What's left when the ire goes?
What's left when the turmoil turns?

Brightness chest. Return to breath.
Empty, to the full line, eyes up for the sky.

Doubling over, over with the shut door.
Over with the blockade.

What's left when the spite goes?
What's left when the part departs:

The empty art, the necroheart?
The busted love emulator?



in the aftermath.
I'm left. And I know
now, I'm allowed.
I'm allowed.
I'm left,

Broken from
circumstance.

Broken, on top of it,
from poor choices I've made.

What's to come if I
can't fix myself?

I must overcome
my lesser nature.

Would it hurt to
have help?

Let me send
up a flare.

I lose to my sadness
from time to time,

but I want to heal,
and encourage truth,

and I want to mend
with the others who

believe,
even under
a thousand
stings,

love exists and
empathy lives.

Dust 'cross the ground
in the high noon
calls every boot heel
and tippy toe.

Slap. Clap.
Give it a little stomp.

Plumes in the air
comprised of motes
of hope from little feet
give a high rise.

Slap. Clap.
Give it try.

Some of the fun
in being misfit
is never
fighting
for alone time,
huh?

But.

Wolves need wolves
when the shepherds
turn to masters, turn
the sheep into chattel.

Sheep are sheep
for innocence
of sin, not err,
purity from malice.

Is there a question?
"Have you settled?"

What the ****
do
you think?

Love is terrifying, like that.
It binds you from your judgment.

I have settled, yes.
Settled in, to the fact

That love just
goes
like that.

Have I settled?
You really think there's more?

Capture excitement
while you can,

understanding
excitement

never
lasts.

At end, They may ask,
"Did you learn by doing?"
Oh, I learned, I
Learned We live for one
But not the One
"If I won the lotto. . ."
At end, They may ask,
"Would you change a thing?"
Oh, I learned, I
Learned from time to time
It's best to leave
Well enough
Alone
I say,
"Had Evil not
Made its way to power
Good would not
Have exposed the Evil
Nested too safely there
So plainly inside It."

Take it back
from those who
would **** you
of our distinct
autonomy.

Take implies
enacting
violent raids,
so do it better.

Turn take into
a snake oil
you deny,
say no til silenced.

So in one night, not even naked, I
exposed my cretinous ghosts to
someone who heard the words
and nodded. "I feel that."

What's it like to know, and
not even know why,
someone's eyes may well
convey the truth?

So in one night, not even naked, I
exposed my cretinous ghosts to
someone who heard the words
and nodded. "I feel that."

Here I thought it was wrong
that something's wrong with me --
but I function, if improperly
to your specifications.

Here I meet another functional
dysfunction holder,
boldly, in a micro moment,
exposing all of his target tattoos

with an eager, upward tug of the sleeve.

Here I thought I was wrong,
but I'd been misled,
along a familiar path
toward the ravine.

If you are going to do
what you are going to do,
then, me, too.

You know what they say,
"It's eye for an eye!" It's
never been a better time
to hoard your money or
build your fortress. If you
use your opulence just to
defend the devil's rigging,
it's not too far off to believe

others will come,
sneak in w/ gasoline
others will come,
sneak in w/ gasoline

speak in fire what they can't
say with words, still unheard
status as we know it
is based on make believe
is it so, so strange some
intend to burn

at inferno temperatures
in a city that infights
copy and paste?

then, is it strange,
except for the few,
the rich sit on their *****?

If you are going to do
what you are going to do,
then, me, too.

Me, too.
Me, too.

What is freedom? It's whatever you want. That's the original, human freedom: choice. How do you define freedom? Is it unrestricted action? Is it liberation from falsehood? Is this the dusk? Or is this the dawn?

Will you look back at the dark days gone, then forward, into the new, driving those same stakes, making those same mistakes, trumpeting reverence of atrocity and explaining it as tradition? This house must come down.

I will, on bended knee, submit a commitment of deed.
I will not harness fire for there is less to burn.
I will be as water and wind and flora before.

I will not reap.
I will sow.
I will not strike.
I will be.
I will pray.
and it will sound
as the wind
through the tree
in the shallow
and the reed.

The vehement will tire and weep.
The peaceful will sing the song of echoes.
The young will carry this sound into the future.

Humanity will prosper.

Your mission:
Commission peerless tools.
The world merely spinning
has thrown you for a loop.
No more will you react as
tempted by your stimuli.

