People love to live by rules and labels
No matter how hard they deny the fact
It is human nature to desire some semblance of order
It is human nature to require a code of morals
But what if I decide to reject these attempts of control?
What if I am not the type to be constrained by the whims of politicians
Some may then consider me an anarchist
Or simply just crazy
But my disgust at the rules that society places upon does not make me evil
In fact, I am a staunch believer in good
My issues lie in the fact that the corrupt are allowed to judge who is of upstanding character
When in fact, those hypocrites are the true faces of villainy
My ethics are not black and white
Just a nice shade of grey

Why must I dream?

Is it not enough to die within reality?
Must I perish within a multiverse of concealed consciousness as well?

Why must I rage?

Caustic temper burns arteries and chokes out my life
Must I remain resigned to this illimitable torture?

Why must I question?*

The world pours its heart out to a dissatisfied partner
Must I continue down this path, this road of intellectual discontent?

You’re a sickness
You’re a disease
A flesh-eating parasite
Gorging on peoples’ hearts
Laughing at me when I’m on my knees
I should have known better than to trust you
My back is getting kind’ve sore
From being stabbed so often
You make my stomach churn
With your disgusting lies
Quit feeling so victimized
You’re like a summer cold
Making people suffer
Even in the warm and happy sun
How can someone be so vile?
You have a morbid sense of humor
Chuckled when I gobbled up all your affection
I realized too late that it tasted pretty bitter
You’re a sadistic piece of work
The type to smile in a cemetery
And spit on graves

It’s all theater
I’m just behind closed curtains
That’s probably why no one looks
The fabric forcefields let me perfect my routine though
I certainly have an array of props to play with
A little cardboard box I call home
My reliable, evergreen jacket that kinda looks like swiss cheese
Oh, and a Styrofoam cup to collect my keep
My reward for tonight’s performance

Are they all in on the act?
Pretending that I don’t exist just for fun?

I must say, this new crowd is pretty **** good
Even the little ones get in on the charade
“Mommy, daddy, look at that ma-“
The clutching and quickened paces tell me those young talents might get cut
What a shame

I remember when my boss hit the line “you’re fired!” with such conviction
I was **** well impressed
When I said I couldn’t pay last week’s rent,
my landlord must have been practicing that disgusted look for hours

I like this new production, though, so it’s all good
Sure, the nights get a bit chilly and the days can be musty
but it’s all just show business
I sleep happily knowing this lifestyle is just a big act
It’s all theater

**….right?

Those ****, metallic wings
No matter how far I flee
No matter how deep I sink
I can hear those blades shriek

The land is suffused with paranoia
We've poisoned sweet Americana
and in its place, soar ebony vultures

Listen my children, I have a tale to tell
How we flew out of good graces
and straight into **hell

Mr. Movie

Locked and loaded, ready to go
I can already hear sneakers squeak on the linoleum floors
Everything plays out in slow motion
I guess the movies get some things right

There’s really not much to aiming down sights
nothing too complicated about squeezing a trigger
What I never prepared for is the ease of being a star
Each and every kid or teacher I shoot just sinks down
no dramatic death scenes or stupid monologues
Hell, they don’t say much at all
maybe one or two grunts on the way down

I’ve got to hand it to Arnold
When I missed just to the left of his heart, guy didn’t quit
He looked like one of those soldiers in training montages
Our brave hero crawled under the bodies of students rather than barbed wire
I didn’t expect the show
My appreciation of his ingenuity was a headshot

I make my way around the lower level of the school
A peculiar sight catches my eye
Some ****** appears to be spying on my work
He’s got one nice piece of shining metal clutched in a fist

Who’s this interesting character?


Mr. Minute

It’s finally ******* time!
This morning, I tossed my calendar in the trash
Today’s the day
I circled it in red sharpie

Geometry bored me as usual
I looked to my left and right with a private smile
None of the ******* around me could see the truth
Judgment Day was upon them
While Mccarthy droned on about triangles, my eyes stayed on the clock
Passing period was only five minutes away
That’s when I’d whip out my revolver
That’s when these ***** would know their time was up

Imagine my surprise when I heard gunshots down the hall
I quickly unzipped my backpack, took out the gun, and blasted open Mccarthy’s head
The other kids took a couple of seconds before screaming
I was too busy peering out the door to mind them
How the hell was this possible?!
I planned this out since the idea first popped into my mind
Some ****** was trying to steal my schedule

