No one mourns the wicked,
Not a single lachrymose face in the crowd,
No rainfall from the heavens,
No priest to eulogize or ask forgiveness.

Even the monotone wreaths seem brighter,
The sun shines proudly with its radiant warmth
There is no chill in the zephyrs,
Not even a murmur this morning,
They’re not even wearing black or a shawl.

No, no one mourns the wicked,
There is candor among the many,
Huddled ‘round the casket,
Casting their stones instead of roses
Take into the earth with fleeting retribution.

No one mourns the wicked -
As the ground trembles and trees shake
From the effusive cheers create percussion
A symphony of lost sympathy
As the tombstone reads.

“No one mourns the wicked”

The wind was a delicate caress,
Like tiny jets of zephyrs gently brushing against the branches.
It was so subtle that the nimble verdant limbs trembled in response,
Mimicking the soothing sound of a seashore.
Just step onto the deck and close your eyes,
And let the warmth of the sun envelop you like a long-awaited hug.
Its light kisses your pale skin, infused with melanin, 

And toasts you to a perfect shade of cinnamon.

You can feel the excitement of vacation coursing through your veins,
Rising and falling with each breath.
If you..shhh, calm down, and relax,
You can experience the weightlessness of shedding a world’s burden from your stubborn shoulders.
There’s life in this moment, even in the comfort of your own backyard.

Listen to the songbirds’ cheerful chirps
And the playful chatter of chipmunks scurrying along.
But resist the urge to open your eyes and embrace the present moment.
Live in a dreamlike state, where you can savor the taste of freedom.
How it tastes like silk and watermelon, or lemon lime, sublime
This moment has the power to transform your life,
Banishing the harmful cancers of sadness that have plagued you.
No more today, when you bask in the sun’s rays, feeling a renewed pep in your step
And confidence in your sway.
As the day unfolds, the rain clouds may roll in tomorrow, but not today.

Phantom,
In your ethereal realm,
Alone in your deepest thoughts,
Do you remember me?

Phantom,
Show me those pretty white claws,
Tear into my chest and write out the contracts
Spare the clause, I’ll applaud
Knowing I’ll serve love like a cause
A refugee amid war,
Where the roses cut with their thorns
I’d bleed out to chase you down,

My eyes search in the bleeding pallid rays
Cutting through canopies -
Dancing upon the umbral silhouettes
Hoping that magic can make you appear
Tell me you don’t feel anything anymore
That it’s all a fantastical dream wrapped in fiction

Reach out to me, please, with your diaphanous touch
Soothe my unattended storms
Make the space between you and me less impossible
Where I can taste the air where your lips tease
Please take me with you.

Could the see-through glass
Weep a little for me one last..
I’m trying to leave it all behind
But we are like vines -
Twist as we twine,
Why can’t we tangle endlessly?

Phantom,
Tell me when you wake,
Do you even remember me?

You, yes you
The one always seeking my validation
I deny your application with a simple snide smile
And let you know with snark reverence
That you think that you’re relevant
But you mistake not giving a **** for passiveness
Truth be told, I bide my time,
One sunshine at a time in my backyard with my pup,
Just us and my peace of mind.

So if being pugnacious makes you validated
Let you forever fire salvos over my iron dome
And know that when you come a knocking’
There’s nobody left at home,
Because I’ve already moved on and into the next frame
Where life for me is but a shade of happiness you could never afford in shade,
I leave you here with pittance, rot, and shame
Argue with ghosts that haunt you, but the mirror holds the truth to blame.

Your tongue makes a precise incision,
Words like a scalpel, cutting with precision,
Bypassing my systems like a jewel thief,
Grasping hold of my heart.

Are you a bard or a thief?
It’s hard to tell the difference—
When you play my strings like a guitar,
Out of mind, yet in tune with the violence.
Your eyes direct like storm clouds,
Twisting my image until it suits your need.

Just make a decision—
I’m exhausted with pretense,
Starving for substance,
Why is it that no one replaces what they take?

And if I were a bodega,
I’d stock only the finest farewells,
So you couldn’t buy happiness,
While pawning my world to the highest bidder.
You thought me caramel, but I tasted bitter,
Spoiled long before you spun a web.
I’m not dancing to your tune; the music is dead.

It feels like I’m being picked clean
When the eagle pecks my innards
Always looking inward, where do I begin?

