There's a void for the intellectual when poor
Awareness only makes it worse

Knowing the socio-political mechanism
Controlling us and keeping our physical bodies bound
Only begs our mind to give up its emancipationist stronghold

The Spirit is only torn between
A socio-politically created reality
And the dis-associated self-edification of blind opportunity and hope

Becoming politically and sociologically aware
Of our "selves" within the context
Of our society is dangerous
Crippling, knowing the power behind the scenes

Submission corners an individual into indoctrination
Amorality seems to be the make-up of the seemingly strong
When every fiber of morality is subtly stolen
To assimilate into or right the wrong
Of the ******* up socio-political mechanism of our world
Either way, there's no way out
You're always tainted with the plague of amorality

The spirit is bought and sold
For the commercialization of it is dehumanizing to all

Any which way it can be analyzed
The rationality of the mind
Is dismantled piece by piece
Until it is absent from coherent thought

Knowledge is a weapon dangerous to the enemy
As well as the self
For truth is a burden deadly to the bound
By Disenfranchisement

When we think about the choices in our lives
When we fight and we bicker and become bitter
When we think there is only power or powerlessness

If we can realize that there is power and powerlessness
Then haven't we began to acquire consciousness
In that instance haven't we began the process of choice

That there is those who have not have given birth to this consciousness
To those who have only lived powerlessness
And know nothing else
Haven't you owed them part of your consciousness
That you have ceased to be one of them
Or your mere power has denied one of them

That there is no choice for them
Because they haven't birthed that consciousness
And if you choose power they'll remain powerless
Because within you there is no loyalty, right?
It is a choice predicated by an erroneous concept of self-preservation

It is a treacherous dichotomy; doesn't make sense
This is not an indictment of your desire not to suffer
Because surely to hold power would cease your suffering
But it is this type of power that thrives on the proliferation of powerlessness
This conceptual understanding of what it means to have power
That is not what we've come learn, but readily ascribe to

That a mind and body can cultivate power
That can be harvested, shared, communal
For the sole purpose of the survival of the other, not the self

That that can survive in this world is impossible
Its antithetical to the modes of production
In which our societies operate and thrive

How can workers begin to derive power from their collective efforts
How can workers' purchasing power equal the power of the production of their labor

How can any community in any corner of the world escape
The misanthropic missions of first world free trade capitalism

When will we reclaim our escaping humanity
When will we cease to keep feeding the system with our minds, our bodies, our labor

How much longer can we become fodder, scraps, waste feeding the machine
And don't think that you are safe when you have made it
When you have entered the circle of dominance
Because it is then when you will loose your humanity or die

It is at that apex of power that your presence becomes
Just as dispensable as that of the powerless
Because to maintain that circle of dominance
Requires a total conversion to misanthropy

The rigor with which your power will be required
To keep proliferating powerlessness will give no break
And when you become useless, it will replace you

So that we must realize that the modes of production
That we allow to exploit us
In powerlessness, or the semblance of power
Can never safeguard our humanity

How much further will we allow power to be concentrated
So that soon we ourselves, or our children won't have a choice
Won't have the consciousness of power just powerlessness

Trouble through calmness
Fancy of simplicity
Smiling through sadness

Just a little antithetical
Mere dislocation and unison
Sewing our lives apart

Burning because we are in love
Thirsting for no more feeling
We're disgusted at being so fed up

Prying from the freedom
Running and crying from trying and safety
We're alone while we're together

Noise against the silence
Kisses and shots from a gun
the time is going on pause

Just a little antithetical
Mere dislocation and unison
Sewing our lives apart

Morning sunset
It's the beginning of life
But the end is dawning

Quickness not too far behind
The end makes us scramble
For some semblance of stability

Looking for what is not lost
We await for the night's sunrise

My sky's only bright when you shine
Your smile is my vitamin
When you're happy, I'm fine

Today, thought about you again
Spent whole day alone
You were all I could ascertain

Die before causing you pain
My life depends on you
Your peace of mind, I wanna gain

Ain't no trophy, career, or transformation
If it doesn't involve you by my side
Ain't no way else, only you're my revolution

