Standing clinched-fists in the rubble of good intentions, with the blood of my own soul under my fingernails, I look forward-
not to the ******, but to the end.

If those young men had looked like me,
how diff'rent everything would be.
There'd be no blood or teardrops shed.
Had they been white, they'd not be dead.

If Mike Brown had been Michael White,
he surely would have been alright.
"Don't shoot!" would not need to be said.
Had he been white, he'd not be dead.

From Ferguson to East L.A.,
we hear the stories every day.
"Protect and Serve" til streets run red.
Had they been white, they'd not be dead.

Call it racial immunity,
where skin-tone is impunity.
Don't let yourself be so misled-
had they been white, they'd not be dead.

As more and more young ones are slain,
and protests are met with disdain,
you may debate what I have said,
but were they white, they'd not be dead.

I fell in love with candlelight-
in my darkness, she shone so bright.
She danced the breeze, lit up the night,
her glow consumed my very sight.

But wax and wick both burn away,
and candlelight just cannot stay.
As sure as night turns into day,
that fickle flame will go astray.

But for a moment, through the storm,
she lit my world, she kept me warm,
then flickered out, as is the norm
for candlelight, its fleeting form.

I fell in love with candlelight,
for but a moment, all was right.
Her glow, her dance, consumed my sight,
and faded out at end of night.

Here we stand on the edge of extinction
Shaking fists at the sun
Snarling through clinched teeth
And casting fault for the burnt flesh
We chose not to shield.

Amazing how the venom glows
So easy on the eyes
I'll poison myself with your touch
And breathe my last in sighs

Burn my veins in place of the warmth
I thought would be my prize
How sweet the bile that's killing me
How tender my demise

I'm a cosmic wanderer
I don't belong here
Stardust stuck to a ball of dirt
I don't remember the fall
Or the trip at all,
So the impact must've hurt.
Now here I stand
On hostile sand
The weak all feed the strong.
A cosmic wanderer, I am
Stuck somewhere I don't belong.

I pour my heart out.
You won't take a drink.

Do these drugs make my existential crisis look fat?

It matters not that years may pass
and take with them parts of us,
or age may sneak across our faces
and throw us under the bus.
Still seemingly a sculpture
or an ageless nursery rhyme,
you hang there, art for soul displayed
beyond the touch of time.

I witnessed as you robbed me
of attention elsewhere spent.
You blossomed like a cherry tree,
and I lied to mask intent
A craving for a fresh Spring love,
that very tree to climb,
and to swing there, from your branches
beyond the touch of time.

I wanted you like Summertime,
I reveled in your heat.
The long, hot days turned into nights
Where I sought to compete
to bask there in your sunlight...
I'd spend my final dime
To ride the sky with you, like stars,
beyond the touch of time.

I fell for you like fiery leaves,
carried forth on Autumn wind,
and dried up on the forest floor
A season, there to spend,
Nestled in your deep laid roots,
it should have been a crime
To fade away as you stood there
beyond the touch of time.

I loved you like a blizzard,
but you came across as salt
Melting me to clear the way
through my wintry assault.
Yet danced around me like a flake,
held aloft by the sublime,
and hung there in the frozen air
beyond the touch of time.

Full circle, and full cycle,
the revolution's done.
In the aftermath, the epilogue,
it's hard to say who won.
I still see you, through the seasons
and you live on like a rhyme,
written upon  infinity,
beyond the touch of time.

It used to be thrilling to me-
All the **** that was killing me
That i just threw away
Habits trashed so I'd live to see another day
Still I'd pay, I'd even pray
In hopes that it would go away
They say it's a small price to pay
You could live forever living this way
And that's okay
I don't wanna be here anyway-
But i gotta stick around they say
Cause people love me, tell me "stay".
It's not a me thing, i think it's they
Who say the easy route is the coward's way
Now I'm just too tired to play
The game is rigged anyway
I'm on cruise control for another day
Feet on the dashboard, let the wheel sway
And pretend it's all good, but anyway
I've let the world have too much say
Invade my sanctuary, turn my blue to gray
I cling to this fantasy that I'll find my way
In the dark, blindfolded and broken, but anyway
It's all about the facade, me and God are okay
Talked to him for an hour yesterday
Asked him how much longer it'll be this way
He said to **** it up, it's all a joke anyway

"I'm done" proclaimed John Doe as he
Pulled the cord on civility
Wrapped it around his neck and stepped
Off the chair into history.

