Posts for 2020 (page 63)

What do you have to offer
but a question to the night?
Stars and karma sit and laugh
Consequence can make you cry
Intentions end in sadness
when attention isn’t watched
Victim guilt, never hapless
Jury’s verdict never botched

Sprint until you stumble
They’ll tell you life ain’t a race
Sprint until you buckle
Get back up and join the chase
Sprint until you shudder
Sprint until you fight
Pay no mind to hidden whispers
Secrets of the night

What do you have to offer
but confessions to the lies?
A concession stand selling facts
but there still won’t be a line
Choosy world, don’t be a beggar,
there’s billions hungry too
Titled axis, we’re top heavy
Flooded hate is bleeding through

Sprint until you stumble…

What do you have to offer
but a meaning to your name?
Disguised happy faces
reflect mirrors showing pain
Shower fog is scripted,
writing what you want to hear
Watercolor image
of the things that cause us fear

In all the stars we can see
I heard the universe say
“Never steal and never borrow
The same things fade away…
Today will soon perish
Don’t wait too late to start
To find our life’s decryption
use what’s written in the stars”

Sprint away and toss the brakes,
risk the day and roll the dice
It may be worse for us to know
but better for us to die
Everyday, a chance to yearn
All the days take a toll
Is this life really worth a dime?
Pay and drive it just to know

Sprint until you stumble
They’ll tell you life ain’t a race
Sprint until you buckle
Get back up and join the chase
Sprint until you shudder
Sprint until you fight
Pay no mind to hidden whispers
Secrets of the night

I gladly remember you wore tan slacks and a green halter top the time I brought you a single rose, it’s petals as red as your lips after we kissed. We weren’t lovers yet, there hadn’t been time, but I recall the almost accidental evening we corrected that, the white negligee you put on later, looking at me in the mirror as you lit a cigarette I envied.  

And I conjure images of more time filled with more good things, until I recollect you saying we had no future, now conveniently forgetting why, and why I took your word. I still can see us kissing, but you’re not completely there.

I am with a man 
who loves me 
gently,
wholly. 
I want to melt into 
him, 
be soft, 
malleable. 

Instead I feel
rigid,
trapped
like an animal in a 
cage. 

how long do you think 
it will take 
until I can become
free? 

It’s 9 hours to the coast
we could dip out on a Friday
after that time clock calls it quits 
and sail on concrete ribbons
all the way to Carolina 
and be dancing a jagged waltz
in saltwater up to our knees
putting the moon to bed
spinning you around
in time to wake the sun up
and watch her stretch
back into shape and play witness
to this moment

When you wake because you can’t sleep anymore;
When you rest because you don’t want to wake.
With the metal man at your back;
Nearly knocks you off your feet.
Just so you can feel down,
Everyone seems to know what think you cannot grasp, 
And you always come straight back.
Gonna stop on a high,
The biggest lie is told when they say I told you so. 
Worthwhile ambitions,
For a body soon worthless.
Self esteem is such a funny thing, you know.
Just surviving, seems as pointless as a war between the sun and moon.
Awash in a sea, where dreams are spent;
Teetotal, you’re no better than that.
You know me well enough,
For me to not be anything but ashamed.
Beneath that veneer is a half smile,
That holds up a frame.
Cannot cry aloud when I feel helpless,
Can only moan when letting go.
The glass coffin,
The plastic body;
The burn and accelerant.
Naivety is what makes us;
I’m reborn every day.
Every time I drop my hands,
And every time a bottle breaks.
The little prayer, the little peace;
Is as fruitless as a deaf congregation.
To just survive is more pointless,
Than a war between the sun and the moon.
Sometimes you’re just not what you need to be;
You know me well enough to show some shame.
When you wake because someone needs you;
When you rest because you’re no longer needed.
To do anything else, is as pointless as a war between the sun and moon

“How does he get away with that?”
“That’s sickening!”
“That’s awful!”
“I can’t believe he said that!”
“Oh my god!”
“How in the hell did this happen?

”Just daily words, said by me,
About Trump 

I was terribly upset the day he got elected
Sick to my stomach
It opened a racist gate
And a pride in the local conservatives
To look you in the eye at the laundromat
And tell you,
“You don’t belong.”
I said nothing
Just a simple shake of the head
While the news was on

Kentucky’s a red state
But I vote blue every time
I’m a Democratic Socialist
I vote for the morally correct
Not for money 

I usually wish for the same thing every night, but tonight I wished to see the Mediterranean. Longing to cross oceans and explore unfamiliar terrain is nothing new for me, but something about longing for a coastline so shrouded with the echoes of history feels so different and so profound now. Nearly every aspect of my life as it stands now feels so unprecedented, so unexpected. How would it feel, even then, to have access to a coastline that once cradled countless ancient sailors and inspired epic poetry? To have overcome, and to stand proudly, staring straight out into the depths?

If only there were a contraption
alike dreamcatcher’s task
seizing brilliance in subconscious
making pearls from mere sand

The beaches of the mind
sparkling with innovation
redefining “clamming up”
transforming creation

crow hops lightly
across an empty road  

thinks she’s watched over
by God like every sparrow  

with dignity and a soul
deserving of salvation  

with a special role to play 
in the Garden of Eden  

with yolk of a robin’s egg
dripping from her beak

the truth of survival
is this raw mood of rage.
the tower fell like words on deaf ears.
sometimes you have to speak in flames
for people to hear the heat.