I can't save you.  
Maybe somebody else can,
but I'm drowning all by myself over here.  
Can't you see this?  

I'm hanging on
to so many other people right now
that I have no free hands for you,
but if you can find a corner
of my shirt then grab on.

Don't say I didn't warn you,
and stay the **** away from my feet.
I'll kick you
I'm not strong enough to know
the difference between
helping and hurting,
and if you're weak like me
we'll both

s
   i
       n
            k

Everything I say is perfect
Everything I say is right
Everything I say comes out in a storm
It's what I say, so run!

Dark, tired teeth.
Blood and arrest with a wreck
Got a set of eyes with a leather sheath
Chilling with harmonies surrounded by tears and a salted cassette.

Saw you yesterday
Never seen you before.
I find you in my dreams
You scare me in yours!

I scream!
You stay
I beg,
And you stay!

You haunt me,
But I love you.
I came all this way
But so did you!

Sunroof open
AC off
Music cascades off the doors
and the floors
and escapes through the open windows
to bless all within earshot

Eyes jacketed behind
A fresh set of shades,
making the blues and greens pop
to the beat of the wind in my eardrums

Cool
crisp
breeze settling on my face
with a touch of sun
sending a warm glow down
to the very core of my soul.
It's my day like Claypool said.
What's better than Primus
on a fresh Spring day?

The leaves
on the trees
Remind me of newborns that can barely lift their heads;
unfurling
growing
reaching out to touch the sun
like Superman getting his groove back.

Buds bursting with color
like the fourth of July.
What a beautiful day…
It's great
to be out on a drive...

A Lover's Prayer

There's a quiet place inside me
I don't know where it is,
but I think I found her years ago
and I love her and I'll never stop
I said I love her and I'll never stop

Stupidity of youth
Oh! How you've cheated me,
but I've cheated myself you know.
I still smell your love and your lust
I've found you again
under the most strangest of circumstances
Under the weight of sorrow's sickness
I bare the weight
I break the restraints
and run to you with mending heart
and open arms
to accept you with all your glory

Forever
And ever
Amen

I'm glad I live in a country where I can ***** to no end about every ******* thing I can think of.  

I love the fact that there are gay nightclubs within walking distance to my home and that there are transgendered individuals in and out of my house 24/7.  

I love the fact that my wife is Catholic and isn't afraid of Muslims.  

I love the fact that I have more firepower than I would ever really need (really...I ******* do!).  

I love the fact that I can question any religion I want to and attend a service of said religion if I want to as well.  

I love the fact that I can order a dido and a bible from amazon and have them arrive in the same box together within 2 days.  

I love the fact that I can call 911 right now and have a fire truck, a cop, an ambulance, and a medic all show up within five minutes of each other and keep my silly white *** alive if I'm dying.  

I love the fact that a woman just ran for president to try and take over for a black man who was president for eight years.

I love the fact that I live in the craziest, most free country in the whole ******* world and that no one can take it away from me, because I'm surrounded by other people who feel the same way.

America...land of the free and home of the brave!

We're all here
Look at us
Acknowledge us
Would you please not forget us.

I'm important
And so am I
It's my rights that are in question
I'm afraid I'll lose it all

We won the office
We'll take the crown
Turn this place
Upside down

Put it all together
A couldron of filth
Toxic mixture of lies,
hate and misunderstanding

Broken windows
and people in black bandanas
Hoods up with hate-filled eyes
With flags of anarchy

No peace
No way to know peace
Without a piece
It's all an incredible joke
And we're the ****

It's a new day with a new CIC
I pity you
I justify me
Oh say, can you see?
Not me...
Certainly not me
I don't know you at all,
and I'm scared!

A warmed up tube and a sweaty board
Slippery steel sloppily chattering
underneath my finger tips
The space is dank and hot and my ears are ringing

We've been over this a hundred times
What's one more
Or four more
Homeboy forgot his lines

A cigarette hangs from my lips
and the sweat constantly drips
My shirt is soaked
Brain probably fried from all the **** I smoked

But none of that matters
There's three new songs to get down
We gotta tighten that **** up
Get it all packaged neat for the rowdy crowd

I wonder if I was the only one in the room worried
Probably
All that went away as soon as we broke in
Properly

The song
The set
Free *****
Gallons of sweat

Memories that I could never forget....

Lookin' up to the sky at God like
"Gimme gimme!",
and I almost lost it all
but he shook his head
and dropped
a net under me
cuz Jesus laughed and said
"That's why they call him your boy!"

