Mopin' in an overpriced motel
Trying to decide what items I can sell... Well, what's few and far between
Hardly any parts are even left of me

though THINGS do not define us
Take a peek in my chest cavity
You'll see I am righteous
High-strung Yet somehow Vibrant

Here it is, kids
'Tis the season of unrest
There's no sleep just tweakers
Screaming obscenities
In shadow corners
"****" "****" "****"  "godammit"
Im watching his sanity go
Right out the door

Is it the allure?
OR
Perhaps its the warm bed?
That's keeping me from leaving right along with it
I bite my tongue til it becomes
Blood red
Before I know it my mouth
Begins mimicking my head

And I'm yelling ...


"****** I can't stand it, get your **** together man!"

Wealth drips from the fingertips of the rich
They languish in the materialism of the good life
Living out heaven on earth

The rumble of an empty stomach echoes through an alley
***** and homeless, people crawl to their tents
living to starve another day

Flashing lights brighten their already made faces
As they step carefully out of the limousine
Greeting the crowd with a wave, they enter through double doors
Ready to make a dramatic entrance

They sneak a sandwich through their ratty sleeve
As they wander through the convenience store
Desiring the things they cannot purchase
Alarms ring in their arrest

Bubbling champagne fills them with giddiness
Socializing with the friends that stick around for the money
The wealth that you have
And that they want

Waiting for your release
From this empty, pitiful cell
They stare at the wall,
Marked with the days until release into a life worse than before

As they head home, you realize
Is this a life worth living?
With fake friendships
And worthless objects surrounding you

As they uncuff you, you realize
Is this a life worth living?
With poverty at every open door
And no future to look forward to?

They both rush to the brooklyn bridge
Poised for the rush of bone-chilling water to fill their lungs
But as they look out at the city
The bright lights spell out:
The system is broken

All is good
Someone else will do it
There’s no urgency
Isn’t that nice
Oh that’s too bad
I’ll get to it later
Ugh, is she asking for money?
Just look away
Isn’t that inconvenient
Hmmm, not now
It can’t be that bad
Another sad story
Just so far away
It’s not real, not fleshy

But let me tell you just how fleshy it is…
Let me tell you how he spat up his insides
All blood and foam and green-yellow bile
How he vomited all hope from his saggy-skinned chest

It was such an easy operation
And your $20 could have saved him
No joke

But instead he withered away
Waiting…
And then he died…

And you still have your 20 bucks
You still went about your day
A day of stress and worry and convenience, no doubt
And I was left with tears, and a body to ship

