I greeted future,
"Hello!" I said.
Future turned around and smiled,
"Hello my dear boy."
"Tell me Future, am I alive and well with you?"
Future frowned, "Young man you know
I can't tell you that."
"But Future" I cried,
"But Future why can't you tell me?"
Future chuckled and smiled,
"Because my dear boy that would be cheating."
I didn't understand what Future meant,
But then again I never understood Future.

There is an old story that my father
Told me and my brother when we were children.
It is of the windbag
Who now haunts the ancient diamond mines.
It goes like this:

"Boys, have I ever told you of the old windbag?
How about the diamond mines that poisoned it?
Well, this windbag was a miner
Who wore his diving suit and large pickaxe with pride.
Indeed his suit was pride,
But the golden diamond mines were lust
Lust that the old miner paid no mind.
For every strike with his large pickaxe
Was every moment his mind left sanity.
He wanted more wanted more wanted more
Always always always dreaming of glittering diamonds
That shrank his soul to stone.
He left this world no longer a miner
But a windbag lingering the mines possessed by diamonds
With its diving suit and large pickaxe.
One dark morning the windbag was mining,
It was mining mining mining,
Yet it could not hear the diamond mines shatter, crumble.
Its coworkers heard, but it only heard diamonds.
The windbag stayed in the old diamond mines,
Trapped in its diving suit
Trapped in its large pickaxe
Trapped in its diamond mines.
It continues to clink and clank
As it lurks amongst the silent diamonds,
Making only physical contact."

This story my father told me and my brother,
Haunts me more than the clink and clank
I hear while walking by
The ancient diamond mines
That swallowed the windbag.

She swirls a small package
Of white and pink candies,
Gripped by her thumb and index
With long tipped pearl finger tips.
Oh my she is quite pretty indeed
With her auburn brown hair
******* in a short ponytail.

And yet she isn't clothed in
Typical "womenly" garments,
No she wears a navy blue sweatshirt,
Jean shorts with a
Crochet pattern on the bottom,
And beige loafers.
And yet she is beautiful.

She is quite beautiful indeed.

I have a desire to unleash
My imagination unto the world,
I wish to give birth to many worlds
To terraform colorful plains
Of unbelievable skies and creatures.

One is of a cat, a dangerous cat
Who stands on his hind legs
And cups his top hat with his right paw,
And bows his orange coat,
Careful not to wrinkle his fine suit.
He is dangerous because he is a gentleman,
And in this era
Gentlemen are scarce and unheard of.
So unheard of that Gentleman Cat
Is always given conservative, cautious, and quizzical looks
Looks that try to read Gentleman Cat
Of any deceit, dishonor, and destruction
That drip from his light whiskers.

Another is of an industrial wasteland
Where all its people reek of bewilderment
Taken aback by this strange place.
It is full of leaking deformities
And sopping wet clothes
And screeching radiators.
It is a sad mad realm,
But the coal still burns
As freaks walk in the rain
Under the hypnosis of poisonous air.

Another is a place I haven't fully developed yet,
But it includes a bust, a butcher, and a *****.

Another follows a bright young princess
Who chooses to walk barefoot,
Much like her people.
However, she cuts her foot on a rusty nail
And dies because modern healthcare
Is an illusion.

Another is a card player named Luke
Who sees debt as a challenge,
More so than a problem.
His ****** ignorance leads him
To a troubling situation
Where he has nothing to pay
After losing a game of chance,
Except for his fleshed jewels
Passed down since the dawn of man.

Another is one that I just thought of this instant.
It is of a psychotic policeman
Who shoots himself
In order to increase his **** count
From 27 to 28.

Finally, one more story.
In this story a woman has two dreams,
In the first she is chased by
A thunder cloud through a corn maze.
She is panting and flailing her lungs
Trying to grasp for air,
And the dream ends.
The second is she is on a conveyer belt
Sitting at a wooden school desk
Receiving lessons from a hooded figure
With a gavel
Hammering ideals and priorities
Of the old world.
The figure is crying
And drawing infinite circles on the blackboard
With a new piece of chalk.
Eventually the both of them
Arrive at the end of the line,
And fall into a cavern of outer space
Where a butterfly appears from the hooded figure's hood
And crumbles and shrivels right before the girl's eyes.
And then she wakes up.

Most times I find myself lost
Lost in times, places,
Held captive in my thoughts
It's ok it's ok it's ok
The grass helps me forget
As I lay absorbed in its warmth.
There is smoke in the distance,
Or is it right next to me?
I don't know anymore

Nor do I care
I just let myself go off most times
I love to go off most times,
As much as I loved my family
Who stood by my side 'til their end.