His epitaph sketched onto glass
In red lipstick from god knows who
Found next to Gideon's beneath
A touch tone phone from '82.

Who knows what brought this unknown son
To the edge of mortality
In Motel 6 in Santa Fe
Around a quarter after 3.

But there he was, embracing fate
Without a single second thought
Selecting death, rejecting self
In spite of what his self had wrought

No tears were shed, nobody knew
This nameless face in calloused crowd
Whose final words in lipstick read
"I'm done, it's all too ******* loud."

Statues may tumble
But hate still stands
On a pedestal, proud
And foolishly clinging
To a dying light
To a long since lost battle
That will never end.
Walls crumble, steel bends
And the spirit bows
But right or wrong, friend,
It just does not break.
Even standing there
In the rubble of "what should be"
Realizing that doesn't exist now.
There is only "what is".
And all you can do is fight.
Bridges burn, and we'll never
Make it back to where
We were before the fires.
Simply standing on the banks
On our pedestals
In the rubble
Chest puffed
Chin out
Needing to break something else.

I'm just waiting for that check to come.
The world is burning but I feel numb.
TV is awesome and outside is dumb.
So I'm sitting here waiting for my check to come.

I'm holding my breath when I go to the store
And they're still out of paper, like the 5 times before.
But when that check hits, it's ******* galore.
I'll buy it all wholesale, it'll be a big score.

Just a few weeks til I get that sweet cash
Then it's Amazon Prime, Grub Hub and DoorDash.
I'm sure that this plague will be done in a flash
And we'll go back to life with our fat wads of cash.

So I'll sit on my sofa and watch the train wreck.
In my fortress of Lysol and standard-grade tech.
With my *** getting bigger and pain in my neck
Waiting patiently here for my stimulus check.

If I don't wake up tomorrow,
from these words, some comfort borrow-
know that until the very end,
you were my heart, and my best friend.

If never more I see the dawn,
or watch the stars burn from the lawn,
believe that I died pacified-
my soul content, you by my side.

If this old heart should beat its last,
it will not beat for forlorn past.
It's final pulse- though weak, still true-
will be driven by love of you.

If the sun were to shed no light,
and darkness turn the day to night,
no other star could dare to shine
and light a world as you have mine.

So, if this were my final breath,
and this exhale would mean my death,
I'd form your name with my last air-
I only lived, when you were there.

You saw me as a fool, a child
And treated me as such.
I claimed mine was an icy heart
Yet melted with one touch.
So much alike, you knew me
And I hated that you could see
The man behind the stony mask
The truth, as it may be.

I loved you steeped in silence
from the corner of my eye.
You knew I was a hopeless mess
My composure was a lie,
Yet you approached with velvet hand,
I must have looked like an antique-
But you lifted layers of death and dust
from the truth, or so to speak.

You wouldn't let me hide my eyes,
The light you made me see.
And broken lies and alibis
Against your ears failed me.
The ****** know no frustration
Like an actor with no role;
You stripped my ruse away to see
The truth, or so I'm told.

I'm full of love and resentment
The world is just a pill
Stuck in my throat, belaying notes
That when sung come out shrill
But you're on top, where you belong,
Such anathema received
You refuse me my bitter outlook
at the truth, as it's believed.

I'll never be your hero,
It isn't in my soul.
I cannot be a guiding light
I lack the self-control
But I cannot spend another day
Believing we're both dead
I drag my lifeless body towards
The truth, or so it's said.

Through the bottom of this bottle
I can see you oh, too clearly
The lights come up, and curtains draw
On something cherished dearly
And as the world files out-
all around us wave goodbyes-
And the two of us are left alone
with the truth, and other lies

I loved you from a distance
from the corner of your eye
You never cared I was a mess
You knew that I would lie,
Still somewhere in the stormy night
we held each other warm and tight-
and learned more than we thought we could
about the truth, and wrong and right

Now, I miss the part of me
that could barely speak
And the part of you that handled me
Like a fool, a child so weak.
A contorted little memory
of what we shared is all
That I still hold of your life and times,
It's the truth, as I recall.

If I should see the sunset soon
My life drawn to a close
There's little I would fret about
As far as my past goes. 
No place or plot unwrought would I
Dare look back on with dread
I'd fill my final thoughts on earth
With your sweet face instead. 

