Coronation of the Wretched

There's an empty corner of an empty room
That's emptier than the rest
There's a missing thread on the broken loom
That's left the world undressed
There's a silent saying still assumed
As an oath under duress
There's the shadows holding on at noon
While the sun shines unimpressed
And the whispered word that spells out doom
With a curse that counts as blessed
In an ancient corner of an ancient tomb
The beat of a skeleton's chest

Fair Game

Self-destructive in the most productive way
I wish I could help
But you can do this yourself

To exorcise the ghosts that promise you the most
They haunt your motivation
As you raise your expectation

Guilt and fear lead you always back here
The place where you trace
Each perfection to its grace

Building towers hour by hour under an empty shower
Of gifts and curses, strollers and hearses
Poems without stanzas and songs without verses

I so desire to set your wildfire
Ablaze against this madness
And to cure you of the sadness

But each day, like the undead, you press ahead
A few more inches till six feet under
Even immaculate can look like blunder

Whose chains do you still cling when you sing these empty songs
Disappointment in the shadows
Anointing hopeful hearts but who knows

All I want is to show you the love that grows and always flows
Like rivers to the ocean
Catch you in some new commotion

But for now let's slow it down, okay
I'm right here
No more tears

if home...

if home is where the heart is
than i guess i've got a broken home
if peace is always on time
then i guess i'm late and all alone
if a picture speaks a thousand words
then this blindness keeps me just as mute
if beauty is in the eye of the beholder
then my eyes become a masterpiece as they behold you
if wishes come from shooting stars
then i guess that makes sense
the distance might explain the absence

Bright Eyes

Oh bright eyes
Where have you gone
These days are lies
But I could be wrong

To think that we held our hopes
In the palms of our hands
We woke up these dreams
Setting fire to all doubts and demands

Oh bright eyes
Where have you gone
These cloudy skies
Have held on too long

To think that we once moved mountains
With the promise of a new day
Only to find, what we left behind
Wasn’t worth the worry anyway

Oh bright eyes
Where have you gone
My dreams have died
Like the end of a sad song

To think that life is here
And then it’s not
You try and make something of it
And be grateful for all you’ve got
‘Cause it’s all you’ve got

Oh bright eyes
Where have you gone
How long till I realize
You’ve been here all along

Cognitive Dissonance: The Hardscuffle Sessions (update haiku)

This, a hyperlink
It is for my new EP
You should check it out!

new conclusions

kiss your picture on my phone
try to tell myself again i'm not alone
tracing thoughts of impending doom
making room for all these new conclusions

everything spins and i fall down
everything breaks or has broken by now
teleport myself to you, i would if i could
but i should be sleeping, why can't i ever seem to

here i am, your bright eyes
your star dancing
you're telling me to stop
you're there watching me sing

here i am, and there you are
the hatred in your eyes
the softness in your touch
the lines between these lies

park benches and swing-sets
late night phone calls from behind grapevines
i'm fine reminiscing but you're missing the best part
you're more real than i am, but it's all a dream in my heart

humble to the fault-line

break these bones like promises
beat this heart, burn these pages
this glass, it seems
was made for shattering

i'll find the answers i don't need
'cause all you give is easy
i'll vomit your words right back to you
and shake the hand of your half truth

Typical/Atypical

This, I wish, could be it
The silent in-between state
Filled inconsequently with quick affections
And muttered fare-thee-wells
But no

Of course not
Life means more
Than the moments
That make it
Say what you want
But you just can't
Fake it

This, I wish, was more like
The image I have of forever
Branded monumentally by a new direction
With no empty goodbyes
And so

I know now
Life means more
Than the moments
That make it
Do what you want
But you just can't
Fake it

*A Note to Poems

I do not write you for them
I post you because I can
Explanation is diluting
Definition eluding
This truth only as real
As any that I feel
You are hardly worth
You exist on earth
Because in my head
You are never dead
You are never lacking
Neither adding nor subtracting
Sincerely me
In a way, you see
Others can not perceive
Or ever hope to be
And therefore
I share more
To present the absurd
Than truth, in a word,
Exotic
Quixotic
of me to think I could
present you so that they would
ever get the difference
even with every inference
between inspiration
(and excuse this deviation)
and subject matter...

Artists

we fell in love
with the universe
the moment we were born
yet, of course,
we constantly question intentions
and, no doubt,
by now we've figured out
that being broken hearted
isn't so much a state of being
as it is what it means to be a being
that dissatisfaction
and loneliness
that feeling of abstract
alienation
and discontentment
are all just
the blood
strolling through our plaqued-up veins
and uninhibited arteries
that every blink and inhale
matters just as much
if not more
than every eye-opening exhale
because stuff matters
and you know what I mean
one day you just wake up or something
from a nap
'cause you stayed up all night
and it swings around the corner
and pelts you in the face
that
stuff matters
not everything
but some things
and it's okay
it is so so okay
for that to hurt
just
like
this.

hallucinatory

there's a fading here of dreams
no more passivity
say what must be said
reach for those words
days pass like they're mocking me
i flick at creativity
do what must be done
take the pre-dive breath

don't choke.

Tin Man

He tries his best
To fix the wiring
But that dear robot's been dead
For what feels like decades
It's automatic eyes, though
Still look so alive
Condensation in the cold room
Tears on metallic skin
Bleeding oil stains and battery acid

Face your fears
Turn the lights out
I want to know if you can live without
This scaffolding has held you high
But bones will always break
Under the weight of a lie

He wipes his hands
Like polishing scars
The blisters of a life spent
Working to build a home of only stairs
The kerosene on his breath
The gears that turn with each step
And before they find him
He will walk again he swears

Face your fears
Turn the lights out
I want to know if you can live without
Security is your tax dollars at work
What can it hurt
What can it hurt

What if all the lights were cameras
What if the ATMs knew more than just our names and numbers
What if the internet was just biding its time
What if your life could mean something more than this...

He turns the key
The fire fills the night
He's not alone
But sometimes he feels it too
You start to move
Your iron heart is beating
You are the end
But still nobody's told you

Golden Shoes

Put on a show and call it a service
Dress so nice to pretend God doesn't really deserve us
All along afraid our sins will find us and we'll be struck dead
Just take the bread and drink the cup and think of paradise instead

Come on and judge me
Call me a heretic
Put me in my place
But don't play like I'm scared of it
These silly games will name us in the end
While we've been makin' demons out of our one true friend

Hide your desperation with these numbers
Unison in division, uniformly going under
All along afraid faith may really be enough to hold us
We'd rather fall down pious then let the products mold us