The sun stood high in a spotless blue sky,
the pool water cool on my skin;
your skin shone with sweat and I seemed to forget
the nightmare that I was trapped in.

That oh so cruel sun of Greece shone on,
never once thought to pause;
it looked down at us as your hands, oh so rough,
collided with my bruised jaw.

Summer went fleeting like every new beating,
it was over soon after begun;
you pulled on my hair and threw me into despair,
and the radio, carefree, played on.

Flying
Crying
Multiplying
Terrifying
Shrapnel flying, burned children crying
Deaths multiplying, the world's terrifying

The dark dance calls softly,
like Night Shade or Oleander.
Just a little taste...
Just one more slow waltz...
I can smell her
wet orchid while I sleep.
She moves languidly through
my dreams, possesses me at dawn
with lambent steps.
The love is violent, like a bullfight.
It's sweet and treacherous, ferocious.
Fatal for one of us;
and she's been gored.

These ***** hands, they understand
They break a man and ****
Life is enchanted, I never wanted,
They broke my mind and will
Not saying you're rude, but only the moon
Listens to my story in silence
Do you now get my mood, of why I brood,
And why I act out in violence

Don't waste perfectly good loneliness.

Don't waste it on the wrong person.
Don't even waste it on the right person.

Don't waste loneliness during the day,
When there are things to be done.
Don't waste it in dreams at twilight,
When there are dones to be thinged.

Don't waste loneliness at night
When your time should be your own
And could be filled with anything
Other than everything you're not.

Take your loneliness
And denigrate it.
Crumple it. Crush it.
Throw it in a blender.
An industrial oven.

Take it out
For a few drinks too many,
And a few more after that;
Lull it into a false sense of security
That congeals with its drunken state
To create a blinding dichotomy
Of vulnerability and arrogant invincibility,
So it suspects nothing
As you lead it
Down a dark alley
And beat it to death with a brick.

Have a too-close-to-call
Fight to the death
With your loneliness
In a public toilet,
With it almost getting
The better of you
Until you smash it
Teeth-first
Off of a porcelain
Sink basin,
Before dragging it
By the hair
To a cubicle,
Where you hold its head
Under the toilet water,
Long after its body stops convulsing.

Do what you can
To transmute
Your loneliness
Into solitude,
And wear it.

Inside-out.
Back to front.
Upside-down.
Right side up.

Wear solitude so well that
It ends up wearing you,
As its skin.

Use solitude to learn thyself.
To feel thyself.
To know thy changing self.

Let solitude remind you that
The existence of loneliness
Begets the existence of
The antithesis of loneliness.

So definitely don't waste
Perfectly good loneliness,
Especially if you're forgoing
Perfectly good hope.

We hear daily of the tragedies of our youth being slain,

How some turn to suicide to medicate their pain,

But are we taking a stand to intervene with this violence?

Or just turning our heads, choosing to be silent?

How often do we watch them being bullied in school?

The lack of discipline at home, the disregard for the rules,

Our police officers and teachers are made into villains,

Trading discipline and order for guns and killing,

The value of education is being reduced to a sentence,

Prison is the educator; there is no will for repentance,

Social media is being utilized to post videos of brutality,

People laughing and sharing as if it's a normality,

Are we not disgusted by such acts of violence?

No reprimands for abuse, just us choosing to stay silent,

How long will we sit on the sidelines of destruction?

Hoping violence decreases, but not aiding in its reduction,

Instead of condemning our youth for their disobedient ways,

Let’s lead by example in what we do and not say!

We must take a stand and refuse to remain silent,

Let’s join forces with our youth and stand against violence!