we talked
ad infinitum
on the docks, at the pier, in the park
it was midsummer, with a warmth like it too
and two sailboats streaked the lake
but for the life of me
I've forgotten what we said
her washed out blond hair
inviting rose colored lips
polka-dotted red & white skirt
and mustard yellow blouse

it was sparsely more than a few
but they seemed to say
"drink it in"

Music is a momentary salvation
Through the ailings we suffer.
A thin buffer,
Between the painful past and
Future troubles.

Are the British braver than us?
That they police their streets with no firearms?
Or simply more humane & competent
That they feel no need to threaten to ****** their fellow citizens?
Failure to comply
With law and order
With our militarized police
Means you risk your life.
Even if you are collecting trash,
Even if you are sleeping,
Even if you are exercising inalienable rights.

These poems are generally spat out within a matter of minutes.
The rhyme schemes, unfortunately,
Symptomatic of how my thoughts flow.
Some kind of horrible harmony
That stalls and slows the more focus I show.

there is a cowardice
in the essence of lying
perhaps, it is the death
of the momentary innocence
a new conversation begins with
or the betrayal
brought on by that who had lied
betraying the converser, himself, and truth

I got a little book,
A LifeLog I've put
All the aggregated data I can collect.
I buy up every market share I can get
And run my little freak simulations
Where I stimulate all of life
Because I'm such a ******* coward
And obsessed with control.

What started small
Now extends to everyone
Without a concern for your privacy,
In ways wholly unconstitutional.

Be unrealistic, congratulations!
You are privileged.
And think me wrong,
I am only a realist.
If you don't like the observational
It's because you fail to see
Things as they really are
And rather, how you'd like them to be.

clarity is costly
and people seem to pay
tending to their mind
they lose it!

crawling into a crevice
to call home
a cave in the side of a hill
carved out long ago
eons before i was conceived

bedding underneath the rocky ceiling
that fire gives way with a tango
of flames bouncing here and fro
dancing all over

Keep your cult ****, far away from me.
You know nothing of what it is,
That what is American;
You only can claim it in name.
Those who pit the people against one another,
Deserve nothing but pain and shame
Like those who seek absolute control
And consolidation of wealth and votes
Only aimed upward, toward
Classes who are not entitled to anything
But that which us, the common people, gave them.
It looks as though
It's time to take it away
From politicians who only lobby
On behalf of corporations
On maintaining a broken status quo
Stagnant policy with no change
Votes that go toward killing bills
By the very people who write them;
What sick theater.
How long will we let this aberration of justice continue?

Closer in time,
Your heart is
Aching in your chest.
Fading lights
The stars wander
Out of the sky, just chance.
And inside
The warmth of
Just one more night.
From my lungs
I feel a tugging
Catching my breath.

In your sea, I am but a drop
Yet, you are my ocean.
On the field of love, I am but a rock
And you are the mountain.
I feel as sisyphus,
In love with his punishment-
But I've pushed too much.
This torture is redundant,
We get nowhere and feel as though
Further down the hill.
And yet, I love you as such
I would never cease pushing
Till my heart stops
And muscles grow still.
For what is love
To the stone heart?

Lovingly, to fall for Medusa
Onto my own sword.
For were I tasked to **** her
I should sooner forgo my life
So that she may have her own.
For I looked into the eyes of the Gorgon
With my last breath,
And when she spoke
It was clear she was no monster
But a disgraced goddess.
Never did I turn to stone.
As I lay lifeless, she wept
And offered her *****.
Every touch was like lightning,
Though I was the center of the storm;
She showed me kindness
The likes of I had never known before.
And when I was revived
I wept too.

Do people not see the separation of culture?
The quiet segregation of our artists,
Where we all hurt for their hidden toils.
By the media corporations that pay
Real artists pennies on the dollar.
Who bully those to ghost write
For people they believe will sell better.

