the stars
align
in celestial
matrimony
her eyes
twinkle
with the
light
of a
million moons
day
breaks
the heavens
impart
their wisdom
of
illumination
and
the stars
align
once
more

I asked him twelve times to do it.

Then he died.

So I did it.

I should have done it all along.

when you try
to
                         escape
through the cracks
    of an
empty space
your theme music
                dis-
                      si-
            ­               pates.

She said to him,
"The stars,
can you see them?"

He replied,
"I do."

She said to him,
"The ocean,
can you hear it?"

He replied,
"I can."

She said to him,
"My heart,
will you hold it?"

He replied,
"I will."

daylight
                              breaks
the king of kings
               sheds
his glimmering cape
and sets
     a crown of gold
atop his
opulent head

the sun sets
      in western whispers
astral sagas
spill
         their wisdom
on the night's
canvas

and to the east
eternity

the breeze
                 brisk
the sirens call
a dance of a million
stars is
      upon us
wait for the awake
of
dawn
cherish her
   natal light
for the stars
                 shine
not only

    at night.

I look at you
through
          beams
                      of
            ­­             sunlight
and all I see
is the shadow
of the boy
that
I used to be.

The silhouette
                 of your lips
pressed against the
smoke stained,
off-white walls
    mouth the words
I can no longer
hear.

And it is here,
in the space between
shadows
                and silhouettes,
where a boy's dreams
so innocently
lie.

The air tasted
as if
a star had fallen.
The moon, her
             gallant glow.
A tear
from a warrior,
spilled
against the black velvet.

syndicated stars in the celestial sphere                              
a marksman fine tunes his aim.

heaven haunts the hallows                                                          ­
two deep inhales.

an entity in the empyrean                                                         ­     
his hands tremble.

noble as the natal night                                                            ­      
two deep exhales.

amidst astral auras                                      
a bead of sweat falls down his cheek.

a nebula nurtured                                            
chatter from a robin across the field.

a dimension divine                                                           ­                     
he closes his eyes.

the orbit orchestral                                                      
moonlight shadows the land.

aphorisms of aligned astronomy                                                      
­his shot rings out.

hold the handwritten harmonies                      
*a cloud of smoke left in his place.

The lieutenant walked somberly up to me in the crowded walkway of decapitated foreign bodies. He raised both hands up to his forehead and stiffly saluted me simultaneously with each.

“Sir,” he said with a look of defeat on his face, “the brothers…”

Reading the melancholy look in his eyes, I took off running down the aisle, hurdling over piles of the enemy scattered all about the grocery store.

Turning the corner at the end of the aisle, my heart dropped down through my feet to the ground as I gazed upon the aftermath and fell to my knees. There in two chairs facing each other were my alien comrades, brothers as it were, sitting limply and almost lifelessly. Struggling through the last bits of pain, their thin arms set delicately on the arm rests of their chairs struggling to reach out to one another.

I began to cry.

Kneeling beside them, I softly grasped each of their hands and laid them atop one another as the distant stares in their eyes became more vacant with each passing moment. I placed my hand on theirs, lowered my head, and sobbed relentlessly as my breaths became short.

When I looked up, the two brothers were hunched over and almost motionless setting next to one another staring longingly into each other’s black, moribund eyes. They gazed deep into each other souls consoling their sibling in their final moments, staying connected down to the last second. I laid my other hand atop their touching hands and cried gasping for air as I kneeled there next to their dying bodies.

As they passed, I felt the greatest sense of love I have ever felt for this set of alien brothers, whom I had never before met.

One sole warrior
keeps watch over all the other birdies.
He ruffles his feathers, sticks his leg out,
and pulls it back in.
He turns his head to and fro
and surveys the land.

A little chippy bird tries his luck and lands
near.

The warrior spreads his wings
as he glides
from branch to branch.

Three hops before he makes his break for
the sun.

"I have two cats!"
         he said with a laugh...
                  as he fell to his knees...
                            and rolled on his back...

The time was all there
                       but the money went flat.
            The essence of nightshade
                                         That will do that.

So onward he marched...
                                              and later he squeezed
but rightfully so,
                       the windowless breeze.

With fortnights on days
                               and cherry blossoms in bloom,
Mr. Finnegan woke up.


