We live a dying fight
Like warmth from an exhausted fire
We all wane like setting suns
The only question is when

Spewing forth the lies of man
Dripping with deceit
Sopping up the foolhardy gents
In shadow do we meet
Out the corner of my gaze
He stalks the darkened halls
Watching those who are lead astray
And from the path do fall

With courtship and loving words
Oozing sticky sap
Stench of rotting milk and curds
Of fleshy skin and tight burlap
Two eyes do pierce the thickened fog
His body a black wiry frame
As he offers you the deal
To keep his lantern aflame

And from the trees he'll feed
Sipping souls straight from the shell
Beware the beast who turned his back to heaven
And shunned from the gates of Hell

He stood when told to kneel
He stared when ordered to bow
He defied when commanded to worship
For he understood what it meant to be blind
He questioned when guided to be silent
He thought when taught to accept
He refused when expected to follow
For he understood what freedom truly was
He spat when offered penance
He breathed when forced to die
He whispered when life was stolen
"I was the one who defied"

I feel all wrong
But can't contain it in words
A type of wrong that makes me think
That makes my head hurt
And heart ache
A wrong that makes the rights all smudged
"What's wrong" My mother asks
"I'm Fine" I shoot right back
But yet there is a deepened pit
A stone within my stomach
That urges me to think
Prompts me to listen
Forces me to deliberate
About nothing
Or everything
I feel like there is more out there
Yet I'm cocky and scared to death
I feel this wrong building up
A biding time for the emotional tsunami
BUT.
I.
DON'T.
HAVE.
A.
CLUE.
As to what is eating me a away
And I hate it
All of it
The soul crushing knowledge
Knowing the maze will never end
No hint
No help
This wrong in me begs to know
To know of its own confusing worth
It urges me to look inward
But when I toil I come up empty
People yell and dreams crumble
Swingsets still slowly sway
I feel the wrong inside me
A tumor in my soul
The feeling that you've left something
A feeling a numbing isolation
It starts in your chest and symptoms all show
As it spreads it slowly consumes you
Leaving behind the mangled corpse of a victim
Who never knew he was ill at all
Or simply thought it yet never sought to fix it
Fix the problem that I never knew
The problem that made the most sense

You always know when a room needs cleaning
When you sit up in bed while slowly dreaming
And you say those words
Those awful words
"I should really. clean. up."
From clothes to papers
Trash and toys
To all you girls and (lets be honest) mostly boys
That frightful moment when all stands still
Where your room goes under the surgeons knife…
And for me
Its easy
But very odd to explain
Am I the only one who can't ever decide
If I 'll ever need this tiny thing again?
From the trinkets to the binders
From trivial to the important
It is simply impossible for me to decide
What to keep or throw away
But!
Don't call me a hoarder
I much prefer the title planner
For what I keep may possibly be used again
In the end I shove it all away
In the drawers and behind closet doors
Gathering dust
And turning to rust
Waiting to be used again.

We say we want to smash the walls that keep the world apart
Dismantle all the hatred, laying dormant in our hearts
We say we want to crack the glass which divides us all the same
Even though our own misfortune, dissevers us with shame
We say we want a tranquil world a landscape rid of scorn
Yet we raise our idols up for humble followers to adorn
We say what comes to mind, much more thinking over feel
Losing track to what is fake and ignoring what is real
We say the world is so much more
You're the ones who open the door
We say many things but no action occurs
We are a people with too many words

The saddest villains are the broken boys
Not the tyrannical foes
Whose life came crashing
And days fell apart
So they turned on the world they once loved
Kicked in the shins and pierced through the heart
Bleeding and ignored these boys lay
But up from the ashes
The ruins and guilt
Up from the fire that enemies spread
Meant only to burn them and dust would they stay
They've conquered their hearts and shut out their souls
Broken all ties with the good days of old
And so they do toil in spite and forlorn
With every bad deed a new villain is born

Its the spur of the moment feel
When man makes his most radical choices
On that thin thread he bravely waltzes
Across the tight rope of his life--
Sometimes he falls while others times makes it
And what amazes me so
The will of man
For he gets back up and tries again
With confidence in his heart

In one hand I held a clock
That ticked with a deep and meaningful tone
The hands melodically spinning in hypnotizing fashion
In the other hand I held the riches of the world
It gleamed with unmatched radiance
Shimmering in the scorching sun
I sat back in my leather chair
Many years later
For me
Money was never a problem
I had no care in the world
The women came and went
The drinks never stopped pouring
The cars were always shining and new
I used hundred dollar bills to blow my nose
Wrote tips to impress the peasants around me
Took holidays in tropical resorts
Smoked Cuban cigars
Peddled ******* coast to coast for an afternoon buzz
I did what I wanted
Because my riches let me do so
I chose this life of leisure
This life of never having a care in the world again
But...
I chose wrong
That clock I held so many years ago
With all the money and power I had in my hands
I could never hold again

I sit by the noon light
Watching runners go by
Sitting so still, sitting so quiet
The afternoon chill
Fended off by the thrill
Of the buzz that hums in the silence
I look down and a smile develops
No longer afraid, no longer despondent
For my love, my crush, and pure sense of joy
Has warmed my heart again and responded.