No earthly woe or unsung verse
Could burden me on death.
Rather I would speak your name
Even with my last breath
Such ending would befit my life
When my time here is through
No better way to wrap it up
Than rapt in thoughts of you.

I've been trying to lie I've been telling myself that the pain that I felt at your hand wasn't real
I know that I'm broken the drugs are a joke, just a bandaid on top of a wound that won't heal
I'm cussing at cars as they're passing me by and they're flying, I'm dying, reminds me of you
Nothing of beauty that moves at that speed can be caught, it's for naught, it is just passing through.
But let me reflect, course-correct, recollect who I was before you took the parts that you swiped
Do I wanna be the same me that you see when you see me and think that I'm pro'lly your type?
Whatever it is and whatever it ain't, it's a taint on my memory of what it was
And I am resigned and inclined to define what is left, and what's left is some words and this buzz.

I've said it before, kid,
said and repeated:
Don't let the bad times
find you beaten, defeated.
Life won't quit swinging,
it'll press the attack.
No quarter is given
if you won't fight back.

This isn't the end
of the world or the road.
Sometimes, it gets tougher,
and progress is slowed.
Life will get better,
and life will get worse.
There's ups and there's downs
between here and the hearse.

But don't let it beat you,
it'll turn out alright
if you hold your head up
and continue to fight.
So cast thoughts of surrender
right out of your head.
Those who just give up
are as good as dead.

Someday, when I'm old and gray,
I'm sure to regret what I never did say. And sometime, true,
before it's through,
I'll regret even more
what I never would do.

One nation under assault,
one nation under pressure,
one nation claiming greatness against
an outdated measure.
With liberty and justice stockpiled commodities
and legions of disgruntled youth
left to deal with the atrocities.
One nation under-loved
One nation over-policed
One nation claiming Jesus
wearing the tell-tale mark of the beast.
With hate in the left hand, and hate in the right,
and both hands balled up like we're dying to fight.
A New Day, they call this perpetual night
This suffocating darkness that chokes out the light
And EVERYBODY THINKS THAT THEIR SIDE IS RIGHT.

One nation underwhelmed by the policies they chose
One hypocrisy of a democracy, calling their own stink a rose
One thing after another, no wonder the kids are cynics now,
thinking "You CAN'T make it better, WE don't know how."
Love is lost in the struggle between apathy and hate
America, the beautiful. America, the great.
America, the fractured paragon,
We cling to ghosts of a changing time
We've fallen for the distractions, and
our pedestal is too high to climb.

Oh brothers, oh sisters, what else can we do?
If you'll look out for me, and I look out for you,
just a ripple in this pool of ****
may clear the waters, just a bit.
But as long as there are white votes
black votes
Latino votes
left votes
right votes
there'll be no vote of confidence
in the future of these divided states.
We'll rip ourselves apart,
tear out our own heart
waving our flags the whole time
and claiming no blame for the divide.
God Bless America,
and do it quick.
All sides of this society
are dying or sick.

On the clearest of nights,
when the moon is new,
I like to lie on my back
in the grass and dirt.
I'll close my eyes, and
lie there, silent,
feeling the wind roll over me
timing my breathing with
the dance between breeze and grass,
keeping meter with the song they play.
Then, I feel the earth against my back.
I stretch my arms
as   wide   as     I    can...
and, palms down,
I hold the world on my back.
I try to feel the weight of it
on my shoulders.
I think of the size of this
hot ball of rock and water.
I feel the heaviness of
all of its inhabitants.
I feel their slightest vibrations-
baby steps
that move mountains-
shaping the landscape
and changing the destiny of this
ball of dirt.
I feel it living.
At the same time, I feel it dying.
It's an endless cycle
Of beautiful, precious life
in terminal doses.
I think of all this,
behind my back,
on my shoulders,
until I feel that the weight of it all
will surely crush me.
In that moment, I open my eyes
And look up at the clear,
moonless sky, and see
a sea of stars,
burning brighter than normal
as they pierce the darkness,
the illusion of the world on my shoulders.
As I stare into the cosmos,
the reality of this little ball of rock
is lifted from my back.
What was, moments ago,
the heaviest object in the universe,
was now tiny, when set against infinity.
I finally stand, and smile,
having successfully
thrown the planet back into space.