*Not on my watch

Blood-red eyes are all I can see through
They watch as everything around me shatters and dies
Nothing will cease this rampage of pure rage
I’ve no time for ideas like hope and love
These things have evaded my grasp for far too long
This body will climb its way out of pitiful pitfalls
Drag itself out of the heartbreak and misery
It has become something elemental
Something frightening
All my guarded secrets are discarded in an instant
I have few regards for these people anymore
The rhythm soon overtakes my senses
And the beating of a heart
Begins to match the tempo of utter devestation

The rain is almost silent with its stealthy pattering
I can still decipher our little song though
The rhythm of the drops is a mirror of my heartbeat
This road is empty in the dark leaving me to tear myself apart
Deconstructing what makes me whole and putting the pieces back once more
Ripped pieces of flesh shoddily sown together

Street lights shine dimly in the downpour
Even they are victim to the dark
If only the water could clean me anew
The distance from this mess would be welcomed
but here I am left to deal with the fallout of consequences
Time and time again I make the same mistakes
and the frustration makes me want to roar until the world shakes

I feel like an idiot to place my faith in those unworthy
and the tears of the sky serve as a constant reminder
The rain continues its quiet assault
and I just have to look up at the night sky with a grin on my face
while a certain finger sticks up

My body flits across hungry eyes
My heart blows like tempestuous breeze
The whole room reverberates with sighs

My caustic tears sting and pray
I'll simply writhe the hurt away
while this empty smile stretches everyday

One complaint a day keeps satisfaction away
She's like a blast of wind, brief but heavy
She's got crimson eyes to match my horns
A livid lass whose voice is laden with sass
Apples to apples
Lips to lips
We deal in love like sappy fools
Left bleeding out our chips

Touching every ethereal speck, their vision was unwavering
Eyes piercing through imaginary chambers of the brain
Past a feathery dreamscape
Into an explosion of unwavering reality

The moment I cut open my hand, fascination overtook every other emotion
Not because it was my blood but because of blood’s very nature
The crimson elixir surges through a body, firing like a piston between veins
An organic drum doubles for a maestro of this red symphony
Within skin, honed by the trials of time, a system of fluidity rages on

When the light reaches its end, gaze into the sky
It holds memories of the day
Reminders for what will happen in those far away
I feel alone in what I witness
Hardened by years of seeing purity pass
I am a rock
Basking in the death throes of sunsets

I am of the night
A faded memory that permeates the air
A nocturnal creature at home in the dark
From the shadows, I can see the light continue to flow through your veins
The ghost of your smile still haunts me deep inside
Doubt takes the form of a worm burrowed into my brains
A permanent mark leaving the most painful of stains
I feel lost in a maze of my own creation, not completely sure if I even wish to escape
I am of the Moon up so high
I look down upon you with bitter remorse
I know how this game works
No matter what I do, no matter where I go, there’s always the guilt that follows
Like a wraith I hide from everyone I knew, vanishing as quick as my form had appeared
They are nothing but strangers to me now
But you…You are too familiar a face
Sometimes, I cannot even bear the most fleeting glimpse
I suppose it’s better to forget
So goodbye, farewell, have a nice day
I am of the night
A specter drifting away

I am a cold creature living in locales of ice
The sky is everlastingly dim-I see stars plummet and galaxies entice

Melancholy respites are my friend: I trek without a whisper or a sigh
Frigid winds flay my flesh from bone yet my ears listen to the music they belie

Living in darkness is all I know; my spirit regards shadows as a feast
All this carnage at my hand, all this consumption, and, even still, my hunger has not decreased

I stand upon an ivory peak and patiently scowl at the visitor as it reaches out to greet
My essence immediately withers and my cloaked body slumps down with defeat

I cry out in pain, in shock, and in eternal dismay
At this horribly strange sight, at this mass of my worst nightmares
A Sun free from any tinges of grey

In order to cope with conflict, I try to see everything as pointless

This allows a person to escape any repercussions they might encounter

I try to tell myself that life has no meaning beyond being born

And eventually dying

That love, hope, and destiny is all a farce

A pathetic ploy that we take to try and convince ourselves of a lie

That we matter

Because we can’t admit and comprehend how little we are

How insignificant we are to this entire planet

In this entire galaxy

In all of the universe!

But you know what?

***** that

Life has no inherent meaning…

But

It’s up to us to give it meaning

So what if we’re small?

No matter how tiny, change is change

And we all have the capability to make that difference

If existence is pointless

Then it’s **** well our responsibility to make a point

I once happened upon a rift in time

The thing pulsated so chronally sublime

Peering from the void were many faces of a clock

They spoke in tandem, shouting “Tick Tock!”