Pretty sure God laughed
a little when I bounced
Pretty sure he laughs
a little every time we bounce
He knows we'll be back...

Antidote
By Steven L Herring

Words wither
wavering in winter
and fall to the ground as dust
Burning desires
Upset with obsession
and a particular
set of skills separates
the wheat from the chaff
but the rod and the staff
are the same snakes
and I am the charmer
Buried in bottles of oil for sale
Sweating and pensive
Swearing that snakes won't bite
The gathering crowd won't lie
It's human to watch people
with slit wrists try
to cover cut throats
Bring the pressure
or watch them bleed out
Supine and sweating
as the poison flows fastly
to my heart
As I lay dying here
with her soft supple hands
caressing my face
realizing that this is not the end
This is the beginning
and all the snakes
are dying in the grass
as she soothes my savage heart
I can't stop smiling

I've got two hands in my pockets.  One is filled with hope, peace, love, and charity.  The other one is filled with hate, anger, hopelessness, and selfishness.  I've tried and tried to put them together, but they always blow apart.  I walk around feeling like people are staring at me and my Jesus Christ on a cross pose.  It's really frustrating sometimes trying to go through doors.  I have to turn sideways...and all because my two hands won't let go of their precious cargo to meet in the center of my body.  Sometimes, when it's quiet, I swear I hear them talking to each other.  One is begging the other one to let go, while the other screams in agony.  What can I do, but sit and wait for a miracle...or a machete mishap.  One hand has so much to give, while the other wants to take away the world....

Life should be about traveling and relaxing.  It should be about cold winter nights around a fire with your best friends and warm spring nights in a field with tents and a grill.

Life should be filled with laughter so loud that it interrupts most things, and songs that everyone closes their eyes and sings along with, holding a smile between parted lips and love in their hearts.

Life...big sigh.  Life is so short.  Too short to let go of.  Life should be ripped from your fingernails while dragged across a hardwood floor kicking and screaming; begging not to have it taken away.

Life is lived on by us.  We keep it sacred, and we love it.  We share it with everyone, and everyone who smiles at you throughout your day appreciates and understands that, whether they say so or not.

You're life.  You're love.  You are loved.  Never forget this.  Even me, as angry and as hostile as I am, I love too.  We all do.  And we pass this on to strangers, so they can and they do.  

Remember.  I love you.  Pass it on....

My eyes are in leather sheaths because they have to be
Otherwise, my emotions would be so plain to see
The only thing that gives me away is my mouth that spills the words that will be the unrelenting death of me!

The depth of me?  I don't know man!  You tell me, because all I see is your face staring back at me;
cold truth with a sprinkle of angry
and a dash of salt.  The full moon is the only time I can blame it on lunacy,
otherwise my crazy sticks out like a hot **** on a cold day!

Why do I do this to myself?  Because it pains me if I don't!
Besides, I love to imagine that look on your face when you read me
somewhere between that guy falling off his bike and your mom's new brownie recipe.
Ba ha ha ha!  Seriously though.  I don't care what you think of me.

As long as when I speak, you think at all.  That makes me happy.
That gets me through my day.  If you're gonna walk around with your ******* face glued to your phone, might as well read something that made your brain hurt a little, *****!

Peace man, be easy...

There's no light here
This side of the moon is dark and cold
No one to save you
No ansible to broadcast your dismay home

Dead, dry eyes
and dark circles
underlying years of sleepless nights
accented with coffee stained teeth

Everybody dies
Nobody lives forever,
and everybody lies
a little, but some are more clever

With western eyes in a leathery skin,
we drag ourselves on over the bodies
over the broken souls
of victim and predator akin

But take heart, my friend!
It's not so dreary as it appears
Substitute sadness for independence
and confidently embrace the end.

There's no light at the end of this tunnel,
but take heart!
Embark on your final journey traveler!
There never was a tunnel to begin with

If I could save time in a bottle,
I'd pour it all out for my homies
and head back to the store
for some Ben and Jerry's!

Life is full of lemons,
so keep your ******* cherries!
Just hand me the sugar bowl
and spoon me out change for the ferry

Life is pretty scary if you stop
and think about it for awhile
It's filled with emptiness
and fanatics with minds running wild

All I got is a pocket full of loose change,
broken dreams and empty promises
a broken heart and a mix tape
that's full of songs for ostriches

My head is buried in the sand
and...and I can't quite say when I started to care
Has it always been buried here,
or did the tears and fears take away all my air?

