Does the lonely bird still sing?
Do his feathers still greet the Spring?

Is there a sadness in his song?
When the full forest sounds wrong?

Unsure if abandoned by hope
Or lost in the fetid smoke.

His voice a broken pitiful thing.
A lonely bird cannot sing.

And if he musters a "Po-tee-weet"
No other birds may he greet.

Will ever a time come to pass
When the lonely bird sings at last?

Maybe life will be everything I thought it was.
Maybe this ain't the escape I dreamt of once.
I need to slow down, maybe say, "pause".
Take the reins, pull over these lost thoughts.

It gets better. It gets better.
I wear my mood like the weather.
It gets better.
Right now, Fall is my favorite sweater.
Bright orange reminds of the day I first met her.

True colors finally show just before the snow
Shoulders shrug before they get cold
I should've known.
I wore my coat to postpone fresh grown sorrow. I should've known.

And I'm thinking back to Summer's plenty
Forgetting the day she left me
And the way it blessed me
Now I'm drunk with my feet up, breathing in real serenity.

Today was a car crash
Tomorrow's a few weeks away
Next month I'll see you someday
But today was a car crash
And it broke more than your bones
And it broke more than my heart
It broke everything
From the headlights
To the end of time
Nothing was the same
But you'll never change
But today was a car crash
Tomorrow's a few weeks ago
And yesterday was an eternity
But I didn't know it then
I'll live just a few moments
Without you for a second
But that second had better be a lifetime
And it had better flash before my eyes
Like the tears, like your face, like the casket, and the darkness
Tomorrow's a few weeks away
And forever came and passed
Because today was a car crash

In false light reflected we stare deeply into eyes the same.
Searching for Truth and finding ourselves shimmering cold over the still lake alone unflinching in the weight of eternity and her majestic indifference; blink.
A madness of heaven reaching through the water below to stir the silent sleeper of your soul, come forth from your depths and breathe the silk air you once knew.
All is glistening in the not so distant morning where the sun roars ancient and abysmal.
Where once Truth sighed heavy into shadow she will once more open like the lily seeking her sky born love.
Despair fades from eyes now clear blue like the sky and the rain washes away anger like dust from your kissed skin.
We blossom into light petals of ultra green and hyper white and dance as the joyous breeze allows.
Soon the darkness must fall again and we shall curl away to forgive the fallacious star that drowns out so many more.
False light will search us for the desperate Truth we hide.

I can't find focus
Lost and a little hopeless
Blurred moon sits quiet

Ring Freedom like cold metal
Around my wrists.
Jewels of the white, red, and blue
Sparkle in the lights
Beneath our impossible stars and stripes.

Paint my prison bars
In the blood of your sacred
Innocence.
Did Destiny manifest itself in your heart?
Did she blind you to the suffering of those who walked before?

Lady Liberty bring me peace.
Adrift in this American ocean; red and thick. It tastes of iron. It smells of blood.
Do you see those bony broken backs that have built you?
Do you dare look them in the eye?

How are we to believe those lofty words
hoisted upon our souls?
Life, Liberty, Happiness, Equality
Were surely written with pure intent.
Have we enslaved the poor, the broken, the citizens of our own continent?

Speak like you know how to scream.
Speak like you ache to be free.
Just speak.
We will not be led by blind indifference.
Love will seize our hearts and make them whole.
Speak. Speak. Speak words of hope.
For what fear do we have of the rope?

E Plurbus Unum holds our lives for ransom.
Burn down this shamed house of greed.
See the light of a nation freed.
Hear those bells ring out aginst the silent auction of captivity like the hearts of We the People.

The taste of rust hangs
Heavy in my mouth
A copper color stains
My crooked teeth

I am awake now
Unlike how I used to be
Though my eyes were open
I was surely dreaming

The taste of rust hangs
Tangy on your lips
Blue twinges decorate
Your iced expression

Bound with veins
Of hope and smoke
We lie side by endless side
Entwined lost to the madness

Now the taste of rust hangs
Growing older still
Let me restore the flame
To the fire in your soul

The soles of my shoes are
nothing
more than skin and bone.
The holes in my heart are filled with
Something
More than blood alone

Time is measured on a hundred million
Watches
Each in synchronous space
Rights are driven forward by a hundred million
Marches
Anger painted our faces
Love is given over to the lion
Harmless
Like lambs in guarded places

I am leaving for days gone by
Priceless
Time we shared
You are leaving for nights alive
Lifeless
Days our hearts bare
We are parting for a time
Fight this
For the end is near

This end is merely beginning
Again
Find hope in loss
This beginning is merely an ending
My friend
For me weep not
I'll be here waiting for you in time
The end
Is not the end of us.

