lava

i wake up
and do
what i do

great
derailing
trains glide through
my head

enough pressure
to make anxiety
envious

i go to sleep
and do
what i do

and still
there's talk of
bombs
and abortions,
of light
and listlessness

the world turns
in and upon itself
every single
moment,
suckling the tit of
eventuality,
boring the shit
out of kids
and making adults
pray to unrelenting
gods
of misinformation
and reckless
abandon

bring hope
and settle down to do
what you do

let it linger
on the
truth for
a minute more

sleeping in volcanoes
isn't all what it's
cracked up to be.

don't believe in fate

sometimes the flowers
don't burn as bright
as they're supposed to.

and the clouds make
terrible faces in
the sky.

the sun dwindles
along the mountains
and the air
won't fill the lungs.

how can the
soul shine
when the
heart has
broken
completely?

sometimes the flowers
don't burn as bright.

stuck inside the skin
and writhing inside
the cells
and living the seconds away
time and again
until the big blue sky
comes falling down
and graces the soul
with just a hint
of the foreverafter.

when the pieces no longer fit

the slow burn
as the days
gather
and strip away
lost love

sympathy wanes
in small steps
bounding through
memories
better off lost

another dark night
swallowed
another day worked
away
and misplaced
along with all the others

friends come and gone
ushered away
like dust through
a keyhole

smiles melted down
into wrinkled frowns
as the eyes weep
a few degrees deeper

clasped hands
released
and the time is lost
and the great
separation begins
and the game
is coming to an end

all of that fluttering
away
and still you stand
firm
all alone as you drift away
with all the rest

how many smiles
have you missed?

how many seconds
were fucked away
with purpose?

try as you might
not a single breath
can be recaptured
in the movement
of the galaxies
swallowing you
                  whole

no single answer

you asked me
everything,
and it was
nothing i
could give.

simply looking
into your eyes,
past the
heartache,
past the
nuance of hurt,
and the flames
of wonder,
was enough.

i could
have
stared
at you
forever -
dreamed
in your
gaze
and led
you
by hand
into the
promise
    of
eternity.

all of those
questions
you had
and not a
single answer.

"i have nothing
to give,"
i said. "i have
nothing but
wonder and
excitement,
      joy
   and
confusion."

you said it would be all right,
that no real answers were
needed.
but i still felt as if i had let you down.

then you said, "your look was enough.
that was all i've ever wanted."

and so we went from there.

one day, my inner child will win.

don't grow up ...
don't bother with it,
it's totally overrated.

appreciate every moment,
every single second you're given.

don't live for anyone else
but yourself.
love who you love
and nothing more.
enjoy it all,
it's a fairly short ride.

if i could be a kid again
i would tell myself to never
worry. what happens is what happens,
and most of the time there's not
a goddamn thing you can do about it.

when i was young
and broke,
i was happy,
but i thought i was a loser
for not having the good job,
the ideal lifestyle.
but now, as i come
full circle into midlife,
i realize that those were the best
years
of life.

i did what i wanted
when i wanted to do it.

i only lived for the moment.

every breath was new.

every step
was an inch closer
to my childhood,
to the youth i harbored
like a precious treasure.

so don't grow up,
there's no need for it
as long as you're
living life to its fullest,
as long as you are dreaming
of who you've become,
as long as you're not tied down
by the anchor of adulthood.

leave aging to the elderly
because when you're determined
to be forever young,
you'll never truly die ...
at least not in your heart.

like a flower held by a baby

when they say you have a voice,
that you can make change,
don't believe them.
it's to keep us complacent
with the idea that whatever we
do
will make for a better country,
a better standard of living,
a
better way of life.

if we were to suddenly realize
that
every part of our system was
a scam designed to set us up
for failure,
our causes would become aggressive.

"Give peace a chance," is a
beautiful sentiment until you
realize there are about a million
motherfuckers out there waiting for
you to lay down arms so they
can rip open a gash in your back.

"Vote for the lesser of two evils,"
sounds lovely until you come to
the understanding that you're still
voting for evil.

"Turn a blind eye," would be wonderful
if someone wasn't trying to poke the other
eye out.

"Live and let live," is a nice idea until you
figure out the other assholes are trying to kill
you.

we can look at all the beauty in the world,
all 15% of it, or we can be realistic with
the notion that 85% want to do you harm.

we can pretend that everyone is equal.
that way if anyone fucks up, no one is
to blame.

we can make the next generation
pay out the ass for an
education that won't leave them
with a pot to piss in.

or we could all stop paying for
the shit they are trying to cram down
our throats and watch the money drown on itself.

i see the beauty in the world.
do you?

blissful ignorance

never underestimate the power
of not giving a fuck.
if you're literate on every
goddamn cause on the planet,
you're probably not living
to your full potential.

everyone has a cause,
a point of interest
that compels them,
and makes their panties wet.

just another day in the sunshine.

our most intimate experiences
could be splayed out in
front of us and we would
still
find a new cause
to engorge our egos.

there's so much to be
proactive about in life
that we lose sight
of life, itself.

be political.
be spiritual.
be charitable.
be righteous.
be necessary.
become trapped
by all of the illusions.
live every moment with an air of need and want and purpose.
initiate change.
be sympathetic.

it all ends in stagnant nothingness,
just as it was before we arrived.
and what you leave behind
is another set of illusions for others
to try to follow.

don't try.