Only when do we feel confident in ourselves
When we look in the mirror that looks back at us
And both reflections smile

When we let go of the fears that bind us
That wrap us like chains
Permitting us to go only so far

Only when we drop our disguises
The masks we wear to hide our faces
Will we be comfortable with ourselves

And if the world did the same
Where no one hid beneath a mask
We would all be free

We would all be happy

When the lakes have dried and leaves have rot
As we choke upon the air we breathe
In anguished cries, shall we ask "Where have we got?"
"Is this really how man will leave?"

As the waters rise and drown out our screams
When acid falls from clouds above
With swollen fish floating down the streams
At what point will we say enough?

As the animals die from poisoned bile
From the ground in which they fed
We shrug and scoff, "That won't happen for awhile"
Nestled comfortably in our beds

When the world is grey and full of dust
When the last living things are us
From the gutters, disease approaches
As we spread across the world like roaches.

If only there was a way to know
When you were in the good ole days
So you could enjoy them
For all that they were

If only that were true
And we could appreciate those
Warm distant days
When we thought life was timeless

I am often made fun of
As I go about the life I lead
To treat others the way
I wish all would be treated

But I have grown to realize
That reciprocity
Is of seldom importance
To many you meet in life

Half of me says to be cold
To treat others the way
They treat me
But the other half says otherwise

All throughout this internal struggle
As I argue with myself on how to be
By the time I'm done arguing
I realize the moment is gone

I lost my chance altogether
I also never know how to respond
Because I've never had the experience
As I'm always caught in doubt

I've become terrible at relationships
I don't know how to act
I make a fool out of myself often
But please just bear with me

I'm bad at all this relationship stuff
But you help me
You make me realize the treasures
Of relying on another.

Like an insatiable hunger
I desperately want to find my place in the world
Yet, I never know where to look
Looking at a menu of different paths
Too afraid to pick just one entree
Do I want to always be known as the burger guy?
The steak sirloin?
Or do I want shrimp scampi?
I know I can only have one but...
Everything looks so appetizing
So delicious

I never know what to get myself
It's a mix between
What do I want ?
And what do I think I deserve?

There is a tranquility to waiting
Some know they're waiting
Others don't and they sit there
Sometimes forever

Some wait for better days
For things they can't change
But those who truly love
Know the burdens of waiting

Children carry the weight of waiting
Wives and husbands
Parents
All waiting for different reasons

Eventually, the waiting ends
Children wait to grow old and fall in love with their passions
Newlyweds wait for an end they never want
And parents wait to finally let their offspring fly

We all wait for something
Though we know it or not
The world seems in a standstill
Yet when the wait is over
We can only ask where did all the time go?

We are trapped in infinitum
Swirling whirlpools, timely decay
Reach out to grasp the present
It slips through your fingers
Every time

Fight against the endless days
We but only glimpse forever
A stain upon the endless sea
Compete with existence
Rage against complacency

We are trapped in infinitum
Gasping for air in our pocket universe
Existence is a bitter tasting seed
One that plants itself
From the first breath to the last

Rage
Rage against the dying light
Or it will consume you
With the absence of words
There is only silence

I awaken to the beginning of a bridge
The sun shines, peeping through the green mountains
A river gushes below me and the water falls beneath me
It fills a lake with rock henges jutting out
Large pines speckle the mountain

The polished stone bridge leads to the tallest tower I've seen
I walk across, basking within the midday light
The only sound is the rushing of the water
A light breeze catches my hair
The tower stretches above the clouds

I enter the cold hallway
Immediately above me I look up to the light
A light that shines at the top of the tower
Bright enough to conceal what lies above
The air is cold like the marble floor

An intricate design covers the marble ground
I step toward the center as the light breeze beckons me
A low rumble starts off in the distance
I begin to rise as the circular design lifts up
Like a puzzle piece, different sections stop as I go

My platform gets smaller and smaller
But I am not afraid
The light gets closer to me
The warmth of the light surges forward
I reach out to grab the blinding orb

My world goes white
I blink yet see only light
I begin to see my surroundings
The warmth is beyond comforting
I step into an endless field of flowers

Flowers of all colors stretch before me
They bow in the breeze
The sky is of royal blue
A single tree waves in the field of color
My friend hails me from afar

I'm in awe
There is no way this guy made it to heaven also.

I understand how god feels

Call it divine insight

I lay in bed worrying

That 2am worry that nags

About all those who have been wronged

Who received the other side of the coin

Those who are tortured by others

For no reason at all

Those yearning for a break

A break that will never come

I worry about these people

I worry about you

I wish I could swoop right in

And make all your problems go away.