Your feed is targeted, more selected
Than you can even imagine.
The profile built on most of you is
Down to a T, it should scare you and
I do not fear monger.
I have heard screams from one with no mouth;
I have seen myself programmed
To live out a life to completion
At the direction of others

You've gotta learn to love the vinegar,
Even if the taste is bitter,
Because times always get tough.
It's about drinking it in, taking it in;
Finding the strength to get back up.
To slog off the rough
And chisel something out

i ain't crawling back this time
baby no
this time i chalk it up
to the fact that this goes
nowhere
no way i could
but i no longer care

I deserve to die
Who am I to the people I love
Besides a detriment
Someone to be avoided
What arrogance I have
To think I deserve
Love in return

Our chariot soared through the tunnel
And from out of the dark, light.
The sight of the city erupting
With fires' glare burning bright,
Venom like a snake's bite.
Vast buildings careening down,
As we maneuvered around them
The air was thick with smoke
And the smell of lead & sulfur,
The ground shook in violence.
We landed in a clearing,
The end was close at hand
The limits to see it, subjective;
For many laid dead in our stead,
Many enemies & siblings come to head,
And long did we have to tread before rest.
I unfurled the flag
And hoisted it up overhead,
Flying high on the mast.
I said my prayers
And made my peace,
Before the rain began.
All around me was storming,
Shutters battered marble
Amid crys for no quarter-
Blood was to be our recompense

Spit on the ground,
And raise your ******* in the air.
Those things they have
Told you not to do
Out of respect.
Respect, the base too is self-evident;
But men let it rise up in their heads
To control every thought and emotion.
If they do not respect others,
If their values are in balloons
Leaking hot air,
Beliefs in the wind
Those who are not attached, but not free.
Let no man change any other,
Who himself refuses change.
Those that cannot admit wrongs,
Learn from nothing.

these words fail
to capture any such real emotions
we talk and we talk, sure
but you can't feel my anger
frustration, my sadness
left to wonder
in a wander
through the maze that is the mind

with pen put to paper
the characters resemble more inkblots than letters

and so

yielding myself to the misery self-induced
that has, as of yet, only ate at the heels
my chrysalis burst
but no winged thing emerge
only pus, bubbling out my pupa

She said,
"I'm looking for someone,
Looking for something."
I asked,
"What is it?"
She replied,
"I can't exactly remember."
I questioned,
"How will you know you've found it?"
She said,
"It's something one can't forget,
Someone never forgotten."
I asked further,
"Well, who is it?"
She said,
"I don't really know,
But I think I've seen them before.
There's an image in my head
And an idea in my mind,
They feel innate to me."
"Are they, though?"
She didn't answer,
"I think if I just do
As my parents have done
And their parents have done,
I'll be all the closer."
I just shook my head and laughed.
"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you.
I just find it funny.
You say you're searching
For something or someone,
And you only have the slightest idea
Of what that is."
"I know, it's a bit silly."
"Why, they could be
Talking to you right now
And you would never know it then!"
"Maybe, maybe not.
I'd like to think
I would recognize it, recognize them."
"Well, you don't think
You're special do you?"
"No more so than anyone else."
"So, how would you know?"
"I guess I just believe,
I have faith in that
Hope shall deliver me.
I try my hardest
To be the best I can be,
I always try to be honest
And act respectfully.
I love with all my heart
And shelter it from nobody."

"Ah, but do you reach?
Do you search your mind
As much as the tangible world?
Perhaps what you're looking for
Can't be found
Without exploring within first.
Perhaps this is the only place
It exists.
Maybe it is a mystery
Confused with fantasy,
Maybe it is a fantasy
Confused with mystery.
Perhaps it can
Only be discovered
By any one individual.
Maybe by elusion,
Made by illusion.
Perhaps it is,
Perhaps it isn't,
Maybe you're just not worthy.
Perhaps you've already eclipsed it."
I had said.
"I'm looking for someone,
Looking for something."
I said.

"What is it?"
She said.
"It's something one can't forget,
Someone never forgotten."
I said.
"Yes, but who remembers?
And what memories?"
She said.
"It's something that can't be held,
But something one must hold.
It's something that can't be told,
But something one must tell.
It's like the melody of a song,
Like the lyrics sung.
It is only as old
As it is young."
I said.
"What is it?"
She said.