I've got our contract on my heart
Promising you forever and ever
Waiting for you to own this work of art

Let it fill you up, every part
From your head to your toes
Pumping from your heart
Through to the tiniest flows

Breathe in, close your eyes
Hush don't say a word
Feel my love give you butterflies

Every time you tie me down
Every time you hold me up
Every time you breathe warmth down my spine
Every time you sound so kind

Not a single time
You hold back
All the bravery in your heart
You pour over mine

Once you rise
Once you wake
Once you've let your thoughts fly
Once your heart's filled

Not a single time
You quiet down
All the words in your heart
With them, you inspire me

When you dream at night
When you daydream in the afternoon
When you ponder about life
When you inhale, exhale, breathe

Not a single time
You get sad
All the happiness in your heart
You transfer in smiles and laughter to me

All you have may be nothing
All the world can go crazy
All we can hold on to, may be we
All we can do, is be free

But never will you be afraid
To give me
All the love in your heart
Knowing you belong to me

I’ve reflected a lot about desperation.
We as undocumented students
who have such high expectations of ourselves have this desperate
desire that quite frankly strips our ambitions of malice and of hidden
agendas.
We will be lucky if we are able to take the next step in our
precarious/ uncertain paths.

Therefore, our intentions have to remain
as genuine (and thus more pure; more powerful) since we are at the
mercy of those who help us continue to crawl along to our dreams.

That
hunger, that desperation, that desire and how it has pushed us, has
propelled us to the point where we have shed tears, and perhaps blood;
and as a result we have showcased a sincere and humble brilliance and
authority in our ability to thrive and succeed where it is virtually
impossible.

I love the color of your skin
the only color that my heart can see
Is the one that we both share

No matter if you're purple and I'm green
No matter how much it seems that we differ
We are both one color

It's the color of love
It's the color of love
Which makes us all the same

It's who we are
Not what we are
that draws the line of definition

It's the color of our character
It's the color of our character
Which tells us who is different
And who is the same

It's the way that we decide to live side by side
and show a gesture of love to our brethren
or get away and annihilate the other side with signs of hatred
Which confuses us about our true colors
the ones we show when we radiate with love and kindness

It's the color of smiles
It's the color of smiles
that makes us forget differences and complexities
and brings us together just to have a good time

It's the color of peace
that we should try to portray
because in the real world
there is no black or white
there is only true colors, the ones we show
the one we share

Peace will reign
Peace will reign
Peace will reign

When clouds cover the sun
And cold is what you feel
Inside and out
Rays of light
Will sweep in
And make you warm

When hatred seems to be all around
And hearts deteriorate with pain
love will come restore them all

Peace will reign
Peace will reign
Peace will reign

When ignoring the signs
And he calls your name
You will find Him
In your own life, all along

When selfish beings
Leading short sad lives
will realize that living
for everyone but themselves
Will fill that void
And elongate their days

Peace will reign
Peace will reign
Peace will reign

What is it about this chase that eludes me
That runs away from me
That seeks to experience and then flee me
Until I get hijacked by another
Consenting to my own free fall into ignorance and bliss

Conditioning myself to transmit
Abundance without reservation
Until shot at the knee
But dragged along for a while longer
By the chains I so genuinely let bind me

And even before the wounds have healed
I don't stop running, I won't stop running
Resolute in a chase that targets me
I do so unconditionally

But you can't hijack my senses
I am not an experience or experiment worth having
I am not a temporary treat to be improperly digested and defecated
I am not an amber that ignites upon initial contact
To then be mediated or extinguished if the temperate is not right
I am not the holy water that you colonize
And shower with to cleanse you
To then invalidate that sanctity
When it falls down the drain
I am not a barometer that reliefs the labor
Needed to challenge the aberrations
Of your colonized and colonizing tendencies

I exist
Physically insignificant
As the earth that birthed me and will bury me
But eternal in essence
I am a permanent presence
I am an unforgettable imprint
I am your equal, no less, no more

The moment that we mutually acknowledge
Each other's existence
I have bound myself to you
From that moment...loved you unconditionally and eternally
And expect no lesser commitment
From you to me, or any other person you meet

And even after the wounds have healed
I don't stop running, I won't stop running
Resolute in a chase that targets us
We must unleash our abundance unconditionally

And when we leave
We will have given
Absolutely everything
That we had to give
During that time of our existence

We're social bandits because we will not be bought and sold
We might be tortured and we might die
But our ideas, our actions, our movement will not cease

We're growing restless, oppression pushing us to the edge
How much pain will we bare?
Will you sale out the masses to save your own soul?

