You're like that last piece of sugarfree gum
That you keep in your pocket until the wrapper is frayed
Sticking to the inside of the pocket
Ruining a good pair of jeans
Like a spot of bleach on a black tee
No longer good enough for public
Lingering like bad breath after a  meal
I'm ready to be through.

I am an animal caged by ideals of many
Pacing my walled prison
Limited by what Im told is right
Painting on the mask of content
Cracked smile pulled high
Drunk on the opiatic releases given from a job well done
Always on stage this lions mane looks ragged

For animals are meant to be free
To prowl, pounce and dance that primal song
Drumming up the legs
Shaking the elated ryhtmic exhalations of true freedom
That sweet release euphoric on the running beat of blood
Swaying against the limitations of man
The beast longs to be free.

you are as
shallow
as the
shot glass
you fill
time after time

you would think
that all of that
liquid
would contribute
to some
depth

but instead
all youve gained
is a headache
and some words
you shouldnt have
said

Where has that classic romantic gone?
The one that writes lines of poetry on paper, on skin
The soulful sway of the heart, taking out time to separate
Away from the world
Within the world
Like the feel of music under the skin
In the veins warbling its majestic tune against the chilled goose-flesh of feeling
The heart on the sleeve
On the chest
In the mouth.

Gravity its working against me
Taking away my breath
Collapsing my wild heart under the suffocating weight
Of that ragtime dime
That jaunting beat of social feet
Pulling me against the current

To a colder tune
Something somber filled with the lonely blues.

Don't get caught on my edges
Thin and brittle
Sliding in and out of the skin with ease
Bleeding me out
Stitching me back in
Like porcelain cracked inside
Holding under the surface
The lines of despair.

Freedom comes with its own disappointments
Trapped in the truth of exhibition
Drugged on the sublimity of an ideal
Shadowed by the lines of a cage
The bird sings gaily
Intoxicated on the ****** of the self.

It follows close to my mind
Infecting those around me
The faces that grew me in one way or the other
Its metastatic narcolepsy filling the world with silence
Like to many candles in the wind
Blew out the breath's light
Snuffing out the beauty of living
Haunting, lingering in the edges
A hope battle that is over before it began.