Sold Out

They told me lonely was a hole
To be filled by hello
But when I said no they sold me out
Told me the only way through
Was to look like you
But no matter what I do they've sold me out

And money can buy you a whiter smile
But it's not worth the while to use it
For a job and some food and a roof over your head
All the riches in the world will abuse it
And money can buy you a paradise
Full of sweet-smelling distractions
But all your blood and your bones and your painted toes
Will rot off from blissful inaction

And your friends all whine, "you're takin' too much time"
You tried to find yourself in their apathy
So you can spend the night or find yourself a wife
Only to look at your life like "what's happened to me"
So when you're up all alone and the doors have all closed
And the air itself tries to choke you
Take a good hard look, read a good hard book
Light a match, ask yourself what can hope do

A Compliment is Not a Contract

I’m thinking about a compliment

About pointing out how great it is

You know

The way you…

Oh you don’t know?

Well, let me tell you!

You’re [lists all the amazing that you are]

Did I go too far?

Do you now expect more from me?

Do you doubt my sincerity?

Do you think I meant B when I really meant A

Don’t you think if I meant B I would say

Or not.

Did you only do that which inspired that fire

that sparked that ignition to warrant admission

that someone like me finds someone like you

to be quite something more and maybe better and new

Did you only act for the reaction

Did I only notice so you would notice me back and

Then did this whole thing happen

‘Cause neither one of us is that great

Just sorta wonderfully, beautifully, awfully

Lonely

Waiting for someone to mention

How they noticed

Us

And how very much

We could be

Formation

We aspire toward inspiration, desire less contemplation and more exultation, deviate from sensation only long enough to expediate jubilation, and fixate on the icy invasion where education became a code word translating indoctrination.

Intoxicated generation, reliniquish fated ostentation!

I dare thee, foreswear these belated obfuscations!

Berate the inflation of our celebration. In fact, conflate all conflagration till the incineration is a heinous heresy of hades’ own hellish animation.

Let no tower stand demanding our humble congregation. Humiliate the machinations of one-sided debate and toxic communion’s irrigation. Every statement relates less to growth than deforestation.

The gardens of our minds, of our Mind however, are made for the beauty of creation as well as obliteration.

And let no man, woman, or child spend their wild years wanting for a world of more deviation.

In my dreams, memories, monsters, and institutions are the ones on their knees, while the least of these are applauded, awarded for their service with a standing ovation.

New Shoes

sometimes, walking in other folks’ shoes
means walking down their street in their shoes
hearing the jeers and the cat calls
as you speed up in their shoes
getting stopped by the police
for wearing their shoes
having to listen to the ignorant disregard
of those who still wear your shoes
because you wear their shoes
letting your shoes become their shoes
and their shoes become your shoes
while still knowing they can never be our shoes
because each have their own
in which we all must walk
our own shoes for our own roads
yours, theirs, mine
sure
but what matters is what happens
when you put back on your shoes
knowing all along you never really took them off
and let your time in their shoes
affect where and how and why you walk
in your own