Too afraid, so you obey your masters, till you're on the chopping block
Thinking you could become one of them
And you could become one of them...but not everyone

Revolution is knocking, blood-stained power structures are cracking
It's okay if I'm not individually happy, because we're not all free
We the revolutionaries, we're peacefully building the army

We'll sleep, at night, easily knowing we're challenging the powers that be

Once I lost you
Once I tossed you
You never said a word
I never could have heard

Miracle you bore
A refugee in the wreckage
Sharpening your wings
Withstanding dangerous oppression

Young being, incomplete being
Trying not to succumb
To your own capitalist appropriation
Eminent commodification
Implicating your body and mind

Who remained unscathed?
Who wreaked the havoc?
Just...so many wings could gain wind
In this cage, lacking space

System simply cannot withstand
Cost of everyone's liberation
Convenient systematic predilection
Where some are never meant to fly

Miracle you bore
A refugee in the wreckage
Sharpening your wings
Withstanding dangerous oppression

How can any wings soar
When the trail of their shadows
Hide systematic traps for our failure
To ensure only a few course the skies

Liberation is not meant to be
Just yours or mine
No commodity for private consumption

Its usage, embrace, and appropriation
Has universal implications
A radical transformation that seeks to complete a human being
Emblematic of an ideological reconceptualization
A revolutionary new understanding of being human

A re-authentication of our own liberation
Purely predicated on that of others

I am red clay
I am not lost
Because everywhere, I am
Stretching out to you
To keep me grounded
So I myself won't be eroded
By whitewashing

I sit in the future
Looking back at the past
Reminiscing about what is now
Tomorrow will be no longer

I'm nostalgic about
What has not yet ended
Because who knows
How good tomorrow will be

I try to rejoice in the moment
But I can't help realize
Time is flying by fast

I want to forever live
In this joy and this laughter
But what will happen tomorrow
When it all changes

I sit in the future
Looking back at the past
Reminiscing about what is now
Tomorrow will be no longer

I'm nostalgic about
The friendships and loves that I had
Because who knows
Where tomorrow they'll be

I try to rejoice in their presence
But I can't help realize
That soon we'll all be going separate ways

Now, I sit in the present
Frustrated about a future
A future which I don't know
Where it will lead

Teasing the beast
Looking for a feast

Hounds barking at our ears
Vultures flying up ahead
Circling a bald eagle's fresh corpse

Compartmentalizing symptom after symptom
To hide the great systematic sickness
Labeling the suffering, outcome from desire

We, wholeheartedly accepting being
Appropriated, labeled, discarded
As construing our own oppression and sadness

Enduring the **** of our minds
Being castrated of our consciousness
Before we reap the products
Of its bold liberation and grandness

Its the belly of the beast
And its hungry
Insatiable, amoral entrails
Hoping to salvage a feast
From the casualties of d(e)moc(ratic) wars

Hoping we feed our monstrous fear
Thirsting for the greed
Dripping off of accumulating wealths
Impatiently waiting, we keep parceling out grudges

Disfiguring our minds, our souls, and our bodies
Its misanthropic nature lashes out without conscience
Knowing we'll never realize we are masses

Disappearing the individuals who realize their suffering
Ensuring there's no collective opposition or action
Trying to reassure we are weak

Knowing at some point or another
We all act mute, deaf, and blind when anyone experiences:
Oppression
Pain
Silencing
****
Hunger
Fear
Violence
­Repression
Retaliation
Discrimination
Torture
Negation
Alienation­
All forms of mental, psychological, physical, and spiritual mutilation
Fearing death more than fighting for necessary abolishment
Preferring to live out our veiled miseries
Endorsing their continuance
Instead of risking our lives for everyone's liberation
Always ensuring the feast of the beast

