In all mediums of art
There is a give and take
Between the artist and their audience
Both sides must give everything and take everything
They’re two halves of a whole
In a reciprocal relationship
Where they must give 100%
To meet each other 50/50

The artist must pour their heart and soul into their work
And the audience must reward the artist by doing the same
Consuming art with an enthusiastic, optimistic open mind
Yet many people don’t consume art this way
They enjoy the weight of their own opinions too much
So to try to give their opinions credibility
They become overly critical and jaded

The audience starts to adopt a “this better impress me” attitude
But their criteria is always different
I met an example in a film discussion with a cynic
Who only complained about the plot or CGI
Because they didn’t know what else to look for
And ended up hating plenty of movies
They didn’t know how to watch in the first place

Yet on the other side of that coin
These people convince themselves they like total **** to seem smart
I can never predict what shotgun blast on canvas they’ll call brilliant
But it usually relies on the power of suggestion
A famous person made it or other people like it
Usually explained as “raw emotion” or something along those lines
While thoughtful and interesting work is shot down

This mentality turns artists away
While attracting frauds
Who develop a pretense to impress those idiots
By acting like an artiste
They contribute to a culture devoid of depth
Where critical thinking is used to find ways of being different
As asserting individuality trumps emotional connection
For consumers trying to avoid appearing superficial
Yet they just end up unique and shallow

Preacher sees in black and white
So preacher sees he’s right
Justified by God’s light
To judge on sight

Preacher says secular music is evil
Not meant for holy people
He’s not even talking about Slayer
Or Jay-Z rapping about being a player
He uses Led Zeppelin as an example
When more relevant options are ample
My musical taste is trampled
Like some shameful scandal

He tells me not to listen to Crazy Train
So I think he has a lazy brain
That didn’t listen to what Ozzy was saying
That song wasn’t about foxy ladies
Or boxing babies
Or buying a Mercedes
Just diagnosing the rabies
Of a species in training

If I don’t listen
How can I help?
It sounds like a mission
To focus on myself
Instead of pain that is felt
By those who have welts
That kind of life seems reductive and boring
When outside it’s storming
And everyone ignores me
The music is God performing
Just for me

Preacher wants to delete
The musical elite
Until only gospel plays on repeat
At that point I’ll take a seat
Saying that’s neat
But I’m looking for more
Like opinions on war
And the dominion formed
Through judgmental scorns
That leaves our culture torn

The church is a microcosm of society
With the preacher dictating propriety
Saying ignore the secular entirely
To not live so direly

I found the divide between the secular and religious
When both take their culture to an extent prodigious
They start acting vicious
Once they’re comfortable in their niches

Walking is a horizontal climb
Like how we walk through time
While we walk in line
Chasing dimes
With **** crimes
Dazed and primed
To stray to lies
And decay in grime
As we walk to die

Jesus walked with a cross
Like I walk through the frost
Amongst the lost
In this world I was tossed

To not sit in a station
I walk to my destination
In silent contemplation
Through a contempt nation

I walk a tightrope
Over the word nope
That sits next to hope
On a precarious *****

I walk through salt flats
Where I can’t halt gnats
Who always talk back
I’m caught in the attack
Of a million microscopic bats

I pull myself forward with my feet
Then I put that motion on repeat
To stay on a progression streak
Avoiding motionless defeat

I raise my knee
I raise my chin
I pray I see
A way to win
But things get grim
When I’m asked to swim
In a bath of sin
Whose grasp will dim
The path I’m in

My feet experience ups and downs
To move me around
They can be loud
If I’m in a crowd
But they don’t make a sound
While I drown

I walk away
From the fray
To get through the day
But I’m left with nothing to say
Because my dues aren’t paid

I walk away from fights
I walk away from light
I walk into the night
And its trite delights
That block my sight
Of potential heights

My feet feel weary
From footsteps I’m hearing
Of death that’s nearing
I’m so busy fearing
I slow down my steering

Is this grief worth
The way my feet hurt?
Maybe I should leave Earth
And be one with the dirt
That I nonchalantly walked over
Stepping on four-leaf clovers
Like a trampling ogre
Wrestling with odor
That pushes me lower
Until I walk even slower

Biblical Egyptians benefited from labor
From their underpaid neighbors
Who looked for a savior

Long ago are the days of Joseph
Serving the pharaoh with his mind
Pharaoh hates the other kind
Working them as slaves
Who shall not misbehave
They must walk through the desert and make sacrifices
But pharaoh confines them to their quarters
And forces them to obey his orders
Not to leave the defined border
God hardens pharaoh’s heart
While he tears them all apart
So God sends a plague of locusts
And other kinds of hocus pocus
That’s not the focus
The country started to wither
From the snake that slithered
In its leader’s innards
Thinking he’s a winner
When he’s just a sinner
Making his once great nation grimmer
As the meek eat their last supper for dinner
They look to a leader
For a pharaoh defeater
But even though Moses had God preach to him
He still needed Aaron to speak for him
In order for the meek to win
We must seek to step in

Does the pious man live the holy life
By avoiding demons
Or by remaining righteous in their presence?

I admit fault

All I can say
Is I’m sorry I swayed
During the fray
I swerved in your lane
I could’ve said it was rain
Or my brakes were restrained
Instead I accept blame

I was once rear ended
By a peer who pretended
I purposefully meant it
Like my car was rented
So I became the defendant
Against the non repentant
My heart couldn’t be mended
From my trust being dented

So I admit fault
To close the vault
Of paranoid salt
For confusion to halt

Orange orange everywhere
Orange orange in the air
I’m given an orange despair
By a man with orange hair
I see through his orange glare
To see nothing really there

A man became president
Promising to evict residents
His stupidity self evident
When he says nothing relevant
About all the topical elements
He just talks for the hell of it

He’s unfit to lead
Because he’s equipped with greed
And an unwillingness to read
Gaining success from his family tree
He lives the American dream
By making others scream
To indulge his team
And his bigotry

All it took for his courtship
Was a culture of celebrity worship
And idiots buying his horseshit
Of acting remorseless

The gullible are impressed
With how well he is dressed
So they think he’s the best
Putting him in a wing that is west
Because he has a lot of money
But without any capability
You better start running
Money let’s him **** willingly

He takes advantage of the stupid and racist
By pointing at people with brown faces
Saying they’re here to replace us
Like they’re working for Asus
And not mowing his lawn
He said they will **** us
To manipulate his pawns

He’s a megalomaniac
Who thinks he’s a brainiac
But it’s a brain he lacks
To understand the impact
Of his negative attacks
Still he thinks he’s a genius
Which justifies his meanness
So his cruelty is seamless
While he claims to redeem us

This is our most vulnerable hour
With a president compromised by foreign powers
Building ivory towers
By turning minorities sour
There’s a litany of reasons
Why he calls them heathens
But it all revolves around freedoms
Being stripped from those who need them

His constituents have their heads in the sand
So they blindly give in to his demands
Going after whoever he’s ******
In the name of this land
Other kinds are banned

You can tell the bad guys have won
When they start separating mothers from sons
At the end of a gun
So there’s nowhere to run
Away from the oppression
Of our downward descension
As he does nothing to lessen
The root of our depression

His concentration camps
Give a **** slant
To his lofty plans
Until no one can stand
Without a weapon
Because of his deception
Which was his intention
To win the election
He promised detention
Of the boogeyman mentioned

The red, white and blue
Adopts an orange hue
When the foreign lose
From the fascist bruise
Of an orange noose