Can’t be told told how to see
By those who have never saw
Or how to them I should be
When their sight is flawed
Can’t be told what to do
By those who have never done
No advice on how to think
By the ones who’ve never thought
Or how to fight
When they’ve never even fought
How are they so certain that they’re right?

When you've come so far
And you're still not who you are
That's the hardest part

Take these shoes, walk a mile
Wear this face, force a smile,
In this body, see through these eyes
Try my world on for size

Because I wanted to die
And simply be no one;
As you were saying I just had to try
While screaming how the dishes are never done
Keeping me under your thumb
In this place, fettered,
Can I help it I’m so dumb,
And can hardly read a letter?
Or deign to say a word?
Or to think a thought?
What’s the point when you’re not heard?
And all your wars cannot be fought?
I want to ease the pain I keep
All the ways I try to salve
This heart, but it just seeps
Into another valve
I know you think it’s easily remedied-
For you, there’s no ambiguity,
Turn off your mind and heart
And soothe yourself with cruelty-
But I don’t you think understand
Your own platitudes, “self-worth”,
I don’t want a helping hand,
I want a different earth
To improve is to betray
My friends, who suffer in silence,
So I will stay, true to my own way,
Not abandon my one alliance
I will not get better
I will try my best to get worse
This safe place, unfettered,
I’ll go embrace my curse.

I haven’t been myself lately,
And by lately I mean about 6 or 7 years.

Cast out your hate
And cast out your sorrow
No matter how bleak
There’s always tomorrow

Watch what you say,
They imprison seers here

I’ve always been an all-or-nothing
Kind of guy:
Give me everything, or I want nothing,
Triumph, or don’t even try.
I never could quite surmise
The point of compromise.
If I could not win, I would rather lose
Without being handed a consolation prize.

I realize now the nuance of it all:
Nothing’s black or white,
Short or tall,
Wrong or right,
There’s more than one kind of fight,
And the blind sometimes have more sight,
The middle road’s sometimes the best one,
And always the least contrite.

I’m so far away
If I could run forever
I’d not make halfway

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.”

To sleep again,
To seek the dreams
Left behind
When intruded by the real
And inhospitable

Welcoming arms
Holding you at arm’s length.

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

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

You stole it from me
Your personality
Keep it anyway
I get a new one everyday
You way you left me blue
How you always do
To everyone around you
I watch you run amok
You didn’t know, you got this far on luck
Now you want to get back in track
Need someone to watch your back
I could have told you this before
Never liked me for my candor
So good luck with all of that
Smile when I catch you, flat and on your back

A Leo’s credo:
Gotta feed the ego,
Obey the libido
Set me free
And watch me go!