A universal force leading you to the crossroads
To sell your soul and finally live within potential
Or pass it by, blinking lashes
blocking dust and truth

It takes  three things and only those three
Everything else is fluff

You gotta be ugly - you gotta be blind
Can't see or fathom the linear substance
The concrete holding, your bricks in the wall
Either in a literal sense or on the inside
Prominent features surpassing character
hard to look at but don't you worry
You gotta be blind
so it's no concern to you.

Next you gotta depart with your core
Strip away hope,
a skinning between body and soul
No longer will it be yours but if you're lucky,
you may get to keep it through layaway

There's always a price though, hidden fees
Steep, unsubtle , a fat moon face hiding behind a child's mask
I wonder though, was it really ours, this soul, to begin with?
To sell?
Self entitlement lingers second thoughts
That's the biggie though. Ultimate collateral, this soul you carry.

Finally, I'll only touch the tip.
Driving, animal instincts seeking warm comfort
You gotta answer to a new title,
a southern anatomy most of of the species glorifies.
it dominates in a protruding and brute external hang
A tangent  but have we considered this tender piece to be the answer to vulnerability
instead of historically jarred ******* of wit
and wealth?

That's all it takes, folks. At that fateful railing
Get used to hot, sticky and  sweet breath
Always chasing, caressing the back of your neck.
The void in the center where you had it
The soul you had
before you sold it.

You're risking naught, an annihilation of worth
Wasting and encouraging moments to rot. Decay.

Values friendship
Twisted morals dipped in deceit.
Not satisfied with boundaries

Chasing infected affection
swirling in the smooth crevasses of backwash around emptied wine bottles
Impressionable, emitting the most tenacious
of the F word
Fake

Fake and Selfish
It isn't narcissism when you drown yourself
in the pits

No permission, no inhibition
As lazy as the Greeks
who never made a move to climb the mountaintop
and defy their Gods face to face

Dependent and ******* support from Clans
because you're terrified of this world
At least I"m honest with my decanter of
harming thoughts.

obsessed and overbearing, flesh crawling
use my being as subject matter and
mold it into paperdoll play toys

like gold eye-liner
its a party trick
seek solice when grimacing down a bottle of brew

bumpers in the bowling alley
a Life Alert sort of living
You claim to haven no fear
but I see your throat clench

start living
admit the defeat
a proud coward
lilly livered, yellow belly
shift
shift between a fable and nerve

After piece by arcane piece is discarded
vulnerability divulging flaws and vindication with neon lights
incision at the fingertips
lies exposed where every finger nail is dislodged

peel back the once forgiving flesh
revealing the standard beauty for its depth
don't suppose those lines in my face
(the conniving spots
where make-up bleeds,
forgotten lies breed,
and fear have taken occupancy)
those lines don't really matter once you remove the mask

Underneath, muscle and connections vibrate
the drive
Red, raw, ugly and most important - authentic
A monster's face, the one that parallels
everyone else's

Tear away at it, pluck each strand of tissue
Play me a lullaby to sooth the screaming
Dust your fingers on the structure of my bones
carve your initials into the white
lay claim to your work, your art

slide any remaining pieces away into the abyss of trash
with the newspaper clippings and elmers glue
bleach away the remaining red
and finger paint your new canvas
A pristine prototype so rudiment
The birth of cool
and for the free