This spectacle dazed me and I tripped in confusion

Tendrils of the rift wrapped me in splendid delusion

I had realized the illusion of time far too late

So there I languished, caught in the clutches of fate

On the edge, I feel a gust of wind splinter
It chills me like an icy hug from Old Man Winter

I see my target now
And to the Gods of frost, I begin a bow

He is my nemesis, a slimy thief
He stole her heart and left me a receipt of grief

She holds his arm, crystal love in her eyes
Beholding this sight, righteous rage starts to fly

I bound towards them, a hateful beast
My hunger for revenge awaiting its feast

I nudge her aside, unwilling for her harm
I look into my enemy’s mind, seeing the oceans of hollow charm

Unto him, I will unleash my pain
The need for catharsis has driven me insane

My love barely manages to scream, “Darling, please!...”
*I severed his throat like swiftest breeze

Down but never out
that is the promise
my oath to oblige

Torment courses deeply
into my grey matter
at the very spark of defeat

Today I may buckle
Tonight I might hesitate
but know it as truth
when I swear I will not break

I sink during my highs and soar during my lows
I feel brightest during the night and warmest when the wind blows
I’m alone in a crowd of thousands and bitter during Valentine’s Day
To unpleasant “Goodbye’s,” my voice always responds with a “Hey!”
I drink from downstream, conversely from where the river flows
I’ve got feet with feeling fingers and hands gripping through toes
I’ll talk about your hopes but when the question’s turned, I don’t know what to say
I’m an irrational guy and, everyday, paradoxes are the game I play

I love you
I hate you
You inspire me
I persuade you
You honor me
I disgrace you
You calm me
You stop me
You make me
I break you

Streetlights line walkways like rows of miniature moons
I bask in them without respite
Creatures of the night sing harmonically
A private anthem shared across generations
There seems to be enough space for my own crooning

In a gust, the summoned lover appears
Wind greets me with irreverence
She kisses my pursed lips passionately
I savor the iciness as it distills in my blood

Above, the clouds collide chaotically
An astral ocean rumbles and swells
Its apocalyptic morphing draws one too many smiles
The pure, red sky delivers teardrop invitations

I soak in the crimson waves
They envelope me, elevate me
Wind eagerly grasps my arm
We spirit away to eternal shade

Promises were kept, dreams fulfilled
Freedom furls around my lungs
Daylight forces itself through my mouth and flees
Sighs of relief follow it

Finally home,
I sink beneath the inky stratosphere

Introspection is both serrated and supple
This is a truth that I have duly noted
As my eyes closed and the void overtook all five senses,
I felt the numbness ooze from my forehead

Seeking balance requires a dose of muffled rage
Yet, it paradoxically calls for cacophonous joy as well
The dissonance tugs at my remaining reserve of logic
Even then, my eyes do not dare open

I am to meet the Light first
Its domain rests within a lake of purity
I climb up a sparkling staircase
Lux greets me with an apathetic stare

As expected, these entities defy my expectations
They are not constructs of my eyes
They are the mind’s anchors, its vanguard
They are instinct and emotion in purest form

I show Lux the black fruit in my hands
It seems to understand and picks up the precious thing
I walk down the staircase with measured step
Whether the fruit is eaten or not is now beyond me

Darkness requires an equally enthralling journey
Despite the magma and scorch, I reach its domain
The thing eyes my hands and the white fruit grasped within them
Tenebris also seems to understand what must be done

For far too long, I have felt the conflict in my psyche
Balance is what I need and balance is what I shall receive
Lux and Tenebris must finally decide on a course of action
Reality awaits me and I quietly step back into it

I open all three of my eyes and embrace the surge
I am the Constant
I am the Chaos

I turned on the rusty engine
purred like you did during those rainy rendezvous
##################################
I gripped a cigarette
warmth reminded me of your inner thighs
##################################
I stuck my head out the window
pretended you were the night air
##################################  
I accelerated towards some trees
blood felt like your tears did

You thawed a frozen heart
You cooled down boiling blood
The temperature of my soul
like a little girl with locks of gold
has found the place between hot and cold

Daggers of tranquility grace my palms
Swords sting with stillness on my mark
Havoc's time may soon come to bear
Yet, I do not falter

No stranger to the game
Little aversion to familiar pains
Willpower as eternal as the sun
Coruscating until all is said and done

Saving the wickedness for weekends
But not exactly clawing to cash in
Trudging on with quick quips and granite eyes
Snarling spiteful like storming skies
Hiking for the perfect hill to die upon