You can leave the life
But the life wont leave you
Its talons are hooked into your chest
You’re reminded of the pain
Every-time you breathe
And i know it hurts
Youre scared.
That life you left behind
That you clawed your way out of
You dont want to fall back in
I tell you that you never talk to me
But the more i sit here and think
The more i realize that you did
But my ears were closed
Only wanting to open if you were blunt
But thats not you and ive been so deaf
Your wounds were never hidden
Your scars never covered up
I see it now
How can i not?
Im quick to jump
and quick to push away
And i never once thought to just keep my feet on the ground
To just hold tight to what ive had
In a perfect world i’d have thought
In a perfect world you wouldnt know the pain
That comes with an empty stomach.
And you wouldnt be craving the thing thats going to destroy us
But im your rock.
Your reason for living
And i meant it when i said i shouldnt be
I shouldnt be
Im on my own downward spiral
What if i cant hold us both up?
Were going through our own same ****
Breaking our bones to try
And fit in the boxes we made for each other.
Everything i said was the truth
My love for you is unlike any other
Im breaking my bones with a smile on my face
And tears in my eyes
We have to break to get stronger
To be better
And when i look up at you
I see the universe in your eyes
And i feel it deep in my soul
It surrounds us
Swirling around our bodies
Like nicotine smoke
when the sun is sleeping
I feel the pain in your marrow
I see it dripping out onto the floor
Nose bleeding and hands shaking
Ive been so focused on me
Me me me
Always me
Never you
And we have the same problem
Do you see it too
We cant escape
Promising to not hit each other
But look at us now
Bruises decorate our bodies
When i told you i liked it rough
I didn’t mean emotionally
And look at me now
Making it about me again
Maybe i wasnt there when they gave the lesson on how not to be a narcissist.
How not to be selfish
How to ******* open my ears and rip open my eyes
Its taken me such a long time to see your struggles and now that ive seen them
Im scared to leave you
Not walk away from you, from us
But the road im on has me walking towards death himself
And time and unforeseen occurrences befall us all
Ecclesiastes 9:11
If i died tomorrow how would you live?
I worry about that
Im not immortal
and im not going to make it into paradise
I hope you find peace within yourself
I hope you find comfort in my arms while it lasts
I told you last night to look at where you are now
No longer in the hood
No longer in the game
No longer with that pain
Look how far you come
You’re not alone anymore
You have us.
And were not going anywhere
I need you to remember that
When the pain comes back to haunt you
When i get mad and walk out of the room
When the memories flash across your eyes
Remember that.
Put your faith in my promises that i made you in the kitchen
Put your faith in those lyrics that you relate too so much
And when the day comes that my heart is no longer beating
Put your faith in my undying love and stay strong
Don’t fall back into that life you left
Don’t be scared.
I meant it when i said i’d never leave you.
Not even in death.

I don’t really like to play the victim,
But I'm being failed by this system
7 hours, a hostage to cinder block rooms
With nothing to do but let myself be groomed
Into someone's labor source  

If I don’t have money, I cannot live
But nobody seems to have a thought to give
To my Life being turned into a commodity
Something to be owned, taxed, a luxury  
That sometimes I’m not able to afford.

So much stock is put into democracy
But we don’t matter to bureaucracy
Unless we use the paychecks earned
From the Liberties we burned
To fill their empty promises

They call us ungrateful and lazy
For recognizing that this life is crazy
And resenting all the thought and time
Spent in the Pursuit of a rich man’s dime
Instead of our own Happiness

"Somewhere", spoke the grey lips in the wall.
Somewhere before sunrise,
before the first bird crows to dawn
and the apathetic are yet to uncurl
the grit that gathers like dust
between the folds of shallow eyes.
"Somewhere". A derogatory term.
Their humanity bears no resemblance to us
as skin and bone the only price to pay
for "unpeople".
Cities made of paper,
soaked in a drought. Somewhere East.
Or maybe South? Somewhere far off relevant,
so alien to home, allotted just enough frames
for you to feel how fortuitous;
but not enough so the screams
swallow your evening meal and you swat the sound of flies
pouring through the static of your transient box.

Sometimes walking on my way home
I used to wonder who owned the road
But, when I saw abandoned souls without phones
I realized that they paid "the place" more attention
Than pedestrians in the traffic-zone
Always busy texting

the bell jingles as she steps into the holiday stationstore
on the corner of two discarded streets, signs too battered to read
there was free hot chocolate on tuesdays
it was always a little too sweet
the cream-colored tile is stained by thousands of half-cleaned messes
the faint squeak of the roller grill complimenting
cheesy pop music
bright packages scream brand names she never buys
she picks a cup, the smallest size
and fills it
ignoring the drips of pumpkin spice on the counter,
left by a hurried predecessor
she adds cream
she doesn't think about the calories
she doesn't think about what her friends are up to
she doesn't think about how much she hates hearing this **** song
she thinks about grabbing a snickers for the road
shredded black combat boots thump to the register
she sets her snickers bar on the counter
paying the cashier (jeremy) with a crumpled dollar bill
his gray eyes brim with something like pity, like they do every week
she pretends not to see
he says something
she pretends not to hear
he says something else
she walks out
icy rain makes her pull her hood tighter
she sips the cocoa
it always was a little too sweet