Who are you today?
- How about tomorrow?
Will you succumb to fear

as it follows
you in step?

Who are you today?
Who are you tomorrow?
Will you succumb to fear

as it follows
your every step?

Your plan:
Understand your soul is your
pulp, press it in pages,
rewrite the tales you tore.
No more will you lend your pen
for the sake of sympathy.

Who am I today?
- How about tomorrow?
Will I succumb to fear

as it follows
me in step.

Who am I today?
Who am I tomorrow?
Will I succumb to fear

and so repeat
all my mistakes?

My mission:
soften my gaze
into the glare
of my enemy's
fevered eyes.
Shed a tear for
persons wayward,
put my head to their
pointed gun
& die

laughing,
echoing,
forever
in time
& time
tempers
you into
death as I.

Late - ly
I can feel the i - tch, I know:
It's preposterous.

Wh - y is it, that I
never can de - cide
who it is I am, with
con - fi - dence?

Modern tools aside,
I still take the r - ide
taken near distantly by
my an - ces - tors.

Late - ly
I can feel the i - tch, I know!
It's preposterous.

Now, kids, please listen
as you read my voice
how you like. How you like.
I thought I would die by
the time I was twenty five
at fifteen -- but look at me.
Now, kids, I'm touching
twenty nine with a cer -
tain newfound confidence.
I survived the prescription pills,
the gender redefinition, as well
as the hormone therapy, and I
want to tell you that I,
believe in you. I believe in you.

Cel - ebrate all of your pain
at your whim and as you live,
well, the pain will become
your friend and your impetus.

Lately, I can feel the itch.
I know it's preposterous,
but I must continue to
explore and change
unless I aspire to
placidity, and I
don't-- in fact
I never will.

Above the cushion springs
Above the bed sheet floor
They: Bird Lizard, Thing
Talon clasped around my neck
Below the salted rain, I
Bellow and ask for more

Trap these tremulous wrists
Tease these glistening lips
Bombard this sturdy frame
Bomb this body like a shanty town
After the white phosphor mist
Ambulate and bring the towel

Buried in the deep between
Buried in the *******
A post punk ****** scene
A sensational ligature
Tried and tested again
Test one more time just to be sure

Words are unstoppable
Words may be spoken
Words may be written
Words may be thought

Night falls over the day
Night falls over the block
Night falls over the hood
Night falls over us

First as the dusk
Then as the stars

We can see nothing
Street corners light
Streetlight too bright
We can see nothing

Too bright but never enough.

We can see nothing of hope in the cosmos
We carry our blinded eyes in our hands

Buy me a knife.
Buy me a gun.
Find me behind the barrel,
I'd rather be first in line,
I will secure first place.

Buy me a knife.
Buy me a gun.
Find me shaking the iron sights,
I'd rather be running away from the system,
I will do what I must.

Take our education, expect us to grow.
Take our nutrition, expect we maintain.
The gatekeeper looks less like St. Peter
Than it looks like a bank.

Make it for money,
Expect we be happy
For the physical.

Make it vanity,
Expect our diminished state
Be aspiration and dream enough.

Words are unstoppable,
I know this to be true.
Where are the words
We need the most?

We cry for each other in night,
Each broken compatriot
Each potential confidant

Convinced we're abandoned
Convinced we're at war with the poor
Then at war with ourselves

Expending bullets for the clout on the shelf.
I am in here just as you so put that down.

I am in you, and I need your words to tell,
To touch, to show,

Those with nothing know what more there is than this.

I have a heart
to tell to you
I brace my mind
and begin
I open up to
your mercy
I hold a gaze
into your eyes

All that you have to say is,
"But. . ."
Or, respond with,
"I. . ."

Are you at all
interested
in a life but
yours?

I've met many modern
women and men
Sure as death it
seems you would
rather not share so
much as eagerly compete

Your words and terms
usher in necrosis
I am empathetic
to your plight, but
I have to give it back
and confidently ask,

"Is
this
friend

ship?"

"Is
this
friend

ship
to
me?"

I wish to give of all my self
to those that listen well
as I've been listening in for all my life
and I know your deepest prosperity
is yours to find and not mine,

so

I
will
leave
it up
to you
instead.

Blessing
and
boon

Blessing
and
boon