I'm just as big of a mess as you are
and I always have been, see?
If you're gonna eavesdrop, better listen and take notes,
else you make all the same mistakes as me.

Thunder
God's bowling alley
Lightning licking Earth’s most sensitive places
Striking a fire in a forest fumbling for new growth

The grass,
green with envy of winter's cold solitude
Last leaves crinkle brown under rubber tires
and fresh chlorophyll fills the air
In backyards around campfires
With children playing and laughing,
pale white skin with a touch of red
from warm Sun's rays

Ah Spring!
Nature's apology for long cold winter nights
and days trapped inside
snowbound
without an end in sight.

Come, spring!  
Give us your joy and your mirth
Bless us with flowers,
showers,
and a pretty, painted Earth!

Teetering on the edge of a precipice
prefaced by an ominous gaggle
of creaking timbers and the wafting
of rot from such great lows

The scene was drab and dark and typical
Nothing mystical or mysterious
about the drizzle or the salty spray
from a far off dark sea

The gulls gathered garishly
hungry with white plumage
that seemed unapologetic to the
plight of those still standing atop the heap

Iron tickled at their nostrils
while bits of gore fell from great heights
as the sea birds did their best
to clean up the rotting flesh

But the onlookers still gathered
placing pressure on the rest
to take the leap
into the heap
below

Where the wind would no longer blow
and the decomposers triumphed
under victory over humanity's last breath

While wanderers wondered what came first,
the eggs all cracked under the pressure
and the violence
and the rage
and the bitter anger won the day
while death laughed at gender
and gorged itself on equality
giving the ultimate soliloquy
on peaceful serenity

Flowers and honeysuckle
grew from their skulls
and their rib cages became
such beautiful lattices for the ivy
Finally!
Something good grew from humanity!

Not a day goes by
that I don't think about you
Maybe a second
A minute
A couple hours
Those times when
I'm in the shower,
but not a whole day

And when you told me
Not to worry when you
didn't respond right away,
I said okay
Then you didn't talk to me
hardly all day

That's okay
Hey
I'll just back away
Hold tight to what's mine
and if it's not you
well that's okay too

God knows I need some me time
Some get back into my routine time
Some put the phone down,
stop obsessing about someone else's
problems and bring
the focus back to mine time.

This traveler's tripped out
stripped out
on his last loose *****.
The last thing he needs to worry about
Is YOU!
Are you sure that's okay, boo?

That's what's up then.
I really don't have any room in my life
to worry about another hen

I guess I should thank you really
We **** heads anyway.
Willful duo better at opposite ends of the bar
Like bookends hold things together
better
from afar

We'll be okay
I think
someday.
If not, then we'll always have the mountains, eh?

No worries man
Foggy bottoms are
best left a mystery,
since you can't see where you'll land...

A spark
Smoldering so silently
But still there nonetheless
They never forget

Not visible
To the left a little bit
Or to the right
In a corner
Out of sight

Evaporated once,
But somebody added water
So it simmers still
Sits there
Invisible and angry ready to spill

Been there for as long as I remember
Somebody showed me once
They showed you too
And as much as we tried to forget
It kept coming and coming back
Rearing it's ugly head

We'd say we don't have time for this
Let's move on!
That's what got us here in the first place
Just leaving it to boil on a back burner
Letting its power grow ever strong

But here it is now
Right up front for all to see
Split down the middle
Couldn't spit across the faulty divide
However hard we tried.

We can build a bridge,
But we'd better do it quick!
This division will swallow us whole
Or divided either way

Hate doesn't care
It's just hungry
It will eat anything
It's moved in now,
And it's here to stay...

From one thing to another
Molded
Formed
Stretched out across an expanse

Shifting to shape' s surface
Whatever service it is
Appearing stagnant, but never really quite still
I evaporate and reform upon your window's sill

Sometimes I never really leave
Still others never remember seeing me,
but I'm there nonetheless
Through thick and thin,
smooth sailing and choppy stress

I'm never afraid to stay or leave
Whether I gather upon the tip of a leaf
or blade of grass
or rain down upon all of Earth's creeks and crags,
for I am like water,
and I'll always be back for another dance...

