How great Venus’s journey has been
How she’s dabbled in pureness and sin
And confused the concepts again and again
Doing bad in order to win
Doing good only for it to turn sour in the end
How tired Venus has grown of tripping over many rules
Let her rest upon your heart, to dream and drool
Don’t dare wake her slumber, for it will keep away fools
And to senseless burning passions, her soft breaths shall soothe
Eventually you’ll see her sleep enlivens, all that is you
So lay out a hammock, lay her on it, and swing it softly too
For as long as she slumbers upon thy, your feelings are true

I know you seek adventure don’t deny it
I see it lying in your eyes, the resting riot
Pupils pricked with perilous desire
Gaze situated on a blaze of blistering fire
I know you seek a way from the baskets of bores
That life delivers upon every person’s door
Hoping to enslave all who lift it, to routine and chore
So don’t grab at it, slowly walk away
Instead be a muse for a poor poet for a day
But what my lips will never betray
Is that if I make a masterpiece off of your life's lever
Then you'll be a muse who'll be mused about forever
But don't get your hopes up cause I'm rarely that clever

Desire watches through the tall grass
Blades skipping past her face with no class
The target sipped from the stream of routine
Believing itself well equipped
Sometimes all alone at other times in a relationship
Then the wind whips, and desire is quick
Chasing down the target till it’s in her teeth
A struggle ensues but is brutally brief
Suddenly through the air a shrill whistles soars
Desire retreats to its master, happy with its score
And there stands a childish figure, famous from lore
Sensing the mayhem, from above cry the sparrows
Cupid winks and says “I don’t always use arrows.”

So many scream and cry of the worst
Those people inflicting hurts that bubble and burst
Yet I’ve encountered ones who are much crueler
Who invite madness and chaos by unmeasured rulers
They are the many who never really care
Whose emotional cupboard lay blank, bleak and bare
Who raze instead raise their kids, like barbaric hordes of old
And the kids grow to be monsters that don’t even know,
That the many screams and cries that they’ve heard for years
Are derived from the neglect that nested between their ears

Eros walked into the chamber, garnering all eyes
Lust and Limerence walked by her side
They stopped before a panel where Venus did preside
And Cupid next to Venus, gripped his arrows like a prize
And the Muses made up the rest
And all muscles in the chamber braced for unrest
Glances and gazes did continuously dart
As all sported lockets of fire by their hearts
Venus declared mankind must suffer in pain
For all efforts to show the world love have been in vain
And to continue gifting love would be insanity, a chore
Cause they’d take their piece of it and still declare war,
On themselves and on one another
Slaughtering their self-esteems, siblings, fathers, mothers
Yet Eros objected, keeping her eyes peeled
Declaring love has always been a battlefield
And Cupid fired an arrow at Ero’s way
And Lust led the limp arrow astray
Then those enlightened ones lit fuses that day
And the shrapnel from that fight still makes it way
Through hearts of men and women with feelings at play

I’m a refugee from the greatest part of me
I’m free range cattle that’s never truly free
I’m a poor scholar banned from the library
I’m the guide without a compass leading a company
I’m deaf but I heard all the things they said I’d be
I’m the one that didn’t vote but protested in the street
Yet even I realize there’s stranger things in reality

If I’ve ever known truth it just chaffed at the neck
I’ve been suffering all the symptoms of a lack of respect
So I must reflect then deflect all the gloomy flecks I see
Then reflect again on the lifestyle,
Of the wild life inside the childish side of me
All in effort to be free
Not free falling
Not roaming from a new ideal, to new ideal like a new calling
I 'd rather have a grand New Deal like Mr. Roosevelt's
And swim easily in this sea of changes like Michael Phelps

And she left again, another muse
She’s amused to pick up her things and cruise
Like she’s on the sea, and tasting salt, I grab *****
And drink, noting I have nothing to lose
Recounting all of her old moods
Exclaiming to hell with her, I had hell with her
But then again I had heaven too
And remembering that, I pick up her call around two
Drunk and disorderly and probably rude
But she’s right there with me basking in blues
If only we were instruments, that’d be a tune
We’d be married in music a bride and a groom
Playing our vows all over the room

I’ve met desire again and turned her away.
Told her thanks but come back another day
Or another year cause it will be a while
I’m working on my structure, story, style
I’ve trying to create grandeur that’ll shine for a mile
I don’t have time for my heart to be on the prowl
I've got work, and dreams that have grown to a pile
But then you smile
And I put down my reason and then my pen
And let you in

Sometimes I think we’re all mere magnets
Pulling towards this, pulling away from another
Getting closer to your grandmother while fighting with your mother
Moving out to find your identity but shielded online by anonymity
I swear we’re all mere magnets
Tired of running towards our goals but happily running from boredom
Telling others we know so much but then adept to play dumb
Wanting a bigger slice of success yet unwilling to gift the beggar a crumb
Aren’t we all mere magnets?
All relationships looking for some big reward
And pulling away if our emotions become too sore
Yet, what if some weren’t really magnets but pretended to be
Could those outliers find one another and stick for eternity
So my dear, are you a magnet?