My dear sister was quite the artist
Quite the artist indeed
She had this distinct flight in her work,
Or was it flow?
I'm getting lost again.
These colors they did cling to each other
As if they've known each other since long ago.
I would get lost in these paintings
And would remember the times I saw these colors,
Like the blue in the bay
Protected by the army,
Like the brown windmill
That I climbed with my best friend,
**** I forgot he was there with me,
Like the yellow in my dog's eyes
When she and I saw a man burn to death.
It's too bad Auntie hid those paintings
Beyond the basement.

My father died in the Korean War,
Oh captain, my captain
You failed to return
But don't fret
I raised my flag for you this morning
And every morning,
Waiting for your safe return.

You had dark eyes, right?
Yes, you had to have dark eyes
Only dark men have dark eyes, but
You did it for a good cause dear father
And for your country you swam on that iron boat
And died just like your sweet daughter:
Hanging yourself because you could not find success with your art.
Wait, that's not right.
Your art was success, Sun Tzu would be proud
Of your noble smooth sacrifice,
All the while taking on the pitter-patter of rain.

My mother died just now,
Yeah just now in front of my eyes.
It's weird to see her like this
All old, cold, and stiff.
Maybe she's nervous, don't know why
She's going to a good place.
Might just be the rigor mortis kicking in,
My mother was always a speedy one
Never skipping a beat
Or strum
Or note.
Funny for her to be sitting
Directing phone calls
Which would end up being lost anyway
Because no one knew how to talk back then,
Not after the Korean War.

There was one song my mom would sing,
Not sing actually just hum
I don't know what song it was
I believed she made it up,
Which was so brilliant.
Sometimes I would close my eyes
(Like I'm doing right now)
And insert words into my mother's song.
I would sing things like:
How long are you gonna let it rain
Shifting through the tides of pain
You lost yourself for good this time
Dear boy you got yourself a rhyme.
That's what music sounded like to me back then,
Hell it still does.
Guess that means I'm still lost then, huh?

The figures through the leaves
And the light through the smoke
Lanterns carried by thieves
Wicked quiet young folk
 
It’s in their blood to rob
The world made it so clear
For the countless endless mob
To bring countless endless fear
 
Amongst the silent night
Within the heartless dust
There the crocs will bite
And blood will run from us
 
Collapsed here on the ground
Lions who lost their pride
Not a single one found
They are trying to hide
 
The time of End is near
The thieves quake the core
 It seems that we do fear
The world lives no more

One day, when I awoke,
I remembered a nightmare I had that previous night.

I was at a school, a haunted school,
With a group of girls I didn't know.
They were there to release the spirits of three sisters
Who were trapped there by a mysterious phantom.

The first girl was named Clara,
She had hazelnut hair, hazelnut eyes,
A heart that could only be described as infinite.
She was the oldest of the three.

The second girl was named Nora,
She had a sense for adventure and heroics,
Her eyes only looked forward,
And would sacrifice herself to save her friends.
She was the middle of the three.

The third girl was named Mary,
She had a tame body and never really spoke up,
What she had in shyness she made up with her smile,
And she liked to sing and dance.
She was the youngest of the three.

We climbed up the fire escape behind the school,
The ladder was sticky,
We couldn't tell what it was because it was so dark
No one had thought to bring a flashlight.
We reached an unlocked door
That Nora keenly opened up.
Bella scolded her to be more careful,
But surprisingly Mary was the first to enter
And she hid behind the door to let us through.
It was me, then Nora, then Clara
As we entered a brightly lit hallway
With a door all the way at the end.
And so we walked.

Nora jumped ahead of me,
While Clara stayed behind with Mary
Who regretted her jump start.
So we walked down the hall quietly
With Nora making giggles here and there,
I would look over my shoulder every now and then
To make sure Mary and Clara were fine.
Mary held her hands behind her back
And was looking at her feet,
Clara was looking ahead with her hands together in front
She titled her head, and smiled.
For someone whose sister is lost
She seemed quite content with the people she was with.

Eventually, we reached the door
Which looked like a plain old door,
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary about it.
Nora haphazardly opened it only ajar
Because Mary shouted to stop.
Nora looked back with a questioned stare.
Clara took it upon herself to slowly open the door
And make sure everything was safe.
I just stood there breathless.
Clara called us over one by one
To the strangest wooded area.
A wooded area in a school
It was covered with black trees, dead orange grass,
And a purple sky with a yellow full moon.
There were no visible creatures,
Yet I felt like we were being watched.