Blinded by Regrets
By Steven L Herring

You ain't woke
You're a joke!
Walkin' around with
one eye closed
and a stick in the other

You're supposed to be my brother
but you mope around
like everything's wrong
and cut the tongue
out of the mouth
of your own mother

You're a cancer
fighting against a cure
Cutting down Osimandius
with a blow torch
refusing to recognize
his death as final
The sand was all that was left
but you dredge it up
while hiding your
true intentions all the while

What's the harm?
You ask me to fall in line
I got a little bit of chalk left,
so I draw my own
to avoid your land mines

Your a disaster
and I'm a commotion
that stirs it up better
than the roughest of oceans
Cancel me not already
doctored up by censors
Keep the truth steady
and the history for mentors

I only got one question
before the judge calls for recess
When will you let go of the past?
At this rate, America will never last!

I want to run to the top of a mountain and jump off of it.
I'll die at the bottom when I hit the ground,
but on the way down
at least I can say that I truly lived completely free
in a moment.

Absence makes the heart grow cold
It strips the bark from the tree
leaving the wood underneath
to slowly die naked and exposed

Absence makes the leaves wilt and wither
crumbling in, no longer able to open
for light from the sun
leaving the soul to shake and shiver

Roots rotten from all the tears falling
A hollowed out base
Nothing left inside this place
but a whistling wind and an eerie silence calling

Bitter bark scattered all around laughing
make for a terrible audience of onlookers
who heard too much from a babbling brook
drinking it all in while self pity lay writhing

Not much is known
about a tree alone
in the woods
but when it falls in solitude
the news spreads quickly enough
and it's read from the tree's
own stripped skin
spread far and wide for all to see...

This is an open mic
But there's no bulletproof glass here
What you say
Will directly affect your pay.

Your best bet is to keep quiet and listen up
That mic in the corner is poison
You're not ready to handle it
Organize your thoughts and come correct

Don't be
Another casualty
Think about what you're gonna say
Before you spray

Somebody will come from behind
And give you more than a piece of mind
Leave you breathless and bleeding
Leave you toothless and weeping

So think about what you say, son
This stage is a trap
This mic ain't so open.
This room is a meat grinder, and you're the meat.

Burned Out
By Steven L Herring

I wish I felt
something other
than backwards right now...
Like when you put your
hoodie on wrong…
Staring at the back of it
like ******!

But you can take
the hoodie off…
This feels permanent
kinda sorta…
The world is on fire,
and I'm watching it burn
from the comfort of my recliner

And I'm so numb to it
I want all action or all quiet
And I don't even really want to
hear about your riot!
Burn it down
or shut the **** up man!
I don't believe in words anymore
Feed the sloth
until he pops
or put the pigs on a diet!

By Steven L Herring

If I were a poet,
I'd be damaged goods
and all the world would whisper
as I sought beauty in the woods

If I were a poet,
a peculiar one I'd be
Robust in every single way
morning, noon, and end of day
all I am is me

If I were a poet,
an oddity in fact,
I'd start my days with gasoline
and the brightness of a match

If I were a poet,
I'd bleed on every page
Silence,
sadness,
laughter,
love;
crescendoing in rage

I am a poet!
A wordsmith if you will
But even if you won't,
a poet I am still!

Ground Hog's Day
Better pray.
Ash clouds send us all to the man to pay
tribute to the fallen soul of America.

Got a pocket full of ***** to give,
but that's it!
When I'm out, I'm out *******!
Don't come up and ask me for ****!

The apocalypse is a joke told to the masses to justify
all of the terrible things tyrants have done to terrify
us into falling for all of their lies!

But I am my own brand of devil.
I am my own brand of a ghost faced, scowling rebel,
and I will spread my brand across a thousand deserts
and a hundred seas to set the slaves free again!

Tell your Jesus mine is different.
Tell your Mary my martyr is a *****.
Tell your pastor I hate hymn.
I'll scream my praises to the most high
under a dark, grey sky!

I'll palm mute a motor mouth.
I'll put pressure on a liar,
and eat the weakness from a wraith.
I'll set your church on fire!
I am the funeral pyre...

It's grey outside
and I'm looking for something warm
but all I find is snow covered metal benches
The blood on the top makes me think of cherry slushies

Bare branches break
in a driving wind that relentlessly
pushes me
and my face is a cold stone slab of nothingness
staring out of a dark void
filled to the rim with emptiness

Eyes
so dry
they ain't seen a tear in a month or two
but I'm like Conan as I walk in circles
pushing this stone wheel somebody called life
I get stronger and stronger
til I am the mountain before my mind
and bigger than anything anyone else has ever climbed

I crack a tooth-filled grin
and swing the bat again
cuz even Casey connect wood to ball
every once in a while

But it's so grey and black inside me
I'll find some place to run and hide me
just til this wind dies down a little bit
not a lot
just a little
...****

Cracked
By Steven L Herring

Cracked
Not wide open
or closed tight
Just open a smidge

Always a craning neck
Always a curious cat
But it's the ones who push
that get inside
and the ones who
point and wag fingers
never ever stay long

Push back
but never close the door
Bite the fingers off
but always give them back
and leave the door cracked!