We didn't say much that night,
but the silence loudly spoke.
We were burning moonlight
watching it go up in a puff of smoke.
We both felt the fire,
but it couldn't last long.
For one of us or the other
the heat would soon be gone.
There was no fear, just separation;
the night bore a connotation
of terminal proportions,
and an impending self-condemnation.
Awash there in the silence,
watching the night hang overhead,
we sat, as though watching kin
slowly slipping away in their deathbed.
Like, we know that it's coming,
there's no impending sense of dread.
We'll say a prayer and throw some flowers
Then both sleep in our own separate bed.
We almost force a smile
when our eyes meet.
It takes a while of trying
Before we both look back at our feet.
Still, she leans into me,
Closes her eyes against my shoulder.
The only warmth left between us
So I wrap her up and hold her
and we sit there,
cloaked in the waning night.
The clouds have blanketed the stars
and we've burned up all the moonlight.

We all used to be cannibals.
We tore flesh with our mandibles.
Times were hard for neanderthals.
Kinda men but still animals.

Did we still mourn those that were gone
as we were gnawing on the bone?
Behold the upright hairless dawn,
the greatest beasts this world has known.

Even back then, it took gumption
to prep beloved for consumption.
Grief gave pause, but safe assumption,
hunger led to feast's resumption.

Fast forward to the present day,
the greatest beasts still have their way.
As in that ancient yesterday,
upon the weak and ill they prey.

It's dog-eat-dog. Life's a mother,
til beneath the dirt we smother.
We're all cannibals, my brother-
feeding off of one another.

Will you meet me at the river,
where the waters lap the sand?
We can find a place to sit, since,
I'll be far too tired to stand.

You made it there before I did,
so many long years ago.
Along my way I lost the path,
without you here, the way to show.

I wandered, lost, once you were gone,
somewhere amidst hurt and denial.
Before I realized I was lost,
I'd been that way for quite a while.

I've tried to find that old, green path,
but signs of it are out of sight-
as if the daylight never shone,
and you carried the only light.

But I know where the river runs,
and I will get there, by and by-
if I must carve my own, new path,
I know I can, if I but try.

So find a little shady spot,
where we can sit and pass the time.
We'll catch up on the days we lost,
and laugh at life's unending rhyme.

Until the specters fade from sight,
we'll count no moment there a loss.
Then hold my hand, as I descend
to Judgment's waters, there to cross.

It's two in the morning
And quiet as the dead.
I can't get you out
Of my ******* head.
The neighborhood's silent
In my space there's no sound
Save the fan blades
As they motor around.
And here in the silence
Unshakable dread
Because I can't get you
Out of my ******* head.
I just wanna sleep, now
But you just won't let me.
You show up at night
Just to haunt and upset me.
It's not the good memories-
They're mostly dead.
It's the ******* and heartache
That screams in my head.
I'm chemically askew
Eschewed by my slumber
And taller than titans
Your absence does lumber
If I don't get some rest
I'll join you as the dead
And you still won't be out
Of my ******* head.

Come stand beside me,
I don't want to rule the world.
We're all just passing through
Til the final thread's unfurled
But for now, just stand beside me
We'll find some place to hide
and shine down dimly on the world
From some secret hillside.
We'll be a star
Giving warmth and light
And taking a little of the
fear out of the night...

This mess will still be here
About that make no mistake
But maybe just for a moment in time
We need to take a break.
We need to stand in the rain,
and not think about the storm;
to know the cold is still there,
but focus on the warm;
to separate self from self,
and mind from thought, and heart from ache;
So come and stand beside me,
and a deep breath we will take.

Let's hurry off to nowhere,
we'll get there just in time,
and let the whole world melt away
just let the whole world stay away
we don't need it, just for today...
let the real world fade away.

I've been pretty patient with you
You *******.
What's up?
How you gonna ****
Every
*******
Body
Else
And leave me here with a bunch of ******* I don't even know?
Spineless ******* skeleton.
You ain't reaping ****.

I didn't read the news today
I just didn't care what it had to say
I rolled it up and put it away
I'm gonna keep the peace
I've got no reason to cry
I'm not gonna look for a reason why
Let the whole world pass me by
Cause I'm gonna keep the peace

There's enough to fear and dread
Without shoving more **** in your head
So, write it off and go back to bed
There'll be enough time to stress when we're dead.

