Transcendence is a lie
you’re not above it until you’re there.

Hedonism is a lie
once the costs start to add up.

Altruism is a lie
when living for others is living for the self.

There’s nowhere to turn
once it’s your turn.

Is there any way to save us from life
other than death?

Yin/yang
order/chaos
discipline/freedom
cops/robbers
inescapable paths are familiar routes
subjectivity shrouds relation
reciprocation obfuscated by morality
relativism is an ocean the lost can drown in
but those who are properly equipped can see below the surface
until industrious capitalist tycoons spill oil
then it's a matter of faith swimming through blackened waters
oily ripples turn into waves
continuously crashing into itself
the sludge mixes into a consistent composition
the ocean gets a little darker.

Bitten by rejection, I became a wereman
I'm a dog by day, beaten if I don't fetch
but at night I become a man, and enter the world of men
I become a human, or at least a humanoid
I'm likened to a lycan, yet I stand on my own two paws
searching for a fairy's tail to hammer in my coffin's nails
the sphincter of the sphinx is the ***** of my cat
my clothes tear off as my body starts changing
howling at the moon as my elongated limbs bloom
salivating over the feast of flesh, hackles raised
shackled slave of the bite, I tried to stave off the night
with a witch's brew but my twitches grew
at the sight of a full moon reflecting off the eyes of a lamb
reminding me I'm a man who needs to eat
or maybe I'm just a dog in heat.

In the American justice system
there’s no such thing as an “open and shut case”
unless the defendant has no money.

There's a moat of sand
it's a bulwark for a prosperous kingdom
beyond the Rio Grande

treacherous trajectory
through an ocean of heat
on the way to their rectory.

There's a moat of sand
turning refuge into risk
dividing two brands

predators look to make one suffer
an ATV piranha's snack attack
tases pregnant mothers.

There's a moat of sand
on the journey from hell to heaven
where the blessed meet the ******

gnawed to the bone
by roaming coyotes
while searching for home.

There's a moat of sand
guarding providence
the bountiful land

just when you think it can't get any hotter
you see a shrine for the dead with a sign
saying they didn't bring enough water.

There's a moat of sand
that's unforgiving and cruel
so it's used by man.

I have a leech on me
and I can't get outside of it

I work hard for the blood I've given
to sustain my captor

I leech all I can from it
as it leeches all it can from me

reciprocated bloodsucking
a competitive transfusion

blood goes in me
and out the other side

cascading off the hospital gurney
belonging to my polyamorous annelid

who brays in good fortune
as the blood leaves my body

spilling on the floor
to be pushed down the drain

where it becomes nourishing water
rejuvenating sulfur-scented cannibals.

Some people think animals don't feel emotions
perhaps out of a lack of empathy
or a backlash against anthropomorphism
either way I have a hard time agreeing
because dogs seem ******* when they growl
and there has to be a mechanism to trigger that.

Factors like language and cognition
differentiate humans and animals
so I don't think a dog wonders why it's relaxing on the floor
while a buck's head hangs from the wall.
But I do.

I wonder what goes through the mind of a doe
as it watches its fawn get hit by a car
it may not feel the same depression as us
but it had an instinctual obligation
that has been abruptly removed
there must be some friction in its mind
between what is and should be.

I've felt that friction for animals before
like when I was at my friend's house
he saw a big spider (by Kentucky standards)
and crushed it
dozens of tiny spiders crawled from its corpse
shocked and disgusted
my friend started stomping on all of them
as I watched I felt bad for the spider
she was a mother
that failed her natural duty
due to forces much larger than her
all it took was the wrong place and wrong time
for the result to be crushing failure.

I wonder if animals are more like humans
or if humans are more like animals
because there are plenty of people
that make me wonder if they feel any emotions.