"What is it?"

i saw an odd ball of light the other day
and thought it must've been an airliner,
but it was a god's ocular
sizing me up

so when it crossed my mind
i took hold of it,
"let him look"

up, at the black overhead
grimacing at me
i shouted

"well, old man? what's the verdict?"
and all the stars shone down

in the tiny cracks, that they cut through the sky
i swear i heard
"*******"

I'm talking to you;
Is it because I have to
Or because I want to?
I'm talking to you;
Is it to understand you
Or so I am understood?
I'm talking to you;
Is it that I like you
Or that I don't?
I'm taking to you;
Is it to hear myself
Or to be heard?
Is it solely from the verb
Or by the noun?
In this rhetoric,
Is it mine or ours or yours?
In this dialogue,
Is it gossip, chitchat, or conversation?
By the course of it
Is it chance, choice, or demand?
I'm talking to you
Or I'm talking with you?

What am I?
I am Apex,
I am Human. I am
He who loves himself, because I
Truly love others.
Who walks weightless,
Because the air that kept us seperate
Is beneath us.
Lifting us up,
In a beautiful eruption of angels' wings.
The shackles of misery,
An enslavement to the self,
Are cast off
And we walk free.

It is not the church
In your local town
That I speak of
In tones reminiscent of hate
It is not those in the pews
My friends, my family.
It's the mega churches
The great mosques and temples
The captured Vatican
The misguided Judea
The estranged Muslims
Who breed religions of hate
Of divisiveness for its own sake
Room it leaves
To take power, and secure control
By the most vile actors
Those who wear a kind face like a mask
The fake walk admist us
Have faith, abandon religion
But never God
**** your bias, with what will is bestowed
Tender your strength for
Hard times are to come
The faults of weak men
Who could not stomach one another

no time to see you
no time to date
no promises
only talk
and little, as of late
your fault
not that
you see it
that way
move on
because minor incidents
are the ruin
of everything

The ganwing ache
The emptiness inside,
Great big maw.
That is life

All of the little ways-
I don't even like to say your name.
Not because of some control or power,
But because of who you are.
And I wish I could say
I want this to last forever
But I miss you with no measure
And the emptiness I feel-
Dying would surly prove better.
All the little lies
Told to myself, that keep me together-
Can't hold on forever

not every man wants the same thing
but most men want, similarly
and whether it's as grand
as the vision their minds portrayed
or as to if it sees their hearts splayed
their soul is on display
and it can be a vulnerable proceeding
and so far as in love goes
like life, it is fleeting
better to have had it
and lost it
then to have gone on living
and never known it

Just a dose of nanites
Neural pattern alight
Optic nerve, perfect sight
Lightning strike down my spine
New image, cultured design
Reverberations through my body and mind
Recall undeterred, I feel it all
And at the same time absolutely nothing
The emptiness of perfection, absent flaws
The bore of excellence
Is the struggle forgotten

To no avail

If it's not something others will do,
If their governments will not hold their leaders accountable,
Then we need the Paddys, the Svens, the Pablos to;
You cannot wait for a criminal
To turn themselves in,
For they never shall.
At their level,
They will avoid prosecution
Till they swim in the lakes of hell.
And meanwhile, how many
Will they facilitate in the deaths of?
How many innocents murdered?
How many must be "martyred?"

you know you're no good
you treat me like how you say you shouldn't
venom in your veins
each word you say is acid spat fluid
contracted a stupor from you babe
goin through a super flu
on account of all you do
cause it's like a vice
curse it and the way you abuse it
i'm tellin you
you're gonna lose it

Here I had thought
Generally, each of our governments
Loved to issue & execute warrants-
Or is that merely applicable
To the poor, those with no status
Who carry no political weight
Besides their life of work?

Verdicts down on from
Supposedly the highest body
In the arbitration for justice

It's seeds of gunpowder,
To produce a foul fruit
Which kills the vine.
Bunch of psychos,
And the thoughts are dark
Because it's an empty mind.

