Untitled

The money I was going to use to bail out my best friend
From jail
I used to buy a one night stand a drink
And it was worth it
To know that I only offer uselessness
In a world that would rather
Scare you into electing
Those that would elect
Fear
Than provide justice
Security
Peace?
As I drank my last shot
My chest burned
And I laughed knowing that more and more
Of my best friends won't be around
Because behind bars
Maybe more secure
Than being in front of the one
I'm in a stupor at.

5:12 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Drowned fish

I've always known
As I swim in the sea of scattered pieces of broken hearts
That I had to dive deep, hold my breath
And then
Maybe
I could lose that breath
My heart can stop
My eyes will cease vision
Sound will be silence
Taste will be consumed by
A mouth sealed
I could not speak of it
I could not touch it
Because I would rather know the depth
Of that which I seek
Than be deceived
By the love
That quickly
Can drown me in deceipt
I will float here for awhile
Because the waters in this sea
Have been poisoned
And the many fish fable
Has ended up
On someone else's
Dinner table

6:36 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Jihad al-Nafs

I fight life, i fight death
I have fought through self indulgent
habits
The pleasure of living the blur of dizzy moments
with feet clamped to the intangible essence
of the good of God, and pulled in every direction
upon hearing the news of the
Tragedy of man
I fight my own anger
In seeing more tears than I have seen
rain fall upon the cracked arid soil
that once fed communities, families, children
I fight through hunger with them all
I fight my own greed
to lead in the struggle against the minority
that adheres to theirs.
I need nothing, because I have fought for it,
My greatest victory,
the difference between want and need.
I fight society
because each one of you will have to look me in the eye
to know if I'm your real enemy
And may my own judgement not be skewered
by my own ignorance
I fight
Hatred
I look it in the eye
while brushing my teeth every night
and forgive him everyday
as I am willing
to those who classify me as their enemy
and I will look them in the eye as I shake their hand
in friendship.
I will fight life to the death
I will fight death to the life
Because all along
I have been fighting
Myself

8:38 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

The Why? Condition

Once upon a time
We the people
Four score
and,
A dream
I once had
Believed that we were fighting
To forward the basic sense of human nature
Constituting freedom,
But limited today
By the decisions of a stationary circus at it's pinnacle
Enough so, we have wielded the very swords
That have shredded
The preamble of common sense.
News flash and bombs bursting in air
That want us to know fear
To feel protected
In our amber waves of grain
And the white blooms of cotton
Have a Coke and smile
Because we might be better off deciding
A cola war
Because we cannot decide how to see
Ending a war
Because maybe
We do not want it to end
Because we can only decide red or blue
White and black
Good and evil
Because maybe
We cannot look in the mirror
And see tyranny in our own eyes
Because we let someone else decide what
The houses that our fathers built
Was actually not worth,
And you sold it and the farm
Your grandfather built
And came out a millionaire
Because we see dollar signs
Before we see ignorance
Because we see MTV's Real World
And plan our lives around
Who's fucking who?
Because we would rather worry about how a
Vice presidential nominee's assets look in the flesh
Than actually listening to what her opponent says
Because there is a mute button on our remote controls
Because we look to empty promises
And realized
We made it from sea to shining sea,
And promised the tribes of sun blessed man
These blankets would warm them when it got cold
Because we count votes
But our votes don't count us
That's why we have an electoral college
Like it ever mattered.
Because God told us to do what's best in our hearts
We adhered to Law
We made bills into laws
And forgot that Moses couldn't even control
All of the tribes
Until he came down from the mountain
And even then,
The Wrath
Would come to those that knelt
Before the false image
We claimed jihad without speaking a word of Arabic
Because the system has never changed
It's just that the Boston Tea Party
Would've never made sense if them
Bastards didn't dress like Indians,
Because our forefathers weren't terrorists.