Man looked outward toward the stars
Always wondering what they held
Each passing thought like busy cars
In our heads imagination swelled

So giddy man has always been
Curious like a cat
No longer is it what but when
Technology has seen to that

Stare into the abyss with me
As it stares into our souls
The darkness shines eternally
Into ourselves it’s black like coals.

To feel out of place
Like flowers in the snow
Soon gone without a trace
Without a soul to know

The soft patter of the white
Harshness of the cold
Gone without a fight
To vanish with the old

Sometimes we feel alone
As different colored petals grow
Together in the wind all grown
In the field of flowers in the snow.

How easy it is to look back in time
Of memories fond, when life was good
As we had no care or reason nor rhyme
Believing time would stay as it always would

Pain is realizing that change always comes
When you rise one morning feeling old
Tired and cold, your memory hums
Now living a life your parents always told

This feeling greets everyone randomly in bed
Never knowing who it next picks
Some know this feeling, others look away in dread
But for all who live the Halcyon Clock ticks

So do what you love and love what you do
Try not to reminisce about the past golden days
Find the company that cherishes you
And bask in the present of warm summer rays.

We desire the most of what we cannot have
And in the phantasmagoria of it all
We can only dream

We have phrases to mark this thinking
Fantasizing of the grass being greener
Just over that wretched fence

Some take chances with it all
Clawing away to get a glance, a mere taste
Of what could have been

Relationships erode, trusts fall to pieces, we fail
Giving in to our baser instincts
Just to have what we cannot

We desire the most of what we cannot have
And how hypocritical this is in fact
That I chastise those for submitting to such actions
When I want her to do, just that.

How peculiar we are as men
As biological machines we exist
Controlled by a brain wherein
We survive, evolve, and persist

Have you ever stopped to realize
Our brain is self aware
Yearning to understand through our own eyes
Into ourselves we boldly stare

Unlike the bird that knows when to fly south
We surprise ourselves around every bend
Telling our tales by word of mouth
The discoveries of our own, never end

We are analogous to that of our creations
Intricate computers and vast A.I.
Steadily learning through constant relations
Evolving as we try

We are biological machines
Growing rampant as we tread
Ever onward we hold our destinies
Is this our own free will? or programs in our head?

Ethereal rift, shimmering tide
Calm as ripples dancing across the sea
A standstill beauty where we coincide
Gazing gently, comforting me.

Blanketing sparkle of speckled dust
Swirling sea foam and warming light
Cocooned bliss within complacent trust
Soothing me softly with twinkles bright.

Stepping onto glassy plains
Mirrors to my internal plight
Reflection of eternity remains
As I fade to the night.

Floating faintly I drift away
As gentle gales push ever so slight
Embracing me, my love, I cannot stay
As I fade into the night.

Imagine you wake up within a maze
Completely made of glass and mirrors.
When you look around, you see others
Trapped in this maze with you.
You can hear them, they can hear you
But you cannot touch them or feel them.

Now imagine that with every step you take,
Door you open, and corner you turn,
The walls change, the corners flip,
And the path set before you shifts.
With everyone's actions
This pattern continues, endlessly.

Reality is much of the same as this
We wake up one day, stuck inside this maze.
You can see others, hear others,
but never truly feel them.
For you are you and they are they.
And with every decision you make your destiny shifts

We are all stuck within this maze we call reality
There are instances where we see one thing,
But it is only a trick of a mirror to fool us.
There are some who run through this maze
There are some who walk or crawl
Reality has us all trapped however,
With never-ending paths we are shackled
To our reality made of glass.

You want your life to mean something
Yet you refuse to put in the work
To build that life around you

You like for people to think you are
Much more than you know you are
And will fight to the death to keep it

You love the complacency of it all
The trust you have in your system
The predictability gives you comfort

Life isn’t predictable
Life is far from fair
I know
Because I’m the one I’m talking about

Break free my children
For freedom is here for you
Immortality stares you in the face
You need only extend yourself to reach it

Do you hear the chiming tolls?
The wedding bells marrying you off with greatness?
Hark! The world lies before you
You grasp all that is necessary

So what holds you back my people?
My friends, brothers.
Those who hold the key to salvation
Rise with me to everlasting glory

Let us break the bonds of today
Soaring into the colors of tomorrow
For we paint the canvas
We hoist the sail!

Together we will build
Etching our destinies upon the concrete
Upon the world newly conquered
Our legacy will be timeless

Come my children
The wind blows in our favor
Step forth into your next chapter
And never look back.