It was half past noon.

Senses of lethargy
                         the clergy files in
                                                metal flowers grow to the sun
                                                             ­                     disperse, disperse

Surges of transparency
                          the harrowing feat
                                                  intimate illusions squander
                                                        ­                           the hearse, the hearse

Symptoms of atrophy
                          the pale wind prophetic
                                                       ­  fourteen dead
                                                            ­               the horror, the horror

wilted flowers degrade
to recipes of splendor.
she looked
and he was gone.
anonymity
his name.

Walking down the street on a sunny day,
I got my ******* my arm and I feel okay.
Heading to the bank because we're leaving LA.
It's gonna be a good, good day.

Mr. Bank Teller, how you doing today?
I'll just take my cash and be on my way.
You see I got my girl and we're leaving town.
Ain't no reason to stick around.
Next thing, it happened so fast.
The door swung open with a mighty crash.
"Put your hands up high. I'm gonna need your cash.
Let's be quick and don't half-***."

Mr. Robber, Mr. Robber
Please let me go.
Mr. Robber, Mr. Robber
Please let me go.

"Alright everybody no need to be funny.
In this bag, you're gonna put your money
and everything that you hold dear
I'm gonna take right from you here."
Whispy clouds, sky grey-blue,
I said, 'Honey, I sure do love you.
Here's what I want you to do,
take my ring never let it stray from you.'
"Robert, my love, please don't let me go.
Let's just do as we planned and go to Mexico.
Our feet in the sand, the sun in our soul,
together you and I, we can grow old."

Mr. Robber, Mr. Robber
Please let me go.
Mr. Robber, Mr. Robber
Please let me go.

Suddenly I turned my back.
I took a step and made my attack.
I grabbed him by the hands, together we danced
a unfortunate dance with much less romance.
With one fell swoop, I thwarted his plot,
forced him to surrender right there on the spot.
The people around they shouted their praise
for they would get to live to see more days.

Mr. Robber, Mr. Robber
You must go.
Mr. Robber, Mr. Robber
You must go.

In that moment when I looked lax,
Mr. Robber, well, he played his jack.
He reached at his leg, his finger was hot.
The people all cried when he fired that shot.
"Robert, my love, please be okay.
The police and paramedics are on their way.
The security gaurd, he got the robber.
Robert, don't go, you're going to be a father."
'Listen, my dear, I want you to hear me.
Where ever you go, that's where I will be.
Show our boy all the love that we have
and never ever let him forget his Dad.'

Dead Robert, Dead Robert
Why'd you go?
Dead Robert, Dead Robert
Don't you know?
Dead Robert, Dead Robert
Why'd you go?
Dead Robert, Dead Robert
Don't you know?

In the dark of the night
a stranger appears from the shadows,
in his hand
a golden chalice.

The stranger approaches.
I sit alone
under the only lamppost in the park.

I gather my wits.
The stranger draws nearer,
cold breath smoking from his black hood.
He stops in front of me.

I tremble.

The stranger reaches out his bony hand
grasping the golden chalice
and whispers,
"Choose the chalice for life.
Choose not and wish you had."

My mind becomes chaotic.
Thoughts of triumph and regret
flood my consciousness.
My legs are numb.
My feet seem to mold to the ground.
I feel my very existence
begin to slowly fade.

The stranger,
who is he?
From whence does he come?
Why does he choose me?

The lamppost above me begins to flicker.
It casts a shadow over the silhouette of his face.
His face?
My face?
Can it be?

I lift my arm
to reach for the chalice.
My arm is heavy,
my breath short.

The lamppost flickers faster.
The wind howls.
The temperature drops.
My heart races.

My fingertips are just to touch the chalice when
the light stops flickering.

My breath becomes long
and deep.
The breeze,
soft and subtle.
The stranger,
gone.

I sit there
attempting to rationalize.

An old man comes strolling by
humming a jaunty tune.
As he passes,
he stops.
He looks into my eyes.
I feel again unable to move.

The lampposts flickers twice
then goes out.
I jolt up,
fear looming.

Then a flash in front of me.
I look up.
There is the old man
holding a flame atop his lighter.

"The light will always show the way,"
he says.

I stood there
dumbfounded.