Chicken Littles coming out of the wood work
Like maggots out of a dead deer dangling
From Santa's sleigh ride

Got a devil in the white house
What's new?
You can't recycle old news
You can't put dead bodies in church pews

Pockets full of politics
Heads stuck in blenders
We'll all become activists
As long as Samsung and Zuckerberg can make it happen
On eight inch screens!

Never lifted a finger for a cause past a ballot box
Never gave a fork full of ***** for bums sleeping in parking lots

All of a sudden,
Everyman was stuck apologizing to a female
For an offhand comment
To an off brand television host

Meanwhile, it's still cool to walk up to a reporter
From the five o'clock news
And **** her right in the *****
While she's recording the neighborhood's on going blues!

But hey!  As long as he's not running for office,
He can say what he wants in front of cameras
About any jive female's orifice
Right?

Hmm...

I'm sorry,
Maybe I'm just confused
I don't know what's right anymore
When everything's wrong....
I'd rather just crawl back into my 20 something hole
And take hits from some ****.

I need a good body guy
My ride is a wreck
The engine just sputters
All of the passengers are *****

I give up hope
I think it's a total loss
No one wants to listen anymore
and everyone's the boss.

That moment when you're laying in bed
and the song cascades from an exploding star
to a calm,
quietly quenching
cerebral smile

Crunchy to clean
Fading out into a starry summer night
in a field filled with just as many points of light
in the sky as ears of corn in the soil around you
Grounding you
Planting you firmly on the earth
while reminding you that you're not alone in the universe

The corners of your mouth rise up
to high points on your cheeks
and there's a warmth
in your stomach similar to a liquor feeling
but you’re totally sober

Music makes my life worth living

Controller roller coaster
off the rails
down some off-beaten
path in a forest full of broken trails

****** nails bent and broken
down a splintered cross
just to find out we're wrong
and that we can't be our own boss

We'll cut our losses and plug back in
But what does it matter then?
If all that was me is so deeply flawed,
Then what is this ground worth that I've clawed?
They say to throw my hands up
and give it all to God

I'll be the machine man made
of flesh and guilty bones
ruled by brightly burning images
from screens in comfy homes

Charcoal grills and girls on fire for *******
and a head full of guilty pleasures
Life in a loveless void of
meaningless madness
sadness
and half measures

But I am the machine
man made for fleshy,
guilty pleasures
and something else entirely
sleeps at the wheel…
phoning in direction
and they run me.
Im automatic….

Two broken branches in a cave
Both are just stories
Lies
Built by slaves
For slaves

A Golden book about a lost puppy
Men try to gather other men
Toss women into a lake,
and spit on them!
**** on them!
Worthless!

Both just stories
Both worrisome works written weakly by left handed men.
Barely men, I say!
Barley had more importance than paper penned by them!

Jews and gentiles...
Worthless spit
Of man's self importance!
All descendents of the same two arbitrary arses
Who made a break for a planetary
Singularity.

Cell division ******* by partisan politics
The very miracle of humanity ruined
by worthless people who couldn't
Feed themselves outside of a boxed lunch

But it's just a hunch...
Take Jesus off your cross and live.
Or, you can die....
Two ***** and a **** I don't give!

Destroyers
By Steven L Herring

From foreign shores
came the dragons fire
Hordes of killers and devourers
Wake
******
****
Strip
Take everything
Never sleep
Carriers of plague
Brimming with contempt

Their hearts hard and burnt
like the land around them
Subjugated
Subdued
Subclass
They would burn their own kind
Children's screams to pay no mind
Day in
Day out
With or without
a stare of indifference

A dragon's breath
makes his words worthless
Paper mache fire
Wearing a wire
in the precinct
Burning question after question
Minds on fire want to know though
:
Who's the dragons?

Stacked smoke billowing to the sky
Mixing
Mingling
Mugging moisture from the air
and raining down into the streets below.

We tread upon it unconsciously
Care corrupted by a deadline
from some place we must be,
so into the gutters it doth flee
flowing just beneath
and into the sea
and into the ground

The animals drink it
The plants tortured turgor broken backs with it
Packeged in pools
Sent through pipes to me
and to you

We drink the dragons breath
Drunk on power
Pitiless to the plight of the flower
Breathing sulfuric steam
Green to yellow
Yellow to brown to gray to black

We started to take it back,
but the power
The lust for more
The trust in ****** and swindles and crooks
brought back by cornered mouths hooked.

