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Ezra Dec 2014
Peace is not just the absence of any war;
But the defense of our hard-earned freedoms.
Today, we do not live, or rest, in peace.
There may be no turbulence on our soil,
No chaotic bloodshed scorching our earth,
But that doesn't mean the ship is steady.

Our nation might be at what they call "Peace",
But as long as justice is not upheld,
As long as our freedoms are trampled on,
As long as our courts stay in lawlessness,
We are so, so very far from that Peace.

To reach that Arcadia, that Promised Land,
Our laws must change; our officers must change,
Our people must change; our mindsets must change,
We must change. Change has to sweep up our hearts.
Now.
More than anything, Ferguson and Garner must tell us to change. Neither extreme is right; neither looting and rioting nor blatant injustice. We must find some compromise, some middle ground--if not for us, but for the restless souls of our dead brothers.
Ezra Dec 2014
I'm supposed to nod my head, agree, and laugh
But not today
Not under these lights
Not under these glares
Not under this sky
Not under these clouds,

I'm never nodding to you again
I'm going' to lift my chin high,
Pick my shoulders up,
Clench my teeth
And stare back at you-

You never judged me for who I was
Jamais looked at me for what I did
Always glanced at me for what I couldn't control
For how blue the sky was today
For how bad your rhymes were yesterday

Well there,
I spat in your face,
Where's that machismo now, eh?
Ezra Nov 2014
When I lost my marbles,
My dad would always say:
"Don't worry, you'll find them
When you just stop searching."

And it sounded stupid,
But every time I stopped,
Yeah, I found my marbles.

I grew up; my dad died,
Seasons changed, so did I,
But the rule stayed as true.

One day, I'd given up
On that romantic stuff,
And,
Resigned to die alone,
I walked into a big
Ol' Shakespeare conference,
To watch Othello die.

Well there, they were taking
"Volunteers" for Juliet,
"Lucky men" Romeos,
And I was one of them.
Ezra Nov 2014
We were born too late to explore the earth,
Yet too early to explore the stars;
So all I have to search for
Are your eyes.
They're brighter than all those glimmering dots--
11-27-14
still searching
Ezra Nov 2014
Joe's father died one day,
Like most, he left loose ends untied,
So, like some, Joe went to see a fortune-teller.

She said, go to the graveyard,

Knock some ashes off the mausoleum.

So Joe went and made cinders fly,
He looked in the distance, out-of-focus,
All he could see was his father,

Then the wind blew back,
And the embers swooped in his eyes,
Joe was blind.

*Was Joe happy, or was he sad?
Ezra Nov 2014
"Veuve Clicquot" is French for
"The Widow Clicquot".*

They say that Madame Clicquot would dance in the vineyard,
They say she would run and jump and crush grapes
Under her pale, white, aristocratic feet,
Then one day she came back home,
Pale feet stained red,
Ivory robe stained red
And she saw her husband,
Red face drained white.

They say Monsieur Clicquot became an alcoholic,
And she came back and saw him hanging from a vine.
He let it grow in the farmhouse for two years,
It climbed, it climbed,
He climbed at tied a noose,
Made a sickly green, thorny loop.

The Veuve Clicquot gave up red wine,
Moved South,
Remarried,
Started growing champagne--
You can't tie a noose with champagne vines.
11-26-14
Ezra Nov 2014
One morning I woke up,
Just like usual, except,
The most beautiful music was ringing from all around me,

So I took off my headphones,
It was still booming,
Electrifying,

So I took off the earbuds
(From under my headphones)
It was still thundering,
Echoing,

So I thought,
Must be the radio,
And I shut it down--
Still there,
Still singing.

Must be those
*******' neighbors
So I went and
Kicked down the door,

Nope, they're all
Cold and blue.

Must be those
*******' kids
Across Amsterdam Avenue,

Nope, they're all cold
And blue.

Then I looked up,
From the middle of
Amsterdam Avenue,
"Maybe it's God,"
I thought,

So I looked past the clouds and into the heavens,

Nope.
God was dead and
Blue.

I walk home confused and I open the door and stare at the mirror and
The voice, the music, the
Harmony,
It was all me.

For a second there I forgot
What the human voice has wrought.
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