Greed is a slippery assassin
That slips in
To insert itself
Into the core
Of our society
Pushes us ever forward
Towards
Our self-mutilation
And eventually
Our self-destruction

I want to break you of your superstitions
Your poor position with foggy vision
From you false propped up religion
I want to offer you wisdom
Words, facts, and information
Sentences of love
Though you are not ready to hear them
So I will play the mad poet
Place my offerings before you
And before you know it
You will see
That what you believe
Is just a passing trend
You will not break
But bend before the coming wind
And see yourselves
Better than I ever was
And how I always knew
You could be

For wisdom and knowledge
For understanding and compassion
I sold the fire of who I was
Saw soul’s light expire
In my fervent desire
To be better
Acquiring and inspiring
Art
At the expanse
Of my own happiness
Looking through to
The human heart of darkness
To help create
A collective lamp
That burns brighter and better
Then this dark bitter sun
And though I will never know
Such a sweet world
From my lonely mountain top
You will know
I love you all

Take note
Of the knife
At your throat
It is not the apostate
Whom you hate
That threatens you
With a ****** blade
But the brothers you slayed
For your fanatical ways
Who bring to bare
The same violence
You brought them there

You are wounded
and when you heal
You will still feel
The pain
The scar will still
Be there
A crest upon your flesh
But you will still
Be beautiful

No cell phone allowed
so I feel naked,
with just my notepad and pen,
back to the boring bank.
I am blocked by boredom
and for a while
all I see are blank faces.

“Would you like to add
a backup account to prevent
overcharges.”

Rain falling, black umbrella bobbing
like a limping parasol trying to escape
this mundane storm.
Not allowed to talk to the customers
for more than casual pleasantries.

“I have twenty calls to make
but they are the same people.”

Stranger in a black Toyota
parks in poor pools that reflect
the same cold dreariness
of this security shift work.

“She just walks in my office
while I am on the phone
trying to make my quotas.”

Balding ginger with a white streak
that cuts across his small beard
looks as tired as I feel.
Two grandmas hug and talk about
the same grandchild.
White paint covered man
comes in a with a wide grin,
and good greetings.

“I’m so tired of fake smiling.
Did you see the Lip Sync battle?
What are you reading?”

My fidgeting fingers ******
the notepad in my coat pocket.
I slip it in and out taking notes
on the people that come and go.
It is good for me to be without my phone,
but like an addict I am itching for
a distraction.

“Quiz me. I sort of passed.
Missed a few so  
I have to do an onsite test.
You know you can add
a checking account for free.
You only have fifty left in.
Do you want to deposit that?”

I bank each stranger.
saving them for later
racking up interest
in my interest of humanity.
I bank them in my little
red book, so I can write
about my basic observations.

“Where are you from?
Hey, where are you from?”

Oh me, nowhere important.
I am just a banker of stories.
Do you have one?

No labels
And you are afraid
Uncertain how
You should react today

A person can’t simply be
Because you are uncomfortable
If you can’t call them
He, or she
Black, Asian, or white
American or foreign

Must have some social cues
To give certain social clues
So you can perform
Some standard dance
Instead just treating people
Like human beings.

I should be so blessed
That if the best
Thing that happens
To me
Is that when I die
I am remembered
For a short while
While my words
Impact humanity
deeply

I hope when the stage lights soften
And my body chills
As the energy eases out
Of my old man frame
That I am with the people I love
Joking, and smiling
Till I am unable to do anything
At all

In loneliness
I long to lock lips
Spread your legs
Slip into your hips
And drink infinity
From your body

I am a river of longing
Swerving and changing
Draining myself
Into your desirous ocean
While you evaporate
Swelling the bodies
Of other oceans, seas,
Lakes, rivers, and tributaries
Leaving little love left for me