5:55 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Fields of wilted flowers

They didn't think a field of flowers was worth
It's weight in petals...
They only had interest vested in a forecast
Of sunny days,
So they decided
to lower interest
Soon the flowers could not afford to be,
Each plucked stem by stem.
They decided
It was worth a house
or two
Tracks and tracks
Of concrete, tar, and wood
They decided
A field of flowers was worth more
And more and more
Billions
They decided
To raise interest in the ideal
That anyone can own a field of flowers
A bed of roses
They decided
To name their price
To name your cost
To pluck each petal from
Your dinner table vase
And eat your dinner too,
Leaving your hands to collect the
Stabbing of the thorns.

5:39 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Barstool Economics

They were all sitting at the bar
Telling great stories
About profits, and scams,
Successes and legacies,
Toasts to good health
Until all of them were drunk
Full of themselves as they were
With what made them dizzy
They chose to pass out on barstools
Those few who were still awake
Twisted plastic stir sticks around
And laughed about how
They had shut down the bar
And the barkeep and his crew
Were not repugnant to this,
The drunk folk put enough coins in the
Jukebox
So they all sang along in disillusioned harmony
Anyways
The barkeep had had enough for one night
A riot broke out
Bottles flew in the air,
Steins and martini glasses came
Crashing down the ground
The barkeep with these people inside did indeed have enough
To keep the place open anyways
He was the only one left standing
And with a broom in his hand
He swept the floor,
Announcing
All the drinks tonight and for the rest of your lives
Are on the house!
Come back tomorrow
And let's do it again
Like the gambler with the card table in sight
They obliged to their own sick conditions,
And became mortgage and investment bankers.
Everyone outside
Was sober enough to lose the roofs
From over their heads.

1:30 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Debacle

Sense does not make dollars
Free markets profit at what cost
They believe wealth is the driving force to sedate the masses,
To the ends of the earth
We drill to accommodate
Yet never nourish the resource
Plagues
Drought
Cannot be dealt with weapons
Yet some believe
That the answers to our troubles lie
In taxes
Some believe the answers lie
In spending
They ping pong ideas
And white balls fly around
Falling off of the table
Spectators gawk at the stalemate
I let out a yawn from the nose bleed seats
The ref sits and laughs at us all
Then takes a paddle himself and spanks everyone silly
To force them to realize
Teachers
Students
Doctors
Patients
Police
Criminals
Firemen
Victims
Parents
Children
Are not as important as the function and distinction
Of legislation and the men and women who decide
That maybe we are better off
That the tectonic plates shift
And California falls into the ocean
With it
A failure to make sense.

12:20 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Untitled

I have words to share
And if you could pull my heart out of me
May you be left with these words
That are the blood soaked inspirations of a man
May you imagine that these words are more than that.
May you imagine that actions can transcend
What is written down
Beyond books
Bibles, magazines
Poems
One needs not know my visage,
Because I don't want to be painted in any other
Color than the truth of my imagination.
May you wander the earth
Meeting many of me
May I not be translated into a mind controlling substance.
Poetry is words,
But the true beauty of it all
Was there before you all along,
It occurs in the twinkling of constellations
...In the stillness of a lake before a flock of geese
Skim the skin of life's resource.
...In the conversation of people
Provoking art.
...In the struggle of a man feeding his family
...In the raising of a child
...In the death... the remembrance of a life's worth
Of etched in stone memories
If you pulled this heart out of me may it beat in your imagination
As you read more words
Stop to look in the mirror,
With your eyes closed
Take a deep breath
Know that what you cannot see
Was beautiful even before the gaze of your own eyes
And was always meant to be
In the blink of an eye
Gone
Until you share the notion
To remember.

9:08 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Untitled

Summer's end
May life begin when an old thought withers with the leaves
And the wind blows in the direction of
Where the ground awaits a drop of rain
I stop to enjoy a deep breath
That long ago and to this day still means
That I have took my first step
Into the next season
Looking forward to being cold again,
And then looking forward to running into the ocean
Under the sun when it is ready to take me in
In time and chance
Every thought takes root
Becomes a year beyond a number
A moment becomes this emotion
And before you know it
Rain drops pelt my head
And I am laughing at what could be
The green leaves on the branches to come

5:13 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Folded Flags and a 21 Gun Salute

For J.H. and C.S.

