Golden Bars

Put on a mask and set that mother on fire
So they can see it from the mountain spire
To smoke out the injustice begotten
Who me? No I have not since forgotten

For freedom, we must contend
From cradle, to bitter end
I dread the golden bars I'm forced to take
Even though, yeah, they keep me awake.

Awake enough to show the things that I hate.
Tugging at your legs to give me some escape.
To invite me over there by a fire with some new friends.
I just want to be guided in my quest to make amends.

I cannot pardon the errors of what I see.
It's just another cursed deck dealt out to me.
But now I know the reality of a king without his crown.
Like a broken promise, shards of honor scattered all around.

But what if that honor was not in pieces forever?
What if we can weld them all back together?
Benevolence is not meant to be hidden.
For some sins can always be forgiven.

Imperfect Body

Help my body, help my soul,
As I spin out of control.
Crash landed in the fields, somewhere out of Tao.
Look at me thinking about everything but now.

My mind is reeling from third degree burns.
Still have I got far too much to learn?
I didn't know too, where to go from here.
To my right and to my left were insanity and fear.

Will I rise from the grave, come back from the dead?
Or be denied a try by fate as it retracts a thread?
And even when we came all the way to the end of time,
I still do not know what belongs to you and what is mine.

Help my body, help my soul,
How to mend it I don't know.
Reality has a sick way of saying what is real.
Even if it was the perfect thing to reveal.

So even though it might seem perfecto, now is not the time.
Any other time is cool but tonight is not night for a crime.
You can table this for now and see the latest party.
As I sit here half-witted in an imperfect body.

On Righting Wrongs

Forever and long
We are righting the wrongs
Her whispers in my ear are a dark symphony,
As long as I run I know I shall be free.

We swing and we strike for one and for all,
To punish the big and embolden the small.
My boots are now littered with the dirt and the grains.
The iron struck hot like the blood in my veins.

We won't cease this fighting for our honorable cause.
To hunt all the evil that lurked in these halls
For love is a sweet distant noise at its best.
A wistful reminder beneath my vest.

So hear what I say and do hear me well.
Be not under hex of the borrower's spell.
We are the just, and yes we are the brave.
Taking our vows from cradle to grave.

I trust in my power and soon they will see,
The last sight before the end will be me.
Nothing else for it now so I run and I run,
For days into weeks I am chasing the sun.

It shines down on me with its bright incandescence.
Our missions are all just worthwhile investments.
Now do what you will and do what you please.
But I shall step up and cure my disease.

Honest Folk

Now this is the life of honest people and their broken hearts.
Bought out by owners as if they were used car parts.
This is not the time to race for a new love to replace what was lost.
Nor is it a time to live and learn through sharing needles and getting tossed.
In spite of hopes dashed and cash deposits I try to leave it all behind.
To keep the honest folk from losing control of their collective mind.

And even though we like to explore the rules that we can bend,
We cannot afford to forget the final words that we penned.
I don't seem to want to let go of this here on the slippery slope.
But my palms are burning from the threads that make the rope.
And even though the honest folk have shown me the light.
It only illuminates a most godforsaken sight!

Come on I'll make another try.
Don't you dare try to pass me by.
I loosen my grip and feel the escape of my soul,
But I hesitate and tighten the grip to regain control.
So once again I feel the touch of the honest folk.
They make me smile with their occasional joke.

And with that in mind I let the rope slide down a bit more.
In its descent I felt more relief than ever before.
Opened my eyes to spot where the honest folks resided.
Yet I saw nothing but what stars had already decided.
For what I was following in holding this rope was never a mistake.
With the promise that one day I will learn how to build and learn how to break.

The Protagonist

His life was frigid and cold to the touch.
What do you say to a man who's seen too much?
His past is the past but his future's a mystery.
The only good thing to come out of it is history.

He did wonderful thankless work for what his world became.
Did things for strangers who didn't even bother to ask his name.
He can stand on his own free will.
Be he sees something stranger still.

Vile secrets come late to be unveiled.
But he succeeds where others have failed.
Always had a deep affection for the sun.
So this little event won't make him undone.

Yeah he was a straight shooter from a sleepy town.
Wasn't really big on the idea of being renown.
He didn't much know how to tell good joke.
But he sure had a certain power to invoke.