Green could be life,
but green is now greed
and we are but claws
on the feet of scaled beasts

There's fire on the mountain
Would you let it burn you?
It only hurts a little.
I'd die to climb it!

Give up everything to behold
The majesty of it's summit
Taste the air and feel
The vapor engulf me in its thick, smokey fog

Let licking tongues of flame
Burn away blame
Turn the impossible into a smoldering cinder
Ready to spark another trail of lust and adventure

I died on that mountain top
My eyes burnt from weeping
Never to witness it's beauty again for as long as I breathed
I gasped and spit with tears of ash and lungs aflame
At the end of a dying dream...
Only to awaken and realize
the mountain and it's fire were just outside the door
Waiting for me to come and explore....

Drive
By Steven L Herring

Sometimes, I just want to go
You know?
Pack a bag
Grab the keys
Grip the wheel
and ******* peel

Who needs a rearview
when you got a bright
night sky
an empty road
and a clear view
with a soundtrack
for an escape?

Everybody just wants your money
and your time
but I'd spend every dime
I had on a little peace of mind
climbing up a mountain line
with a stick in my right hand
feathering a clutch and a go pedal

Left
Shift
Right
Go
and down the other side
I'd float
and I wouldn't ever stop again
until both my eyes closed

I could live on gas and oil
Eat the asphalt for dinner
and see
and feel
and hear it all!

But the truth is
I'm so plugged in
that when I got too far away,
the cord would break
and my will would frey
and all the insulation
would melt away

It's the fear
that keeps me here
chained to the ground all alone
like a bait dog
with an old bone
Broken
Tattered
and all the things
that shouldn't matter
cling to me like blood spatter

Am I a victim of circumstance
or a prime suspect
who blew a chance?
Only time will tell I guess
So I'll keep driving
til I'm out of gas...

Brightly colored sky
blinding kindly through a ***** windshield
Warm hands contrast the cool night air
Soft and soothing
Gently smoothing away all the rough edges of me

Driving into the sun and surf and quiet
The sleepy salty sand dunes cast dancing shadows
against an indian summer night
My melting mind is rarely quelled, but quiet tonight
A welcomed brake from a broken week

Smiles
laughs
and good company go well with friendly photos
A marsh bird flies and rolls the credits
while the others gather for the night's jovial laughter

But me?
I drive home alone
smiling still somehow with a sense of hope
that all will end well....

Blistered ego like a fractured egg
All the shoes fit,
so you walked out the store with a hundred empty boxes
and a broken twelve step program with your **** on hurt

Worried about words when
you really didn't have any to begin with
Just a picture with some meaningless *******
in one hand and spit in the other,
and when you clapped,
you got a
******
spitty
face

But I didn't mean to upset you
Not really though
I should've stuck to my plan in the first place
and iced this birthplace
of rage
and wrote a poem about it the next day

But what the **** do you want from me anyway?
I'm only human
Born to make mistakes,
but I'll drive this stake
through your heart with a tongue dagger
I'll say what I feel so hard it'll make you
stagger
and stutter step backwards
like "That guy's got some nerve!!!"

Sometimes I'm a butterfly
kissing you on the cheek sweetly
Other times I'm a fly on a brick wall listening
Still other times I'm the brick in your head glistening
with your drool
and your five mile stare
of disbelief that I would dare
hit you with the truth

No worries though
I only act like this on days that end in "Y"
You'll be okay
or you won't
All that really matters is that I'm gonna sleep good tonight...


regardless

It's dark in here and it smells like beer.
Cold, cracked and crumbled.
The silent stillness is edgy.
Breaking;
broken through with an axe,
beatings and screaming!

The stillness is gone now,
and the floor moves.
Crawling, clawing, kicking and punching.
Less a circle and more of an infinity symbol.
A fine mess of distress and stress
stretched out and spreading.

It's catching like a cold.
Wall to wall madness,
but toothy smiles and ****** buddies
is all that's seen in the
strobing, stumbling
almost bumbling hundred man pile up on the floor.

My heart beats to this perfect cacophony.
Smells like angst and desperation and gym class!
He shares his pedestal with us.
Like one we all merge together
and find our happy place
til it's all over.

Headed home.
Head full of stories.
Ears like telephones ringing,
and beds bringing sleep.
I bought a shirt said I was there...
blew half a paycheck...

but I didn't care!

