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Graff1980 Jul 2015
Spring, summer, and fall
Have fallen so fast
Now the sickle is sharpened
The scythe is ready
The harvest is bountiful
The wine is heady
The winter is here
So let’s be clear
You froze to death
Before you disappeared
Graff1980 Aug 2015
If I disappeared
The universe
Would not mourn me
The loss would be
Fractionally
Unfathomable
I only matter in
This small circle
Of human influence
Graff1980 Jan 2017
There is juice
bleeding from
The flesh of the apple
As my predator eyes
Lick the drops
That drip
And slip down
The light green side

I am hungry
so I bite deep and fiercely
letting the sweet pleasure
envelope me.

In my frenzy
I bite to deeply,
spit seeds
on the ground before me;
Hoping a tree
sprouts
so I can be
like Johnny Appleseed,
the progenitor of a new
delicious American dream.
Graff1980 Sep 2019
I am as fit as a fractured fiddle,
with my wooden cords galore
that don’t make a sound anymore,
and a neck like wet cardboard
that is ready to fold and fall
on the bathroom floor.
Graff1980 Jun 2016
Stand silent stand still
Don’t think and don’t feel
Don’t fidget at all
And you will get paid
Security shift ****
At this bank
Graff1980 Mar 2021
I'd like to tell the police
to stop helping these
people into an early grave,
considering they were the ones
cops are supposedly paid to save.
Graff1980 Mar 2021
I’m not a prodigal prodigy,
just a product of
the poetry I read
and love.
Graff1980 Mar 2021
The devil revels
in his wicked rebels,
those bouncing beats
and hyper treble,
blasting bass sounds
and destructive percussion.
Graff1980 Apr 2016
I'm not scared of strangers. I'm afraid of forgetting how to be kind.
Graff1980 Aug 2021
I’m a sneaky little devil,
a daring dancer who dwells
just this side of the soil
and Dante’s hell.
Graff1980 Nov 2017
It is a curse of negative spaces.
Strange featureless faces
speak in discordant tones
repeating bland talking points.

So, I escape into the worlds I make,
sing in swift but slurred words
making my own rhythms and lyrics
as I stumble in a manic state,
pulled down by the heaviness
of my creative plates,
those several pieces of porcelain
spinning on thinning sticks.
Till, I fall, crack, and break.
Then in my broken state
cut all those around me.
Graff1980 Jun 2018
Cut her open
and you will find
immeasurable potential
hiding behind
skin and muscle.

Not a casual canal
but a tunnel to life,
brewing ingredients
deep inside;

The chance to grow
a being who will
develop unforeseen
ideas for humanity,

the chance to harbor
a hopeful artist,
soft hearted songwriter,
social worker,
teacher, scientist,
painter, activist.

A man does not wield
that level of power,
that wild wonder
of a body working
to put a new lifeform
together in a womb.

A woman’s body
is a gateway
to all worlds beyond,
it is the center
that pushes our species on.
Graff1980 Jun 2017
There was rowdiness.
There was disobedience,
non-compliance,
but not any directly
dispositional disorders
of defiance.
There was violence
but not his doing.
There was a troubled child
bright, buoyant, but wild
There was me growing.
In my personal experience,
it felt as if they would rather medicate
and make their life easier
then deal with a complicated situation.
Graff1980 Jun 2019
Today I’m struggling
to find
a potent
portent
of the human
condition
to place in
my poetic
compositions.
Graff1980 Nov 2015
The clouds came courting,
converging on the moon,
a congregation
of celestially
illuminated bodies,
painting the night sky
with their smoky grey, white,
blue, light
cumulous wonder.
Graff1980 Aug 2018
I know that you love them
but sometimes you hate ’em
want to hug them and hold in
all the pain their displaying

Equal sense of frustration
versus a sense of
gratification,
you need to take a vacation
from your human relations,

got the whole population
of this ****** up nation
praying for a release from
their problems and exploitation

and as you struggle to escape them
you still want to save them,
but they act like little children
who worship what imprisons them.
Graff1980 Jun 2017
They knew I was coming
like a savage to ravage
weak minds,

Poetry lines
to find the heart
of these troubled times,

Prose to point to
better people
then me and you.

They saw me coming
from a million years away
and prepared for the day
when I would try to
give my heart away.