I lived my life
Wholeheartedly believing
I didn’t deserve happiness

As if when things went well
They were too good to last
And anxiety crept in

Anxious about the bad that was to come
I never could enjoy the good times
I would sideline myself for no reason

As if I slipped into a cycle
Never fully grasping the moment
Gasping for a breath of fresh air that’d never come.

Doubt had me chained
Bogged down and restrained
And the world around me was always gray

And to this day I still feel uneasy
When my day is bliss and plain
My day offs are filled with worry

I type this all now to let you know
To all those afflicted like me
That your days with sun rays
Are productive and warm
You’re allowed to relax
And kick back with glee.

Gone are the days when our enemies had faces
When wars were fought we knew their names
Atop their pedestals of power
Shouting down to people below
Gripping fists in utter rage
We saw them clearly
It was much more simple
To hate a man back then
To give evil a face

Times have changed
And we no longer know who to hate
Shrouding their faces
The evil men have learned from their mistakes
Concealed and slipping into the crowds
We no longer know
We no longer see who are the tyrants
Or who are the saints
The evil men have become a part of us
We used to live in a world of black and white
But now all the colors of the spectrum blend
Lines are smudged

Did evil men grow smarter?
Or have we become more sinister in our hearts?

Gone are the days when evil had faces.

Without eyes there'd be no color
Without skin no soft sands
Without senses life seems duller
No hardness of rocks without our hands

Without tongues there'd be no spices
No aromas without our nose
But as we age and left to our devices
What's taken for granted is forgotten as we grow

From the deaf who first hear the song birds
To the blind who see the sunrise
For the first time that they hear words
Tears flow down awakened blind eyes

We evoke senses with our beings
And though these senses we've had since birth
From those who wish to hear and see things
Never forget how much they're worth

I'm not selfish in my actions.
But when I say,
that I do what I want
and enjoy what I do.
Can you really judge someone
for believing that?

I like to think that deep inside,
All men want peace in the end.
But as I've seen, we can't coincide
Though same goals lie around the bend.

I like to think that all men use war
To greedily take that peace for him
With blood, sweat, and screams that roar
They secure that peace as they win

I ask why does man fight
An endless conflict in different forms
Why must there always be a right
Why must their always be war?

Somewhere above the clouds
As the evening sun sets in the west
I am captivated by the sight of the sky
Looking north to the unknown
I dream I could float above the earth
Resting on the foamy clouds
Seeing the cars pass beneath me
Somewhere above the clouds
I wish I could see forever
And witness eternal beauty

He saved the world that never asked for it
Ironically, the world he saved fought back
Ending all wars
Ceasing all crime
All within one swift act
He saved the world from themselves
He became the villain for the world
Sacrificing his sanity
His world of earthly pleasures
All in the name of unity
All in the name of perfection

Behind that broken smile
Atop their pristine steeds
Unbeknownst yet for a while
There are the hero's needs

To be a hero is to be broken
One who sacrificed it all
Finally awoken
Who took the hero call

They've seen the ugly side of man
The dark side of the moon
When others turned tail and ran
They were the last ones in the room

Behind that broken smile
As they wave to cheering fans
They've not cried for quite awhile
Eyes bare like desert sands

I noticed someone,
wearing what they loved to wear
Without a care in the world about how they looked
I envied that feeling

Tasteless barely sufficed to describe
The lifeless years the boy survived
Rife with strife he soon realized
That love was not for him

He'd seen the priceless times go by
Others in love, though niceness tried
None fancied him nor did they cry
For the boy who yearned for love

From this insipid love life
The boy gave up,
gave in, and never looked back.
He grew up to be a cold hearted man,
and was unable to love back again.

The Body lives much like the Earth
an organism, a breathing thing.
All the while it proves its worth
A life vessel, a circular ring.

