Dear American Dream,
Where’d you go?
I can’t see you
Through all the black smoke.
Are you hiding behind
The soldiers and
The innocent lives
That we take
Each and every day?
And they say
That there’s even a reason
There saying
Something about freedom.

I’m calling for you
But you can’t hear me
Over the screams
Of people crying for equality.
Crying out for mercy
We’re all run by the companies.
And I don’t use the word “evil” lightly,
But minimum wage isn’t
Enough to raise a family.
You can’t even raise a family
If you call yourself gay.
Yeah, this is what we call equality
Here in the USA.
Another killing on the news
Every other day.
But we can’t seem to figure out
How to take the guns away.
So children are dying
And we all look the other way.
How is this okay?

But there’s so much arguing
I can’t seem to get a word in
About how all the people
Who are trying to sneak in
To escape all the violence
In their homeland
Are being persecuted,
Dreams of a better life, executed.
But isn’t that what America stands for?
Getting a new chance, getting to start over.
But it seems that only the rich, white men
Are the ones who even get a chance.
Isn’t that kind of racist?
And classist? And sexist?
What kind of horrible joke is this?
America, the melting ***?
Like oil and water,
The rich men come out on top.

I could go on forever
But I got my point across.
We gotta make things right
Before we’re all lost.
It won’t be easy for any of us,
Especially the President in the White House.
He’s doing what he can
But it’s just not enough.
So we’ve gotta stand together
And shape up.
We’re at the bottom,
So the only way out is up.

Dear American Dream,
It seems to me
This generation’s playing a giant game
Of hide and seek.
But we will find you.
One day we’ll find you
Raise you up on our shoulders
And restore you
To what you used to be.
That’s the way
We’re gonna make this country free.
That is when this country
Finally
Will be free.

A whole new world
Spins slowly on its axis
In the vast galaxy only found
Within the eyes of the one
Staring back at you
Across infinite inches.

Your eyes were
Fixed on the page;
My eyes were
Lost in the night sky.
But every now and then,
You would read my name,
The moon turned to your face
And we held the gaze,
The quickly looked away-
Wishing glances read
As easily as poetry,
But only making out
Nameless constellations.

The earth is always turning
    always turning
        always turning
And the sun is always burning
    always burning
        always burning
And the moon is always glowing
    always glowing
        always glowing
And the plants are always growing
    always growing
        always growing
Still I drive on, going faster
    going faster
        going faster
From the scene of the disaster
    the disaster
        the disaster
From where her body lays
    body lays
        body lays
In a deep and lonely grave
    lonely grave
        lonely grave
And the teardrops how they echo
    how they echo
        how the echo
And I know it’s time I let go
    time I let go
        time I let go
For it was all just a mistake
    a mistake
        a mistake
Which caused all her bones to break
    bones to break
        bones to break
And there was nothing that could stop
    that could stop
        that could stop
Her blood continuing to drop
    to drop
        ever drop
I know the earth will always turn
    always turn
        always turn
And the sun will always burn
    always burn
        always burn
And in my heart I know
    I know
        I know
That the farther that I go
    that I go
        that I go
Then the clearer I will see
    I will see
        I will see
The sweet girl who died for me
    died for me
        died for me
And these visions they are teasing me
    teasing me
        teasing me
Like echos of my misery
    misery
        misery.

With both my eyes closed
Senses sharpen, colors fade
Howl at the moon.

"I'm fine,"
She says.
As blood becomes visible
She tucks the scars under her sleeve.

"I'm fine,"
He says
He could stop any time
As he takes another drag, addicted to death.

"I'm fine,"
They say
As they turn to hide tears
Into the dark, their backs to the world.

The road was long
There was no end
Solitude
My only friend
There were no shadows
Only the light
Blinding me
Until the night

But in the night
I could see again
And I saw everything in color
The way it should have been
But the colors ran together
Became the light
And I was lost again in whiteness
Until the night

I lost the path
I couldn’t see
Where the light ends
And becomes me
And where I am
Becomes more clear
A dark outline
When night is near

But in the night
I could see again
And I saw everything in color
The way it should have been
But the colors ran together
Became the light
And I was lost again in whiteness
Until the night

One night the dark
Didn’t return
And the light
Began to burn
It burned my soul
And made me see
The brightest light
The death of me

In the night
I could see again
I saw everything in color
The way it should have been
But when the darkness in my life
Was lost to me
I lost everything inside
So dear to me

I lost everything inside
That I was meant to be.

She told me she kept all the letters.
She still has them, maybe in a box somewhere
Under the bed, the pages yellowed and fading.
And maybe they promised that when they were old
They would sit down and read them together
And laugh at their younger selves and how
She still can’t decipher his handwriting
After all these years.
And he’ll imagine the scribbles into the words
He wrote in a fit of long distance love
And read them aloud to her in the same voice
He used to proof-read
Before he sealed them with a kiss
And put them in the mail
Twelve-hundred miles
Louisiana to Upstate New York.

He was from down south
A rebellious, liberal genius
In a world of bigoted racists
Living in another frame of mind.
She was from New York,
Another time, another life,
But the same frame of mind
As the boy she met by some bizarre coincidence
In the city of angels
Which may or may not have guided them
Which may or may not have wished them on
Which may or may not have taken him away.