There are some who fear to try their best
Afraid they will not succeed
And they hold in their hearts
From the very first start
That winning is out of their league
It shames me to say
That even today
I doubt myself and what I can do
But I was told by a man
Who believed that I can
Go try and not be heart broken
Because he told me why
That what I thought was a lie
And no one stops you from becoming who you are
For the winners of the world
The bright shining stars
Had all lost in the past and before
The winners however got back on their feet
Spread their wings and took to the sky
No care in the world what people ever said
They made a decision and let themselves fly

As our lives push onward
Trotting forward with the currents of time
The winding paths and curving roads
That everyone around me tends to take
In despair I stay put
Fortified in place where my mistakes have bound me
People pass by and grow
But yet I am frozen
Petrified and unable to advance
For I have no plan
No place to call home
With a touch of jealousy
And some guilt of realization
I stand here
Not knowing what to do with myself
Not knowing why I stand at all.

Oh how I would love to say
How overreaching your mind does think
From simple tones to colored words
Complications are born by your hand
I have no quarrel of your ways
All I say is let it fly
But as fruit does fall not far from tree
I have in fact invented thee
And so I take the blame

Sometimes I sit
And with deep gaze  
I look into myself
And wonder,
To whom will I give the bitter sweet maze
Of my heart
That goes aflutter.

Moss now grew upon the school door
Creaking as it twisted open upon my arrival
Only dust accompanied my descent
Setting sun rays filtered through the murky halls
Straining past the discolored windows
Pieces cracked beneath my steps
Trees had grown and clung to the walls
Wind whistled with the breeze
Steps echoed as I walked
Bouncing along the long narrowed halls
Leaves crackled, jostling as I crept along
Wood moaned and ceilings groaned
Water softened the once sturdy frames
The building wanted to die
Yet something kept it up
Something evil
Forcing the tired school to stay ***** deep within the wood
As if holding it up, dangling from the trees
Hanging
I could feel them
The eyes
Watching me as I walked down the rotting hall
Behind me I felt their little hands
Reaching out trying to grab me
Pulling my feet
I saw their faces
Twisted agonized faces
Shaped by the contorted wood on the walls
Wailing
Frozen with the fear that now gripped this place
Shadows danced along the setting sun
On the walls and across room
I past the classrooms
And in the corner of my eyes
They stood
Black figures made of shadow
Strung along
Black wiry bodies
With only two bright eyes
But when I turned they fled
Back into the walls whence they came
I reached the end of the hall
To where the stairs still stood
I heard a tune come from the basement
But stopped suddenly as if inturupted
The sun had now faded to gray
Only a scarlet tint colored the halls
Bleeding from the walls
The basement was dark
As I neared the bottom
The door still stood ajar
To a blackened room
A cold rush met me
Behind me they gathered at the door
I could feel their stares
Their cold blank stares
With mouths wide in a constant scream
I propped up the rope
And stepped up on a powdered box
And fell
The noose around my neck caught hold
And I kicked
But as I spun they were right there
Silently screaming right in my face
And I screamed for just a moment
As they grabbed me with their little hands
As they choked out their killer

A trumpet rang louder in the symphony of life
A darkness lifted from a well lit room
A star showed brighter in a clear night sky
A baby was born from an expecting mothers womb
A new day brought the glistening sun
A blue sky brought the clouds high above
A boy found a new note to sing
And he opened his mouth
And sung

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.

A boy stood solely
With his back to the sun he cast a shadow
Arching, twisting and blotting out the light
He held his toys in his hand, his momentary joys
And through his tears, through gritted teeth

He cursed the world who had done him wrong

But past that hate that deafening rage
Around that shriveled grudge
He had made his choice
He had picked his lasting seal
For on that day the young boy desired only destruction
And to this path the toddler ran

For it was the only way he knew how to get home

Tearing through the beaten path
A route taken by his father
A route taken by the wolves
The boy, to his delight, finally found what he was looking for
But in his malice
And in his undying hate
The quest for destruction stole even that away from him

And ripping his home out from the ground  
He was left with the only things he had carried
But discovered something that made no surprise
He was only left with carnage

I realize now the world is rules
Regulations to keep us in check
Fundamentals to our daily lives
And oh so how we fuss and fight
These rules will always win
I realize now this world needs discipline
Orders to keep us straight and firm
Where one man fails
Another helps him up
And together these rules bind us all
So hail my brothers to regulations and rules
Hail to the strict code of truth!
As we fall in place to these guideline laws
We shall never fall down again
Stand straight
Speak soft
Bow
And introduce yourself in full!
No lower can be tolerated
No flaw or change of pace
Rules are set and now inscribed
Forever shall we prosper

To be human
Is to be broken
Shattered, with all sorts of parts
But those broken parts
(Fitted back together)
Make us, who we are

Sometimes it's good to stare
and take the scene in,
holding it close.
The everyday walks,
the everyday talks.
Remember them.
Because these filler moments
and these places you see everyday,
shape you.
So hold them until they are a distant memory.

