Your pain keeps you company.
You let your demons come out to play.
You wear your anger as a coat of armor.
And then wonder why everyone runs away.

she burned every bridge
because the heat from the fire kept her warm
and the danger of the flames were better than emptiness

she burned every bridge
and sank every ship
before she realized she was on an island
alone.

You're only pretty
If you wear this
            have this
            are this

You're only cool
If you smoke this
            drink this
            own this

You need it NOW
            Before it's gone!

A new and improved you

                  (Until we tell you otherwise)

Knives aimed, thundered voices;
Feeble thoughts and shallow reasons;
Blinders on, deafened ears;
Fragile freedom on her knees.
Shame on your bloodied hands!
Shame on your hollow conscience!
This is where it begins--the depths of her despair;
In muffled breaths of dead air.

Let me sell you a fraction of truth
slanted to fit the froth-rage box
you live in

I’ll dress it in grave tones,
even implicate a scapegoat
so your priapic blast
has a focus

I’ll use fonts from Comic Sans
to Times New Roman
to ensure you bite the hook

When you look in our mirror
the hate will be palatable,
tasty,
wholesome

and as we gorge we’ll starve

Ok, I'm not paid to think (like the TV shouting heads), I have no real voice (vote), and certainly no credentials - but I'm as invested in America as any high-school citizen can be - I've pledged allegiance 3000 times (hhmmm.. do they doubt our loyalty?) and when it comes to loving America I'd have to say my classmates and I are at the center of the spell.

I'm afraid we're growing up in the age of hate.. the age of phony outrage where each position large or small is high noon and violence is underfoot even when policing ordinary citizens.

We won't address the multitude of old problems in this new age.. we'll just unleash a marquetry of half truths to dispute the proven until unreasoned arguments reach their paranoid fullness. The real world is alarming enough - lets just push that away and ignore it - while we're at it lets **** shame the poor, the old, the sick, the unemployed, the hungry and the hand of mercy.

I realize America was never one moral atom bonded for better.. but those anvils that forged us appear neglected or forsaken. I'm afraid what's happening now, what we're seeing and hearing now, is a symphony of erosion - that by the time I have any say at all, the middle class will be gone - America turned slum - where even the voice of despair will be turned traitor.

We'll only be able to see our greatness in museum souvenir shops where nothing is affordable and everything is made elsewhere.

Infected satellite

Quarantined transmissions

The gory story is one whale of a tale

Turn up the volume

And hear it flatline

Or wait for (doctored)

Film at eleven