For free coffee.

We cruised the backstreets of a flamboyant neighborhood all the way till the windows were barred over.  Then she played Bocelli.  
Opera.

We talked about **** and prisoners.
Talked about lost friends and lovers
About architects and visionaries
Nightmares and dreams.

She kissed my hand, I slid it along her thigh.  We smiled our crooked smiles
our naive ones as well.  We floated.  Beer and mix drinks our only foot on the ground.  

To some it would be nothing, but to disillusioned us...

Perfect

He stands there
Beer and cigarette in hand
She plays ball room music
On the upright piano
In his trailer home.
Her self drawn tattoos act as eye candy
As she waltzed in her pajamas.
Life is good sometimes
If you make it

Lost souls
Travel together
Down an empty avenue
Running
From the sunlight
To make this night last forever
But the dawn broke
Too soon
And the sharp sun
Bled me dry
Crawling on our hands and knees
I’ll see you on the other side
Then one by one the worms became butterflies

Are we fighting just to fight
Or making peace just to be lazy
Two faces of the same demon to me
On a cold black night
I look around and what do I see
The brightest stars keep shining
Through the darkness
But the dawn broke too soon
And the sharp sun
Did outshine
The last thing that she said to me
I’ll see you on the other side
Then one by one the angels learned how
to lie

If you keep doing what you’re going
And you know you’re gonna die
Is it still suicide?

I don’t think I’ll ever be ready
For the day they call you home.
But you warn me you’ll be leaving
Eventually if not soon.

Is it selfish to try and stop you?
Try and make you face the things you chase away?
I’ll be here with you till the end
Regardless of when that comes

She still talks to old johns
She still talks to old pimps
She still talks to strangers
She still talks to me.
She says I’ll give them another nut
She says she misses the money
She asks about rumors and what’s happening
She says she’s in love
I think she talks too much
She thinks I think too much
I wonder how much is true

Sometimes I sit and wonder about the strangers who read my life.  
Do you think I’m using rhetoric?
Do you think I’m spinning webs?
Do you think it’s all words spewed from a wandering mind of fantasy?
Am I?

There are three sides to every story
That is yours mine and the truth
If I recorded every moment
and shared them all
With you
Would you see my lense as skewed?
Undoubtably it is.
Can a man really be objective?
One can try,
But there is no try
Only do or do not.

I wish I wrote fiction.
Maybe I’ll give that a try

I'll be content in this contemporary contempt because it's only temporary.

But I'll still paint you in my memories
a vibrant monochrome.

Merry Christmas, detox
I’ll see you this afternoon
Happy holidays

The ebbs and flows of the tide remind me of life.  How it pushes and pulls, washing over the stones until they're sand...  It's cyclical decay it is beautiful.

I dip the quill of intention into a font of temptation.
I write pretty words on a blank page
To watch them all get sullied.