Think of me as poetry
Sweetly succinct
In this meager
But beautiful reality

Rough wheels run circles
Around a static background
Passing the same horizon
Over and over again
Like some old cartoon
Driving in place
As he races to his next stop
To live unload his next drop
Early bird waiting hours plus
Hoping they can fit him in
So he can hit the road again
Before his electronic log
Locks him down for the day
He brings his paperwork
And waits
He pulls his tandem back
Then waits
Drops his trailer in the door
And waits
Rest stop gas station shower
On the road
Smoke stacks cough up
Black clouds
Yellow lines
Become yellow blurs
Another load down
Another pick up
The road rides him roughly
Home beckons him on
Fifteen hundred miles
To his own bed
Coffee break and **** stop
To clear his head
And the sunset runs seventy miles
An hour
While he pushes seventy-five
Two million miles down
Two million more to end his life

I could not find the words
To fulfill the fullness of this thought.
I could not bare to forgo
The wonders we both know
If such a thought was lost
So while you went on
I waited in this song
Searched for the precise way
To express what I wanted to say
Now you to are gone
And I might have been wrong
Lollygagging around
Looking for the perfect sound
While everyone else
Has moved on

Nothing was ever easy
For her reluctant heart
Eyes ever scanning the horizon
Heart ever guarded
Reticent desire
Always looking for an exit strategy
Always seeing the same old patterns
Passion and betrayal
Lust and loss of interest
Why bother even trying
Lovers discarded
As fast as they were acquired
Waning desire intermingled
With boredom and guilt

The cross stich of humanity
Is too complicated to be comfortable
Complexity and uncertainty
Unimaginably inevitable
Unless one is blind with fear
Or merely comfortably ignorant

It is the journey
The richness of
New experiences
That expand my consciousness
Feeding the creative frenzy
Creating new neural pathways
Improving my mind
And enriching my humanity

I don’t get to be the hero of my tale.
neither do you,
but I am more heroic when I fail,
then you are when you never even try.

I will never write the American master piece.
I will never get rich or famous,
but I will write honestly for me.
Being myself with all my messed up
Good intentions.

It’s the age of digital wonders.
The world cast before our feet
to be reeled in and gutted,
plunging further down the hole
Of personally preferred biases.
All the information ready to be devoured.
Generations scouring the abstract
for solid connections
but the ones and zeroes
cannot touch a stranger.
The distances conquered
cannot yield flesh upon flesh communication.
There is no oxytocin connection.
Instead, all the files of pain
are relegated to the spam box.
Humanity is filtered in favor of
cheap proclamations of internet love
and the once wondrous round world
becomes flat again.
The sun revolves around the earth.
Four fingers forget opposable thumbs
and we never evolve to be better
than we are.

I leave them behind, staring straight ahead despite their pleas. The starry night beckons me. It promises to set me free, so I leave. Cries of anguish echo in the nether realms, part past part hell, where the darkness instills itself.
Nighttime brings terrible dreams, but daylight is where true nightmares come from. My boots disturb the grey cement kicking up clouds of dust. Smoke obscures the empty spaces where ****** faces once laid. Scarred flesh painted red with life’s fluid.  Blood oozes and drips down the now cooling skin, then flows forming a small red river with tiny tributaries. All this is captured in a greyscale distortion.
I missed the moments of violent percussions. The sounds of man-made thunder crashing and smashing everything in sight. I was only here for the aftermath. Still, that is enough. Dark blue body bags hold the terror of two twins decimated. Gaping wounds appear as if something had been chewing itself free from their stomachs. Normal skin rolls into mangled and exposed muscle then becomes bone. What a sick alchemy of flesh.
Their faces follow the same empty stare. They almost look alive. Eyes open in accusation, pointing in a parallel direction. I can feel the full force of their claims as they silently scream “Why.”
I cry, but my tears come just upon the edge of numbness.  Anger, and sorrow so extreme that my mind cannot handle it. I disappear, pretending that these are merely photos. I immerse myself in the delusion that this is a thing of the past. I am not here. They are not there. With a digital click, the camera becomes my emotional filter.
I stumble, a step away from losing what is left of my sanity, then cross the threshold in reverse, till I am outside. A small woman cradles something in her arms. It is a charcoal baby doll. Tears streaming the woman screams, holding that incinerated thing, but it’s just a doll. Black flakes fall, baby doll’s clothing turns to dust. I cough it in and out choking on the musk. I am grateful that it is just a broken doll.
I feel fear bringing me to edge of insanity. Her screaming seems strange. Her eyes look deranged. The doll’s legs have little calcium protrusions. Do burnt bones blacken? It’s just a doll. Scorched porcelain doesn’t look like skin, but it’s just a doll. Please let it be just a doll.
I pull myself from the situation. Detach what is left of my impartiality from my sanity. This is just a picture. This is just a job. Auto pilot takes over as I keep clicking photos, leaving any sense of self in the past.

