I live for that sound,
Between life and death,
Natural,
Forced,
And naturally forced by my hand,
Serrated steel extension of wild precision,
It says it needs a shower,
And I oblige.

Daddy takes care of his children;
I am firm.
Keep your nose to the grindstone,
Yet,
I am warm,
I'm grateful for your amenity,
Your love,
Your life in pools of red,
My children live through you,
Through your sacrifice they grow.

I...I know you understand,
As you make that sound,
Telling me "you are welcome",
Cradled in my loving arms,
I am humbled.

As perfectly okay as it is to go with the flow,
I'll grow upside down,
Color outside the lines,
And explode like a mighty oak filled with paint,
Struck by lightning from the ground up.

Why do people always look to fix what is broken?
Stalled vehicles still rotate and tilt
On the Earth's axis,
Thousands of miles an hour,
And I still work,
Worthy of trips around the sun,
So please don't scrap me at the first sight
Of what you see as failure.

I'll grow upside down.

It's been 14 days since we last kissed
I turned into ashes, my body is missed
The poisons inside we fought for years
Transfusions of blood while holding back tears

In my last hour, no memories evade
I remembered with you laying hot in the shade
A mid-summer's night as the sun starts to fade
We're falling asleep, our eyes a cascade

Awakened at two with droplets of dew
Eyelashes in bloom, pale light of the moon
You looked into mine and mine into yours
Two souls intertwined as the rain falls - it pours

Our lips, they collide with the fury of wars
The beaches of Normandy kneel down at our shores
A tear stains my tongue, I've felt this before
Two weeks I've been gone, yet still I want more

I wrote you a letter to last your lifetime
One every day - long as you are still mine
Delivered in essence to prove beyond death
That I'll wait here in Heaven with bated breath

Preparing you for a final ride
I looked at you and then I sighed
Then laid us down side by side
To talk to you and ask you why
You had to die and ascend to the sky

While your blood descends below
What was once a life force
Now a gelatin flow
Traced to a direct blow
To the top of your skull
And now I'm to cover the hole in the hull

Your family gave you clothing so garish
And jewelry brash
To view you once more before you were gone in a flash
Paying your penance in a fight over cash.

Sir, I'll have you know that wherever you go,
You won't need to put on a show for the others that are
Six feet below...
So,
I'm taking a trophy rest assured for good use
To put in my pockets
I knew you wouldn't refuse.

A token of services rendered.
If you can't play, you gotta pay.

Submerged heads in a country that's on house arrest-
One percent above the waters to tell us what's best-
But we can't hear you from down below-
We've adapted, grown gills to suit the downstream flow of ****.

The pressure is intense, but that's ok-
I'd rather be with ones like me who have no plans to stay-
Some of us are building a breathing apparatus-
To help us rise in social status-

Filtering out the noise and protecting from the raining acid Benjamins
That pollute your corrupted lungs-
Medieval, I know, but there is strength in numbers
Compiling low funds.

It adds up
We rise up
Flooded bells are ringing-
The things you can't hear are usually the loudest,
We're screaming
Like choirs underwater producing bubbles of promotion
That rise to the surface amidst the commotion.

If you were to rise early in the morn'
And your hair matted down by dream filled pillow;
If the words you spoke first were a muffled good morning,
I hope you'll take me along.
If you were too tired the night before
To wash your face and brush your teeth;
If you were to gift me an oiled stale kiss,
I hope that we collide.
Please don't let me stop you
From your exquisite independent carriage,
But if you wanted to rest a while,
I hope I can carry you along.
If you thought of me as strong enough,
I could hardly fret,
When you share your dreams before memories evade,
Taking me along.

This curse
Enveloped like the ink I use to write this verse
All in my head
Whispers get loud in my dreams;
The words you have said

Let's get to the point
My head is all cloudy so I roll up this joint
Smoke 'til it's clear
Then have a few drinks
Crack open this beer

Where have you gone?
Did we fight, was I in the wrong?
I look in cracked mirrors and feel the shame
When you're dead in your eyes and have no one to blame

The screams, they are saints
Marching on into cerebral rooms
Carrying red paints;
Fresh coats of you to remind me why
Your life was the reason I was barely alive.

I could forge you diamonds-
Under pressure of blood, I'm boiling-
Mined from butterflies inside-
And shaped from tears of fear and joy-

I could be your hero-
Triumph, your will to grow in bloom-
Save you from the end-
And give a new beginning; breathing life-

I could light your candle-
Even in your brazen wind-
Crawling towards love's torch in gravitas-
In veneratio veritas-

If you want to be my sorrow-
I could give you pain-
If your eyes are dark and shallow-
Let me take your shame-
If your heart's storm is brewing hollow-
I could give you rain.

Pretties for you to take-
Flowers entombed-
All of you no longer awake-
In a six by six room-

Roots buried in soil-
No longer move-
Your body, the foil-
Begins to remove-

Winter is starting to fade-
And your plot is a stew-
Your flowers have made-
The trip through the blue-

Spring brings the rain-
And visitors too-
Reliving our pain-
Flowers in bloom.

