Playing nice, my favorite vice,
Don’t think twice, roll the dice,
This high price, will it suffice
To see a slice of paradise?

If we could not hate
We would be left with despair;
now, how would that be fair?

Emerson and Fuller,
Thoreau and Whitman,
Again and again, it has been written:
Nothing ever ends, death is no
Impasse;
So when you’re gone we’ll look for you,
In our Leaves Of Grass.

Take this pain, as a token
To trust the heart, is to be broken
The mind alone, sets you in motion

There’s still places, I’d like to see,
People I’d still really like to
be,

A hundredth chance; in theory,
I really love
humanity,

But there’s a voice, in my head,
And it says everyone wants you
dead,

It doesn’t matter, where you have
been,
Nobody gets to go home
again,

So what’s the point, no one will
tell,
They’d rather see you live in
hell

Patiently waiting
There, in the next world, where you
See all coming things.

Feeling warm again:
Clouds, making way for fresh light;
wheels will turn themselves

Antisocial, shy
Or have you lost the hope of
Being understood?

Untold times reaching
Out with grasping fingertips
But invisible

Try your best
To remain unfazed
The world will test
You, leave you dazed
But you don’t have to change
In order to be free
Compromise or rearrange,
Who you want to be
Wear your heart on your sleeve
And embrace the pain
Dream a dream, make-believe,
And cast away disdain

There’s a secret path to walk
A language that nobody talks
A different world to see
Another way to be
Irrefutably

Why, simply because,
I hardly need a reason
To do anything.

Can’t escape yourself
Mind, a twisting labyrinth
Loops in on itself

I’m sorry, but who are you?
Did you take my face?
You look like me, but askew
Please don’t take my place.

Colorblind, you see in mournful grey
You speak of all you rue,
Commiserating, I try to say
For you I’d paint the skies blue.

You think yourself invisible
But you are heard, you are seen
Know your fears are divisible
Try and let the grass be green

Quiet your incessant mind
Erase everything they said
Think of all your ties that bind
And don’t let your blood run so red

You are porous,
Blend your voice into a chorus,
Can’t help but wear your heart
On your sleeve, fall apart
So easily, and so frequently
Admittedly, sometimes even gleefully,
Feel every gust of wind;
Even drafts, make you bend,
Warping to all these demands
Making it hard to understand,
Just where others end
And where you begin

When you try to fit in
But feel out of place
When you work a 9 to 5
But are tired of the race
Wanna hide away
But you leave a trace
Everything’s a game
With which you can’t keep pace
You look into a mirror
And see a hollowed face

headed west
different from the rest
left behind
things on my mind
dreams to pursue
though I suppose so do you

Heir to a line of poets and stoics
and know-its
Who stoop to assuage
Within cold margins of a page,
Shameless praises take
Grandiose claims
they’ll make
Til 8 lines of nonsense remains

I’d like to be free
I’d like to be a dove
Fly from my tree
And believe in love

I’d like to see a God
I’d like to be like the rest
Not be so odd
I’d like to be the best

I’d like to want life
I’d like to write prose
See the end of strife
I’d like to know repose

I’d like to follow through
I’d like to wave goodbye
Maybe start anew
With a different kind of I

Patterns everywhere, but what to foresee?
There’s Innumerable things to compare,
This OCD: a familiar bee, another tree,
If I only had the key,
Could make everyone aware,
I’m sure they would agree

Uneven roads,spilt coffee
How loathsome, how unfair,
All these patterns seem to be.
So many things to see;
And now what’s over there?
And what does it mean to me?

Their meanings flee;
Ignoring every prayer
From this humble devotee.
So now here is my decree:
I’ll renounce, forswear,
Over and over, plea and plea,
‘Til someday it lets its hold from me.

If you raised those downcast eyes
And opened up your mind
You would quickly realize
You were one of a kind

Hollowed out dreams
Cracking at their seams
Still grasping for the star
Which never seemed so far
Still searching for that fire
That shields from all that’s dire
The cathartic placation
When you satisfy inspiration
The iridescent heat
That comes when lovers meet
It must be real obscene
To be this routine
To stretch that errant prime
Into a lifetime

A heart lying cold and numb, black to its core,
It was so lucky I had a thousand more
Tucked away in a little drawer
Ready for when I needed more
So, not that I’m keeping score
But each time pain knocks at my door
Or else my spirit is knocked to the floor
My newest heart tore, my body sore
I take a look in my little drawer
And again I find, more and more.

With the taxing Heat,
The cold-blooded sun,
In my mind’s eye I see our last meet,
Right before it all was done

You had a high potential,
Was unsure of its worth,
Now connection is tangential,
With everything on earth.

Persistent follies, teachless,
Sense & sensibility, notional commodities,
Consistently speechless:
Can’t explain your own philosophies.

And what’s more,
In that wild imagination-
What do you think you’re looking for?
Self-actualization?
Positive disintegration?

You said you want to travel,
You’ll never leave anyway.
You’ll let yourself unravel,
And live from day to day.
It’s so plain to see,
Just how you will regress,
How else could it be?
Living in that excess.
And in the scorching heat
You’ll be left dried out,
I bet you’ll overheat,
Consumed by all that doubt.

How far must the honey bee roam
To find an elusive flower,
And return to his honeycomb?

How long must a tumbling stone
Through a lonely landscape scour,
To realize its conclusive home?