They locked the doors,
closed the shutters,
blocked their heart,
with all types of clutter
like political and religious doctrines,
like material possessions,
they were possessed by
each demon.

So when I arrived
as others had before
there was no room for me.
So, me, my poetry,
and fancy sophistry
die unknown,
a million lights
un-shone  
tombstone unmarked and a life unmourned.
Graff1980 Jun 2018
Soft streaks of starlight burn,
like the light from
a unicorn’s enchanted horn.
Hopeful dreams
like firecrackers
sizzle, pop,
then fizzle slowly into
a young hearted laughter.
My heart flares there
in the words of a poetess’s
strange world
as I wonder
what wild treasure
such a deep mind
hides for the truest seeker to find.
Graff1980 Nov 2015
What does it mean
When I scream in the darkness
Place my face firmly
Into my pillow
So no one will know
That I am crying with
Rage and sorrow
How do those two emotions mix
When I see nightsticks
Used against the innocent
When bullets blaze
Not graze or stun
But ****** our young
And they are our young
Every white, black, yellow one
Is our young
This is our world
Where atrocities occurs
Ocean’s distance from here
Where fear rules
Where violence
Never ends
And bends mankind
To horrible contortions
Where squads of Russians
Hunt the LGBTQ
What if it was you
What if it was someone you knew
Eyes tightly clenched
I scream
While tears keep flowing
Still knowing
That another tragedy
Will be stacked upon
The one I just read about
Graff1980 Nov 2023
I break my pattern
and reduce the restriction
of obsessive attention
to a particular
schedule or behavior,
because if I want to
I can do it now or later,
take the time to savor
the flavor of the moment
because I own it
and not the other way around.

This type of freedom is profound,
and easy to achieve
even though it frequently eludes.
Obsessions frequently intrude rudely
and take more time than
I care to admit to.

The world may be
very close to ending
or not,
but my life is all
that I really got,
so I will greedily
hoard my individuality
and liberty to see and perceive
that strings that seem to direct me
and sever them immediately.
Graff1980 Oct 2017
Cracks in the sidewalk
splinter concrete
but I can’t see
the same openings
in me.

Crunchy dry brown leaves
crumble underneath my sore feet,
a victim of this summer heat.

I bet I look suspicious
stopping on every block
to look around and take stock,
looking down every street
cause I can see things
that touch me
and use them for
my poetry.

Grandkid plays
his clarinet
looking for
attention that
he can’t get
cause his
hefty grandma
can’t even look up
from her cellphone.

Little children
outside playing
get fenced in
for their safety.

Older dude
works outside
while I’m
walking through.
He has
a wooden fence
and a ladder that is
wooden to,
doesn’t even
turn his head
to acknowledge me.
So, I walk on by
this human being
cause lawn care
seems more important
then our neighbors.

Even I
a sympathetic
nice guy
walk on by
people who look like
they could use some help,
because I just want
to be left to myself.

Black man identified
by his brown skin,
I wonder how many people
even notice him
in his superman shirt
with few good teeth,
hunched over holding in
the stomach pain
that is bothering him.

On a back street
next to the railroad
an old soul drives real slow
in a ***** brown van
careful not to go
anywhere near
the cops that drive
by here
cause he is homeless.

Now, I hit this business district
full of business men *******.
Politician ignore the
bums who inhabit it,
only care about how to
maximize profits.
Scraps of litter
spread across it
just like all the people
who cross the crosswalk
avoiding small talk
and the gazes of stranger
because they feel
like they are in danger.

An American flag flies high
down the street
from a stone church
were people meet
so they don’t have to think.