They see the circle take the square
Going around round here
Without fear
Cutting corners
Till love cycles back
To there is no white or black
Just humans
Hands by the fire
Hands held all together
Till better angels are inspired
One foot into the coals to forge better metals
And our bond finally becomes
Unbreakable in love

Can you see beyond
What you believe is a sea
Though in reality
Is a tiny trickle
Expanded only
In the minds
Of those who were fooled

Cross that tiny gap
Break the barriers
Of the past
And find the truth
Of our human connection

We are not a small
Band of ****** brothers
Or a class of kin
Classified by our borders
And the color of our skin

We are a collective
Cut from the same cloth
Of history
The same chain
Of DNA

We are human
To be loved and accepted
Not feared or rejected

We are children
Living within
The limited life span

We are not one clan
Against a million
But one tribe
That counts seven billion
plus

The streets bleed violence
But it’s not what you are thinking
Tv has got you drinking up
The new age of segregation
The cultivation of gentrification
One neighborhood split by the highway
One street built up with new projects
To expel so called misfits
Lies value profits over people
See specific skin colors as evil
Or at least deviant

So, I cry out across the canyon
“Tell me you don’t believe in it.
Please tell me you can see it.”

But even the echoes ignore me
How can I save humanity
If they can’t see what I see.

I Put one foot in the grave that I dug,
Take one last hug then I shrug.
Blood pressure rising,
from trying to fight the tyrants,
but it is a losing battle
and even I know it.

So, for every inch forward
I take a hundred and one back.
Till, I collapse ready for the dirt nap,
ready for the final pause,
but maybe someday someone better
will take up my cause.

Fear steals the air
Kills the vibrations
Stops fresh creations

Turning giants
To timid rabbits
Turning gods into
Demigods, and then vapors

Legends fades
The ones we made
Failing to create
Cause we were afraid to fail
So we failed ourselves

Dark lies we tell ourselves
To fit in, but in the end
We take the sunset
But **** the sunrise
We fakes a smile
While we rot inside

Until, one night
The maker’s hands
Turns palsy
And the energy
Fizzles out

We forget to trust
Try to breath
But choke on dust
Dying without the heart
We were born with

She’s so pretty
So perfect
Got me chained
To her surface
So shallow
I get swallowed
In to the same circus
Same purpose
To pursue
Love’s lies
That seems so true

Love equals
The materiel
Diamonds, cars, and trips
From stars and business execs
If you can’t make it
Then she becomes your ex

So you fake it
For love and ***
Stress for success
You dress to impress
More becomes less
As you sacrifice your time
Passions, life, and mind

Time broke the heart of Van Gogh
Wrenched the soul of Edgar Allen Poe
As the ages spoke with words and paints
The romantics yielded up all of their pain
And put it on display in canvasses and pages

The city slept on me

Cold bench bed
Newspaper blankets
Stuffed inside
My ***** clothes

Hiding under
Overhanging
Balconies
Or laying on steel grates
That coughed up
A little tuffs of heat

Till the sound of feet
Kicked me
As the mad masses marched on,

March’s farm of snow
Cultivated stiffness

Rigidity
Became my dream

Death became
My warmth

Hope melted
Faster than
Those flurries

And I was buried
Under a layer of
Human coldness

This city drinks me in
Scratches my skin
And calls life sin

I am one bottle
Half empty
Sick salt water
Made to spit
Wet ****
As this vile brew
Slips pass my
Cracked lips

