Vivid visions of the past lurk me,
I’m walking on the avenues of once a quick man’s vision,
driving in car models a dead man thought
and voting with rights dead men and women fought—
for, we’re all living life through dead men’s visions—
books of laws and morals woven by dead men’s *****—
subconscious slaves to dead ways.
So ask me about “life” and I’ll reply,
*I’m still waiting to live like my master
for everyone that lives dies
but everyone that dies lives.

Before guns wore make-up,
We used to put pennies in our socks
So we’d always walk on the root of all evil.

Now Wall Street angels frolic through satellite clouds borrowed
from youths educated by universities of smoke and plastic bags.
                  
(The tears of a child are homage to the waning gods)
For in a day not far away,
Over the painted moon of the Morning Son,
The sun will rise wearing the finest war scars money can buy.

And the screams of humanity will be heard from Venus,
Forgetting that the reciprocal of   L-I-V-E   itself  is     E-V-I-L
And perhaps death is the life meant to be lived.

There have been tears.
There have been faded memories.
There have been lost causes and broken hearts.
We have felt that falling in our stomachs
that comes before the pit.
We have bitten back words
that should have been set free.
We have needed closed arms that should
have been opened.
We have found ourselves in
unfriendly territory and
stayed.


We have been lost.


But we have found light.
We have felt joy.
We have laughed with meaning.
We have cried with happiness.
And we,
through the closing of coffins and building
of cradles,
the lifting sensation when a child giggles
and the wrenching sound of a breaking heart,
and these other many
and great things that are
life,
we have danced.

graveyard boy, you are all skin and bones
i cut myself on your cheeks until i am red and raw
and your heart bursts out of your chest by the marble stones

bones boy, the night seeps from inside you as the sun goes down
i count your ribs up one by one and stretch myself over your skin
cover me from this haunting that rises from your gray eyes

blood boy, you are red and screaming under flesh
i can see your spidery veins inside of your wrists
warm and speeding when your hands touch my throat

ghost boy, tie me up with ropes and lower me to the ground
let me be hollow with you and fill the spaces with silence
the moon will be gone once we have made it far enough

The answer sits awkward in my mouth
Like an Egyptian vowel
Some language I have yet to learn

And I stand like a third world country that there are no commercials for
There are no heartstrings to tug
No Sarah Mclachlan songs
No one sees the hunger
Building in the bellies of my motherless country

But if there must be indifference in this love
I want to love you more than you love me

White collars meet soil
Holy hangings, righteous men shake their heads
Throw your glory before the swine
And hold still your parasols, ladies
Hold high your chins

Keep bound any doubt in the depths of your dejection
Lest ye be like Adam
Y bounden
Betraying
That which is written most outright is the stone
That only the condemnèd break

Change is a sin
So take your pills and see to your woman, son
And silence that serpent that seeks
That seeks to remove the crown you wear
That seeks to find peace in those arms

The warm and thick arms of the ******
Collars of white
Books of blue
Robes of red
Two thousand years of turmoil and discipline
Brought you this?

By the power of my hand--in pain you’ll repent
By the power of their cloaks and their words
My boy

Love is patient; love is kind
So do not insist in your own way

To blacken your robe with pagan ways
Is a disrespect to the starry crown
Gather your pearls
For myrrh is no longer abundant
Turn to the sun, bow, and
Tighten their chains

Give them their aid with the strength
Papa taught you
Slack is cowardice, doubt
Rows chained up behind
On my knees I pray for their salvation ?*

I will pray salvation, truly
From hypocrites
From legislature
From the smoke and the mirrors and the smiting
“Justice”

In the arms of your forbidden
Light your candles and share your vows
I’ll pretend while I can
But don’t you keep your hearts
To yourselves