Empty the Armories or Empty the Arteries
By Steven L Herring

The gun in my hand
is warm and bright
Rectangular box filled with evil
to light up the dark night

Mourning in glory
My ansible
to reach across the stars
telling even strangers my troubles
through the dim light of parked cars

I'm all thumbs on the trigger
but the cartridges are cocked and locked
Hovering over a pseudo-nuclear option
and the guilt gives way;
brain blocked

Come, clarity!
Soothe the savage beast in me
I don't level playing fields
I'm the creator of craters,
Blowing holes where love used to be

Carpenter of caverns
Lying just beneath the surface
Empty
The best thing
that ever happened was when I
dropped the magazine to the street
and made the chamber safe
Easy!

And now for my next trick,....

I wish I could
If I might
Be able to erase your minds tonight.

Not all the way
Just a little
To make you forget
All the evil

I would erase your skin
Show the world what I see
The good that steals itself away
Deep inside
Hiding within

Like children
Playing games in a front yard
Or drinking from a hose
Of hateful racist ideology
I would dispose
And make you brand new again

I hate all of this animosity
I hate it.
It makes me hide my face in shame and sorrow....
It attacks my soul and tortures it.

I saw mountains and forests and rivers and streams.
The beaches with their salty spray called to me from afar.
I imagined trails and creatures of every kind.
Tree sap, sticky, sticking dirt to my hands.

I could smell the campfires and hear the laughter
and taste the hotdogs.
The acoustic guitar and softly singing sweet lips
tickled my ears and goosebumps gave way to a contented smile.

I could feel the wind rushing through my short hair and the
Low hum of the tires on the rocky, ***** trail
complete with root pops, plucking at the spokes like
the agile hands of a master harpist.

And then there was the snow from downhill rooster tails
carved with care by girls and boys on boards.
The splash of water from some river craft in rapids
and that smile again...so big it made my face hurt!

It was weeks waking in tents...
Maybe months or even years!
It could've been anything, man.
I don't know...I don't know, but my imagination ran with it!

The plates on this peculiar car read "North Dakota,"
but the stickers and the racks and the solar cells
on top screamed ADVENTURE!!!!!
It was amazing to see.

I stood there with my friend in this city scape
for a few moments...that's all.
But this car...oh this car!  It made me think.
It made me dream, and it made me lust for adventure....

I'll just hide inside my head
Wait and hide
Til you all are dead
No longer a failure will I be
Your eyes are closed now,
so you can't see.
You can't see me for what I really am
Your eyes are closed and filled with sand
No you can't see me for what I've grown to be.
Just another man.
Just plain ol' ordinary me...

Gray clouds with a cold wind
Your eyes are dark
but your skin is soft and warm
and I could lose myself in you
with a smile and a song
in my once broken heart
but now on the mend

Your taste
Your touch
Your smell
You're like a drug to me
and I'll be left here to chase you
like an old man with a fading memory

You're the one that got a way once
and I hate myself a little
for not getting away with you
There's electricity in lightning
and it shocks me every time
eye see you or hear you talk or laugh

I'm a sucker with a sob story
and you've got the best
ears on the planet
I've known your heart
and I've seen your soul
and it shakes me to my core

I want to capture your tears
I want to quell your fears
and hold you
like a comfy bed in winter's cold
I want to make you smile away
all the bad times and fill you with
the love I kept close to my heart
all these years

I've seen your soul, old friend
It's a little tattered and bruised
around the edges but I don't care
I love you just the same
no matter what...
no matter where

Maybe I should just stay at home today.
Maybe I should just throw my phone away.
I'll hide in an over grown bush
Away from all the people who push

Keep your grubby paws off me
Your sideways glances and sneers make it hard to be
Happy and so easy to be hateful
And lost; unfaithful.

I have no faith in anyone or anything but failure.
Everything we touch is another broken thing to fix.
As the days go by, my thoughts become much darker,
Because all I see is a world filled with ******* and ******!

As I sit here in my morning thoughts,
All the damages surveyed
All the ***** holding tightly in their pots
There's only one recurring theme conveyed

We'll have our cake...and we'll eat it too
We'll see this through
**** the cost!
Selfish and ******...
Anything but true....

C'mon, man!
Rip it out of you,
throw it on the floor,
and stomp on it.

Cake the hole with
***
Liquor
Netflix
and a wickedly nihilistic view
of how the world works.