How many do their fate bemoan,
Amidst the dark and latent hours,
Staining tears upon their cheekbones?

How do those, resting on their thrones,
Convince all of their own power,
And feign to know all that which is known?

Do we have power all our own?
Our own reasons to scour?
How far ahead is our fate sewn?

Do we let ourselves be enthroned,
To be a humble wallflower?
Or do we let ourselves be flown,
Into a troublesome unknown?

This is where our course had led:
In our bed, in my own head,
Sheets of crimson red,
Newly-wed,
Recalling vows that were said,
“I’ll love you ‘til we’re both long dead.”

Do not lose sight now
When you’re far enough ahead
It seems you’re behind

Ambivalence towards higher station
You have enough apportioned
And your only aspiration’s
To be a full-fledged person

A simple dream
Where decency was found:
The low were raised to high esteem
And the wealth was spread around

Rest your bones, shut your eyes
You have earned this worthy prize
Sweet relief, a deep sleep
Twelve hours pass, now repeat
Everything’s uphill
And likely always will
Your laments avow
You have all the time you needed now
Dream of all that may have been
Never get back up again

If one is inert
And ten is a breakthrough
You and I, in concert,
Add to a beautiful two.

If red is progress
And yellow is obscene
Us two, coalesced,
Somehow craft a verdant green.

With the earth above
And the sky below
I’d make a pretty dove
And you a peaceful doe.

Everyone you ever knew
Is really just a part of you.

Pessimism, it’s been done before,
and nihilism’s quite outplayed.
It’s the latest to be a pleasant bore,
than gloomy and cliched.

A lovely tree, so carefree,
In serene tranquility
With it I would spend my night,
And let come whatever might

Red-yellow leaves, sparsely wreathed,
Life into the air it breathes
Dying breaths, it pays a price
Gives its solemn sacrifice

It’s not fair, you’ll soon be bare,
Most will not even care,
At least for now, your leaves so bright
Make for such an enviable sight.

I haven’t the strength
To be the change I’d like to see
I have only just enough
To simply just be me
These shoulders were not made to bear
All the burdens of the earth
Only room for my own trials
Ordained from my birth
It might be selfish
But it has to be this way
Otherwise I’d crumble
Or else be spirited away

The past is not defining,
And the future’s a distraction;
So living here and now,
Is such a prudent action.

You have everything to gain,
I can testify,
When you cast away disdain
And let the ego die

The wind howls today
Like it could spur me away
I will root myself

Everyday, strive to be more real,
Silencing thoughts, you’ll begin to feel.
All your life, denying your innermost
‘Til you winded up a ghost;
But you’re materializing,
Corporeal, stabilizing,
Life beckons you outside
Patiently, though it knows you died,
And it’s so cruel, and mean, and so unfair-
but shake those platitudes from your hair,
Lace your shoes, forget your blues,
see if you can change your views-
Remember, you’re never someone new:
Rather, you slowly become more you

Everything that you do,
Seems so wonderfully new;
It’s so obviously true,
That your kind is but a few.

The weeds live side by side,
With the roses in a meadow,
Fallen branches of a dead tree,
Help its neighbor grow,
Nothing ever ends,
Death is not an impasse,
When you’re gone,
We’ll look for you in a blade of grass.

When you realize you’ll never seize the day,
Never have the right things to say,
Your judgments are always erroneous,
You’re not Hamlet, but Polonius.
Though you know that all things must end,
It doesn’t spur your torments to mend,
A dutiful advisor,
Who never gets wiser.
It must be so serene
Never having thought you might have been-
“Neither a borrower nor lender be”;
I say, yet fear both apply to me.
“To thine own self be true”;
ah! Long ago, I missed that cue-
And all do agree,
The audience doesn’t need, my soliloquy.
Under all this weight so crushing
And the envy to just feel nothing,
This act’s end, now I’m certain:
I’ll die off stage, behind a curtain.

Raw and uninhibited
Passion is unlimited
Lethargy’s been,
redistributed
If you’re a rebel without a cause
Than I’m a dreamer with some to spare
Our entropic revelry we’ll share
To make the world fair
Burn it down
Without a care
Put them on the ground
Smug when caught,
No longer when shot
A ringing, melodious sound;
Wall Street,
on its back feet,
Tumbling down
Avarice assailed,
No other options when
Democracy’s failed
And either side, is on their own side
And neither dissent abide,
They can’t break free
Of their lust for currency
So when mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
We’ll just love to watch it all unfurl

There’s a selflessness
To selfishness
Only by taking care of yourself
Can you begin to take of others

This is where our course had led:
On your bed,
In my head,
Your errant thoughts were read:
Why is it we so dread
Joining ranks with deathless dead
When they their mortal cares have fled?:
These thoughts you gave to me unsaid
As our blood was shed
Beautiful, crimson red:
To new horizons tread

I don’t get lonely
Or, if this is loneliness,
I much prefer it

A name follows you-
Even when you’re made anew.
Neither can you leave your face,
Or entirely forget your birthplace;
We must have done some misdeed,
In a past life, indeed,
Because we’re of a lower caste,
Doomed iconoclasts,
Fighting for nothing,
And eternally suffering.
And when we’ve had enough of it,
Enough of being misfits,
When we realize it was designed this way,
And that there is no “someday”,
Then we’ll venture six feet underground,
To tear a heaven down.