My Salvation did not stem from an angelic force
It didn’t even shine from God’s Paradise
Rather
Mine came from the Earth below
From flaming magma and frightening heat
From the crimson hand
That reached out to greet

Hey babe, it’s me, boy blue
been searching around town for a girl like you
You wrung me out dry, left me to die
Flashin’ that smile ever so sly

Hey babe, it’s me, boy blue
been searching around town for a girl like you
I’ve wasted my time, ditched my mind
gave it all up to get back the grind

Hey babe, it’s me, boy blue
been searching around town for a girl like you
I wanna ask you questions, ask you why
but all you can give me is a cry

Hey babe, it’s me, boy blue
been searching around town for a girl like you
Rip me open, what do you find?
a sorry sap who’s busy being blind

Hey babe, it’s me, boy blue
been searching around town for a girl like you
I’ve had this anger, just let it brew
Baby, find someone new to *****

In this life or the next,
nothing is promised
In those moral lapses,
we must seize expiation
In our web of bleak moments,
we learn that diamonds are not forever
In one hand, I held my doubts
In the other, my regrets
and I declared the daunting vow
that I would break them just the same

Ashes to Ashes
Dust to dust
Peeling paint
Monuments of rust

Come now, my friends, let us all be wrapped up
This cloak of lies smothers us so pleasantly
Our eyes are always closed and yet they see everything so clear
The moon shines bright on the thoughts ruminating in our minds
Sometimes our sight is free of the cloak long enough to get a glimpse
A small look at the façade we inhabit so eagerly
Trapped in a cage, with smiles on our faces, we watch the world carry on through the bars
And linger waiting to escape

It’s been too long since hate’s holy weakness had my back
monomania navigated my neural networks, past the cracks
all that angelic singing suddenly started to turn shrill
so now I vacillate between overkill and too sorry to spill

These other people bend their knees and worship physicality
oblivious of time’s absolute touch, its totality
games of the skin truly leave no winners
maybe a few regretful nights and silent dinners

Without a doubt, it’s bigger than bones and words
my pride beams upon scars silenced by those pretty birds
sweltering sweetness behind each anguished grin
hop into my heart once more, take it for a spin

I wasn’t a prisoner of shackles and uniforms
I was a prisoner of self-doubts and hatred

No more tripping down memory lane for me
It’s about time to start strolling in the now

I’m on the comedown, getting better
decided to step out from under the weather

Silence was an old motto, long forgotten
I have a voice that booms about as loud as my mind nowadays

This big, blue world needs a dab of slow-motion
Plenty of necks have been broken by haste

Every watch and clock has been discarded
I mark every minute based on your giggles

It’s only after meeting you that I’ve started living
It’s only with you that I see myself surviving

Time is a commodity I have no worries about wasting
If I’m golden in your eyes, I’m golden forever

To the shadows crawling on my walls-
To the faces I see in the dark-
To the things that go bump in the night...

I bump back

Days long since past
Are just images and pieces in a collage of life and existence
Fitting together into one big picture…a complete puzzle
A product of an infinite amount of complexity and intuition
Choices made and set in stone
While others remain fluid and flexible
Doors creaking because they haven’t been opened in years
Others shutting close a dark and desolate path
Sitting in a little boat and sailing through the decades
Stuck in the middle of an ocean of millennia
I look into the waters below and see what I am
I see what I could have been
Countless options that multiply on and on
Until only one door remains open
My little boat can only handle so much
I must swim now to that ultimatum
Making my way towards the end
I splash in the Sea of Time

I want you to stick around
To play hide and seek in expansive memories
To peek out from behind a wall of forgotten faces
So I can see your eyes glisten in the night
I would love to feel your hand in mine
A pearl and its healing touch
*Snap out of it! *
That wall seems to be getting taller
Holding on to you hurts
Like clutching clumps of coal
Plucked from the petals of a beautiful, flaming flower
Those eyes aren’t catching the moonlight like they used to
20 seconds feel like an hour
And realization falls like a shower
That no matter how hard I try
My voice always stops counting
My eyes always open
And I still can’t seem to find you

“Come not between the Dragon and his wrath”
-King Lear, Act 1

Caught in the nooks of his imagination,
stood the devil in the daylight
sweet as venom
and with no ego at the altar

Ace up his sleeves,
tattered now as they were
grimly grinning from ear to ear
flashing eyes that drill through sinners

To those it concerned, he commanded

Come forth,
in singular order or all at once
leap into my cavernous maw
and be rendered unto ash
at the sheer conviction,
the utter totality,
and the complete radiance
that shall engulf you

To live as one is
with many a fault
numerable in noble efforts
as well as losses

Is far preferable than to tread
with treachery in one's heart
coated in living tissue
yet scant in moral virtue

Let the hells blaze behind me
and the heavens remain weary
for fighting injustice is justice itself
and truth alone triumphs

Take heed and take care
always try to illuminate ignorance
but if that approach fails
then scorch it with great zeal

With ragged wings
of splintered bone
Wispy voice
of straining storms
Comes time and tide
of pure morose

Why tempt fate,
when you can simply conquer it?

