riding out the highs of life
with manic ferocity

until

the minutiae of life
drag you down into the depths of despair

a pure loyalty like no other
hidden by a dramatized emotional facade

always there to bring you up,
simultaneously bringing themselves down
it's a slippery *****--
emotional support

Oh, to be Mercutio--
is to be the eye of a hurricane,
winding about a center
--that may not be
as stable as it seems

In this, my last hour of rhyme,
with stains uncontainèd by shaking hands
Spreading like red soldiers running wartime
untempered by generals shouting commands
Then laughing like drunkards, drowning in wine
that rich purple spills out from its barrels
Then lying on bartops, eyes shine porcine
and unheard soft voices hiss curses and carols.

O, woe be on me if I speak out of time;
out-tumbling come innards, spewed from a mouth
Which whispered sad prayers in corners of grime:
hints of spring-season on trips to the south;
Watch them out-tumble, watch horri-divine
like the death of the tragic, acted but true
Yet laughing old minstrels declare it quite fine:
and friends ensure royal-men breathe not from the blue.

Hours fly past on wings of the Sun
who turns misted eyes from child-fight below
And lives lives of many, but cares not for none
not least merchant servants, throttled in the snow.
I fade and I fade: a blossom once watered
and love of the stage is clogging my throat
It changes my words: I fight it, I fought it
and hot-wet floods up with drowning and choke.

This minute, these words: I defy death.
And cold, outward slipping: my slow final breath.

I was alone in the cold room,

Waiting for the bell of my doom,

Looking toward the sky and praying for help,

Who could have guessed mercury would rise so fast?

I am Madness and my heart melts,

Swords in my soul, stabbed to death,

Never believe in what you thought was true,

My words are part of you…

I am what I am, and You are what they want you do be,

Because in the future you will come and realize that today

Was the instant where my life and dreams collide.

I am Madness, I am light.

I am the friend, I am the fright,

I am the power and the anxiety,

Of falling in love maybe…

I die in your arms, and you cry for me,

Am I doomed to death to be truly free?

You learned me how to love and be loved in return…

Yes, today, I watch my world burn.