All for the sake of order
I to create human borders
to maintain my sanity
in this reality of pain.
Graff1980 Aug 2015
She broke her own heart
For a love that was not even fit enough
To bare her weight
To stare and say
Sweet promises for today
The feather fell
Flying lightly in the breeze
Cold as ice
Her skin was twice
As heavy as death
Her sorrow was as deep
As the Marianas Trench
Left her drenched in despair
The places where
She put her hopes for love’s return
That love once spurned
Could be restored
Instead her tumblr is erased
Her facebook is replaced
With a blank face
And old messages
Left unanswered
Graff1980 Jun 2017
Her hunger is veracious.
She speaks so salacious
and I parallel her passion.
Cause no touch could ever sate us.
I burn at a thousand degrees.
It is only she
who could come the closest
to cooling me
as she drenches my body
with her juices,
while our flesh
slips and grinds together
slippery with the hard work
we call pleasure.
Graff1980 May 2020
My mind is a prison
that strong thoughts live in,
a place whose dominion
is given to flights of fancy
that only a few fellow creatives
are allowed to view.
Graff1980 Mar 2020
The universe may be
infinite as the
collective mind
of humanity,
but my current portion
of understanding
is barely measurable.
My place in space and time
makes me the opposite
of valuable or special.
Graff1980 Jul 2017
I saw her body
before she was buried.
All goblinesque,
all skin bunching,
so, she doesn’t make
cameo appearance.
However, I didn’t get to see
the little boy blond
who has been long gone
for over twenty years
or my grandpa
who died alone in the hospital.
So, once in a while
they stop by in my dreams.
Graff1980 Feb 2017
It is a world of randomness.
Photos play in
their digital displays.
Soft impression of
Of wet and salted sands
leave an imprint
of her sacred dance.

Another photo
catches her
soft features
strained in
fantastic effort.
Like a perfect sketch
her legs
are outstretched midair
in opposite directions.  

A gray cement cylinder
with open circles
cradles her soft body.
She is a changeling
that bends with
it’s hard contours.

Switching with
a finger’s flick,
finds two black ropes
that hold the hopes
of the young dancer
hanging down
unbound
as she is.

With the fierceness
Of Artemis
this bare foot goddess
sweeps her feet
across the
white winter grounds.
Her steps are
hot enough
to melt the snow.
Later she
enshrouds herself
in a transparent veil.
The melody does not stop.
She moves
like the figure in a  
faberge egg music box,
never allowed
to rest until
she breaks.

Beautiful and powerful,
she blooms like the flowers
her admirers plucked
to place pink petals
at her feet.

She is eloquence.
Arms outstretched
to open the doors
that lead to a
warm summer dreamland
which all her devotees
wish to explore.

Folds of blue fabric
fill her tiny hands,
rippling like water
hit by strange skipping stones.
She ***** the fabric forward
up, down, and back,
trying to soar  
with the fury of her dance.

One knee rises.
Unfeathered arms open,
flowing back, up, and away.
This long legged
blonde blue eyed child flys,
a canary in the coal mine
barely concealed
urging us to feel;
Frozen in time
on Instagram
to be seen
and soon sidecrolled away.
A queen like Titania,
fairy winged,
a thing of dreams.
Nature’s surroundings
obfuscate her
transient existence.

Her body bends and sways
with the wonders of
old orchestras and concertos.
Till, eve falls
and December takes the dancer.
The soft swimmer shimmers
in the soon to be frozen water.
Feathers fall from the Swan’s
long lost daughter,
and the well used
dance shoes
refuse to move.
Graff1980 Apr 2017
Well, we curse to.
Till we see the crack.
There is a point of light
but the darkness will come back.

So, I sit and swallow
pure sugar cane hope,
that sprouts in my throat
and grows into sorrow.
Until, I am paralyzed
by surprise.

People pay the politicians
to secure their poorer positions
while wealthy businessmen
keep on ******* them
with their business interest.

Another click and they unfriend,
another day as I try and bend
contorting myself to see their side
while they hide behind the lies
and bullet hole riddled talking points.

They say god bless America
and pray to support the troops
while I say no more war
please and thank you.
I tell them the truth
but they just call me an *******
and do what they were programmed to do.

I guess this poetry is more for me
then it is for you,
but you can share it to.
if your feeling blue
then this truths for you.

I love you
and peace out.
Graff1980 May 2018
I tell of the hell
that befell
a young whale
as purple pastels fell,
mixing in the foam,
bleeding colors
mostly unknown
in this aquatic world,
tainting the slick skin
of my orca acquaintance
I consider a friend.
So, that his kin
barely recognized him.
If not for
the sonic waves
that emanated across
the ocean floor
this purple painted
whale would have
died alone.
Graff1980 Jun 2016
Death is not fair.
It does not care
or breath.
It does not take
what bleeds
leaving seeds
to spring into
a lighter view
of the heavenly
some days.
It discriminates
against the poor
taking them more
other day it plays
with the wealthy.
It does not balance
or think
grow or shrink.
It is not a tangible being
or a solid thing.
It will not make a deal
no matter how deep you feel.
It is not your enemy or friend.
It is simply the end.
Graff1980 May 2017
The city is a jungle.
Streets run like
ravaged rivers
polluted by strange people,
plastic cups,
unread newspapers,
and other pieces of clutter.