But to your point, and the larger issue, is
How do you convince people
Who have no interest in politics, and
Believe they are doing just fine?
Because the repercussions haven’t reached them yet,
Letting other folks run the show.
People need to genuinely care and
Believe it is possible & meaningful as well,
Or they will participate only in apathy or whatever.

Be painfully optimistic, fall on your own sword, argue for the right by strengthing the wrong to others
People will come to the right decision on their own

If you think I am the rat in a cage
And not those who sit inside all day
In courthouses and temples
You are the lost one and I
Am saved

I stand, even if it is alone
And will refuse to break
Even in death

In death, you will see
What life did not deem
You fortunate enough, living

Salting the earth

Take it from the first books-
Though you may feel you are gentle,
The judgements against you are harsh.
They span far beyond your life,
Gleaning the collective journey
Of sweat & of blood.
If your mind is clouded,
Drain the marsh.
For there are no waters
Too deep or too shallow
That will supersede a verdict.

Every man is a leader

Leader of his life,
Chief of his destiny.
What incongruous cards
Fate can deal us
To permit the interruption
Of the aforementioned
And render some potential limited

The oyster we shall crack;
To unearth the pearl in every person.

Fix, any ill. Cure any poison

it's all gas no brakes
full throttle
pedal to the metal
it's expansion
bigger is better
never large enough
it's big business
so many pitches
strikes are all you can expect
it's the rich
never full, ever hungry
for them
there is no rest

I scream so silently
That the voice is loud
Enough that others might hear,
In this state like a snake
My tongue is forked
So that when I speak
I am having multiple conversations
Slithering across many fields.
Like the ocean tortoise laying eggs
Ever near the shore,
My children join me in the waters
Only after they have fully formed.
You say,
Nature is yet cruel
And shall lay claim
To many of your young.
And yet,
Is it not nature who spawned them?

It is out of great hate
Where it is so easy to find equal love;
For it is not my hate which I speak of.
Of the many desperate,
What makes us separate
Apart from perspective?
What keeps us from happiness?
That there is a difference,
You are measuring out the parts
And forgetting the sum.
That you choose to live in memory
And think not of the future,
Your race is already run.
Tell me, did you win?
And, if so,
What have you won?

i have no pride
you hurt me all the time
and inside
i've died
long ago
so it's just numb
i was dumb
to think things
would be any different

i am a hard man to love
not taken to it easily
and falling out of it,
just as difficult

words fail
where i wish to convey
what it is, in this heart,
the fire,
that shrieks to hide
but blazes into the night
straining to beat
with a summation of all its might
that is brought to life
only with that unbridled ecstasy
from simple pleasures

it hails in late july
and it gets hotter everyday somehow
enough, here's a cold front
your eyes-drooping
your mouth
drooling
grueling everyday
seeing your whole life before you
and laughing
uproarious laughter;
evanescent euphoria

I have never met a more complacent lot,
Than those of my compatriots;
Never have citizens been more obedient,
Than those of my immediates.
Forget spilled tea, today it's
Watered down coffee.
Biscuits cut with sawdust
Out from smaller & smaller molds,
Eating whatever fed us.
Cause we all know hunger

Believing any narrative pushed so long as it's prevailing;
The populace obsessed with popularity.

It's a headache & a headrush in the states,
Cool if you make the breaks
But that's like hitting the ******* lottery.
You gotta ask, what gives?
What does it take
To get a fair chance to stake a claim
In a country full of people who don't give a ****?
What sense does it even make
To try,
When no one in charge does?

For my own lot, & life -
Whether tis here or afar

I have no stock in a generation
Who does not care whether
There is social security enough left
To secure my retirement,
A system I have paid into tiringly.
If you want to end it
Be sure I receive my back checks,
Or risk being strung by the neck.
I have no assurances
I will even be allowed to retire,
Only assured those in the house
Could not care less
As to such questions of great importance.
They busy themselves with war,
While we suffer and only grow more poor
And have no interest in developing industry or infrastructure here at home.
They know nothing of the branch
Only the rich fruit of the olives,
Whatever ripe can be harvested.
Yet, they know not how to sow.