And the old man continued to walk down the path
humming the same cheery tune
and holding the lit lighter over his right shoulder
all the way
until he disappeared from sight.

Impasses from existentiality
tend to note a lack of traction
that stem from the over-indulgence of reality
and leave no room for satisfaction.

Impervious to legality,
a man’s thoughts bear no restrictions
and they retain their vitality
in the hallows of his diction.

For the undeniable veracity
of a man’s veiled civilization
can be shadowed by the farcicality
of his pursuit of ostentation.

------------------------------------------

However­, in all actuality,
the ever-looming devastation
that’s caused by man's functionality
is paint on a canvas.

Oriental paper cranes
and waterfalls of lemonade.

A sunshine-scented, smoky haze
covers candy-coated everglades
while whispers waltz with time and space
and raindrops roll down ceiling drains.

Sacramental epitaphs
and water streams on sassafras.

A dismal, dark decrepit path
mourning missing morning's sunlight laugh;
singing songs so sweet at last
and flying free oe'r breaking glass.

Artificial floating clocks
and water droplets burning hot.

A million, melting mountain tops
shadow somber sunken river rocks
as amber ash advances spots
and transverse travel never stops.

Today was yesterday’s
greatest fear
and tomorrow will never come
if you let yesterday’s fears
affect today.

Tomorrow is today’s
greatest fear
and yesterday will loom
if you let today’s fears
affect tomorrow.

But yesterday can never be tomorrow’s
greatest fear
and today becomes yesterday
if you let tomorrow’s fears
affect you today.

Woke up on the cold side of
the bed again.
Lit my cigarette by the wrong end.
With decisions to weigh and debts to pay,
I dance better by myself.

Abandoned paved streets
shadowed by bright city lights;
a motionless breeze gives flight
to broken kites.
The man in the hammock dangling
by a string
stays aloft in his solitude.

In the trivial pursuit of a
worthwhile endeavor
a life neatly filed away is run
through a shredder.
Spoonfed as a child then left all
alone;
jilted like a bad penny.

Seeing through a prism of a dull
grey shade.
Bewildered at the ease of a
one-sided trade.
She built you a throne made of
leather and silk;
a throne made with only three legs.

Tree without leaves.
Night without stars.
Book without words.
Street without cars.

Eye without sight.
Mother without daughter.
Joke without laughter.
Pond without water.

Lightning without thunder.
Clock without time.
Tea without sugar.
Bell without chime.

Life without Love.
Once without twice.
Me without you
just won't suffice.

What's up, Chicken Little? Whatchu think you know?
The sky is fallin', Skittles droppin’ out the rainbow.
Don’t hate me cuz I’m fast. Don’t hate me cuz I’m keen.
Hate me cuz I got more tiger’s blood than Charlie Sheen.

My rappin’ is a skill, wait, matter fact a habit.
This rhyme is so rare I threw a Masterball at it.
Ima get you to the point when you done think you had it
then keep on chuggin’ through like the Energizer Rabbit.

Runnin’ this game since I was born in 1990.
Ball so hard like Waldo everybody wants to find me.
Watch me as I fly free, practicing my Tai Chi,
soarin’ through the sky like Ben Franklin with his kite key.

I slay wicked verses like they fire breathin’ dragons.
Always down for an adventure so they call me Bilbo Baggins.
You got your feet draggin’ from all your pithy laggin’.
Chokin’ on my farts, left you in my dust gaggin’.

My girls be elegant while yours be nothing but ******.
No diamonds in my ears cuz I don’t like to be flashy.
You just can’t get past me, kilo in the backseat.
NOS tank in the front so them piggies can’t get at me.

Lyrics like the plague so they call my **** Bubonic.
Sittin’ at the bar gettin’ drunk on gin and tonic.
Blowin’ on that chronic, so fast they call me Sonic.
Watch me transform as I go Megatronic.

Is my **** too fast? You need to stop and smell the flowers?
I am just a human, I ain't got no special powers.
I could go for hours. The rap game I devour.
Like Frodo with the ring takin’ down the Two Towers.

My rhymes are heavy duty while yours be made of plastic.
Better call the Doctor cuz this **** is getting’ drastic.
Snap back like elastic, I made an instant classic.
Light the roof on fire with a flick of my matchstick.