The cruel king crow
cawed at the awed
cod fish cad.

Foolish feathered fiend
fawned and preened
as he walked the
cool cat scene,
while his fishy friend
stopped to bend
and tie his
loose shoelaces
up again.

Meanwhile
not even
one tenth of a mile
down this road
a feline ****
snuck up
and jack slapped
a fat cat
*** hat that
was hassling
his sister Jaguar.

The streets howled
As pigs prowled,
stressed and tense
strangers vented
misdirected anger
at random passersby,
like one unsuspecting
fly by bird guy
who was running on
a caffeine high.

Then there is me,
observing this city,
dumb jack ***
with a fat ***,
who thinks he
understands
what he sees.
Graff1980 Mar 2018
I am nothing
but negative space
that can easily
be replaced
or erased.

I am a body
that cannot escape
my man made
manacles.

I am shackled
to a dying breath,
to flesh bereft
of sacred meaning.

I am swimming
in a soft oily sea
of ****** candy
that either drowns
or infects me
with cavities
and stinky
seaweed.

I am a crumpled lotus
before you notice,
before I allow
you to know this
poetic truth,
as death subdues
all that I ever was.
Graff1980 Feb 2017
Thus, humanity comes to an end
not with a whimper or a bang
but with heads held down
by the gravity of digital devices.
Strangers dissolve.
Flashing screens absolve us
of the need to meet.
The outside shades
of orange, purple,
white, and gray
fade away.
Humans disassociate.
Conversation evaporates
to be replaced by a stenography
texting quality
paired with a variety of emojis.
Years of evolution
Are discarded within the span
of a few generations.
Graff1980 Aug 2016
I speak of pain
That wears red rain
Slashing my wrists
To open soft veins
See sprinkles splatter
Call it sidewalk paint
The blade does not burn
As much as that social poison
We have been imbibing
Relaxing while lying
So there is no surprising us
Because those we love
Have lost the same wars
Not bombs and mustard gas
but razor thin red lines
That beat and bleed out in time
Taking the last of our once beautiful minds
Graff1980 Sep 2017
This dismal day
dulls my emotions
in favor of
some distant
tv visions
that I used to love.
Graff1980 Jun 2015
To you my fellow poets
Write me a wall of hope
With yellow ceramic tiles
And forest green blocks
With sunny paintings
And strange abstractions
A tile per heart that still beats
A tile per person who still dreams
Hold me up with your love
Cause I have no hope of my own
Please write me a wall of wonders
So I don’t feel so ******* alone
Graff1980 Feb 2018
Shame on me
for having a human heart.
It is a strange weakness
to watch and see this
wave of inhumanity
and wonder why
I stand immune
from said insanity
whilst all the other people
rush and strangle each other
in a frantic state
of hate and rage
that breaks the place
where some people stash
true love away.
Graff1980 Oct 2016
You’ve got nothing better to do
then start spreading your truths.
Well I’ve been spreading truth to.
Since before you were growing your *****,
I’ve been shedding my religious blues
by shredding all the lies, you guys used.

Till, I
brought you
the good news.

You are free

from

Dogmas

Sexism

Racism

Xenophobia

and all those judging your sins
with that outdated, poorly written text.

Yes, you are free from all that hate printed within
your savior’s false bleached tinted skin.

Though, I might not reach you
or your slew of pew hugging dudes
the few who I do get through to
will live a much richer life then you do.
Graff1980 Jun 2016
I am stupider when i know but smarter when i think.
Graff1980 Jul 2018
Curse the scribbles
that stretch to form
strange and monstrous feature
of beasts unborn,
creatures of never were,
sharp and violent
nightmares
moving silently
like ninjas
who seeks to
eviscerate me,
such unlovely things
that would ****** me
if they weren't
abstract reflections
of my sick imagination.
Graff1980 Nov 2016
Yesterday was a winter road
with frosty figures lining up
to dam a young soul to limbo,
not quite hell but purgatory.