From earth we rise and dust we fall
with years just in-between
And though you leave over garden wall
through cycles you return to us, younger and pristine

The Mother Earth calls to us
some call it God or One
We all return to her again
A fate seldom outrun

Your favorite toy from childhood
The sport you loved to play
That book that kept you fascinated
The friends you made in school
That bad grade you got on your test
Your first kiss you ever had
The fights you had with your parents
That moment your life was perfect
The moments it was not
That first time you were away from home
The one secret you'll never tell a soul
That person you love to be around
The dog you saw on the street
That sense of accomplishment
The loneliness you sometimes feel
That time you laughed so hard your stomach hurt
Your first hangover
The moment you thought your life was in shambles
That good show you recommend to everyone
The books that shaped your worldview
That character you want to be
The moment you realize
That all things come to an end
The world looks much less scary
That it did before reading this
The timeline you live in
That you inhabit
The things you do
That will all fade
Gently
Into nothingness

Within my grasped palm of a mind
I hold a story that the world has never heard
A story where man meets his match
Where the lines between monster and god run grey
I hold in me the finest story to shed itself to reality
A glistening monarch emerging from its cocoon
Within my grasped palm of a mind
I clasp a story of a lifetime
I simply must release my fist
And rearrange these letters
To let loose this grand tale.

If a single man committed the worst crime
To save the entire world
How would the world view him?
Questions like these
Make it impossible to not thoroughly
Unquestionably
Marvel Humanity

You have a crowd of 10,000 people
5,000 die
Is it still a crowd?

You have a heap of sand
You take out 1,000,000 grains
Is it still a heap?

You have 5,000,000 trees in a forest
You cut down 4,500,000 trees
Is it still a forest?

You have 3 parts of the brain
You remove the Insular Cortex
Are you still human?

At what point do we change?
When does something cease to be?
If man ceases to feel disgust amidst atrocity,
Is he still human?

No forceful push
Nor violent gust
Was needed
To tear down his house
This house made of paper
Where the paper man stayed

His thin white walls
Without any windows
With a light in the middle
Gave shapes
To those outside
Trying to peer in

But along she came
With her fiery heart
A soul with warmth
Like embers from a hearth
And she easily burned down
That timid paper house

I hand this dying torch to you
for though its light is dim
I trust that you shall carry me,
my memory within.

I hand this forgotten torch to you
for though my name is lost
I trust that you shall remember me,
that is the only cost.

Take this old mans torch from him
Sweet child I call mine
He trusts you shall do wondrous things
as he fades in eternal time.

First comes the tickle
from the chest it pulses through:
Upwards.
Your body wants to jolt
but you remain still.
Second comes the tingle of the head
from the spine that connects it all.
All you do is stare.
Callously as you process the emotion,
intertwined with information,
crescendoing into a storm without reason.
Without need of reason.
For it is simply that.
Unreasonable hatred.
Your breath:
Steady.
A disgusting numbness shrieks
Sickening rage courses back and forth
Pulsating
Third comes the grinding
The gnashing of teeth
Until your jaw eases back
Fourth comes the flooding
the pain attempts to touch you
Stop you
You stop it
Fifth comes the hush before the ******
Raw energy building
Pressure now balanced throughout
Sixth comes the explosion
And with all your might you hit back
Breaking your fingers
Smashing your wrist against their cheek
Their jaw cracks beneath your shattered fist
1/100 of your anger now exhausted
You don't feel a thing
You're numb now
Then it happens
In one crashing chord
comes the fury.

Perhaps a speck in our tangent of time.
Graceful bows, angelic sways
Circular twirls with hypnotic forays
He pushed, she danced as music played
To us it lasted but a moment
To the dancers it was eternity

Across the water I've seen those lights,
sparkling lights above the sea.
How have I caught those dancing brights
but have never been before?

Across the water I've yearned to feel
the ocean breeze slipping through those streets.
To hear the gravel crunch with my steps,
the soft patter of shoes on sandy grass.

Across the water I've seen that town
from the bridge I've been on countless years.
How have I never been before?
And ventured across that sea?

To fall again and soothe my heart
I tripped and fell and twas' the start
Before, alone, I felt so smart
That night I fell and soothed my heart

We met together, bullseye and dart
A simple stroke blossomed to art
Who knew what could keep us apart
Forthwith I fell and soothed my heart

Love grays however and drifts apart
Growing cold, cynical, and ****
We forgot what it'd meant if we'd depart
I fell again and broke my heart

We realized there, what this imparts
As tears streamed down for soft restarts
We had to fall in love again like ****** hearts
To Fall Again And Soothe Our Hearts.

Upon the morning dew I tread
Up the hill yet filled with dread
For a lass once mine now gone and dead
Up and on morning dew I tread.

Up to Poppy Hill I tread
Where nameless rocks keep homestead
My sweet sweet lass, her name I read
Brought tears upon mine eyes clutching head.

Upon the morning dew I tread
Back down again the road I led
To see the girl who held my heart by thread
Who warmed my soul and filled my bed.

Down on mourning dew I bled
The ground so soft, now red
"Why have you gone" I softly said
This was last time on morning dew I'd tread.