If the earth had a temple
Surely it would be the ocean
With its stained-glass fish
And its stately silver sands
Its keening choir of whales
And rocking sermon of waves

The world above is not
A foreign paradise
With its broken-glass windows
And its dingy gas-stained streets
Its keening choir of mothers
And angry sermons of men

If the earth had a temple
Our world would be its end.

One day, you will find yourself standing alone on the same street you were standing with him few months ago and it will hurt less this time. And you will realize that he wasn't even there with you in the first place.

Help!
Hold me
I am
A glass half empty
Trying to fall into a larger cup
Metaphorically speaking
I am the one looking for innocence
It'd be easier to be empty
Than to toss it all in poor judgment
Possessed by this desire
A fire rises, and I'm just a fly on the wall
An anthem of indoctrinated philosophy
Wondering where is the merit in being avenged
Hold me, before I slip across the edge
Into a glass half empty
Engulfed by saltation into my darkest dreams

The dead lie like Rome,
Like toppled sunshine in stone,
From a boy who had blown
Into the seashell of the Forum,
Heard back in restoning, the alley of home,
The narrow, basket-flowered angiportum…
But, lips too strong, let out unknown
The stone-witherings of Medusa
And the bone dust of empire.

The only time the streets are paved
with gold is when the sun rises--
poor Dennis feels rich
old Marlys feels young
everything slow seems worth waiting for.
The birds fly north and greet the sky.
Over the streets the sun pours
like honey from the jar.
It's another day, and you doubted
you'd make it this far.
When the darkness feels too heavy,
your hands too empty,
don't forget that joy
comes in the morning.

You are a sentence uttered quietly
Hollowly
Under breath.

You are on-show from the flashy coffees to the rushed sandwiches swallowed whole, to the bottles of wine spontaneously indulged on on the commute home.
Yet you have never felt so hidden.

You make people feel things they don't want to feel on these errands.
These pointless tasks that amount to all.
Guilt
Shame
Annoyance
Discomfort
Concern

But there are more of you now than before.
A whole library of the same sentence.
The reply is always empty.

I’m gonna dream a while
Before it’s time to go
And I leave home
Because all roads lead to rome
And I intent to find her in a mile
Wasting my time meandering in the snow
Feeling like a dog trapped in a cone
Stuck in this endless drone

I’m as high as heaven
Scrawling up memories in dreams
She was there back then, in the time of street beats
Just kids snacking on packaged meats
Some time after eleven
Wearing different shades of cream
None of us could handle the heat
So we ducked in trash can shades, at least to meet

We all played drums
With pots and lids
Kool-aid and innocent imaginings as fuel
Felt rooted in yule
Every day, that’s where we’d come
It’s all we cared for as kids
With minimal labels as fools
But we were far from piles of tools

It was that way
Until it rained
And the alley tended to reek
At least for a week
One day
It was over, we were all strained
Bonds too weak
Insight on what kept us close, bleak

For us, it was all too much rain
Now I’m older
I’m prouder
Smoke shrouds her
Now it’s disappearing vistas behind my eyes, just pain
I’m a lot colder
And I can’t see past her powder
Make up all pretty like, enchanting power
This is my bane
Here I am, a bit bolder
Cheap confidence post shower
I’ll cower in my mistakes later

I can’t find the cause
Of this feeling
I think this world is killing me
What’s glee?
In all these moments of need, no pause
Just the bad choices I’m dealing
On my knees
Hoping this flip flop back is my key

But I’m feeling a little hollow tonight
I can’t hit the sack
These eyes don’t close
All I can do is pose
This plastic is strangling my prose
But then again, failure is my knack
For now and forever, I’ve lost my light
To nothing but my nature, forever blight