Drunk to get free
Buzzed to be me
So people can see
I don’t care what they think
How sobering

Dry eyes sealed shut
Crusted sleep dust
Thirsty, sore
If I flew before
I do not remember
I am disrobed
And dismembered
Exposed in December

Towering teeth
Swallowing me
Till I cannot see
Till I cannot breath
Till I have to leave

Water skin broken
The tab is busted
The words drained
Fizzy water
Becomes my
Clouded brain
I am spent
So I hit the train
Exiting as other dreamers
Come raining in

I put pennies into
empty fountains
To wish for you

Stealing a kiss
Or two
From your deep
Blue hued
Expanse

I put quarters into
A broken bubble gum machine
To see it spit smoke
While I sit and choke
On the empty verses I wrote

A poet
In mourning
A poet
In longing

Right turns turn left
Wrong turns turn right

I write
One soft touch
That will never happen
Spew out my hopes
And take them back in
Knowing that you do not exist

The pennies fall down
That dry drain
As I exit this
Sad street lamp lit life
All alone

I used to be a fanboy
With those boxed toy
Played those movies
In my head
Daydreaming instead of
Remaking my own reality
Sitting in a fixed position
No slick transition
To something better
Just wearing my red
Dead head sweater
Never even wrote this letter
Just let life run its will
Right over my heart
Until
I was as stiff in death
As I had been in life

It was on the digital screen
That I saw the children scream
Mouths contorted
Faces distorted
In stainless steel poses
Of death and destruction

I saw flowers burnt up
Showers of shrapnel
Splitting skin
Sinking in
Deeper and deeper

Colors fading
Pictures saying
Everything in silence

Limbs desecrated
Face craters collapsing
The hopes and hearts
Of all who saw

The broken buds bursting
The ground bleeding
Gas, and red rubble

My computer became
A nightmare machine
But I could not turn off
That dreadful thing
While others
Had their dreams violated
By such horrific scenes

Sometimes it is not racist
It is merely a miscommunication

Two boats passing
Never merging
Never understanding each other

Just standing on guard
Waiting for hate to make
Someone fall hard

But wait
You just skipped a page
Stripped the skin and did not take a look within
Did not see or bother to read the poetry of their soul

So strangers yell at each other
Sling hell at one another
Do not hug or heal their brothers
Just perpetuate the same mistakes

As one man walks away angry at the injustice
Another man slumps his shoulder in confusion

As one man is plagued and played by the illusion
That we are separate races in combat
The curious remains unheard
Becomes disturbed

Because he loves everybody
But he was already declared
An enemy of the state
In this struggle to erase hate

Blood begets blood
Wet red forgets
Where it came from
In the maelstrom
Of the war drums
That beat on from

My grandfather
Was murdered by
That group
But he didn’t die
Because of that guy

It was fifty plus years ago
And everyone here knows
Someone who was a victim
My mother, her brother
His wife and children
Your father his sister
Her daughters

Blood quickens
As rage thickens
Pools cross the streets
Faces become pulpy meat
And carnage becomes
More knives, bombs, and guns

The night swallows our sun
As it takes all of our sons
And soldiers become casualties
And school children
Become sidewalk art

And I cannot hold
Anymore horror in my heart
So I empty my vessel
Of summers and springs
To swallow more ****** dreams
All this madness becomes poetry
For you to read
Even though you will not

From the mainframe
That brought you war games
Head-shots for **** points
Team death match battles
Close to realistic war scenes
On your plasma tv screen
Here your enemies scream
As their heads explode
See your IQ drop
While dexterity improves
As your gaming console
Get used to control
A digital killing machine
Pumped up world war dreams
Cause death is a game
And killing is great
And now our children are well trained
To fly our missile and machine gun
Loaded drones
and shoot down the enemies
Of our sick bloated
Corporate corrupted
Fake free state

He hasn’t got a shot
On this brown town block
Except the one shot
By the stopped cop
Who pulled up hot
Cause the little brown boy
Was playing cops
On this cold stone block