They met once
But it was enough
To keep those handwritten letters flowing back and forth
Across states, passed along by people oblivious
To the potential that they held in their hands
Getting heavier with each crossing.
Addresses changed, parents’ homes to college dorms
Just as far away, but just as close to their hearts
As they had been in high school.
And when they met again, they felt their last letters in their hands
And realized letters weren’t sufficient any more
And the packages of potential, carried across states by strangers, finally passed
From hand to hand
As hand and hand connected
And pulled them across states
To meet in the middle at an alter
And vow to never part again.

Papers piled on top of letters,
Two new birth certificates, two children’s drawings
As indecipherable as his handwritten scribbles
But just as meaningful.
And she looked on as the boys grew up, two of the only angels
That she ever believed in.
Because who can believe in angels
When they take one of yours away
The one you met in their city
The one who flew letters across miles and miles
Just to lift your spirits
Into a kind of heaven that few people ever know
Until it’s taken away
Too young to die
Too young to leave her
Too young to leave his kids
Who are old enough to feel the grief
But too young to fight it.
And they cry as the doctors unplug the machines
Leaving the broken mind to float away
And she comforts them
Because she knows no comfort herself
And she doesn’t know what else to do with herself
Except get her kids ready in the morning
And go to work with the fake smile she’s keeps forgetting to take off before she goes to bed
Because now there’s no one there to remind her.

And she still has the letters, sitting in a box under her bed
Yellowed and crumpled.
She told me she hasn’t gone through them.
But why would she,
When she now has no one to help her decipher the scribbles,
No one to sit on the bed beside her, an arm around her shoulder
To recite them from memory
As if he wrote them yesterday.
No one to laugh as she looks over the reading glasses that she never needed
Twenty years ago
And whisper in her ear
That the decade old, faded, unreadable pencil mark
Still meant “I love you”
After all these years.

What happened?
What went wrong? Oh
                      if I only knew…
One day we were
                     one soul, one heart
Two hearts that beat
                     as one, one beat

One sound.

But oh! the beat is
                      gone, the pace
Displaced.
The Devil took
                    the soul, my soul
Your soul is

                    somewhere

Far away.
They say that time
                   can heal a heart
But can it heal
                   a soul, my soul
Your soul is

                   somewhere

Far away.
One way
                   one way
To no return.

I’m withering from lack
Of your touch
From sudden withdrawal
Of your sunshine caress.
My skin is under
Solitary confinement
And you are far,
Far, far away.

In the darkness
I scrape the edges
Trying to find
A part of me.
A part of me
That doesn’t
Need your hand,
Need your touch

Tearing, scraping
Cutting away the fine lines
Until the rips
Become kisses
The cuts
Become caresses
The razor
Replacing you.

Return and
Resurface
To tell us that our
Lives our worthless
Our doubt will
Set fire
To our dreams and
Our desires

We fight but
For nothing
There’s no sound
When you’re listening
For answers
To questions
Screamed into a
Vast oblivion

And where were
You when I
Asked your gods
To let me die
Gibberish
Promises
Pleas to all those
Cold and heartless

If you loved
Me truly
Would you let them
Cut right through me
Or would you
Cover me
Just one more
Broken body

The question
Still remains
How many more
Wailing refrains
Till my mind
Is empty
And I’ve released
The enemy

Just one more
Verse till we
Can fade away
So quietly
Black background
Senselessness
Just echoes
In the darkness

Return and
Resurface
To tell us that our
Lives our worthless
Our doubt will
Set fire
To our dreams and
Our desires

Solid as a ghost,
You couldn't be more spectral...
Unless you were dead.

Enclosed in grey stone
    cavern walls
Stretching to the
    ceiling, tall
Archaic, ancient
    lonely hall
Seems to be
    forgot by all

All but one
    who sits alone
In his dismal
    dreary home
No more the land
    will he roam
Forever embraced
    by arms of stone

A sorry mistake
on a pure white page
An ugly scar
on a beautiful face
A blemish
that must be erased.

A mishap
brought into the world by man
A turn of the tides
a slip of the hand
A pitiful child
cursed to be banned.

Now it’s removed
there’s an empty space
But it’s left a mark
a tiny trace
A blood-stained reminder
you can’t escape
The revenge
of the erased.

I’m lighter than air
I’m darker than night
I’m the villain's best friend
And the school-kid’s delight
I know all
Though no one tells me
And I multiply
So I’m never lonely
The lies are my children
The rumors, my spouse
I spread like disease
Through every schoolhouse
So tell no one
My identity
But I am the secret
Yes, that’s me.

There was on the wall
A rounded face
For whom the hours were numbered
He, passing the time
Monotonous
Dreaming of hours remembered

Round and round again
Never stopping
Never ceasing at his workings
For him the time is
Nothing, nothing
But the second hand he’s jerking

But when the time runs out
Stops his ticking
No funeral for this good friend
He is but replaced
By another
Time more important is than death

Swirling, Whirling,
Dancing, Breathing,
Upward, Dropping,
Sleeping, Dreaming,
Smiling, Sighing,
Laughing, Crying,
Vulture circling,
Living, Dying,
In and out,
Older, Younger,
Take a breath.
And dive back under,
Hear the Music,
Hear the Voice,
Taste the Poison,
Make a Choice.
Lover, Dreamer,
Dancer, Singer,
This is Life,
If you Choose to Linger.

If you could only see
What you did for me.

You knocked me down
And flattened me,
So I raise me up
And strengthen me –
You're inadvertently
Making me love you
For hating me.