The “C” in Campbell
Left my proud resolve in shambles
As I made my rounds
I took a deadly gamble
With my witless hands
I spent my plans
On sleepless nights clouded with suicide

One step from the edge
The overpass fence
Became my best defense and my closest friend
I walked aimless
Anxious under bruising skies

The “C” in Campbell
An edgeless dead-end town
I sought my self-destruction
But no self was found
Only the burnt out and bored there
Spun out on cold stares
Hung out to air dry
By the slow creek with graffiti eyes
Broken hearts
Muted lies
We rummaged through stolen goods
Sneaking an alibi

The “C” in Campbell
We thought we were so much bigger
So much smarter
But we could never deliver

Not quite beautiful
Not quite scorned
We were insomniatic
Thrilled with being half-born

A buck shy of broke
I was thinning away with every rhyme that I wrote
Like a fevered poem
I was skin and bones
So alone

The “C” in Campbell
I dream of you washed in light
Freed from that which harbors you
The depravities of night

I know your streets are not so clean
I know your stars
I know your amphetamines
I know you too can be redeemed
From mediocrity and self-pitty
The underbelly of a forgotten city
Skin and bones
So alone

The “C” in Campbell
Believe
Believe!
There’s no other way out

“Shoot the Dead” (rough version)

I settled for a while
To catch my frozen breath
Until I caught a strip of steel
As you aimed to shoot your dead

My eyes are growing tired
From this constant stream of red
Every time I come around the bend
You recoil from shooting your dead

With the calmest demeanor
Like a seamstress stitching thread
You never stop
The hammer drops
You go ahead and shoot your dead

All they ever wanted
Was a place to lay and rest
But true to form
You swoop and swarm
To blankly shoot your dead

You talk of brotherly affection
As you hunt for stranger flesh
Each life you take
Is a bed to break
As you stoop to shoot your dead

“What can quell such bloodlust”?
I ponder in my head
While the leaders of the free men
Quietly watch you shoot your dead

“Renovation”
Time and time again I’ve said
“Is the only cure for genocide”
Another acolyte shoots their dead

You hide behind barbed wires
Beating on your wireless chest
You talk so tall
But your reach is small
Another critic shooting their dead

I’ve spent most of my existence
Living large on stolen bread
A face among the slaves of hate
Just a coward shooting the dead

Father
I hope and pray
I bow to humbly beg
Rip the skies
Mend our lives
Before we shoot every last one of our dead

I see hope deferred

Homeless in the dirt

Choking on the violence

Of our every stifled word



I see hope deferred

Hiding in the back row

With no concept of worth

A life spent in the shadows



I see hope deferred

Longing for eternal release

Another **** up year

Struggling in the streets



I see hope deferred

In every motherless child

Hanging on to a bad cough

Hearts sick with denial



Can you hear hope deferred

Calling out for assistance?

Would you bridge the gap

Or stand deterred by the distance?



I know hope deferred

Thick chains around the soul

Constantly on the run

From the noise between my skull



I see hope deferred

Traded in for hope revised

Pull off your skeleton clothes

Put on the cloak of a bride



I see hope deferred

Overcome by recovery

I'm taken back by mercy

And the love which covers me



I know hope deferred

Will be gradually displaced

With the venom in our veins

Through a sure movement of grace



I see hope deferred

Finally removed from this place

The nations rest in God

Sunlight softly warming their face

"The Refused Part Two"

We must hold the lines
No more drills
No more compromise
When the worlds barrage us  
With lightning and drive-bys
Cesarian messiahs
Nations deified
We defy
All of their abuse
Stand tall
All The Refused

History stammers
When truth is hammered
By humanistic holograms
Facts edited for one hundred grand
They'll impose new realities
Blessed *******
Proud plurality
Invitations to kiss their wrists
Pray to the state
Silently submit
BUT!
The faithful must not sign their truce
Stand in the Lord
All the Refused

We know
WE KNOW where our answers are
Rightly divide
Pull apart
Each lawless judge
Each merciless czar
The pawns of nations
Built by oligarchs
To tip the scales of justice
And sew sin in the yard
Stay grounded in truth
Renovated children
All The Refused

There is no glory
In their lesser laws
Secular cures
Palaces of straw
Night and day
They claim to save
With the pagan ways
Of their savior state
God becomes the institution
With idolized science
And cultural revolutions
All we can do is remain astute
Through faith in Christ
All the Refused

We the Refused
To promote perfect union
Cast down the witchery
Of humanistic confusion
Their messianic state
Their Socialist ways
Their lust for dominion
And unending praise
We cling to Jehovah
We sing the Evangel
We pray each day
For the demise of tyrannical scandals
What else can we do
But deny revised history
And fabricated new?
Train your minds to study Truth
This is war
All the Refused

Beautiful Eyes
Inspires my mind to write
As we pour over pictures
To celebrate young life

Son of mine
A most precious gift
God blessed you mother's womb
Such wonderful heritage

Beautiful Eyes
An arrow in my hand
May the Lord keep our household
As we grow to live His plans

Son of mine
The prize of an excellent wife
She wakes to make home for us
And settle you in the night

My only son
Compiled in perfection
The call to fatherhood
Begins at sacred conception

Beautiful Eyes
At your mother's doting side
We pour over memories
To celebrate young life