The days are long and life is short
Facts are things that they all distort
Just gimme sports and the weather report
And I'm gonna keep the peace.
I hope you'll pardon my dismissive tone
As I turn off the TV and silence my phone
But all the ******* can leave me alone
Cause I'm gonna keep the peace

I think I am allergic to
These old photos of me and you
My eyes water; I sniffle, too.
Throat is scratchy, heart aches for you.
I wonder if there's a remedy
For this pollenated memory
Allergic to it, I must be-
Your image makes a mess of me.

I gotta get outta here, man.
The smell of broken dreams
Hangs thick on everything
Til you can't wash it out.
The whole ****** town is
Self-medicated into a state of
Absolute acceptance of
The **** they're hip deep in.

I gotta get out of here.
My empathy is contorted
Into apathy, because it's easier
More convenient to not give a ****,
To hide in my sociopath shell
Knowing the world is burning outside
But my AC works, so ***** it.
I'm good.

I gotta get outta here
Before I become what I hate
Or somebody that I hate
Hate, in general, seems to be
A motivating factor in all this.
It seems now to outweigh the love
That used to make all my major decisions.
Call it a defense mechanism
Or cynicism, or whatever.
I'm starting to think it's evolution.
It's part of the cycle, the great circle-**** of life,
It's all vigor and enthusiasm
Til you've peaked.
Then comes the shame and regret.
I'm joking, but only slightly.
****, I gotta get out of here.

Yellowed monochrome photographs
Like albums packed with epitaphs
Lie stacked one upon another
By the bedside of her grandmother

With weathered hands and weary eyes
She turns each page, and softly sighs
As fragile memories return
Her heart will ache, her eyes will burn.

For hours, she will reminisce
Though piecemeal, memories persist,
and she'll whisper a prayer, eyes wet,
"Jesus, please, don't let me forget."

We live as if reality
Is only in our head
We live as if we'll never die
We live as if we're dead
We chase the stars while standing still
We hide behind the moon
We count the days unnumbered til
We die, hoping it's soon.
We're swinging from the chandeliers
We're tearing down the walls.
We'd be the future of the game,
but We haven't got the *****.
Told for so long how we might fail
But not how to succeed
We've watered insecurity
It grew up like a ****.
We dance with love and apathy
We sleep with shame and lies
We carve a niche and wait to see
How everybody dies.

Goodnight, dear one, the day has passed.
No ray of light is meant to last.
Our time is short, as verse to song.
Goodnight, dear one, you've been so strong.

Goodnight, dear one, eyes closed in peace,
let pain and struggle, at last, cease.
The battle that you fought is done
Goodnight, dear one, at last, you've won.

Goodnight, dear one, you've earned a rest,
for all the lives you've touched and blessed.
While in our thoughts, you're never gone;
goodnight, dear one, we'll carry on.

Goodnight, dear one, but not goodbye,
within our hearts you'll never die.
As precious as our time has been,
goodnight, dear one. We'll meet again.

I bade sunlight to linger on,
her hot sweet kiss upon my skin,
For every time I find her gone
I doubt I'll see her back again

Here in the winter of my heart
The ice crawls deep across my flesh
And sunlight, love, had to depart
To leave me blue, my torment fresh

How I long to hear the sound
Of icy crackling window panes
And feel her warmth, though past the clouds
Turn sleet and snow to soothing rain.

I bade sunlight to come again
Renew my soul and thaw my heart
But darkness seems my lot in life
I've felt her light and warmth depart.

I used to write poetry, 
quite prettily,
With flow and effervescent soul
Firm of form and splashed with
The color of a thousand heartbeats
Of dreams and tears and please-accept-me's, 
Humble offers of a crumbling spirit
And you could hear it in my words
If you cared to put your ear to my shell, 
The ocean in my broken heart churning
Threatening to swallow me whole. 
I used to write poetry, 
But times have changed, 
seen me turn orange and 
fall from my branch.
Dry and brittle on the forest floor
I feed the worms. 
I feed the roots. 
Summer is gone, and winter bears down. 
I used to write poetry,
Now I chisel away pieces of
My stony disposition
And fantasize of the warmth
That once kept my heart aflame.