By its very efforts trying to decree our very human nature
Ingraining greed, fear, animosity, and weakness as if inherent of us
All parts of its most damaging weapon:  the seed of discord
Its implantation, a socialized deep desire for self-preservation

Sheep bleating painfully toward our ears
Vultures flying up ahead
Circling a bald eagle's fresh corpse
Signifying the impending recapturing
Of our true transformative desires

By the time we die
You're gonna be tired,  asleep, and satisfied
My love will have made you sick
Because it was too intense

No stratosphere will keep us safe
I will become insane
As my feelings spiral out of control

You will have no option my dear
But to maintain an everlasting fever
Because my love,
Will warm you like the hottest arab sun

And every mistake I've scarred your heart with
My eternal dedication will erase
Every day of my life as I pronounce your perfection
This perception  will never change

Like a controversial revolutionary anthem,
The beat of my heart will pledge allegiance to you

And you'll have no where to escape
As the loud boom of my love drowns out our past
You will have no choice but to die with this love

You're gonna be tired,  asleep, and satisfied
Because my love will have made you sick
As it becomes volatile and intense

If (WO)men are the ones that suffer an exacerbated amount
Of the violence, the ****, the abuse, and everything that comes
with and from struggle and alienation;
it is because of their femininity that men at times
have come to believe that their contributions soften institutions.
That at times throughout history neither capitalism, neoliberalism nor revolutionary experiments like that of Cuba have placed femininity as compatible
with progress or resolution.
In which case femininity must be hidden, silenced, or displaced with no purpose or place to belong.

Thus everyone closely associated with this femininity such as homosexuals, transgendered (WO)men, and "effeminate" males, (ignoring, subverting and negating the lesbian identity because of their gender) have come to be marginalized by a structural system of exclusion.

(WO)men carrying the highest burden for originating the associative distinction

Homosexuals battling to find love by constantly having to assert their masculinity

Transgendered (Wo)men afraid of expressing their through identity.

Lesbians fighting to legitimize their own identity separate from the directives ascribed onto them by virtue of being born women.

Males who are labeled effeminate because of their sympathy toward those who struggle and are alienated.

And every other individual who refuses to deliver to give a marker to their identity and a degree to their femininity.

Hold fast in your femininity and embrace the rancor that society grants you
As a homosexual I speak with you brother and sister, not for you

Realize that our self-ascribed degrees of femininity and identity are as revolutionary and transformative, and thus necessary, as those of Che Guevara, Mohammed Ali, Harriet Tubman, or the Dali Lama.

That because we have decided to embrace our degrees of femininity, problematic to any movement, at one point or another, we have inadvertently decided to align our selves with those who are alienated the most by the systems in which they live.

So that in this way we must make our struggles deliberate and political. Let our degrees of femininity become legitimizing banners of solidarity for anyone who suffers in any corner of the world.

It's the story of us
Shooting stars
Coming in and out

We fight, we yell
We laugh, we tell
Each other, our wonders or miseries

Standing still, time to ****
Deal with what we will
The pain and love that's very real

Time pushing us over the hill
Tik tik tik tok running out
There's no medication, no pill

Better get ready to feel
In harmony or war
Our hearts need a meal

We fight, we yell
We laugh, we tell
Each other, our wonders or miseries

There’s a way, there’s a way

It’s a cable bridge, brittle and diminishing

Still people keep crossing on
'Till those cables may finally brake


Some lose their lives, while others scared, head back
And just a few make it to
The land of freedom

It is beautiful, it’s enticing
Won’t you come risk your life for a dream?
Just keep on crossing, no matter if you lose your step

Keep on moving
Until those doors no longer show a crack

For those inside, those that live
With uncertainty

They will come to see
A change, a shift in fortunes

When judgments made, decision taken
Will determine how dreams unfold

We will see, we will see
If the blood, sweat, and tears
Running down our cheeks
Will endure the infinite fight

Its the end of the road.
We built bridges in our minds.
Conspiring aspirations like foundations.
Smashing walls, wallowing dreams down.
Be not afraid of the future.
Its no promenade walking down the beautiful lane.