Today was a lazy day
Shameful play
Not working at all
Just shoveling ****
Down my throat
One unhealthy calorie
At a time
One thirty minute
Show at a time
One video game
To ease my mind
No books
Just sleeping
Not much thinking
Just peaceful dreaming
Ashamed
Because I was unproductive
But sometimes
People just need to veg out

I’m a dead poet
Ya’ dig
I don’t have to makes sense
The academics
Just have to think I did

She’s got that busted lip
But you figured it
Was not worth
Your attention

So, all that tension
Just tightens her throat
Makes here choke
On all of her hope

Cause every day
Is just another
Dark shadow
And bruise
Waiting to happen

And you don’t care
Cause you weren’t there
Kissing razor tip dreams
Cutting skins
Till the beating drum
Never beats again

Sheets wet
She wets her bed
But it’s not ****
Its salty tears
And snot
That stains this
Plain wish
She cries out at night
I wish I was never born

The teachers ignore
The children insult
More injury
Compounded upon
Her misery
And the pain never stops
Till her body drops
A limp marionette
Dancing shadow
That paints pain no more

Your voice is a melody
A thousand choirs
Of angels singing
Body bringing
Sheets of love
And soul protection
When my heart wavers
You’re my life saver
Fingers that kiss
My keys
Touching the cords
Dropping the mich
To the floor
Before
Our melodies become one

And the river cried
For the years it lost
Running in one direction
Salty tears
And ocean breezes
Letting time sing its’
Sorrowful song

Time is a ballet dance
Sweetness in form
Nostalgic beauty
Moving in and away
Up and down
Sweeping the ground
Soft body hardened
And hard body softened
Tears, and adulation
Till the curtain falls
And the performance is over

The gravity
Fierce and pressing
Deeply pounding
Heartache reality

Predictable
To a sliver of a point
We shiver in this joint
Smoking the edges of life
Till all is blurry

Till wild winds
Sweep the fields no more

Till white birds soar no more
And we fleeting flurries
Fall
Feathered corpses one and all

One down and another
In rapid succession

Till the stars themselves collapse

Till the gravity crushes us all
And there are no more
Funeral processions

Nostalgia
Is the smile
That brings
Tears to my eyes
A painful pleasure
Of reminiscence

It is a bloated beast
That slurps the sick
Slick stew of stupidity
In the form of certainty
Admittedly being me
Shortly
But recently
Certainty
Was abandoned
The vines
And times
That tied me to
The things
All fools do
Has snapped
Mostly
And I am free
Sort of
Of my certainty

She is the only Christmas gift
I wish to unwrapped
Red cap, red lips
Fitting my tip
In this desirous being
Emptying all that I have
In her soft silk stalking

Think of me as a love to song to the world
Possibly poorly written
But deeply felt

And we both lived
Neverly after
Happy in laughter
Breathing seconds in
This skin
Swimming in
Infinity and eternity
It is all we can ask for
And more then we deserve

You are a million points of lights
And six thousand dreams ago

The dreams you know
Where hopeful plays
Slumber skits
Of possibilities

Some waking
Others thinking
Drinking unfulfilled

A sweet singing sunrise
Mercy in a smile
Compassion in a voice
More than mere lust,
Potential

Now in the past
As I perceive it
Believe it
Might have been

You are a stranger
Whom I would hardly
Recognize
Passing by
On a sunny day
While you
Watch your
Children play

And I am
Barely a foggy figure
Not even a footnote
In your history

You will never know
How much you meant to me
but I will always name you
Love

Sometimes when it is beautiful and peaceful
When fatigue sets in
And the meaningful
Burns a hole in my stomach
When the seconds are ticking
Just between content and sorrowful
When memories play jigsaw
With my heart
Pushing pieces into their improper places
Spaces where these feeling do not belong
Even though it is wrong
Knowing that life is good for now
And could get much, much worse
Sometimes, when no one is around
And my mind echoes with the years
I spent in isolation
When I meditate
When I am certain
That my existence is fractionally pointless
Even though I am not depressed
I think that today
Would be the right day
To die