One more shot
before I Stop.
One last line of vitality
accepting that Finality.
Mixed up my realities  
Finding myself lost.
Swapping years of life for  
seconds
of Ecstasy.
And he said to me “I know I'm going to die if I go on.”
I thought that meant he would stop.
I guess not.

It hurts to feel
but it’s so easy to not feel at all
Are those my options?
Forget feeling or facilitate pain
Live discontent
motivation spent.
I don’t know.
I just, don’t know.

Surveying their realm.
Secret disdain for their domain of rule
looking down expecting us fools.
Shackled to rules, guided by fools who use us like tools.
Treat us like work mules,
Bulls for entertainment
These acts are shaming, we walk tamely for fames sake.
Hoping to be remembered in books, so we surrender our right to fight
against the blight  
of flawed systems that hold us tight.
This keep us up at night, gnawing thought that never stops.
So, we take shots and forget  
we the push back the ever fret-
ing of our minds.
Trying to find solace in our mind that the binds  
we wear are worth it.
History is told by the victors
swayed by the bandaged blisters of long repented sores.
Abandoned the brotherhoods  
that formed, upon the shores of less peaceful times, when our place in community was assured.
We steward bards
and they divide us into shards to fight in petty wars
added pawns to the value of their might.
And at the end when we shut our eyes and embrace the night the world is left to fools, who fight and compare might and make us the debt of their plight.

When I first passed the gates
into the metallic garden
stamping out seeds
                      for the junkyard
with its infinite cardiac output

I gazed upon the eyes of the creatures
that inhabited this oily soil
                            of steel and chemicals
all I saw was a cry for help
to escape
          to be away
                just one day
they cry, just one day

I got caught in the claws
and it scratched
                       and scratched
the wounds heal but the scars stay

I have become a trapped animal
                                     with eyes of dismay

There's little chance of escape
I can dream
           I can pray
one day, I echo
               one day

Now I am just taxidermy
for this godforsaken industry
and they call this
quality.