Fatalism is for fools
they walk the path of submission
the victims of destiny’s attrition

Stand with radiance and resolve
speak sweet words free of doubt
for you are no puppet tangled in strings

So I took fear by the throat
and commanded its utter silence
for I have long outgrown its weakness
and the inhibitions that it sowed

“In his fist, the righteous sword is raised...and all that is wicked, he will tread beneath his feet”

I came, I saw
I shall not be conquered
Opulence and luxury are minor distractions
There is no time for stardust relationships
No need for the jangle of change in my pocket

We are not owed by any twist of destiny
Fate’s fingers crawl across those years
I swat them away in disgust
My teeth sank so eagerly into a simpler life
I was home, my skin stopped burning

Now what do I have?
All those comforts have been stripped from me
Regardless, I could not kneel
With every step taken, I tore
Concrete convictions warned they might crack

This life will smother your resolve
It will ****** smiles and muddy your heart
but I will be ****** if it makes me yield
Destroying every single doubt
Slaying insecurities with impunity

I am certainly not some exemplar
but I will still dig my nails into the filth
scrape my toes against the brick
I will climb out of this slick well
Whatever it takes
Whatever the cost

Listening to rock, reading the texts of Buddha
I guess Nirvana and enlightenment are one and the same
Thumping hearts hop like ornery frogs
Dysfunction at a critical junction ruined the day

Flipping feels and turning worms
Styx and stones, Hades leaked hurting words
Crepuscular doubt began its creeping
Saturnine habits showed few signs of leaving

No stygian thoughts, that’s my policy
Strength in serenity is no fallacy
“Tempus Fugit” but time is circular
A bipedal butterfly, flapping wings blurred

Need those giggles to wash all the bad days away
I’m metamorphosing past harmful inclinations
A few steps out of your limbo is what it takes
Kissing scars and smiles is all the same

And with its eternal fragility
splendorous sensitivity
life remains clasped in my hands
gently but firmly
kept guarded and true
from all cruelties, all slights
anything an evil world can brew

Heavy flakes collide
upon a face, stiff and sly
leather boots shriek against salt
souls sliding on ice

Steaming breath billows
clotting from that which speaks no evil
dreamland swirling free
steering clear of flesh and meat

Even a thousand planted kisses
would have a modicum of meaning
save for hearts worn on sleeves
and frozen memories

Tiny, shiny cannonballs from above
pelt the forlorn few
while one shifting through slush
hopes their aim is mighty true

The crackles, the shakes
A bad night's rest falling in flakes
I slither down the staircase
I spirit through my front door

Toes tickled by grass tendrils
Hair swept by sleepy breeze
Trees whirl with disregard
A sky bluer with each breath seized

The crackles, the shakes
Earth's roars make the sky break
Luminous lances land in their wake
Setting ablaze all those fictitious mistakes

Another layer of self comes with time
I feel it slide over my skull
The layer glides down my neck, past my waist
My new layer of self joins the rest at my ankles

These layers come with no forewarning
They either slow my stride or spring my step
Some layers propel me to the stratosphere
Other layers drag me down to the depths

These layers of self are who I am
They come with time, they follow each event
I get no say, my consent is forfeit
I am a human borne of self-slices

A spectacle to pity and behold in awe

You cannot take the light from the sun
nor the thunder from the storm

A hurricane’s might dare not be tamed
so the dancing kites it animates remain free

You cannot steal the truth from my lips
or the revelations from my eyes

A tsunami’s waves swallow all opposition
so that the sands below may slowly fall back to place

A thousand cuts could not bleed my heart
for it shines and beats in tune with the infinite
It sways to melodious tunes of righteousness
and rises above the hateful's attempts to drown it

Confront Insecurity
He is misguided, and he should be unravelled

Hear Trauma
She has stifled her voice, but she must be listened to

Embrace Willpower
They will take you firmly in hand, so you can journey ahead