I’m tellin’ all them haters that I’m wicked sick nasty.
Dissin’ all they want to but they too scared to come at me.
I go where the cash be, rappin’ makes me happy.
Don’t wash my hair for days cuz I like that **** *****.

All I really wanna do is have a rap battle
cuz my rhymes are so disgusting they’ll make your head rattle.
You’re in a boat with no paddle, on a horse with no saddle.
It’s lookin like you’re gonna hafta ******* straddle.

I know I have the sickest flow that you have ever felt.
There’s nothin’ you can do it’s just the hand that I was dealt.
Killa Kraig will make you melt, yes it matters how it’s spelt.
Get it right the first time or I’ll leave you with a ******' welt.

My game will give you chills from your head down to your feet.
Sittin’ on the couch cuz I love to chill with Pete.
I’m the man to beat cuz I bring all the heat.
Grew up in the burbs, didn’t grow up on the street.

They gave me a gold medal when I scored a perfect 10
cuz I got the versatility of an erasable pen.
Singin’ like a ren, no need to pretend.
Murkin’ rhymes like zombies like my Asian friend Glenn.

Honesty’s a virtue so you know I never front it.
Always swingin’ for a homer, ain’t no need to ever bunt it.
Now you really done it, watch me as I run it.
I made it to the center of the Tootsie Pop in one lick.

Crusin’ round town in my green 6-4 Impala.
Drop so many bombs that you think I worship Allah.
Dolla’ after dolla’, cute as a koala,
but ruthless as a renegade Viking in Valhalla.

My lyrics kick you in the nuts now you talkin’ like a munchkin.
Drop you to the floor like some Mohammed Ali punchin’.
Where is Conjunction Junction? Do the number crunchin’.
Get you home by midnight so you don’t turn into a pumpkin.

Stickin’ to the game like some universal duct tape.
Give you three tries while I nail it in one take.
I'm the sugar on the cornflake, the reason for an earthquake.
I'll toss you like a salad or a chicken in some Shake n’ Bake.

Now grab a pen a paper cuz here’s the final lesson.
I know who’s on first so now tell me what’s on second.
I did the number checkin’, I’m the best I reckon.
While you standin’ at the wrong end of my ******’ Smith & Wesson.

Looking through your life
like a fish tank on the wall,
what you come to see
is not what’s seen by all.

Bubbles and formations
lurking in your path,
seeking all the answers
you may come to find that…

Fishy, fishy in the sea
won’t you one day come to me
through all this transparency.
Fishy, fishy in the sea.

Two fish, three fish, blue fish, green fish.
Which one will I be?
Bait the hook and cast the line
while I wait patiently.

Now I’m no mathematician
but correct me if I’m wrong.
Last time I checked, ‘forever’
was more than one week long.

My fault, I suppose,
for wearing my heart on my sleeve.
It was there for loving
not as a wipe for your sneeze.

The smile on my face
is a lie at best.
What matters is the sinking feeling
deep inside my chest.

The highs are so tall
but the depths go too low.
It’s too dark down here,
no light left to show.

Such is this life,
no birds left to sing.
I suppose all that is good
needs replacing.

In honor as captain
I’ll sink with my ship.
Carelessly lost
like a last poker chip.

In the depths of the sea
I’ll have much time to ponder.
Why it went wrong
and what lays on yonder.

How could I have been
such a fool once more?
Should have learned my lesson
a thousand times before.

What a game we play
for the ones we wish we had.
I should be grateful
although I feel bad.

My door swung open
before even a first knock.
Life is one big question
when we are staring at the clock.

And the clouds hanging over my head
make me want to stay
right here where I’ve sat so long.
What foolish games we play.

You’re sweet like candy to my soul.
That’s why you’re my sweetheart.

You make me melt like a popsicle.
That’s why you’re my hottie.

You make me feel like a little kid.
That’s why you’re my baby.

You make me buzz like a bee.
That’s why you’re my honey.

You make me feel frozen in headlights.
That’s why you’re my dear.

You make me the happiest person in the world.
That’s why you’re my love.

There’s a hole in my heart
when you’re not around.
One left from a missing
piece so profound.
I think about you
when my skies are grey.
You brighten my world
on the cloudiest days.
My wish was granted
and you became mine
as my feelings developed
over much needed time.
Like a snowman outside
on a bright winter's day,
my insides melt
when you are away.
Here is my heart,
treat it not like a toy
because I am your
forever boy.