We walked through the crusty grass
Whispering where we should go.
Nora pointed her finger to the distance.
Clara, Nora, and Mary marched ahead of me
All determined to move forward,
Although Mary let Nora and Clara walk in front of her.

At this point I realized
I was like a ghost to these girls,
I seemed more like a wish
And more and more
Like a wish to save them.

We entered a clearing
And saw the large faceless dark phantom
Breathing cold air.
The girls and I stood stiff
And the phantom took it upon himself
To come to us.
He stood in front of the girls,
All three of them were crying ****** tears.
The phantoms pat the girls on the head,
Comforting them genuinely.
He took them into his darkness,
And they disappeared from my sight.

If at once we were something, we were a song
A glowing tarantella bouncing around,
Blazing tambourines grasped with gypsy fingers
Without dismay,
Free to see the world
The way God created it
With all its great beauty
And all the great cracks in the Earth,
We dance we dance to crack the Earth
Our song did touch the core.

If now we are something, we are lingering,
We drowned in our tears trapped in an hourglass,
The sand sapping away any life and now
Hardened black mud,
The hopelessness stuck
Along with the grains and tears
Trapped much like a gypsy
And like the gypsy we may dance
But its sloppy and stiff, no life,
Our song did touch before.

Now our song and dance vanished
Settling in a nice grave,
We lay in our hourglass
Still in our bridal garments
Staring at each other from the other side
Wondering who will drown first.

We in the attic blanketed with dust
Waiting stiffly until The Beaumont's leave,
Us portraits and mannequins stuck like rust
Wearing fluffy clothes the butler would weave.

They leave, we awaken and run downstairs
To see the table full of wine and mess
We gather around, the gramophone blares
The butler screams, that old Anderson Wes

He looked as though he never saw a feast
Ran stupidly shaking like a drunk man
'Til the portrait of Paul said to the beast,
"You're waking the neighbors, here have some flan!"

Eyes bulging, eyes fuming old Wes breaks down
His allergy got the very best of him
Rolling on the floor covered in a frown
We watched and listened his life on a limb.

"He ruined the party!" cried Ms. LeBoot,
We were in uproar, covered in white noise
But then stood Mr. Crowser in his suit
Headless, but strong with a booming tight voice.

He said, "We shall not let his death be vain,
As butler Wes would see this to the end
Now let us dine and let us feast through pain
And unveil this dust, with drink it will mend!"

Fire away, fire away
At my soul fire away,
It's up for grabs, fire away
And let sun drip from my eyes.

I'm not bulletproof, no titanium
Can't block this soul, fire away,
My guards are down, my hands are up
Fire away, fire away.

Be gentle please, I must insist
Don't make haste, but fire away,
Oh my soul it does erupt
Fire away, fire away.

Just take your time, I'll soon relax,
Fire away, fire away.

My daughter walked down a path
And came to a fork.
There an old man stood
Next to a dead tree and he said,
"If you go left you will be born into this world,
It will be difficult, you were not planned
And I myself will have to support you.
However, if you go right
You will surely not live,
And it would be easier for us,
But we would cry for you dearly
And mourn for your spirit."
There the old man stood silent
Waiting for my daughter's response.
"I wish to live" she said.
The old man looked at her
With compassion and despair.
"My dear, I'm afraid you don't have a choice."

Meister Fluff sat on his throne
Meister Fluff had a gruff tone
Meister Fluff had great guile
Meister Fluff had no smile

Duchess Grace heir to the throne
Duchess Grace had a nice tone
Duchess Grace loved by her peeps
Duchess Grace had rights for keeps

They hated each other Fluff and Grace
And wanted Grand Candy Place
To rule over the candy peeps
And carry them out of the dire deeps

Meister Fluff and Duchess Grace
Decided to throw pies in the face
Both felt that they could be king
But they did such a silly thing

Pies and pies and pies and pies
Attracted so many little flies
The flies then bit at the candy peeps
Now Fluff and Grace had no rights for keeps

In the atmosphere, the smoke will stick onto my eyes,
In the air sometimes, we'll fly away and not look back,
Along the shoreline, buried in sand and struck with fear,
We're stuck down here, but the air will be our true escape.

