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On a stone slab with a sheet,
I'm hot and rotting,
like a carcass boiling in the August sun.
There's no light but a dimly lit candle,
all the way across the room,
flickering in and out of consciousness,
very much like myself.
I open a window,
the breeze is hot.
I open my head,
it's steaming hot.
Wind whips and snaps,
blowing out that last candle,
the flame relinquishes light.
Now it breathes new life,
a steady smoke stream into the black night.
It's hot,
smokey and hot,
clouded like my head,
like my thoughts,
out the window,
like my head,
like my thoughts.
Copyright Barry Pietrantonio
It's a cold call in the middle of the night,
you're orbiting a big yellow sun with long brown hair,
and sharp, fierce, green eyes.
Now you're being thrown from her orbit,
hurdling into a vacuum,
it's like driving without headlights.
Don't hold your breath,
you're out of her pull,
out of her grasp,
don't look back.
Just collide with other planets,
crashing and burning up with no sound,
it's a silent film.
Shedding yourself,
pieces of you crumble and break away,
as your last bits blister through the atmosphere.
Stripped down,
smooth and bare, like a newborn,
you land into the arms of a planet you can call home.
Copyright Barry Pietrantonio
I hammered some words
Out from the quarry of my brain
They fell around in shards;
Some like boulders,
some like rocks and rubble
I picked them up one by one.
Block on block, I piled them up
Thinking I could build a ‘pleasure dome’

But,
     When it was time for the workman
      To marvel over the beauty and wonder
      Of his dream creation  
      His masonry tumbled down
      Like sand castles built
      By little hands on sea strands
      Or dunes of quicksand sliding down

I have lost count of the times,
This has happened before.
Now that I stay resigned,
Amid a heap of debris

Is there any use feeling remorse?

Like Nero fiddled on his harp
When Rome was burning
I sit on this pile of wreck
Piping my thoughts away
In the cusp between victory and defeat
Exacting as much ecstasy as I can
Before the truth looms large
In all its stark nakedness!
I just want to sit,
sit and watch,
the blinking lights,
the cell towers and the midnight drivers,
across the acres,
the malls,
24 hour stores,
the dark horizon blanketed with fog,
and the thickets,
atop the tallest hill,
the smallest hill.
I'm getting tired of the taste of cigars,
so I light another one.
I came here to think but I can't think of anything at all,
and it's not because there's dogs barking,
or howling,
or that there's so much going on,
all across the acres,
it's because I just can't think,
so I just sit and look,
and I sit and watch.
I've been through 22 years of hell,
under the guise it's a life lived well.

I've seen hatred, I've seen pain,
I've seen how love is just the same.

I've seen a man begging for work,
have his name dragged through the mud and the dirt.

I've seen another asking for his rights,
only to be lied to and denied.

I saw a man tell us about the end of the world,
so he could put us through an eight year war.
And the next man promised hope and change,
but it didn't apply to everyone the same.

Who's to say what's wrong and what's right?
What's the difference between the truth and a lie?
When did it all fall apart in our hands?
Where did the lines wash away in the sand?
And why do we keep making the same mistakes?

I've seen a man walk into a school,
I've seen a man walk into a church,
I've seen them walk out with the same look on their face,
man, that wicked look is the worst.

I've seen violence against a man,
I've seen it against a woman too,
sometimes because no one is listening,
or because they have different views.

Oh lord,
please help the world.
Oh lord,
please help the world.

I don't care what religion you come from,
I don't care if it's mine or it's yours,
I'm just looking for some help down here,
please come and help us, oh lord.

Oh lord,
oh lord.
Oh lord,
oh lord.
Copyright Barry Pietrantonioi
Welcome to the new day,
where a man who disagrees with you is a fascist.
Welcome to the new age,
where the internet has flourished so much that it has overgrown its garden *** and encompassed us all in fear and misleading one liners written by hellbent agenda pushing wordsmiths looking to smite your words with their hammers so they can claim their free speech is being silenced.
Copyright Barry Pietrantonio
Over and under again,
like a tidal wave,
born to crash and solemnly be dragged back.
Holding onto debris I should be forgetting,
praying it won't pull me away,
it was dark, so dark,
and cold enough to freeze my brain on the surface,
but if you dig deep, I'm still running.
Scatter brained,
trying to swim,
it's like I'm rubbing my stomach and patting my head,
my hands and feet,
arms and legs won't synchronize,
won't work together,
my arms move one way,
my legs, the other,
my heart goes another,
up and out my chest,
over and under again,
back down to my feet and then my throat and it tastes bittersweet.
Sometimes crashing distracts from the fact that you're falling.
Copyright Barry Pietrantonio
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