Riding on the Metro Bus, I noticed a girl with a tattoo on her temple that says L.A.
why would she want to promote this place?
I'm crying next to a street light and a man...
no not a man....
an animal....
mistakes me for a ******* and offers me 100 dollars for a *******.
Anger and fear have a way of making one run like a cheetah,
I admired my legs, the way they effortlessly glide away from danger and death.
****** hiding in every nook and if you're lucky,
you might run into a needle.
Hot in the day and cold at night just like the people.
But on the upside... Marijuana is legal.
The downside is the degradation of the soul
that is acceptable here because a girl needs to eat
and an animal needs a quick fix.
This one demon said: you're never going to make it.
You're too young and naive and not willing to bleed.
I scratched my leg so hard while he was speaking
that blood starting pouring out of me.
I didn't say ******* because I would never sacrifice my body
to this poor excuse of a human being, even in language.
Instead I slipped out of his house while he was in the bathroom
like a one night stand.
Los Angeles taught me that in this society, I am just a body.

It's four o'clock in the morning and I should be far away from this bed
in the land of dreams where anything can happen

Yet I still lay here, replaying your words in my head over and over again
and memorizing each dreadful sentence you spoke

You are a writer, and I guess that I am too
but my thoughts can't pour down onto paper half as well as yours do

Not only can you write though
heck, you can even talk

I've listened to you speak of your hopes and dreams, your past and sorrows
and to be quite honest, it didn't matter what you spoke of

Because every single word flowed out of your mouth so beautifully that I was mesmerized
even if they were words that I didn't want to hear

I... just don't think we're right for each other at this point in time.
Don't you understand? Don't you feel the same way?

Of course I understand.

I knew all along that I would never be good enough for you
a person of such beauty, such wisdom, such potential

I think you're beautiful and have so much potential for greatness but I don't think you see it.

Beautiful?
I am not beautiful

I am scared
scared of life and everything in it

I am empty
my heart feels as if it has shrunk down to nothing and I'm numb

I am unworthy
there is not another human being on this earth who could ever be satisfied with someone like me

I'm sorry.

Now, with the tears pouring down my face
I realize that I hate myself

I hate myself for never being good enough
or smart enough, or beautiful enough

But most of all
I hate myself for knowing that I deserve this

*Goodbye...

because we fell in love with the law
and fell out of love with ourselves.

because the ***** of great minds
wear pineapple fatigues in their fathers’ *******;

from Judas swallowing 9 bullets
to one day being a kid at heart
a symptom of some abnormality.

Ever get the feeling that you’ll die on a Tuesday?

Or one day wake up on their government bed
Screaming,
“you can blame the French Revolution
On silent reading!”

watching

as three teacups of *** plan war on the asphalt.

As I see you my queen
Each day and yonder
I am soothed, very much graced
At your angelic presence
I see your face
And everything's new again
I am delighted to be..
Upon your golden threshold
Each second I'm away
I am missing you terribly
Your beauty grows daily
Every morning I awake to you
The effect you leave with me
Has me feeling like old times
As though they've never left
The second we fell in love
You stir up feelings I never knew
Just like our first meeting
As we grow in age and love
The feeling of newness
Has undoubtedly never left
I remember as our first kiss
Comforted my eager being.
And each time after that
Feels exactly the same
As the beginning
The first time, everytime.
Every time I hold you
My mind rewinds to that time
That day flashes within my mind
Nothing has changed
When love meets its completion
That resting memory is awakened
Over and over again
Times have become older
But still seems younger
Each time we're together
It gets better and better
Like a bed made of tulip petals
Your love is tender and smooth
Our years will someday catch us
But even when that day cometh,
It will always be, like the first time..

©Michael P. Smith

pull yourself up
by your shoestrings
lace them
tightly
we're going out
we're going to stomp
on this town
like godzilla
shawty is
a killer
i don't need a gun
to pump you full of lead
you were already dead
before you hit the ground
the sound
of the door
clicking shut
was enough

With age comes wisdom,
      Yet so many die,
         Before their time,
            By their hand,
A society that measures them
     By the quantity of their success
          Not the quality of their being
We notice decay and adore youth
      Clothes are skin thick and needle deep
            Human life is cheap
               To be used
                  Discarded
Like so many cans of soda
      Drained to the last drop
          Whatever remains
             Dries out in the summer
                     Freezes over in the winter
And they wonder why we are cold
        Why we are heartless
               Why we use
                                                       You taught us this.
The young
   The beautiful
        Whoever said we have it easy
               Should have been hung by his toes
         And left for the crows
     Maybe if they took his eyes
He would know a fraction of our pain