And that man swung like
the tire we rode into the
golden sunset of my youth
a stranger to beauty

I can still hear them
Calling out an empty name
Once you're gone do
you keep your truth

In quiet moments of
Crystal reflection
I often wonder if
I could be him

A soul so lost
Forgone the waiting
Choose my last and
Step away into nothing

But I remember
Those empty smiling eyes
That shrill wailing proves
Nothing beautiful may stay

Speak grace into the canvas of my silent heart
Words of love and musical laughter part from your gold velvet lips
Strength enough to carry away pain and suffering from my weary eyes
Speak grace into the canvas of my silent heart

Dance like fire wild in the ink drop watercolor night
Passion stained cheeks glow from beneath lovers eyes
Sparks soar higher than the thunder head eagles play
Dance like fire wild in the ink drop watercolor night

Breath soft as the world settles slow and rise with the lazy star heat
Forget the troubles of days behind and look for warmth in my furnace chest
Delicate sighs of whispered vows tremble about the air
Breath soft as the world settles slow and rise with the lazy star heat

Speak grace into the canvas of my silent heart
Words of love and musical laughter part from your gold velvet lips
Strength enough to carry away pain and suffering from my weary eyes
Speak grace into the canvas of my silent heart

Three sugars. No cream.
Stuck inside a 4 A.M. Dream
And there's nothing I can't do
Is the sky really black or just dark blue?

No cars, no souls save preying police
Their lights burn red and scream, "Freeze!"
And the night obliges
For it is not so mighty

Glass half full, still starving
Clouds overmind work their sky carving
Of all my favorite fluffy animals
Are vampires iron deficient cannibals?

The sun soon breaks like an egg on the edge
And the dream skitters light spiders from my head
Eyes pressed to withered pillow sheathing
Is this morning or deeper evening?

Am I waking from the dreaming
Or am I sleeping next to coffee steaming?

Lost Boy, Lost Boy
What did you lose
Lost Boy, Lost Boy
What did you choose

Where do you go
When there's no place for home
Where do you go
When there's no more hope

Lost Boy, Lost Boy
What did you know
Lost Boy, Lost Boy
What did you crow

Where did you roam
When you did plan
To never come home
From Never Never Land

On the bank of an endless river
There is no money to be saved
All the waste of life is washed and clean
Presented to the future still dripping
And you are waiting there for me
And I am waiting here for you
On the bank of an endless river
There is no change to be sought
All the days meld to nights sewn seamless and neat
Stretched taught over the space between birth and death
Where you are waiting for me
And I am waiting for you
On the bank of an endless river

Wind laughs low tonight
Flays skin to the blood marrow
Keep listening, smile

He laid emeralds in her eyes
But I'd already tried
A bracelet made of gold
And a scarlet thread around her wrist
And everything was wrong
So we sang sentimental songs
Oh, how seldom we belong
But how elegant our kiss
And we painted crooked lines
But we danced in perfect time
To a love so much refined
We know not what it is
So like the dullen wine
We pour into a grief we'd known before
But never quite like this
Never quite like this
All I know now is regret
She follows like a silhouette
Of a cobblestone behind me
She has nothing left to say
Except to innocently ask
Her voice delicate as glass
"Do you see me when we pass?"
But I
I continue on my way

"I am what I believe"
Cried the crestfallen philosophy
"You are what we tell you to be"
Stated the looming bureaucracy
"But what of free speech, life, and liberty?"
Asked the outraged citizenry
"All fictitious. Now back to Benghazi."

And the world turned on
While our minds turned off
Victims to the Great Entertainment
That silences our voice of dissent

"What a marvelous movie"
"It could have been better"
"That Trump is a no-bullshitter"
"Yeah but he's  the same color as my melted smoothie"

Meanwhile the old wait to die
And prisoners don't have the hope to riot
And the T.V. tells us about Kim's new hair
I see these things and I despair

"Hey man, lemme get a eighth"
"Man, what the ******* gotta celebrate"
"I just got fired on Saturday, tryin' to forget this place"
"Man, you just gotta have a little faith"

But ain't no God in heaven and no savior in the saints
One prayer and all will be forgiven at least that's what they say
But my eyes don't divine a reason to believe 'em
My words are my crimes and I won't deceive 'em

Step back and give your heart your full attention
Listen to the voices of the ones I forgot to mention
Are we really so different
Are we slipping into indifference