Watch the blood gum up
and sputter out the sides
with each step
A sticky right foot
A broken sternum
and a soul all but gone.

What are you doing today?
I'm busy watching the devil
get his due.
I'm wasting worthless, wilting words
on eyes full of planks.
Devious minds
full of tedious pranks.
It's like the whole world stopped
because some ******* broke the crank!
You asked me a question,
but I draw a blank.
Lips in a straight line
devastated by an entire lifetime
wasted building the future
With a chainsaw and a
cooked goose ice sculpture

There's nothing left
but a tub full of rainbow colored water.
There's something about smoke and mirrors
that makes the smoldering hole
in this heaving chest just a little hotter

It's a festering infection
when you're stuck staring
into a lonely crystal ball.
Reaching out for feeling,
but there's no loving
touch to turn it off.
Just a bunch of empty words
and a liar in a mirror.

Never knew a sky so bright
Hands high in praise
The silver lining to a million mornings
Til the power went off anyway
Then it was dark again in your own mind

***** dusty ***** soiled dreams
wet with your spit and froth
And you would touch their secrets
without a care or a kind permission given
Without a smile
Just a *****, angry mouth
and a sinister stare

How many hundreds of flowers did you ****?
Stolen sweet scent of beauty
and serenity crushed
with the cascading cocophany
of protesting lips
The quiver and shiver of unsteady vocal chords
When she said no
you locked the doors
put her on all fours
and tainted her petals
with your
salty
oily
filth

And here you are now
with nothing to show but stems
bare and broken in a jagged fashion
You're sorry now with dead petals under your feet
and a foundation that has crumbled at its base
as you slip into a black sea with nothing to show for it
but an angry mob chasing you
to the cold, sobering waters of reality
at the bottom of the cliff
you've been perched on for so long
Your glass shattered by your own boulders

Felt
By Steven L Herring

Sometimes I forget the fire
inside me
Lungs lumped with coal
Every exhale
a chance to burn it all down

Through clenched teeth
disaster awaits unrelenting release
Furiously curious
with the question of the day
Why can't I control chaos?

My soft hands remember the
calluses like it was yesterday
Where have you gone old friend?
Have you gone off the deep end
or are you teetering
on the edge of the board?

But that pool holds no water
and your heart was meant for more
Cracks in the concrete crumble
over time and time again
is nobody's friend past the clock

Be still my heart
as it beats out of my chest
for the chance to love again
and rest on the arrest of feelings
Rushing
Pushing
Finding their way out from burial
long forgotten and left for dead

I'm a quieter fighter than most
but the sun shines on me now
and I'll take every stray ray
I can get and every smile I can wear
I'll just keep driving...

I'll write a poem about you
and when I'm through,
I'll crumble it up,
round file it,
and set the whole thing on fire
way before anyone sees it

I hate you because you shame me
Every time I think about you
My stomach churns
Every time I scribble out a few sentences
I'm embarrassed about those written words

I'm such a liar anyway
and all I ever do with poetry
is betray myself with that truth
All I ever do with stanzas
is demonstrate my
complete lack of couth

My meaningless mouth mixing metaphors
with grit and grime
and words that
send serious shivers down the filthiest sailor’s spine

Even when I try to behave myself
I **** it up somehow
and write you wrong
I mean I'm so ******* clever man
Really
Sometimes I say **** that
makes me want to slap myself silly
And for what?
A couple of likes and kudos
from friends and strangers
that get fished in for friendship
that may or may not be real

You feeling me?
I'm glad somebody is
because I'm not
I'm glad you're here, because I'm lost
I'm hooked on some fleeting feeling
I'm hooked by some frail fallacy
of who I'm supposed to be
Vs
who I really am

I gotta be honest though
I really just don't know
My hands are in stick up mode
I surrender
Please don't shoot

At the end of it,
I guess I'm just me
so that's who I'll be
Don't pull the curtains just yet *****
I'll figure this mystery out soon enough
...you'll see

Fireflies Light the Way
By Steven L Herring

Saturdays…
Listless
Effortlessly floating away
in an acoustic haze
A man breathes
into a microphone
with the greatest of ease
slipping softly
into melancholy

Blue sky and warm
sun sing songs that
make the heart beat slower
and in the distance
you can see it
start to sink a little lower

People hustle and bustle
but the shoreline calls
the wounded to her
The mountains and the rivers
heal the heart's decaying beat
and beckon like a worried mother

If you listen closely
you can almost hear them say
Just hold on for one more day
As heads hang low
hearts skip beats
as summer's massage
tells them it's on the way