I used to write poetry,
quite prettily,
With flow and effervescent soul
Firm of form and splashed with
The color of a thousand heartbeats
Of dreams and tears and please-accept-me's,
Humble offers of a crumbling spirit
And you could hear it in my words
If you cared to put your ear to my shell,
The ocean in my broken heart churning
Threatening to swallow me whole.
I used to write poetry,
But times have changed,
seen me turn orange and
fall from my branch.
Dry and brittle on the forest floor
I feed the worms.
I feed the roots.
Summer is gone, and winter bears down.
I used to write poetry,
Now I chisel away pieces of
My stony disposition
And fantasize of the warmth
That once kept my heart aflame.

If I should fall in love with you
You'll never know my feelings true
I'll keep that **** under my hat
Pretend I don't know where it's at
And silently I'll pine away
Though never in the light of day
Like some lovelorn ethereal ghost
Beneath black skies this love I'll host

I'll glance your way through shaded eyes
And tell myself a million lies
To keep my heart safe and alone
Locked up tight in its cage of bone
Til I am sure the chance has passed
When you've moved on, I'll breath at last
If I should fall in love with you
I'll deny it til we are through.

Oh, Jesus, are you listening? 
I forget how to pray. 
The folks you gave for guidance, lord, 
You took them all away,
And left me here to walk alone, 
Beloved I have none-
I am nobody's brother now;
I am nobody's son.

It's not my place to question you, 
Divinity, I'm not, 
But for a man as young as i
You've put me through a lot. 
So Jesus, if you're listening, 
And truly have my back, 
Now would be a perfect time
To cut a guy some slack. 

I don't feel that I'm owed a thing, 
I know I'm not exempt, 
And all of us know suffering
At times we all have limped. 
But lord, I'm barely crawling now, 
I lack the strength to stand. 
I'm not asking a bailout, lord, 
I only need a hand.

Help me get back up on my feet, 
I can take it from there. 
I haven't asked for anything, 
I think it's only fair. 
I'm not the child that lost his world.
No longer- I have grown.
But right now, Lord, I need a hand, 
I can't do this alone.

Statues may tumble
But hate still stands
On a pedestal, proud
And foolishly clinging
To a dying light
To a long since lost battle
That will never end.
Walls crumble, steel bends
And the spirit bows
But right or wrong, friend,
It just does not break.
Even standing there
In the rubble of "what should be"
Realizing that doesn't exist now.
There is only "what is".
And all you can do is fight.
Bridges burn, and we'll never
Make it back to where
We were before the fires.
Simply standing on the banks
On our pedestals
In the rubble
Chest puffed
Chin out
Needing to break something else.

The wind won't blow,
And it won't rain, 
And I can't see the moon. 
No crickets chirp
Or whippoorwill
Or solitary loon. 
Just me beneath
A silent sky
That light dare not impune 
A loneliness
Consuming me
I pray this passes soon.

All aboard and mind your step
As this train leaves, there's nothing left
An epic journey, winding tracks
And no chance or choice of looking back
It steams its way towards parts unknown
Where it has never, ever gone
And through it all, the only hope
Is to hang on to that proverbial rope

The tracks will twist and turn about
And turn your perception inside out
It'll blow your mind, and make you scream
At times you'll think it is a dream
But still, it rolls, never receding
Sometimes it'll leave you broken, bleeding
And in those moments, you'll only cope
And hold on tight to that damnable rope

You can't stop once it's going full steam
And you'll feel you're coming apart at the seam
Still the ride goes on with no way of knowing
If you're speeding up, or somewhat slowing.  
Without effort, it'll rule your world
As forth and back in the car you're hurled
And when it makes you want to mope
**** it up and hold onto the rope

The train won't stop again for you
You have to board, and see it through
Or let it go, and bid farewell
Let the lost opportunity put you through hell
The best you can do, is take the chance
Board the train, join in the dance
And welcome the chance, embrace the hope
And HOLD ON TO THE BLASTED ROPE!

Icarus, with feathers and wax,
flew too close to our fiery sun.
His ego grand, his wisdom lax,
hubris saw Icarus undone.

Though some may judge his passing's worth,
I feel his heart and mind were true.
I'd gladly burn and fall to Earth,
to spend a moment close to you.

