the water
and barely
are swallowed
guiltily

as it’s
become very
clear
we’re closer to the
end
than
the beginning.

i wanna pound the pavement
find a new day
find a new way
to live this day

wanna wake up in the
arms of chaos and
her kiss

wanna make love
under the stars of a
different place

so distant is this place
i’m in
don’t know if i’m here
or gone

takes 10 minutes
to get across the
room … used to
run through walls
for the hell of it

he is suffering
how long do i
let it go on

he is hurting
he won’t cry
though

his bark is loud,
and beautiful
still
he is suffering

and my heart is broken
if it was ever not
how long can we
let it go on

i focus on it
i focus on you
i focus on the way
it was always
supposed to go

i break inside
to hide again
to die again
you push me away
again

shadow man
lend me a hand
wont you just this once
i never meant to

find myself in your
razor blade
helping hand

shadow man
i’m looking for salvation
from your damnation

to much lately
i get crossed up
wondering
why you won’t let
me say the things
i need to say

you project your
thoughts of me
into me
inside of me

with no clue as
to what or who
or why i am
who i have
become

i’m the monster you
run from
the master you desire
the friend who was
never good enough
to call on a
shallow sunday
morning

and there’s so many
words and so many
feelings and so many
thoughts

i want to choke you with,
submit you with,
but

its gone now
that’s the life
and death
of a thought.

while an unrelenting
sequence of
birds flying over
searching for a
worm to
get hold of

as the waves crash
against the rocks
that have
settled into a
semi cosmic
coma of solitude

under an angry
sky that never
leaves, never
dies

sits above us
seperates us
from
fact
or fiction

and maybe a
black hole
or
two

I intend no ill will
for the ink i’m about
to spill in digital
text that I hope,
no implore
you to read

I’ve sat silent on
many issues, and took
in the words of my
leaders

And i’ve watched,
year after year,
bill after bill,
election after election,
only to see

another puppet
handed fake powers
to a super power
that is no more

this country was once founded
on basic theories of a civilized
society, but this past week

while the country was once again,
held hostage, as
old government and new
government shouted, at times,
racial, sexist hate speech
at one another

ah, the change
the fresh change
the new age,

again, all lies

how can we move on,
in unison, when our house
is divided by bigotry,
by blindness
by righetous
benefactors who care nothing
for the people who this
bill was for in the first place

fine me, take my money
you’ve stolen from me
before – at least now
i’ll see it coming

and i’m not angry
no, this was a predictable
outcome

absolute power absolutley corrupts
and we’ve given you so many
of our rights away, how can we
take them back

soon you will be at my front
door to tell me to hand over
my potato chips
my cheesy mac
my coca-cola

soon through the help
of my employer you will institute
a wellness plan
so i can become well

well enough for you to send me
or those around me
to war for you

we are the human meat market
the untapped source of muscle
you desire

like the oil
oh, the oil you so badly
need

the machine will go on
doing what the machine does

but a name change is probably in
due order,
as we are in no way,
united anymore

now dirty paw
prints mark
the ground

like small slaps
to an already beaten
earth

frozen like the rest of
us
it continues to spin
like the rest of us

into the future,
never looking back
slipping in to the
black nothingness
of another
winters morning

with wet socks
i stumble to say
good bye
to another
year of growth
another year
of hurt
another year of
sorrow
another year of
waiting for
tomorrow

some sooner
than others
some with
grace

others face
an executioner
but really
death
is the same

for everyone
who goes down
but the

convicts have it
right,
they get a last meal

and this would be mine

ribs that sat on a
wisconsin wood
all day while i listened
to good music with
good friends

and didn’t have to
put up with
any death storms this time

my dad’s potato soup
in the middle of
another
cold prescott winter

fried chicken from
sanford iga, i don’t know
what they do there,
with that chicken,
but the colonel should
call em

i’d sit one last time
at the oak, and watch
them argue while
they cook up my last
hot wings, i won’t eat
them there

cuz i gotta be in that chair,
next to the dog,
next to the radio,
out in the den

and for desert
windmill crackers
and tang

one last time.

but his body had started to
fail him

a brazen
younger fighter
looking to make a name
on his watch
slipped on sweat that
saturated the
war mat

heads found
each other
banged into
one another

wounded and dazed
the wiley fighter
confronted with a
bloody situation
groaned loudly
held his head down
and bit the mouth piece
before moving back
into
arms reach

upper cuts thrown
with bad intention
the cut
over his eye
would do him in

as he sat hunched over
in the corner
he asked the trainer
not to
quit

“i can’t see, but i
want to continue”

and so it went
for another
7 minutes

until the blood
stopped him

until the blood
exposed him

until the blood
and sweat
and tears
blinded him