Like an aged piece of wood
that has
sat idle for too many years,
I am petrified.

Like the rotting leaf
that has
left it’s safe spot on the branch,
I have fallen.

Like the sweet sticky sap
that cascades
down the surface of the tree,
I am running.

Like the seed
that has
sprouted from trees before it,
my love is growing.

Buy the ticket,
take the ride.
The feeling that I hold's
sublime.

Long hard hours
full of pain.
A world of knowledge
I did gain.

Books and tests and math
and gruel,
I came and saw and
beat this school.

Now sitting on the steps
I wait
to take that walk
and graduate.

What lies next
I do not know.
On to bigger things
I go.

Money is a catastrophe
nothing but pure blasphemy.
People of the world
living in a state of atrophy.

Pardon all my apathy
for those who live too happily
but where are all the consequences
for their rude audacity?

We don’t need the pageantry
of all our fancy gadgetry.
Find it down in yourself
the reasons to dispatch of thee.

You want to sit and laugh at me
cause I live by frugality?
Money shouldn’t make us tick
and that’s the harsh reality.

The idiosyncrasy of
the elasticity of
a heart
that knows how to mend,
bewilders the mind
of the drunken fool
who thinks that it is the end.

To ameliorate
his rate of devastate
he must look
to his celestial mother
who he not yet knows
and out of cool, still air
soon he will discover.

But the throttle of
the bottle that
he cradles
deep in all his grief
kidnaps his abilities
like a devious,
forlorn thief.

And soon then when
again he finds
another
to hold tight
his mother will have
shown to him
the beauty of her light.

Let’s teach one another
all the algorithms
of love.
We can balance
the chemistry
and learn each other’s
foreign languages.
We can walk down the hallways
of each other’s minds
and I can carry your literature.
I will learn the beat
to your music
and you can jot down notes
about the anatomy
of my heart.
Let’s meet in the
solitude of the library
so I can study your history
and
when the time is right,
we can explore the geography
of one another.

When a fire cripples
and comes crashing down,
the burning fireflies
that jump up
                                     and out
are the remnants of
the heat that
burns so intensely at
the center of the blaze.
As they
scatter
frantically
in every direction,
they are filled with joy
to be liberated
from their
benevolent captor
only to regret their
emancipation
moments later as
they dissolve into nothing
in the cold of the night.
Embers littered
across the sand like
stars lying against
the canvas of a
dark winter’s eve
resemble the same pattern
that you left me in;
Free
         but lost.

.                                                The taste of                             the pain that
                                            you left linger in                   my mouth dries my
                                        taste buds and makes         me crave your quenching
                                     affections just once more.   Just one more last sip of the
                                  divine nature of your existence is but all I ask of you. Please
                                     just one last smell of the beautiful budding flower that I
                                       used to dream of and the same scent that worked to
                                        encompass the very essence of you and I that drew
                                           me to your sweet, rich nectar like a humble bee
                                             working hard to provide for his lovely queen.
                                                    Just one last glimpse into the beauty
                                                       of who we used to be. Just one
                                                             ­       last kiss then I let
                                                             ­                you go.

I like my women
like I prefer my wine—
warm and smooth
and better with time.
Upon coming home,
I know what to do.
I'll loosen your top
and begin drinking you.
I’ll open you gently
with a smooth, fluid twist.
Let you flow past my lips,
first sweet and then crisp.
My head starts to spin,
my face feels flush.
My world is on fire.
I must be a lush.

It came from somewhere in a tree,
Lord only knows what it could be.
I asked if he could show to me
what it means to him to be free.

He said, “Son, now listen here.
Live your life with little fear
and one day when you shed a tear,
to the answer, you’ll be near.”

I asked, “How much time will it take
to rid the world of all this hate?”
In my boots, I start to shake,
tremors worse than an earthquake.

You see, what he saw was very clear.
“Forget the far, only search near,
and when you do, it will be clear
why we all are living here.”

And as we walked out in the rain,
I asked if I could have his name.
The only names that he would claim
were ****** Billy and insane.

Why must it be
this way? I asked her.
Have you forgotten?