Liberty is bleeding,
but they say she's doing fine.
Took the cloth off lady Justice,
now only fools are blind.
Threw a tourniquet together,
tight around her reddened wrist,
to hide it from the sunlight,
and the salty harbor mist.
Liberty is bleeding,
you can't see the blood-soaked truth.
The old girl's barely standing,
and a little long of tooth.
The torch rests a little lower,
and the tired and huddled masses,
read a plaque that says "Turn back,
or we'll shoot your troubled *****."
Liberty is bleeding,
she can't hold up her head.
If everybody saw the wound
panic would be widespread.
In the sun on Ellis Island,
you can tell that she is hurt.
She's stepped down off her pedestal.
She's standing in the dirt.
She's leaning, doubled over,
like she's gonna fall apart.
Liberty is bleeding,
because we tore out her heart.

Speak to me, Poet.
Sing the songs of the sea.
Use your rhythm and rhyme
and teleport me.
Paint a grand picture
with kaleidoscope words
of great crashing waves
and soaring sea birds.

Pine to me, Poet
tell me stories of woe,
of lovers and champions
that have been let go.
Sing softly of passion
and sadly of pain;
if the song is familiar, 
I'll join in the refrain.

Swear to me, Poet
that your story is true-
and I'll live vicariously
for a moment, through you.
Turn words into vision
and then let me see.
Though the hour is late,
I have nowhere to be.

Cry with me, Poet,
Oh! how the heart aches,
at the depth of the sorrows,
the mournful mistakes.
But spare me not, Poet,
til your songs are all through;
Though the hours fly by
I have naught else to do.

Write for me, Poet,
and I'll write for you.
We'll share our condition
be the skies gray or blue.
The morning will be here
before you know it.
So for now, sit a while,
and rhyme with me, Poet.

One nation under assault,
one nation under pressure,
one nation claiming greatness against 
an outdated measure.
With liberty and justice stockpiled commodities
and legions of disgruntled youth
left to deal with the atrocities.
One nation under-loved
One nation over-policed
One nation claiming Jesus
wearing the tell-tale mark of the beast.
With hate in the left hand, and hate in the right,
and both hands balled up like we're dying to fight.
A New Day, they call this perpetual night
This suffocating darkness that chokes out the light
And EVERYBODY THINKS THAT THEIR SIDE IS RIGHT.

One nation underwhelmed by the policies they chose
One hypocrisy of a democracy, calling their own stink a rose
One thing after another, no wonder the kids are cynics now,
thinking "You CAN'T make it better, WE don't know how."
Love is lost in the struggle between apathy and hate
America, the beautiful. America, the great.
America, the fractured paragon, 
We cling to ghosts of a changing time
We've fallen for the distractions, and
our pedestal is too high to climb.

Oh brothers, oh sisters, what else can we do?
If you'll look out for me, and I look out for you,
just a ripple in this pool of ****
may clear the waters, just a bit.
But as long as there are white votes
black votes
Latino votes
left votes
right votes
there'll be no vote of confidence 
in the future of these divided states.
We'll rip ourselves apart,
tear out our own heart
waving our flags the whole time
and claiming no blame for the divide.
God Bless America,
and do it quick.
All sides of this society
are dying or sick.

You're never all the way alone,
Someone will always care.
In spite of darkest solitude
A light is always there.
Don't hesitate to reach right out
If you should need a hand,  
And if no-one should catch your fall,
Someone will help you stand.
Life is full of broken hearts
And lonely, pitch black nights
And looking at the gloom they cast
It's hard to see the lights.
But rest assured, when all seems bleak
And life's torments abound
You're never all the way alone
As long as I'm around.

Intoxicated
With one taste
Of your cherry lips
I'm blitzed
Drunk and powerless
to resist
Smashed, trashed
Plastered.
I'm useless,
You've got me hooked
From one sweet kiss.

If I should see the sunset soon
My life drawn to a close
There's little I would fret about
As far as my past goes.
No place or plot unwrought would I
Dare look back on with dread
I'd fill my final thoughts on earth
With your sweet face instead.

No earthly woe or unsung verse
Could burden me on death.
Rather I would speak your name
Even with my last breath
Such ending would befit my life
When my time here is through
No better way to wrap it up
Than rapt in thoughts of you.

"Can you feel it?
Almost close enough to touch.  It's pure potential
And it is only limited by our own crippled souls.
Our willingness to stop advancing.  
Fearing change.
Fearing failing.
But forgetting forfeit is also a loss.  
We pass on our own destinies,
Choosing to live vicariously through nothing-
Because NOTHING excites us.
NOTHING moves us
NOTHING motivates us
And NOTHING is all we take for ourselves.
Nothing is heavy around our ankles, keeping us as it is...
Can you feel it?