If you had the wood
And I gave the stone
Would you strike me to see if you make fire?

If I showed you how to grow
Let the maize grow even higher
Would you provide the fruits
If i began to expire?

****** if I do,
Or ****** if I don’t
Just wanted to lift you a little bit higher
See Olympus on high
As the gods pass us by,
Give you the means for all you could desire.

Feels like a lightning bolt struck my soul
A static shock to jolt my mind
I’m trying to piece through a puzzle
But the square pegs won’t fit in the round holes.

(Save me)
I’m giving up as the tide comes
Hope Poseidon brought his pitch fork
(I’m done)
Ready to find a reason to give you reason
(Only wanted you to know)
Everything magic is practical if you practice.

Feels like I’m being picked clean,
This eagle is pecking at my innards
Always looking inward, wish I was as wise as Damocles.

Purple neon on my shoulders,
Blue catching on my knees,
I’m looking for something to cure my craving
And I know that it cannot be me.

Bend me over,
Tell me that you see me,
Know that when it’s over
I’ll want you even when I’m sober.

Purple haze dancing in my mind
Blue skies over the skyline
I’m high with a need for a taste.

Won’t you come and take it,
Won’t you make me beg for more?
I’m trying to feel the warmth
Of someone who can lift me higher
Then I can touch the ceiling
Push me into a corner
Don’t let me forget this feeling.

Purple neon on my shoulders
Blue catching my knees,
Open mouth begging, please
Won’t you show me heaven,
One sinful act at a time?

Tell me do you see me,
Am I still a man to you,
Is this worth the trouble,
Silent my troubled mind
Bathe me in purple and blue,
Tell me I belong,
Are you mine?

Purple haze dancing in my mind
Blue skies over the skyline,
I’m high with a need for a taste.

Bi like cotton candy,
Sweeter than taffy lace
Harder than jawbreaker,
Alive in me I embrace.

Wash over me,
Rinse away the sin,
I don’t want to be this,
Tired of the running,
Hoping the light never touches,
But I can’t keep circling the drain,
Encased in shadows,
Deafened by the refrain
Of my own voice dithering,
Trailing off into a distance.

So wash over me,
Shower my life like a wet hug,
Acupuncture raindrops,
Stabbing all my demons,
Exorcising my inner heathen,
Wrapping me in with roses,
Thorns picking as the blood exposes,
Need for your healing waters,
Pouring from angel eyes,
Weeping for my soul,
Crash me down like Zeus,
Tell me I won a prize,
Reprieve for my sad life,
Singing truth from all the lies.

Wash over me,
Let my sweat bead away,
And the cold cause a shiver,
So I can shake off the pain,
I want to live again,
Grow in your garden,
A snake eater in a new Eden.

The sun shines brightly,
But I can’t feel its warmth.
This house feels dark and empty,
Especially when I look back at the night we spent together.
You held my soul, and I begged you not to ever let go.
If I had known what I know now,
You wouldn’t be haunting me.

Those days are gone when we held hands
And laughed together as the world spun around us.
I can still smell the floor wax and sweat,
'And I can feel the blisters on my pads from the nights we spent skating,
Like we were skating away from the truth.
This relationship was never meant to last

We loved like a fever,
But we weren’t strong enough to withstand the storm.
As the waters broke through and swallowed you,
I knew I would never love again.

I’m tired of this game, tired of chasing that high.
It feels like I’ve loved nothing at all.
Sapphires in the sky can’t compare to your eyes,
And even though she feels like home, you were the only one I would live in.

I wish I could be under your pressure,
So you could shine like a diamond.
I know we were both young and in the rough,  
But when you left my world, I lost the light of my life.
The colors of the world faded,
And the dreams I had vanished,
All because of the promises you made and the debts you kept.
I hope one day you’ll remember the times we had together.

The sun shines brightly, but I can’t feel its warmth.
Colors bleed into black,
And time seems to have frozen in place,
Even though I cry through the ice
.You’ll never be mine.
Oh, why can’t we rewind?

Back in those days, when we went on festival rides
And attended high school *****.
We kissed under the starlight and pinned ourselves against walls,
thinking we knew it all.
And this song would never end, because we would keep on singing.

If I knew what I know now,
I would have stopped chasing after that love.
Sapphires in the sky can’t compare to your eyes.