Her Royal Highness Passion, swirling and sipping molten fire
Then spills its drink into the chests of mankind to make a pyre
The burning of diverse ribs can be seen in streaks
In national and foreign streets
Resonating throughout the strong and meek
Yet all eventually meet
To bend the knee before Passion’s Royal seat
Unable to stand the staggering celestial heat

I miscalculate my fortunes and searching in pain
Find my lovely and ask her for another change
She says “no”, to my requested exchange
Baffled, I make myself clearer but she still refrains
I pull out crisp bills and push them in range
She shakes her head but doesn’t explain
Yet we’ve done this before, it’s simple and plain
Traded currencies without concern or complain
Her thoughts are riding some otherworldly train
Finally her lips depart and she exclaims
That I must leave her station without a backward glance
So I walk from her in a dazed, dull, trance
Then a friend lets it slip by happenchance
That I confused the words change for chance

Falling past those that wish to press
Compress, and arrest their feelings
Along with mines because it’s appealing,
That life seems easier when others
Conform, like twin sisters and brothers
All crushed under cotton like cover
Dealing death to any trying to discover
Uncover
Recover
Through Boredom's layered blubber
A shining, soldiering, standout that streaks star-like then ruptures
I'ts shimmering strangeness slicing stale structure
And showering all souls in a serene we seldom explain
Only calling it a brilliant boisterous big BANG

Born from dove like divinity
Eros emerged in the freest fiercest forest
Far from the sights of man
And it effortlessly enchanted all it ever met
The branches, critters, air, and ground were,
Consumed in continual craving
That only Ero’s fair gaze, sweet touch, serene scent could quench
And for many eons Eros ran and reigned
Until by chance it happened upon a new source of light
Stepping closer, it saw the outskirts of an outpost
Running into the town Eros encountered the children of mankind
Lamps, roads, houses, wagons, and strangest of all, animals bound
Then finally Eros met humans
At first they were awed by it to the point of freezing
Then snatching back their senses they all sought to win her
Men and women, babe and elderly,
All wanted a piece of Eros
Overwhelmed, Eros tried to explain
That it could never dwell in a place so compact, close quartered,
Constrained
But their ears were clogged by lust, and
Eyes clouded in heat to conquer
So Eros ran, later referring to civilization as,
The Champions of Chains

She picks my veins like chords
Tunes my tongue to record
A melody she’s been working on
And I sway along as she plays her song
Then she says the pitch is wrong
Starts to repent
Leave’s me to play another instrument
But once alone I sip whiskey and recline
Waiting for her to set up our next studio time

I sigh for the many awash in despair
My attitude attuned in a devil may care
All clamoring for Poe not knowing of Baudelaire
Or that Ovid’s Bleak Black books of exile are out there
Content to coil in their own content of the unfair
Not understanding that Depression’s hosting a centuries long fair
So rejoice for others have long paid the fare
And like starlight from afar your suffering is fair
And through artistic labor, you set tables of tantalizing fare

With lantern strung high on a pike
I searched for an Empress of poetic might

Whose symphonic verse
Both elongated and terse

Would meld all the muses into one
Beauty tipping from the tip of her tongue

Scented in roses she’d carefully grown
A flower no gardener could own

And seeing the vile and valiant in all people
Thus never seeking saviors, only equals

Awash in wisdom that attracts locusts of love
And shining nay shimmering like a lantern from above

All was peaceful in the young realm
Just and Un-just had finished erecting their epic statues
The tree of Taste had begun to bear fruit in the royal courtyard
And youthful bliss ruled over the realm,
With jewels of jubilance, adorning its crown
But from the ghetto’s rose passion and puberty
Together conspiring to rouse the masses, their words infecting,
Each sector of emotion and thought
Eventually swarming the grand palace with its paltry guards
The twin rebels lead a crazed crowd that crashed through gates
And toppled the two statues, burned the tree of taste
Finally poor, pitiful, youthful bliss was dragged from their throne
The crown jewels of jubilance replaced by emeralds of angst
And now Puberty and Passion ruled
Under new banners of maturity

Locals said it wasn’t far from here
So I track its trek by a trail of tears
And spotting it, stealthily lift my spear
Towards monstrous, mutinous, FEAR
It’s skin morphing more than vanes of weather
Being draped in every conceivable displeasure
Dwelling in women and men without distinction
Here I hunt it to extinction
It sings like swans, I’ve finished my mission
Firing off celebratory pistons
Later discovering, it was vital to my ecosystem

I saw my country growing into its prime
For I’m educated and elegant and all is fine
As I recline in cushy shoes that others shine
The view from the top is so sublime
And the fashion in season is devilishly divine
But some fools shout from time to time
Wanting us to spy the crust and grime
They are losers, for winners never whine
And I change the channel and sip on wine
For it helps me to unwind
And refocus my precious mind
On all the money I can mine
From my country growing into its prime

I saw my country crowded and crumbling
The rich ruled with rules and rumblings
Of freedom of work
Or freedom to hurt,
Environments of nature and social order
All tipping toward disorder
But among the chaos I spot some coffee and order,
It black and then scream Order!
Like a judge amongst the courtliest courts
For everything is odd and out of sorts
In my crumbling and crowded country

How I’ve trekked with muddy boots
Through superficial swamps to arrive here
Where Apollo’s apprentices laze about
Though slicked with sweat the air here is sweet
Where muses pull on poets like reigns
And all dreams and delusions are bared
And all hope and hell shines without glares
And all our secrets slither from our stoic stares
And all are cradled in a community that cares
Oh how I’ve trekked with muddy boots

A table shaped like an hour glass
Seats filled with sand moving slow and fast
A figure sits, veiled and masked
Motions me to join before I can ask
Picks up a kettle of solid brass
In cups they pour, attentive to the task
Watching, waiting, until they finish at last
I reach for my cup but it spills alarming me
For I have broken this hymn like harmony