Trying to claim aim to pain.
Not aloud but in silence.
We're not insane trying to fain happiness and fear.
Confusing misery with living we lose the beautiful lane.

Not dying, crying, just trying lying.
Until we truly feel like laying praying for peace.
Tears, the fears of years, conceal these eyes.
Imagination creation in hibernation.
Our thoughts are starting to wonder how to spiral.
Faded, jaded, weathered and tired we traded
Our solid ground for the soundness of the beautiful lane.

You are all alone
No one to return to

There's an endless hole
And you just dug your own place

There's no way to trace
True pride and joy from anyone for you

Mistakes like permanent ink
No lifetime can truly rid their stain

Genuine caress is hard to find
For the one you had propriety over
You ran away from and gave up for free

Now, the only rock you cling to
Seems to be in faulty ground

At times streams of tears rushing through
Seem to threaten the holding on

Trying to be careful not to fall
You become numb, afraid of change
Yet falling seems like the only comfort
for landing is always assured

If the echoes in my head subside

When the train finally halts
And I look all around
Wonder if you will be there
Will my heart still yearn for you

My mind flying high in your sky
Will it ever stop
When it finally descends
Moving forward, but moving on?

Can we derail, decelerate the pace of a loving heart
Some weaker, semblance of fuel, my engine's funneling
Will I ever fly the same without your gravitational pull

When the train finally halts
And I look all around
Wonder if you will be there
Will my heart sill call your name

Dirt and debris hitting the surface
You were the cleanse keeping **** out
Will anyone else give me your wonderful phrases

Keeping me lighter like I would amount
Healing my wings, always keeping them fearless
I never knew I needed you to fly
Now I wonder if my heart can start
When your no longer there

Keeping my engine safe and strong for war
The new ware of my flight
Will it ever resemble the speed or freedom your sky gave
When I'm no longer holstered up by the tracks of your love
Will your traces really fade away

When the train finally halts
And I look all around
Wonder if you will be there
Will my hearts still holler your name

Will it hold on in vain
Even if I'm in my grave
Will it move on, see you, and manage
Knowing our love could be gone

Smiles and eyes, and hi’s
You take them so lightly
But they’re not really there
Though you perceive their presence

Amicable eyes,
Positive semblance of a frame
You take it a smile to the self
But that’s just part of a
Structure twisting and falling apart

But if it suits you
Fall in the false appearance
For that’s not what's being transmitted

Only a distorted face trying
To dislocate phrases and thoughts

Just call me whatever
But more importantly
Can I call you
Sweetheart, lover, the one

Can I look into those eyes
call them beautiful
Stare at them with warmth

Can I put my arms around you
Hold you and embrace you
Till again I am fully recharged

Can I stand next to you
Admire you because I look up to you
and just smile when our eyes meet

Just call me whatever
But more importantly
Can I call you
Sweetheart, lover, the one

Can I tell you a silly joke
So we can share a smile
crack up with tears of joy

Can I ask you a question
So I can hear your beautiful voice
And learn something too

Can I pretend to be in trouble
So you can come to my rescue

Just call me whatever
But more importantly
Can I call you
Sweet heart, lover, the one

My heart painless
My soul boundless

Life no longer waiting on me
Ready to run
Ready to fall in love endlessly

Joy awaits at every corner
And I am ready to find it

Laughter's tune in my mind
A perfect melody
Soothing sound to the soul
No other sound brings more joy

Peace crawls in around me
Wild vine it surrounds me

Fragrance of happiness
Its trace confines me

Soul begs to be released

Life is a passage full of thirst
and soul refuses to be an empty basin

Give it love, give it hope, give it life
And it will sore

My love is the stone
And your heart is the target

I aim at it fast
But you dodge it

I throw, I throw and I miss
You giggle, you laugh and you tease

The stone keeps hitting the ground
It keeps falling before you all around
Brazen arrow keeps shooting
I stop and my heart is oozing

One midnight up
The man to be, the troubled boy
woke up feeling sully, undignified

Vexed by an unwavering
Storm in his mind,
Torn, tired and tearful at last
About the facade he portrays

Good actions, he wants shown
But are being overtaken, over-showed
By chagrin from wanton tendencies