Vestigial fragrances spill into the taste of her fruit
I’m wandering like Alice through your wonderland
Tickling wisps of her hair brushing through my skin like gossamer
I’m swimming in pools of ethereal waters
Wading the waves to crash upon her needy shore.

Halcyon hours spent in serendipity
Her voice rang like seraphic honey
Sweet like candy, I’ve grown a sweet tooth
Iridescent colors slick her opening and I can taste a rainbow.

Evanescent moments caught entwined
Our bodies converse like old friends,
Talking with a reverence for past times
Post tide, in landslides
Where we collide and collapse
Mouth dried, lungs spent
Chasing breath in the wilderness of our love.

She speaks to me in crepuscular displays
Diamonds in the black of her eyes.
As the rain poured down,
I kissed away the saline,
And breathed in her petrichor delight.

Don’t wake me —
I’m down in the rabbit hole
Further down I go,
Lost in her like a lingering madness.
Curiouser and curiouser.

It’s getting louder in the silence
And even harder to breathe,
My heart wretches with a hunger
And I’m desperate to feed.

It should have been so easy,
Growing life from a seed,
Watching you grow where I could never follow
Has taken its toll.

Scars are etched upon my soul,
Lesions pressed against the brain,
I don’t even dream any more,
The day they took you from me
Was the day everything changed.

It feels like I’m lost at sea,
Floating on wishful hope
And tree bark memory,
As the pine sticks through my flesh
Back riddled with all their blades
I’m bled out to feel these sharks
Of my doubts encircle me.

What could have been,
Had I known then,
How to be a better man,
Instead I—
Feel the weight of burden
Anchor me to this boulder
Where carrion comes to pick me clean.

It’s getting louder in the silence
Desperation in the form of a plead
Seethed through every exhale
When it’s the loss of you I breathe.

Lost like a poltergeist in purgatory
Shuffling in this flesh husk like a zombie,
Loveless, I can’t , feel you
Loveless, I can’t , feel anything at all.

It should have been me,
And I want you to know,
If I could trade places,
I’d rot in the earth,
Faded like paper pulp after the rain,
Scatter my ashes into the sea,
And watch as the sharks of my doubts
Encircle me.

Minutes, hours,
Reclaim, power
Need your warm touch
Gives me new life.

The heart is beating,
Lungs are seizing
Open mouth breathing
Wheezing, seething
Need your warm touch
Brings me a new glow.

Anger, rising,
Demon, conniving
Inner whispers -
Tenebrous fingers
Gripping my light
Snuffed out, the candle
Need your warm touch
Bring me back home.

Alone I stand,
In a white land,
Nothing drawn in
It’s all forgotten.
Blinding, white light
Darkest, black shroud
Feel the floor shake
Bottomless, free fall
Need your warm touch

Wake me up

If love had the power to heal,
I would press these lips against your flesh,
kissing away your wounds.
So that you could become the mantis and devour me anyway.

Tears that I’ve shed
Are written in books you have never read
I keep the ink warm so it bleeds the words
I have never said.

Too afraid to shed my skin,
These walls weren’t to keep you out
But to keep me in,
And all of my dark sides play violins
Mixed with guitar, a metal opera to see if I sin
But you’ll never know the secrets that I keep
In the gardens out back, where I bury them deep
Hope they grow limbs to cradle you in sleep.

Tears that I’ve shed,
Warm the cooler side of an empty bed
Maybe if I lay a little closer to the edge
I can feel the remnants of your skin.

How it feels to feel so lost
When the world stops spinning at the cost
Of never knowing what it was ever worth
Devalued in the palm of my hand,
You could sell me love, but all I have are pennies.

Words I could never speak
Leak from these shakes leaves
Whisper from the ink and breeze
Carrying my heart like a desperate plea,

Don’t you look me in the eyes
I cannot return to stone,
Once you’ve broken the curse
All I have is this home,
And I know I can never face you -
Without the weight of my pen.

Riddles on my face like a bad tattoo
I’m a maze that no one seems to get through
Amazed that everywhere I look, there’s a new you
But I remain, the bonded spine adhered with the glue
So turn around, or flip the pages
I hope it hurts you, like it hurts my face with
Tears that I’ve shed.

I hope you know
I write about you in books you’ll never read
It's like you were never real,
So tell me now, alone, inside your mind
How does it feel?