I look up
Wondering if a hero were to fall from the sky
Would he dream to do what we all imagined
A hero
To be?
I look down
Wondering if a hero were to crawl from a grave
Would he dream to do what we all imagined
A hero
To die for?
I watch a mother push a stroller
And wonder if she knows what a hero is
I watch a mother mourn before a coffin
And wonder if she knows what a hero is
Twenty one guns shoot blanks to the sky
I in black am ready to fly and take another name.
To exude the lessons in fables and color blasted scrolls of paper,
With stick figures
With super powers and issues and resolutions
Gravity brings me to the real life around me
May I dream too, in vengeance.
But am I ready to assert beyond imagination,
That good is ready to be fought for?
From a pulpit a man speaks about dissolving all evil,
And on the other side of the planet in many different languages,
They speak about fighting against evil too.
Can we confront the echoes of intolerance
Long enough to recognize an ounce of evil in ourselves?
Is looking in the mirror the example of what we perceive
As good
Enough to combat the ambiguity of an opinion?
Hero
Enemy
I look up down
Around,
In the past, future
Now
We see glowing boxes
And pack ourselves into even bigger boxes
To imagine heroes
With capes and costumes
And sidekicks
And enemies
Right and wrong
Convictions of imagination
And the emotion of good
And sulk about how evil evil is
Take up arms to fight it
Yet do not understand the words an enemy speaks
I dream a hero,
Lives beyond words
Fights to the death beyond all action
Words cannot serve any justice,
A mere eulogy cannot preserve one's life as heroic.
Death cannot speak, but of only one truth.
So as I bury my dear friend having done his duty,
A flag is folded and passed to a grieving wife,
Tears streak the face of a hungry newborn,
And flowers are tossed.
I bid farewell.
He followed his orders
Like a soldier should.
I imagine a hero
And look up to the sky
Wondering if we are ready
To heed to the idea
We are all mortal to begin with
As all heroes truly ever were.

2:19 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Soliloquoy of the Stargazer

Upon the brink of the color of twilight
And the breath of a wink of solitude,
I stand
Before the shadow of the earth
Feeling
Darkness
While it is the present tense
The fleeting moments of light and dark
Surpass my moment of peace,
And the turbulence of our orbit,
As we spin on our axis
And become night,
And become day,
And stand to become shadows
In a far off distance.
A speck of light reveals itself
For the first time
And a telescopic eye
Is jumping for joy
Having discovered
A star,
Whose light just made the journey,
Of millennia,
I can only dream of returning the favor.

5:44 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Untitled

Access to information,
We know more now,
We see things,
We have seen
Two of the world's tallest
Man made structures
Crumble
Taking souls with them
Returning to the earth,
Rising to memory
To heaven.
All emblazoned
Broadcast
Worldwide
To family,
Friends,
To enemies,
Allies,
Accessed in many languages,
In many different skewered perceptions
Patriotism
Terrorism
Friend
Foe

As I am constantly reminding myself,
What I stand for
The news flash reminds me
What is actually important
The commercial break reminds me
How much money I should spend
What is valued
Our values
Beauty
Is sold
Pre packaged
Molded
Colored
Refined?
Reminding me I'm deformed,
Displaced,
My mind in exile,
In my own imagination
Forgetting
Force fed information
Accessed
Interwebbed,
Woven
Spiders feeding
We stick to the web,
Wondering if we actually saw it coming,
Someone knew
And we believe what we see with our own eyes
And instantly see an enemy out of the belief,
Of our good,
Of our evil.
I see the emotion of tears
And imagination the feeling of holding a gun,
Knowing the only profit I have invested,
Is the struggle of this .22 caliber,
To get into my hands,
From the hands of a middle school dropout,
The eternal undergrad,
Accessing the information
Survival
Needs,
A bulletproof shell,
And the jackets and shirts and suits and ties,
To sweat the idea of knowing one shot to the head would certainly
Be the one thing worth knowing,
Will I survive.