Words are merely blots of ink on paper
Formed to produce a sentence structure
Spoken words are only vibrations within our bodies
Reverberating in the air
Do not decieve yourselves to think
That words have the power to protect you
Words only reveal intent
With only the responsibility given  
Left to those who hear or read them
Words are only symbols when no one takes notice
Ink stains on manufactured trees
Nothing to the animal
Meaningless to the determined
You say stop
They say go
You write halt
They write no
Determination makes words meaningless
They make words nothing
For desire is the only word on their minds
Desire to accomplish the grandest ventures
Desire to push past your words
Desire to seize it all

The greatest men and women of our history
Never gave a **** what others thought
When wrought with the most sour of adversity
And maybe this notion is what separates us from them
When we've lost the confidence to fend for ourselves
Where:
A Nun cared for millions not for herself but for them
The Hopeless and Needy
A President guided a nation toward freedom and unity for them
The Lost and Enslaved
A Singer sang her heart out one step ahead of a racist world for them
The Broken and Battered
A **** defied evil itself to save those who needed it most for them
The Persecuted and Shattered
What we lack in this modern world is the sense to act
From me, to you, to everyone
Where the next one in line says the other will step up
Yet no one takes the stage, vacant, empty
And evil prevails for when good sits back and watches
The world gets ugly
People bicker and fight
Over ancient quarrels and forefather's sins
But for what
For themselves?
What we have forgotten is the ticking clock
And have been wasting the precious minutes
The seconds, the hours
Desperately digging for more in a barren land
Why not live a life not as a digger
A miner sent down into the dark lit caves
But as a human
A being capable of loving thy neighbor
And having a laugh here and there
Why not for once love more and judge less
Cause when we do that
Maybe just maybe
We could become the men and women of our pasts
Acting up as we see a dire problem in need of fixing
Not cause the people around you do the same
But because we choose to for ourselves for once.

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.

When I was young
With timid heart
I feared the monsters in my closet
The things that lurked in the darkness
The beasts that lived in my imagination
But as I have lived
I have grown to learn
That there are far worse things
In the reality of it all
And the safest place in this world
Is in the refuge of that dark closet.

We are the broken
We are the tattered
We are the timid
We are the shattered
We are the ones that dare to be new
Doing things the others don't do
We are the ones that believe there's a way
That we can be friends and all say
As a unified mass and a collective force
With an unshakeable and prominent cry
We are all brothers and sisters in the end.

A french melody played as I sipped the hot liquid within my cup
The lyrics told of a man who had returned from war
But when he came back to his town, there was no one left
And he was lost without his old friends, empty without his home
The café was quiet but the slow murmur of small chit chat
You had to take a dingy to get to the respectable little joint
They lined the wooded dock and a fading light blinked
A slight breeze came up through the villa
But it was a warm breeze and the water remained calm
The twinkle of the town across the sea winked at me as I sat
I felt like the soldier from war
Siting here inside this floating place
But a speck surrounded by the unknown
A plane flew above the small city
A fishing boat chugged away with its lonesome
I stood and payed the bill
And drove my dingy across the water back into town

A** path divided where I walked
Road and another split two separate ways
Less did my mind think, looking onward with a gaze
Traveled many miles, did I come this far to see
Is this the world's final laugh, getting the best of me?
Better to find my own separate way, leaving the roads behind
For I could not bare to think of a boring life, on predetermined lines
A life laid out by careful tending, life without any risk
Weary as I may be I set out to find my own path, treading softly, treading brisk  
Soul searching I would have to do, to find what I truly want from my path, venturing outside the norm.

No one wants to play with me
Children run, hide, and flee
For the more you have
The less you see
Twas the life of poor old me.

We stand at the precipice of eventual destruction
tip toeing along safety and danger.
Each man not a waypoint but a door
and within forever, inside infinity.
Diving within and below the collective unconscious  
each man a world unto itself.
Every woman a universe, each child a galaxy.
We found how to open these doors,
shedding light across the bleakness, the ash.
But do we dare see what is on the other side?
Does man deserve such divinity?

I hope and I pray
That some--dire day
The world will be my cushion when I fall
Hopefully by then
I, gladly can
Be held up by my friends all along
But if by then I have forgotten
What it means to love
I hope my fall will only wake me with the pain
I open my story books
Where secrets hide in nooks
And cracks which hold my, greatest shame
I hope and I pray
That some--dire day
I can lead my own way
Down this rocky path
And across the oceans vast
Where the skies are blue at last
I will boldly step into the shrouded unknown
But with the fire in my heart
I pray I'll burn a path through the stars
And pierce the heavens where the gods stand
And with my own hand
I will hold onto my dream
My dream
My dream
Where I will have friends to lean on
Despite what I've accomplished on my own.