I
Erik went up to the summit
To where a rock he could plummet
The depths of the sea seem bare
A wasteland for Erik to swim

II
Louise went up to the summit
To where a rock she could plummet
Hesitation she stopped to look
Poor Louise was afraid of heights

III
Marko went up to the summit
To where a rock he could plummet
Killing a man with such great haste
Marko he knew the price to pay

IV
Alice went up to the summit
To where a rock she could plummet
Shunned from home she undressed to swim
Who would let ***** Alice come back

V
I too went up to the summit
To where a rock I could plummet
It seems that I have dropped my pen
For I will never write again

My son walked up to me one day
He said, "Hey dad?"
I look up from my book
And there he was with that quizzical look again.
"Yeah son?" I ask gently.
"Dad, why do foxes run away from people?"
I looked at him patiently
I had not a single clue why on earth
A fox runs from a boy.
"Have you seen a fox?"
"Yeah" my son said, "He was orange and scared."
"Well they have every right to be afraid son."
My son, my dear son, turned his head
And calm brown eyes.
"What are they afraid of?"
"Well humans, for quite some time,
Have hunted foxes.
We took their bright orange fur and the meat on their bones
And we swallowed them whole.
We also took their homes
And made them our own.
We didn't thank them
And I think that's what hurt them the most."
My son turned his head again with that quizzical look
And he looked outside the windowsill.
"I'll be right back" he eagerly said,
And he jumped out the door into the backyard.
I got up from my chair and look outside
To see the strangest thing to date.
My son walked up to our brushes
And out popped a fox.
I opened the window to shout to my son,
But first I heard something sweet.
"I'm sorry fox" said my sincere son.
And wouldn't you believe it,
That foxed bowed down
And disappeared in the brushes.

I have never experienced death around me
Not once.
I have yet to go to war,
I haven't even seen an animal get run over
By a speeding oaf trying to get home on time.
Yet, death occurs every second
Almost every second.
Why is it that I have not seen it then?
I should count my blessings and not look in a mirror.

My grandfather definitely saw death.
I called him Pop, he was in World War II,
I wasn't old enough to ask him about such troubles.
Then again, would I ask him about them now?
Would he dare speak the unspeakable
The harshness of war,
The noise all the cacophony,
Buildings, architecture, torn down,
Beautiful cities once covered with life,
The bright colors of Venezia the somber rain of London
Destroyed in an instant.

I don't think I'd have the ***** to **** someone,
I question my own loyalty to my country
Would I fight to protect my home,
Or would I hideaway in another country,
Or claim I am a racist?
(I think that only works when you have to do jury duty,
But I think I would try anything, sadly.)

Set fire to the ghosts
that held me captive in
skeleton jails and pumpkin cages.  The
time to crush the shell
is now, and it will break
with my redemption in hand and
my heart will scourge
and burn as I dig up through the earth.
Emerge now he who is hidden
no longer a teardrop flame.  To
see the ghosts walk and lurk
infuriates me.  They thought they could hold me forever.

It seems that I have grown so
much, I am no longer silent.

Now I emerge and
force light in the dusk.

Winter is getting quite close,
And as I listen to my Grizzly Bear sing
Of mountains,
Of loving another man,
And of speaking in rounds
I can't help but to shut myself in my bed
As I shiver in awe
Of harmonies clashing like winter winds
That sons once sung about.

I sleep and I walk the moon
Around the empty heavens that cry bright tears
As the dark
Or the cold sweeps them away.
Crawling on the tightrope
Puts my mind at ease and gives me something to
Focus on for a spell
Because I blame my sadness on the day.
No hope rests in my cave.

Now and then the sun wakes up
Now and then I try to wake up with the sun,
Eyes shut by
Dismay that has followed me
Like the moon has all this time.
If the dark moon continues to follow me
Surely I will be sad
And I promise my cave will soon collapse
And never wake up.

What the ghost wanted most
(Not to brag and not to boast),
To be a true and brilliant host
At his post by the coast.

People would come and even more some
Summoned by drum and enchanted by ***,
Not open to **** (for this was no slum)
The elite would hum and eat every crumb

The ghost would make a sublime cake
(But first strip steak before this break),
Angel food cake that would make mortals shake
Holy fire would bake  this witch at the stake.

The ghost did crave during ascent
Into a cave where lost souls spent,
He did rave about his planned event
But he slept in his grave where his wife lament.

I might never see you again.
I don't have a car, so I can't drive.
I have school and work, so free time is scarce.
But the night I spent with you,
Running barefoot on the turf field kicking and laughing
Kissing you before we went back to your place
Holding hands as we walked off the field and to your dorm
Turning on Entourage, not watching a single scene,
But basking in the adult content,
I was happy and I knew you were too.
I had not met someone like you in a long time
Someone who is dorky and funny like me.
I don't know the next time we'll meet,
I don't know if we will still be single.
I might never see you again,
But I'm glad I met you, if only once.