5:30 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Untitled

When the quiet was enough
And the shadow
Trailed me long enough to
Say good bye
I relished the urge
To disappear with it
Knowing, having learned,
Like the sun,
Shadows do return
As easy as the sunrises.

9:52 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Questions (recycled)

Why is it that we cant find peace in our own lives,
And hope others will take care of it for us?
Why we praise the corruptors,
Why we cold shoulder the basic progressive existence,
Of a smile?
Why are we against a war, for a war,
But have yet to claim victory over ourselves?
Why are we afraid?
Why are we proud?
Why do we look in the mirror,
And only find that which holds us back?
Why should I fake a smile?
Why is it in the midst of believing in one Almighty God,
Are we against those who believe in the same Almighty God,
In a different language?
In a different outfit,
In a different
We are different,
Lets believe that truth,
And in that truth,
Lies the undeniable truth,
We are the same.
Why then, do we oppose the truth?
Why do we rely on numbers,
When nearly seventy percent of a nation,
Cannot rely on,
The truth.
Be told,
When the Almighty God,
Is ready to open the history books,
Who will be at the side of the Almighty God,
To read along?
Who will it be written by?
Who will hold the pen in his or her hand?
Who will type the scripture?
Who will resurrect the constitution within us?
Who will love the world and the sons and daughters of Man,
Of God, of all that is within us?
Where will the next stage for war be set?
Will we look to the east and see a mushroom cloud
Of justice?
Will those who pray to Mecca,
Pray to dust?
Will those who pray to the Cross,
Pray to dust?
Will those who sit still,
Meditate,
Dust?
I offer no answers.
Love?
I offer no solutions.
Hate?
I shall draw my own blood,
Before,
I draw my sword.
Love?
I draw my pen.
Love?
I spill my heart.
It is amongst people I walk,
And amidst heaven I dream,
Of no kingdoms,
Of no policies,
Of no weapons,
Of no judgement,
Of no execution,
Jail, prisoner, soldier.
I close my eyes.
Is that what peace looks like?
Close your eyes.
Could that be what we vision,
The ultimate goal for the ultimate existence?
Is that the harmony
When all wars are fought and the soldier has returned home,
And the souls of all we lost,
Return to our hearts,
To return us to
The ultimate goal for the ultimate existence?
Will there be a need for riches?
When in the hearts of hearts,
Which lies in you,
Is truly driven,
To live?
I have no answers.
I offer silence.
In that silence, may the true voice,
Of the Almighty God,
Not rely on words to reach us all.
Not rely on weapons to punish us all.
Not rely on us
To truly believe.
I sit in the mountains alone.
I await upon the crown,
Of the earth.
I bathe in the dust of memories,
Which tears alone cannot provide enough moisture.
I am fed.
But those who starve,
Cannot see me eye to eye,
They reach their hands in a despair,
That not even a hug can vanquish.
Those who will survive,
Will not know the love,
That you and I,
In our televised portrayals,
Pretend to think we truly understand.
Am I ready to dream the ultimate dream?
And live to tell about it?

8:15 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Untitled

I am human first and foremost.
I am a man.
I am an American,
But I carry a green card in my wallet.
Do not deny me my right of this America.
My grandfather and father served this freedom,
And raising my righthand
In a crowd,
Will not be the only justification,
For me being
What is taken for granted by many, millions
Staring at stars in shiny boxes,
Flat screens.
I will not forget
That there are many more, millions more
I pray
That read between the lines,
That align there hearts with the intangible
Emotion
Of
Truth
Of
Understanding
Of
Justice
Of
Peace
Of
Life
And
Death.
And so,
As I hide my face,
I ask you to look me in the eye
And tell me
That you are willing to die
For those things you hold dear,
Your car,
Your jewelry,
Your favorite nightclub,
Your house.
If I die tomorrow,
Remind me not to take anything with me.

9:14 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment