I have this box of splendorous dreams
Of tender schemes so filthy-pure

...dreams of dreaming
...dreams of living
...dreams of shining
...dreams of screaming
...dreams of giving
...dreams of dying

From it I am taking dreams
And forging broken, shattered schemes

These dreams, they see
And flee through me
And I see me and you see thee,
And dreams are me as dreams are we
Through me, and thee, they dream
And with their bodies see me scream
And all 'round me,
These dreams do shatter stitch-ed seams.

These dreams of love and dreams of skies and dreams of loving, living lies,
These dreams are yours and his and theirs and hers and its and ours and mine

What marv'lous creatures are these dreams who here upon my visage gaze!
What wondrous features have they in the light and dark of nights and days!

They touch and play and kiss and dance and love and sing and fly and dream!
They break and cut and bite and jump and hate and growl and swim and scream!

The fire slips betwixt their lips, and by their ears, between their thighs
The water dances on their hips and 'cross their fears and in their eyes

They glide and gleam across my hand and through my ebbing, whirling mind
They drift and fly across the sands, the grains that hold together time

They twist and turn so gracefully upon their silken, goss'mer strings
And on their tight-rope act of daze they sing and
Glide and
Ride and
Glow and
Show and
Die and
Fly and
Mate and
Hate and be...and...and...

See,
I've got a lovely box of dreams
Sitting here,
So filthy-pure...

I never saw how truth had mattered
Like backdrops to my life I'd taken
Breathless, leaving dreams in tatters

In youth, my steps were reckless patters
By days ignored my eyes awakened,
Led down lazy steps and ladders

Stumbling blindly, scarred and scattered,
Naivety and fear had shaken
My sense of spirit, mind and matter

So vanity had come to flatter
All egocentric ways I'd taken
Disguised in selfish pangs and clatters

Learning quick from past disasters
To discard my trepidation
I sought instead more lucid matters

To slay the creature growing fatter
And lay to waste this beast I'd wakened,
I'd wield the mirror that once flattered

All frail illusions must be shattered,
Lies learned in youth must be forsaken
Unbear'bly tough and yet, no sadder

All narcissistic nightmares scattered
They bowed to honor's conflagration:
The knowledge that all others matter

The beast is slain, his den in tatters
He faced the truth: his loved ones matter.

Through many nights of unsound sleep
I've heard you say my name
You held your hand out through the haze
And whispered
"Come and find me..."
Your invitation woke in me
The hurt to hold out hope
You've ruined me,
Stole all from me,
And I have always loved you.
If I could take away the nights
I longed to touch your hands
Or smell your hair
Or hear your laugh
Or know you missed me too
I would.
You took my very confidence,
Walked away with all my pride
Doused my trust and struck a match
Reduced my faith to cinders.
Your love was never really mine,
Those sparks alive inside your eyes
Told me I was not enough
Impressions all re-told, relayed
And carved into the hands I hold
Fists I clench ask I stay brave
Despite the truth I thought I'd stayed
Bid farewell and walked away
I've hated every single day
I thought your eyes were mine
But found out later lied at times
And left me in a state of stupor
Stayed up late refreshing thoughts
In hopes I'd see you one life sooner
Not have to wait another chapter
You spin your story, yet another,
I'd found all endings through my lovers
The ones I've loved in living matter
In skin and bone and days forever,
Not dreams that lived through dying embers,
Fantasies of youthful slumbers
Our dreams were worthy of remembering
Days spent in September, singing,
Laughing like our youths together
Holding hands, through frightened fetters
Hearts and promises were breaking
As I recall, the air was heavy
Thick with quaint and distant longing
Brought my blood to painful burning,
Exalted fears to basic yearning,
Turned away, last second learning,
Tears in eyes tore me asunder
Brought me to my lowest standing
I can't afford to be so petty
Perdition's path turned me astray
That road was ours to walk together
But we got lost along the way
Our paths will cross again, I wager
But not the way we walked before
I've learned to trust my loss and anger
The pain is weakness leaving me
Reminders grief was all worth feeling
Wisdom that to life there's more
I have mine and you have yours
Your boy, my words, these bonds are precious
Like soothing rain that stops the storm
Like distant clouds on the horizon
Like winds that settle change's roar
I left our memories on the shore

I've walked away, I'm hurt no more
I've left your memories on the shore

The ebbing tides and breezes bend
Beneath the transitory skies,
I wonder where these waters end...


And in the mystery they lend
Embracing winds' and waters' tie
The shifting tides and breezes bend


Ever-changing seasons send
A rush of ardor past my eyes,
And beauties over waters' end


Patterns of my life now blend,
Retreating from repeating lies
Which the flowing zephyrs bend


Elements of hope defend
The grace with which the heavens cry
Mourning not the summer's end


Despite persistent twists and bends,
Horizons cannot ever end.

Despite my imaginative nature,
I always favor reality over fantasy
I prefer a world where roses aren’t merely red
And violets aren’t blue-
-no, seriously, blue?
They’re violet.
It’s in the ******* name.
Violet.
I don’t understand the tendency to portray reality unrealistically
Why sell it up?
Why try to improve it?
Call me cliché, but isn’t the world perfect
Because of its imperfections?
Just look at the sky.
Like, right now. Look up.
It’s nice, isn’t it?
It’s always nice, too, that’s the thing.
When it’s spot-free, clean and devoid of blemish
Or even when it puts on its display of thickly-caked cloud-cover-up and rich, crimson blush
And you don’t need to see it through a rose-tinted screen.
There aren’t little panels projecting it in enhanced quality
It doesn’t fear criticism,
It’s real.
There isn’t a system in place
Perpetuating some marketplace incredulity that the sky-
-that same sky that’s there all the time,
In all time zones,
Commercial-free,  
Every day from dawn to  noon to dusk-
Is any soup-of-the-season trademark
I mean, c’mon, enhanced quality?
How do you quantify that anyway?
And while I’m the one on the stand
Why should I present my case any differently?
Why does perspective shift imply a change in wordplay?
I have a legitimate concern, from me to you
I fail to see why I should express it any differently
I want to talk to you.
I don’t want to impress you.
I want you to listen.
A simply spoken truth can be more poignant than an intricate lie.
‘Cause after all,
Wrap a lie up any way you like,
Define it with any hip terminology you like,
It’s still a ******’ lie.

What is the century but an ill-conceived plan,
or a reservoir of hallucinations?
Man's blood and sweat alike fill the chasm
and Man will continue to drink
Lust surveys those who hunger,
and Time accounts for those in transit
The fountain will never cease its flow
Until man has been sated
He will sell a lifetime of toil
To be rewarded with more thirst
What is his time but an overvalued commodity,
or an elaborate hallucination?
His blood will turn
to ashes in his veins
His sweat will turn
to needles on his brow
His tears will turn
to dust upon his cheek
His thirst will never cease
Until he refuses to drink

It is the nature of the well
To help Man enslave himself

I've heard it told all things must pass
Our days profound, yet, fragile still,
Are trapped within a tender glass


Though sands so ardorously mass
And like the tears of Chronus spill,
Good times must all, one day, drift pass


Though ever-fervently amassed,
Howe'er meticulously filled,
We're bound by that same hour-glass


It's never reverent, never crass,
It's bound by neither good nor ill,
Resolved instead to see us pass


Its master's bound within its grasp
For none can flee its solemn will
As Saturn, too, is cased in glass


We fear to see our sands fly fast
And falling faster, bid them still,
Though in our hands they quickly pass


But neither future, present, past
Can work to find this truth distilled:
It's in our hands to turn the glass


Life's a drink, though quickly passed,
I think I'll pour another glass.

Beneath my feet

There is no ground

I look above

There is no sky

An endless plane of light and dream

Stretches out in all directions

My eyes could not begin to speak

The visions that my mind creates

Luminescent, you're beside me

Effervescent, you inspire

Orchestratic notes' creation

Sing throughout your radiant mind

Your hand clasps mine,

and bold horizons fill my view

Words and phrases have no place here

Flowing from our lucid souls,

Our dreams will ebb and birth the tides

A storm this void has never seen

Will rise from out our lungs

A single sigh that left your lips

Would cause this place to quake

Mountains of an infant world

will rise and shape the land

With your blessing,

the first rose will bloom

and grow into a tree of life

From its mighty branch,

The first bird will spread his wings

Stars will fill the sky you paint

While valleys cleave the earth we sing

Our breath of life will call the gale

That lifts our dreams and spreads the seeds

of our domain

when you hold my hand,

all things are possible

you merely need to call the thought

the song of creation rests within you

The air in the room is cold
metallic chills
sere and frigid as the man,
wearing a skin-tight grey shirt,
might imagine them
he is #83
He counts the chairs
96
He closes his eyes
Colors dissipate,
Leaving him with the chattering of nervous lovers
the shrieks of restless children
he shudders
focuses on his breathing
82 leylines run through him
they fly headfirst into,
and thus depart, the room
his axis radiates
82 stories leading to him and beyond him
lines blur
voices fade
he hears the music of the universe:
silence
he sees the window of reality:
void
his vision rises as his body disappears
HE is gone
there IS nothing
the room is nowhere
breath decays, there is no air
words remit, there is no breath
past and future intertwine
oblivion begets presence
and he sees possibility
he becomes infinite faces
endless stories
an avatar of inclinations
a choir of notions
penumbra to umbra,
from naught to dusk,
from day to dream,
into the river that flows within everything,
he dissolves
there IS nothing
and in nothing, there is peace

"#83!"

I open my eyes.
The air in the room is cold.
My shirt is too tight.
There are 90-something chairs,
82 people,
and I am awake.

With the tide, I traced the sands that danced in front of me
Their light compelled my eyes to look beyond forever's shore
Aware enough to leave the beach, I ventured out towards the sea

The waves embraced my longing arms and quelled my fevered plea
Though the clouds that o'er me loomed struck thunder through my core
I learned to trust the water's hold, I knew it cared for me

Through rain, through roiling wave and squall I faced my destiny
All lives I might I have lived I knew were left for me no more
All worlds once drawn in sands of youth were swallowed by the sea

Once-familiar tides rolled over footprints left in glee
Memories of bliss erased like years gone long before
But now replaced with new horizons sprawled in front of me

The world that lay across the water's edge was where I longed to be
I watched the storm clouds dissipate as new knowledge now implored
My fear of swimming kept me from my need to fare the sea

From the tides I left the sand that nearly buried me
Awake enough to brave the storm, I found my place amid the sea