I haven’t forgotten, she
said, I have just moved
on. Why can’t you?

Moving on is not
so simple, I said,
when there is so much
to forget.

Shrouded by the shrapnel,
   the delicious taste of hate
fuels the burning fire
   that the greedy men create.

Sifting through the silt
   clouded by the dust,
love becomes a legend
   rotting old like rust.

If not for the power
   then surely for the space,
land consumed like knowledge
   nothing left in its place.

Distracted by the glory
   of imposing harmony,
your conscious is left floating
   at the bottom of the sea.

Bodies in the soil
   as souls float up above,
what happened to the notion
   the world was run by love?

Searching for the answer in
   songs instead of violence
will teach the angry men
   to listen in the silence.

Explosions in the distance
   while you sit on your throne,
trying to build heaven
   so you can call it home.

Overlooking reason,
   big business is the key,
asserting all your dominance
   despite the people’s plea.

Creating too much sadness
   is also too much sorrow,
we must pray to see if
   there’s light left for tomorrow.

Tending the light
at the end of the tunnel,
the magical mystery
that plagues the
                     consciousness of
you and I
becomes nothing more
than sinister
        celestial laughter.
A fallacy to some,
filled with redemption
for a penny per sin,
paths are carved and
driven into existence by
wear from
        constant
                      treading;
a symbol of the depth
of the mind’s dark aptitudes
to conceive and believe.
Simplicity overrun by
                  complex, anti-intuitive
conceptualizations of
the infinitism of
beginning
                 and end.

Remember Mitchell Schumacher?
We all knew him.
Well, actually, his name wasn't Mitchell,
it was Michael,
but you know kids with their nicknames.
Playing video games until the sun comes up,
sleepovers, girls,
riding bikes all over town,
and down that old dirt hill;
it seemed the good times
would never end,
our innocence tying us
close together.

But now he's a cop
and I'm sitting in his jail cell.
My long hair and bag of grass
were no match for his
shiny, metal badge and shaved head.
I asked him about that Game Boy
I left at his house all those years ago
as he sat me in the back of his car
and told me to watch my head.
He looked at me
and laughed.

We used to know him.
Remember Mitchell Schumacher?

Like the sand
that seeps
through my fingers,

she slipped
away...

The harder
I squeezed,
the faster
she fell.

Now it
is her hand
clenched around
my heart,
wrenching the pulp
to satisfy her
thirst.

Lone Eli was a boy
who was awfully coy
and knew few who
were like him too.
Whilst searching for aid,
poor Lone Eli paid
the price of being
lonely and blue.

His heart grew weary,
building with fury,
for the friends that he
would never know.
Gathering his strength,
measuring the length,
off to the cliff
he would go.

With one last thought
for the decision he bought,
his fear would
certainly trump.
Feet on the ledge,
pushed to the edge,
Lone Eli decided
to jump.

As he made his peace
with all of his grief,
he drew in one last
breath of fresh air.
With a final gasp,
his mind could grasp
that, probably,
no one would care.

Lone Eli began
to lean forward and
off in the
distance and fog,
in his time of need
his valiant steed,
came running.
It was Buddy, his dog.

“Buddy! Hey pup!”
He said standing straight up,
“I thought I told
you to stay home?
Buddy, I swear… Wait,
what you got there?”
and at his feet,
Buddy set down his bone.

As Lone Eli stared
at his companion who cared,
he knew that he
could never pay
back his best friend,
who in the end,
helped Eli to fight
another day.

Just like the vastness of a deep ocean,
your blue eyes penetrate me with
the swiftness of a clean sword strike
falling its enemy in one single blow,
leaving behind nothing but a trail of
desire as deep and red as the blood
that runs through my veins.

Just like a glazed shrapnel of ice
melting on the floor,
I am under your spell;
a spell to which you must have cast
a thousand times before.

Just like the dew that dances upon
delicate blades of grass on
a brisk, spring morning
or the rain that falls and
covers the bare earth,
your beauty crashes upon me
and blankets my existence.

I am unto you,
for now
and forever more.

The sinewy thoughts
that glaze over the fragile crust
of what was once my mind,
track not a trace of what I've left behind.

The sharp angles of this early morning’s sun
shade the horizon like a night just begun.

*******.
I'm sleeping.