Hope he is not giving up
Maybe he'll let go of it all
Take over his life and forget it all
Become an honest man and move on

The troubled boy wants help
Distraught of mind, peace has dwindled from within him

Pulsating reminders of who he wants to be
Try to revert the lost boy back to the right path

But a transition is taking root
Forcing a recognition of accepting to
Live a life only one way, disclosed

Must facades come tumbling down
And hiding faces shown light
Or
Must hiding faces be buried up
And facades become true sights

The troubled boy will decide

Thunder birds
Feathers made of light
No crashing in the night

Heedless heals shatter the ground
Muskets silencing every warning

Thunder birds
Voices carry out songs
No silence in the oblivion

Hollowed breathing gasping oxygen
Bullets' sonic reverberations
Overpowering every whimpering

Thunder Birds
Witnessing every crime
No veils cloud the terror

Burning images through tears
Weapons of desolation spark
Smoke and fire to blind just eyes

With every burning desire
We were meant to love
But instead fell low

Construing our delirium
As if by predestined design
Without faulting the system
Facilitating issuance of our sickness

Restless voices trivialized
To demobilize their power
Appropriating oppression as ours

Blood in the thoughts
Destruction and abyss
Antithetical to nurture and growth
The bleakness has become real
There’s no excuse,
Muse, but still you will loose

There’s no one to blame this time
Take it how you will but it’s not the world
Its just you

You broke the world and you didn’t even know
Trust and worthiness was left wrapped in your arms
But you rapped them both without a doubt
Now you realized what you did and it’s too far-gone

The only dove in the world was entrusted in your arms
And you shot it because your veins were raging with blood
So you lost your judgment and your sight
Don’t blame the sky for being too blue
At the moment you knew what you were shooting
And you took your aim

Now the peace has been shattered down to the ground
Even if you repair the wound there will always be a scar
And you have just tainted peace a little bit more
Instead of protecting it from the same danger
Like you promised all along

A pact between ocean and the stone that fell
Just remembrance, for the pain and joy was being dragged
To the depths of the dark hidden ocean floor
But it could not stay down forever as it washed ashore
Before it disappeared again into volumes of blue

But the moon is not forgiving for it pinches the ocean
And the stone gets spat out for the pain to be seen on the beach
How can it be destroyed before more damage is reached

Even the tides of time are having a difficult obstruction
In the dissolution of the stone for it keeps building form
Every time it comes back to the surface
Meanwhile the ocean is fighting to suppress it
Make it disappear with only but a trace

And the mess you made
Better do something with it before its too late
Don’t let it drag you away
Before you lose the way you’ve made

Oceans disturbed, doves broken, and entrustments ruptured
There’s no turning back but only looking forward
To salvaging what has been kept you moving along
If only a treasure you cared not to care
So you damaged it deliberately because you were desperate with desire

Now take what you will and detach the stone from your ocean
Save the dove for the voyage but don’t take from it what is not yours
And rescue the entrustments for it will carry you both

Gasping for missing air.
Trailing a tittering dream.
Reality of independence shattering.

No longer on my own.
Loneliness is settling down.
We're moving on.
But I never learned how to survive on my own.

Rose buds refusing to bloom without a sliver of blood.
Shaping diamonds like land mines dangerous to forge.
The true wealth of our friendship is fine and fair.
Just got to thread it without breaking the silk.

Towers, flowers, showers.
Make me, take me, create me.
Don't drop me, crop me, don't stop me.
Sense me, chase me, trace me.
With your eyes, hold me, never let me go.

Towers, flowers, showers.
Sure you, lure me, cure me.
Grip me, don't trip me, drip in me.
The fragrance of dew crawling up the walls.

Towers, flowers, showers.
Fill me, will me, don't shrill me.
To view the beauty of the world.

Don't have own voice
Its much too small
But wants to shout

Skies are filled with blue
But don't really see it
Cause sight is blind to light

Emotions almost burst out
But fears keep them trapped
so their bottled up inside

Music fills the atmosphere
But don't really hear it
Cause beautiful sounds are tuned out

Love wants to shine
Though it wont be let out
Cause mind demands control

Its a jar of jumbled up treasures
All beautiful but trapped within