Do you fear God?
My brother said I shouldn't fear
Something that doesn't exist,
And yet I see him pray from time to time
For good health, for good wealth,
For the girl sitting next to him in English
To notice him.
I don't understand why he could be so bitter
He is alive, he lives a good life
With me, my mother, my father, and dog.
Why should you pray for a good life,
When the way to have a good life
Is just to live?

To answer my own question
Yes I do fear God
Or whomever has power over my fate.
He could shove down a path
Full of darkness and leave me
To breathe heavily
Crawling a midst the depths of the hole
He and I created.
And I know my brother fears Him, or Her, or It.

Because he wouldn't being praying for a good life
If he didn't want his to slip away.

The sun is beating down my neck
Yeah I've been free, I've been so free here
Letting the heat press against my face,
I tell my boys to keep the beat up
With the heat up
And they keep jammin' and flowin',
As I keep my head up they keep their head down
To the beat, and I'll watch for them
The energy of the crowd reaching my voice
And towards my boys, and back at the crowd
Like a ricochet.
And what more can I say
About the life we stray
Because we're here to stay,
Me and my boys with music to play.

My brother and I were invited to
Polynova, "The Grande City of The World".
Polynova is the largest city
To exist in our world,
It is home to every race in the world
It is has the largest trade market
It has the most beautiful architecture
You could imagine.
It can best be described as a giant pyramid
Where the governor sits atop
And the city becomes larger and larger
'Til the base.
I couldn't tell you a specific color of the place
Because the people have tampered
And structured it over time.
Gold, Magenta, Bright Green,
Cerulean, Silver, Mud Brown,
The list goes on and on.
It is constantly crowded and bustling,
You would be surprised how good it smells.
The cuisine is magnificent,
All the best foods from the world
Gather here and share their secrets
With the masses.
This city could be best described as,
"A city of togtherness".
It is a city of hope
Hope that the world will settle its differences
And hope that one day the fighting will stop.
Polynova stands as a symbol to us,
Some reject it,
But I embrace it.
I am but a boy
Too young to have seen the world
As a cynical and terrible place.
I regard everyone with the utmost respect
And love.
My brother and I were invited to Polynova
To participate in the first ever
Grande Fireworks Festival.
We come from a long line of firework makers,
My grandfather was one of the first firework artists
To grace this world.
So off we go to Polynova
To share our secrets and craft
With other firework artists.
Off I go to,
"The Grande City of the World"

Hold hands to a
goodnight kiss,
and show the world that
this exists.  It tastes
much like sensation, much like
a calm, soaring river.  It is with the
softness of love that flowing down the river
is too easy.  Should
one or another steer off and not
remember love to have,
then the taste of salt
shall corrupt the seed.  She or
he might as well be dead
along with the other blind, slimy fish.

I see your eyes, rubies and pearls
Sparkling, dazzling there they lay
Sweet girl you made my heart swirl
With you no past, only start of day
We, you and I, must always stay
Almost like a wish in a well
We are a dream, for this I say
Our love we found in River Belle

A sucker for blue eyes and curls
I could never forget, no way
Imagine you being that girl
Beautiful smile, seen far away
Your smile, that keeps me at bay,
It was that smile why I fell,
May our lucent love never gray
Our love we found in River Belle

We watch the cherry blossoms twirl
As we dance with petals and sway,
Reality, our love now hurls
Dancing now, in the dark fray
Now I watch as you walk away
Love released like that of a spell
I want to keep it, try I may
Our love we found in River Belle

You are not real, a dream today
I'll search for you this I foretell,
We will sing about someday
Our love we found in River Belle

I know the reason how
you do not speak true.  I know you do
share the same feelings, but when you
were taken and heart stolen, you couldn't tell
me your love.  You couldn't remember that someone,
who is me.  You
walk aimlessly empty without love
as I search for her,
the thief.  When
I find her
and rip your heart
from her clutches, I'll return what was
yours.  I'll return what was stolen.

Pleasant it was the bright night sky,
Destined it was the stars all here.
Fearful he was the moon flew by

And as we turned, oh me oh my,
It turned with us with face of fear.
Nothing it was could ever die

Beneath the stars for we could fly
Farther than one could want to hear.
Fearful he was the moon flew by

With us, so strange, we saw him cry
We went to him and hushed his tear,
Nothing it was could ever die.

Returned home, my boy slept so shy,
Watching we sang soft for his ear,
"Fearful He Was The Moon Flew By"

*Pleasant it was the bright night sky
Destined it was the stars all here
Fearful he was the moon flew by
Nothing it was could ever die