In this stained room I recall,
Happiness, tears, joy, sorrow,
Celebratory cigars hazing these walls,
And the nostalgic sunshine lasered through-
Flooding impulses into my eyes that contract my irises
Focused on white orchids riddled in aphids
Due to my daydreaming carelessness,
Her leaves and my skin dry and yellow-
Flaky, like that time mother baked that perfect peach pie
And I embedded crumbs in this carpet
Fallen from my voracious gaping mouth,
Held open again when here I gained the gift of fatherhood
And taken aback when my own passed on-
In this room I recall,
These walls of jaundice, there for me,
My punching bag and sliding back support
Painted in carbon dioxide and tar.

Ha ha! How ironic is this conception?
A bottle, filled left in the oubliette that you and I fill!
Perhaps it's a cruel joke, or maybe compassion
To let us drown our sorrows in a doldrum like fashion.

Hell, my friend, it surely awaits, so let's take our swigs
And numb ourselves from our unmerciful fates.
You know, this situation as I drink gets funnier and funnier...
I'd bet right now, de' Medici herself stands above in the Louvre,
That crafty witch!

Would you like some more of this Cognac before the dungeon master
Comes back?
One more joie de vivre until the chemistry fades?
What does it matter if it isn't ours?
Our final hours will be forgotten, and between you and me,
This will start the after party early.

A votre sante!
To the nobodies!

You know me.
The masses you walk past daily
The one with the face, doing the things forgotten in seconds
As you carry on with your day.

You know me.
The homeless on the streets
The animals in retreat at the sound of footsteps
Pulsing, engaging anxiety in our brains
While we wait for the coast to clear.

You know us.
The friends that never formed
The ones who wanted to say hello but can't
For fear of reprimand, a societal curtain call
As the world keeps turning to a close.

We know you.
The one that's seen from the eyes of others
The person with a face, doing the things remembered forever
Forgetting about us
As you carry on with your day.

My, you're strange.

She doesn't belong here buried in smoke-
Exhaled by men whose times have passed-
It fills the air with memories of the past
Mixed with a ***** blast of sorrow from the ones who always
Leave last.

Her slender serpentine legs sway to our jukebox
Holding 4 quarters, more than Penny thinks she's worth
And slides them inside while eyes begin to search...

A song begins to play, something I have never heard-
It's always Piano Man, some sad outlaw wailing, or a sappy
Love song...
This had a beat, a rhythm to take my heart out of sync.

I witness a silhouette through the Marlboro haze,
Swinging,
A spectre;
Is she coming to take me?

No...she looks so inviting, copper curls highlighting smoky cat eyes Peering southward to an hourglass figure defying the sands of time.

I can only watch and question if I'm dead though I'm alive as I sit
With my tumbler of wine unconventional, I know...
But maybe it's a sign of things to come,
A reminder of life reinventing,
Not done,
A Penny heads up for good luck.

Woke up this morning, tripped tying my shoes
Looked in the mirror, feel them Black and Blues
Yeah woke up this morning, got me a mind full of bad news...
Looked out the window, world painted in them Black and Blues.

Got me a paper, got no eyes to read
Got me no paper, got all them mouths to feed
Can't win at all baby, yeah I was born to lose
Got weight on my shoulders, skin got them Black and Blues.

Wasting time baby, wasting time is all I do
Yeah I'm...wasting time baby, wasting time, that's all I do
Got no tomorrow
'Cuz today has those Black and Blues

My mama told me, she told me when the sun goes away
Yeah my mama told me, told me when the sun goes away
Look up at night to the moon
And see it reflect anyway.

Touching the untouchable
I'm the stone that cracks your glass house
And shatters the ceiling, raising the bar.
I set the new standard on top of the freshly laid
Foundation of you.

I'm a ******* Molotov that shut your tank down,
Rags and combustion, simplicity to overthrow the regime-
That is all it takes.

All of these years building those walls
Lining your stomach with steel
Forgetting that the poison you swallowed
Eats you alive from within
Bringing you down.

I'm the alternative
I'll make it the primary
The rise from the ashes of you
Will be scary.

The equinox day feels so crisp
Like the fresh dollar bill I exchange for that first cappuccino
Before I take that windowless drive home
As I blare the highway blues.

My left arm swims in the air
As my right steers and feeds
That liquid gold coursing through my bones-
I realize I'm at home.

I am aligned at the point
Where the day is equal
And everything is cool-
Ready to sleep.

David croons a tune
"Where                         The
             are         now?        moment
                     we                                   you
                                                                     know
You know, you know?"

It resonates like a bonfire
With that gusty chill
Blowing through my ears
In a clear, moonlit sky.

I park at the side of an old country road
And sit on the hood of my metal bucket
To breathe in relief...
To exhale that spice...
To be.