If you believe in humanity
If you believe in nature
If you believe in morality
Maybe you'll become someone's savior

I live in Van Gough starlight
Picasso tension in my knees
Our mother elegantly paints the breeze
Mondrian boogies at midnight eternally
Take it back to the charcoal fight

And I feel like I'm wasting every second
While she hides behind her Mona Lisa mystery
Never learning to appreciate the lesson
Always forgetting to remember our art history

Whether weather withers
Heavy penny pinchers
Or orders hor d'oeuvres
Don't mean I'm richer
I'm just not a city slicker
Don't say I'm bitter
I got honey in my pitcher
Oh no wait that's pilsner
Sorry I forgot my censor
And she told my I got a ****** up
******
There's a reason I don't miss her
And I'm just trying to be honest
But she left with my wallet
And now I'm elbow deep in Comet
Paying for a dinner, faux gras, I said that like ***** grass to the waiter
I know I can't pronounce it
**** it he's a hater
And she said see ya later
Later on Imma be Dark side
Like Master Vader
I roll up like high tide
And my homies roll up to Eastside
And I tried to go nuts
Now I gotta run hide
'Cuz bacon munch next door on their donuts
Call me crazen, brazen, but
I was cravin' me a donut
So I strolled up
And then she showed up
Tryna get some tacos
And she was with her ****-o
Head look like a rock-o
And he knows bout them rocks though
So I zip-zap-skidaddle
Back to the Eastside
Now the bar died
So I try to find a quick ride
Down to mi casa
But the cars they passa
Without no second glance - uh
Until I drive myself - uh
Now I'm in a jail cell
Callin' for a lawyuh
Writing out my woes nuh
Hiding from my phone bruh
Cigarettes at home
And my heads all full of fog
I should sleep this off
Imma sleep this off

Truth bids, "Fall."
And my shoulders balk

Failure sets my heart
Aware of the blue parts

Carry me home
Buried in hope

Open my eyes
And heal me tonight

I am burdened
With my own hurting

My legs are numb
My lungs succumb

Open my mouth
No voice pours out

I am wasting
Again and again away

Lonely in this house
Of friends, of doubts

In all my mourning glad smiles and little intricate sadness I find my sapphires once embedded too deep to see under the shimmering façade of worldly ugliness.

And the crafts they go down so smooth and the world slides into the inky night with twinkle lights dancing behind and before my so lonely eyes.

Those foolish stars sing ghoulish hymns of forgiveness through the empty air.
And we ourselves are empty but so convinced in our self aggrandizing thoughts of our sufficiency that we ignore their soft whispering voices.

How could we be empty when we tell ourselves that our hearts our souls our thoughts are the only real things we know? But it's all empty.
You and me and everything in between.

It's all flickering twinkle lights that fade before the sun burns too bright.

I sit and I stare empty at the wall
I think of nothing
Nothing at all
There's no pattern
No
Uniformity
And yet this all means so much to me
There's a sound like Saturn
Building behind my eyes
And it's whispering of sure surprise
Focused on staying distracted
Hell bent on playing disastrous
Born of the space between
Worn out from this bleeding heart scene
Follow/Lead
Swallow the grief

When I go out to those crowded nightclubs
I drink far too much
Dance too little
I watch the gentry dance
They spin and pulsate
Like stars through lonely skies
Unaware of my jealousy
Cursing my lack of jubilation
They revolve and shine
Unaware that they are my personal
Constellations

I have been gone so long
I forgot what it's like to live at home
So I stay inside
Watch the world walk by

All the people pass
On their way to work or class
I don't know
I feel that's someplace I should go

Once I was part of the race
Now I feel out of place
It seems this community
Has forgotten me

I want to laugh and shout
While I stay inside looking out
But I'll sit in silence
And watch from my self inflicted island

Every heartbeat is an endless defeat
A ribcage jukebox stuck on repeat
Slow on sleep and heavy in high heat
Fever pleads to end the beat
Suffer a sudden death alone in the street

My secrets become the Earth
As my bones become the burning dirt
And your lungs ceased to hurt
In death Love found bruised rebirth

We fell parallel to the sky
Our bodies awash in time
Gravity lost hold
The sun breaks over

My secrets sank in the bleeding ocean
Like my fingers sank in your skin
Now you can breath free again
In love Death found sweet emotion

We fell parallel to the sky
Our bodies awash in time
Gravity lost hold
The sun breaks

My secrets came to blistering light
Long after I left this frightful life
And you, Love, could not cry
In light Love and Death came alive