Now they all change
their gory stories
so they can feel better
and in their tales
they make themselves
sainted knights.

But we outsiders
know the harsh facts.
We do not make ourselves
the heroes of our tales
but journeyman
of varied skills
seeking the truths
and speaking it to
despite how painful
it might feel.
Graff1980 Apr 2016
Life is my office
corner cubicle
where Plato's Cave
enslaves my day.

Phone calls and data entry
till ones and zeros becomes me
and I go away
to become we,

a dull unknown
who goes home
for just the slim hope  
of finding myself
in quiet introspection.
Graff1980 Jul 2019
To long I was living with a singular vision,
became a self-perpetuator of my suffocating obsession,
the spirit of my possession
was possessing pretty things,
and all of my collecting
was to the detriment of my well-being.
Graff1980 May 2018
I am coming,
the quick trickster
slick heart enchanter
dark dancer.

I’m coming,
heart burning
as ashes paint
these concrete streets,
as people multiply
and walked with me.

Sidewalks peppered
with plastic flesh
that is packed with
everything that leaks
and seeks
its own death;

A house of rubble,
a home of dust,
but I am
a traveling man
in tattered garbs
trying to connect you
to those who are
just distorted reflections
wearing similar scars.
Graff1980 Dec 2017
Enlightenment requires quiet moments of reflection so that one can listen to their subconscious. This is almost impossible to acheive in the hustle and bustle of modern america. Do me and the whole world a favor stop breath relax and listen to your subconscious, do not be afraid of the quiet. That is not the sound of death nipping at your heels it is the sound of tranquility trying to find you.
Graff1980 Aug 2016
Is that a painting,
or is that really you?
Such sweet shading
can those hues be true?
Comic book tinted dreams
make you a practically perfect
human being.
Graff1980 Mar 2016
I don’t get to be the hero of my tale.
neither do you,
but I am more heroic when I fail,
then you are when you never even try.
Graff1980 Jan 2018
The dissonance should
splinter your sparkling
billboard reality
as tv images
hyper energize
our innate *** drive
and media moralist
shame said desires.

While your leaders
proclaim a specific faith
but then in turn
spite and debase,
with malice and false claims
anyone who doesn’t
pray each day
the way that they
don’t even pray.

When the main protagonist
in your religious texts
was pretty obviously
anti-capitalist
but your current church leaders
make a killing
selling their parishioners
false promises
of making them
multi-millionaires.

When you
were set up to be
the steward of your society
yet squander
each opportunity
to be more Christ like
cause you have developed
a strong immunity
to reason and logic
which costs us
our humanity.
Graff1980 Nov 2017
Barely beyond seven years,
I was a small brown-haired boy
biking in a small town.
Till, I found
a little feisty dog
angrily yapping
and snapping
at me
when I tried to be friendly.

Older by three or four years,
walking out of the housing
down alleyways
on my way to school.
Till, I met a big dumb dog,
friendly enough
and playful to boot,
just a little too rough
as it nibbled at my shoe,
then tugged at my pants.
It would not let me get away
scraping my legs
and making me late to school.

Almost thirty
working at Diary Queen,
dating some creepy girl
who was really mean,
and had a pit.
Poor dog had been abused,
kind of aggressive
when it wanted attention,
kind of dangerous
if you had your hands up,
bit and scratched me
a little too much
playing just a little too rough.

He was slow and slurred
in a stupidly stumped stupor
and in my naivete
I cared for him
because of my innate
sense of sympathy.
Until, the thieving
and harassment
finally took me
to the limits
of my patience.

It is a cold-hearted comparison
but I liked those dangerous dogs
more than that **** and ******
addict.
Graff1980 Nov 2016
You don’t want to love me
cause I am darker than
a starless night
and deeper than
the stars I dreamed of when
we sat in class and
read about them.

You don’t want to love me
because honey you will suffocate.
Your mind will dislocate
as I elevate your consciousness
and you will not be able
to return from this enlightenment.

You don’t want to love me
but I dare you to try
come on try and fly as high
as I wanna take you.
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