If you were to discover
That your dearest lover
Was nothing more than a robotic cover
Would you be horrified that you were so keen
In adoration for a machine?
Perhaps you would feel a little cheated.
But I think you are being slightly conceited
You never noticed they were an imitation,
Why then, do think of them as some kind of violation?
Obviously you find yourself to be superior.
Is it because they are just nuts and bolts past their exterior?
Think a little deeper,
Is material really what makes them cheaper?
I have a pretty strong notion
That your problem lies with the fact they possess “artificial” emotion.
Oh, do explain!
What is it that gives you the impression a brain,
A collection of chemical and vein,
Is not giving you a fabricated sensation,
Much like the one experienced by the imitation.
Now do you see how absurd it is to decide that what we “feel”
Is somehow much more “real”?

Some will then tell,
  still others describe

Those feelings of bliss,
  those hearts that decry

Each new phrase bringing life,
  to words once alone

With a meaning immortal,
—now heavens to own

(Villanova Pennsylvania: December, 2016)

The crumpled memories lay
in the fractures of time
The smoke stayed inside him
His body just begging it to be kind.

Another drag and I'll be the king
The lies he told himself were true
Smirking, he downed another drink
Reality faded while his dreams grew

Waking up with an ache in his heart
He thought what he lacked was love
Filling it with something he once knew
Stooping to a level he was above

Misery had left his mind undone
He had broken free of the cycle of life
Time flew and he stood by watching
With his own reality, there was a constant strife

Burdened by the norms he knew
He formed his opinions against them
Tired from the things he had seen
He had retreated to his own den

Peeking outside from time to time
He changed his face with every moment
Trying to fit into what he despised
Never forgetting that he was broken

Knowing full well,  the ecstasy in agony
He plunged back into the pool of plight
Wearing a mask to hide the dark truth
For him, even the sun had relinquished light.

How do we know
The reasons for coming here?
What if we feel too little,
About things much bigger than us?
And maybe I led you here,
Where you don’t want to be.
Maybe there is a hole
So dark inside of me.
What if you see, what if you see….

But there are a thousand beats
Out there in the city’s heart,
Out there in the oceans crash,
In the silence of your eyes.
In the sound of this dark.

So maybe we’ll just be here,
In the darkness that we share,
Safe from the light
That can expose the feelings,
Smaller than us, but bigger than this.
The things of indifference,
That we wrap into our embrace,
As we undress the souls within,
Because something is better than nothing.

And what if you see,
What if you come to know me,
And in that you learn,
Of all the things that make me burn.
Or what if you don’t see,
What if you can’t find me in me…

And if I am wrong,
If I have brought you here
Into the space laden with grit,
Then we can have tonight,
Before we kiss beneath the sunlight,
One last touch as we separate.