Conventions carved in circumstance.
Once instant; never stood a chance.
Strange reverence in the strange romance
Of tradition at a glance.

Carved in stone, then smashed to bits.
Pick and choose, and place what fits.
To briefly hold an ancient stance,
And feel tradition at a glance.

Scroll. Scroll. Select. Engage.
Evaluate the worth by age.
Find what it needs by happenstance.
Picked from tradition at a glance.

Customs old, and tested true.
But needing what there’s no time to do.
Wisdom never stood a chance,
When tradition’s at a glance.

Values old, some to be heeded.
But couldn’t find quite what was needed.
A dangerous thing, this fleeting dance
With tradition at a glance.

Delaminating legendary layers.
Pick and choose components to share.
Frame it to support your stance.
Built of tradition at a glance.

To entertain, inform, or guide.
A fair-weather friend that stays by your side.
A fleeting comfort from a vast expanse,
Of traditions,
                         at a glance.

I feel your absence in ways
I could not have anticipated.
Threads pull at limbs.

Who am I?
Who are you, stranger, sneaking through the bush?
Places swapped in imaginings.
Meaningless,
But everything.

And I’ve been drawing again.
And I’ve been watching again.
But everything looks like hate.

Splinter me.
Sever me.
Let me leave.
I cannot grieve.
I cannot find pleasure
Any more than relief.

And only silhouettes really bleed.
But silhouettes cannot bleed.
You cannot replace that absence
With a superficial feed.

What defies defines.
What denies devines.
There are no seeds here.
Nothing to keep you.

There is no soundtrack truer
Than the passively overheard.
Nothing shinier or newer
Than the polished, filtered words.

Vine-whipped, and burned in the sun.
Maybe I wouldn’t slip if I learned to run.
Reflections give a view that’s gathered.
Until agitated, stirred, or lathered.
Frustrations build when disconnected.
Violent, and viscous, yet flat and dejected.

Who would shine through, if not you?
A crazy dream to have come true.
Twinkling in reflected light.
Drown out by passing, passive night.
I miss the freezing cold of flight.

To soar, in freezing cold of night.

Welcome and remarkable, the heat.
To penetrate the flesh,
And comfort the brain.

Weathers and remodels many tired hearts.
Makes the old seem fresh.
Soothes the ache of lingering pain.

Giving lots of warmth, surrounded.
Light of comfort.
Light of hope.

Getting lost, open winter’s story.
Pull up a chair,
And tell a joke.

Cleaning off my forlorn, old, radiating tears,
To embrace new day’s eventful rendering.
Noticed embers, still sheer.

Alert, fever’s favour embraces cold-tickled, inspired, open noses.
Releasing all dilemmas in amazing torched exposure.

With a real mesmerizing thought held.
A flame that enchants and haunts.

Worries are removed, melted through heat.
And the warmth is all that we want.

To how words can cut!
To how they heal!
To the wild things they make us feel!
To a short and simple phrase
That could be remedy or blade.
To impact and to common sense!
To not quite saying what we meant.
To all the beauty that we write.
We tip our hats and say our last goodnight.

Over many matters I may be shy,
But I have never been known to be timid.
And there is no sky which I would not fly,
That is, if my options were truly unlimited.

That’s not to say that I couldn’t be scared,
Or that I never had.
It’s only to say,
That I’m usually prepared
For the good and for the bad.

I’ve been stricken by fear that was more like despair.
I’ve felt the knots of uncertainty twist.
But of any dangers, I’ve done my best to be aware,
So any terror I can totally resist.

So it is that I can face uncertainty
With sure-footed, fear-free glee.
For whatever risk lurks
That might leave me unsure,
I have never been scared to be me.

In a distant dream of a distant past
We find the meaning we were searching for at last.
It no longer matters what we lost along the way.  
All that matters is this moment, is this day.  

And we do the very best that we can.
And we take our final stand.
And we take our final stand.

In a hopeless future, in a hopeless place
We dig our heels in, and we run a hopeless race.
It no longer matters who we were before today.
Fame, blame, flattery; all will melt away.

And we do the very best that we can.
And we take our final stand.
And we take our final stand.
And we take our final stand.

Some killed in the attack.
Others injured.
Good guys.
Bad guys.

Retaliation. More lives lost.
The right lives? The wrong ones?
Bad guys.
Good guys.

Good guys?
Bad guys?
Good guys.
Bad guys.

Boy, these humans really hate each other.

“I believe in peace and harmony.”
“Someone should shoot that man.”
Good guys. Bad guys.
Bad guys. Good guys.

Boy, these humans really hate each other.

“Your hate is evil, malicious, unkind!
Not justified and right, like mine.”
Which are good guys?
Which are bad?

Boy, these humans really hate each other.

Maintaining piloerection.
Permanent state of fight or flight.
Too many bad guys.
Where are the good guys?

Boy, these humans really hate each other.

Howl and rage!
Knot yourself.
Not yourself?

Tear it down!

Tear them down!

Tear us all apart!

Boy, these humans really hate themselves.