algorithmic street signs
with altruistic elegance
senses and the sensible
of whom Socrates is enviable
a heron, preferring solid ground
but taking to the skies with pride
for she knows that she'll accomplish both
because when born she made her oath
"dear lord, they're all asking you
to give them what they have not
but all that i would ask from you
is to give me the courage not to choose"
and so today she sings her songs
metallic and melodic, perfect balance,
and she knows she's never going to fall
because if you're in the middle, there's no gravity at all

she sorts her clothes color-coded
because it "just feels right"
and while we see it as mechanical
she knows it as instinct
just like that wide-eyed stare
when she's driving down the road
and realizes she forgot
her handbag at home
and even she, the most complex
of all creatures in the animal kingdom,
feels the urge to run
when a predator is approaching

soul like fire,
eyes like ice,
he's never waiting,
that forever flowing river
who's got this notion that
god's got nothing on his mind
christ's got nothing on his lips
"no **** way im ever gonna die"
is in his every word
each breath in is one step
closer to greatness
and the glances given
are lances
piercing
someday he will cut through the starry black
and don that sacred crown
upon that sacred stage where we
the blessed in his name gather
but don't applaud quite yet
one could always
build a dam

i hear it beating
like that thunder in the dark
its a pulse beyond blankets
and hot tea on cold nights
i hear it filling
every crevice of the world
its stalking, close, breath
every neck can feel upon it
i can fall for it
my rabbit mind sneaks into the trap,
its an eagle heart remaining free.
that's what this downfall has in store

i am less of a person
and more of a personality

something tells me you don't see my porcupine quills
for what they really are
because despite what you've been told
by those books you read at midnight
to help you erase insecurity
my kindness doesn't make me cherry-filled
my defense doesn't make me secret
your "tragic past" imposed upon me is not my motive
I am not something dug-up, mysterious and ancient
but your chart says that I am
a delicate power you need to protect
a relic from another world, an alien
different
but why compare a dark towering forest to a flower
we are not like gold and silver
we are not precious and we do not hold worth
we are manufactured of mud and clay
as your ancestors and the ones before you were
and I was raised, like mountains from earth, to believe
that all people were merely and nothing less than
human
and we do not earn this right