He broke his back to satisfy his own plight.
So it's safe to say his journey's over right?
Well, no -- it's not.
Not by a long shot.

Undertow

In love on a day like any other.

Saw a grim report in the paper and the news.

Received a call from your mother.

The rest is a history that I cannot refuse.

I wanted to find you in my own reflection in the sea.

For I kept writing these meager words in the name of you.

Looked once more and all I saw in the water was me.

Hoping the dream of your resurrection would one day come true.

So I kept writing these words to call you from the grave.

For we can once more sing, dance, and thrash in my garage.

I tried my best to be strong, tried my best to be brave.

Thought I saw you once again but t'was only another mirage.

Do you not think it is a simple task to stand?

Shedding painful tears as I left red amaryllis at your stone.

I even threw in the latest album of your favorite band.

Looked in the sea once more to find that I was still alone.

I came to resist what was left of these little things.

Reconciled to accept that this reality is not kind to a widowed lover.

A luxury reserved exclusively for the queens and kings.

Peered into the abyss once more to find something or another.

My distant heart raced from what I saw.

A visage looked back mired with sadness and regret.

Our reunion was brief if it happened at all.

But it was a true experience that I'll never forget.

Clockwork Machines

Still in shackles tragic and lonely, 

I was exposed for a phony.

Still on the run, I'm unfairly branded a thief.

The judge lied to me straight through his teeth.

Laughing away his reality, 

For a single tragic fallibility.

My only defense rests at his home,

No evidence to call my own.

Said I would hang on taxpayer's gold,

When all I ever wanted was a hand to hold.

As I ran away, the rabbles were completely mislead,

Said that I should be try pushing daisies instead.

And even though I can never look back.

I can keep my distance and stay on track.

For the judge will get his just due one day.

And when he does, I will be forever away.

In all honesty life is better than it seems.

Underground beneath clockwork machines.

And even though I can take it a day at a time,

Millions can take many days without trying.

But as long as I remain pure and true,

A warm promise of respite long overdue.

The time it took wasn't very long if nothing else.

For the the grandest opportunity presented itself.

I pray only that this plot doesn't go global,

For at my mercy now was that lying noble.

He was bound and gagged in the salt mines.

A little reminder that he lived in our trying times.

My final verdict for the judge was a fate worse than death.

His tongue was thus removed and the cave shook as I left.

Stand

-
I cannot be bothered to participate.
Years pass me by as I sit and wait.
Am I no longer a figurative source of charm?
Or am I simply just a new alarm?
Solved problems make way for a new stack
So have all my colors faded to black?

So many questions, no more time.
Yet fewer answers, what's my crime?
At the door I left the flag of hatred.
But I can't forget the one who made it.
And yet you keep me alive and well.
You helped me stand wherever I fell.

I'm the only one who can purify my soul.
Will you be there when I do, I don't know.
For at the end of the day, curtains are drawn.
Once again I choose a new road to travel on.
I spend my time perfecting the new me.
To be something everyone wants to see.

With your help I just might make it through.
Else I would not write these words for you.
Somewhere between the lines we meant to cast.
I can no longer lean against the horrors of my past.
And even though a push may come to shove.
There is no evil that we cannot rise above.

Choice

-
Though I might seem oft to preach to the ears of holy men,
Are their shoulders the ones on which we should depend?
Of course not for there are perfectly good souls among us.
Men and woman whose power is pure and whose cause is just.

Enemy of the state posturing in a nation they would divide.
While the people suffer with spread arms and fettered lives.
For the suits would be mistaken to ignore the seeds they've sown.
As the sleeping giant begins to wake and the seeds have grown.

But for now the giants only sleep and dream a national dream.
A dream that will soon involve hazard masks and gasoline.
For we will spill chariots and unhinge the power of the gods.
As they spread propaganda of artificial enemies in the jihads.

War rages all around us, can you even see?
How divided the nation is between you and me?
To cast a stone in one direction or leave it at the door.
For whatever option you choose, there will only be war.

[Author's Note: I believe we, as a people have a choice in the election. Vote or do not vote for yourself and only yourself. Yourself. Not at the behest of people who are so wrapped in the ideology of a black and white democracy. Understand what your decision is and know why you're doing it. If you are unsure at all, do not vote. Also, stop cluttering your friends' news feeds with political shit on Facebook. It's not cool, edgy, funny, or intelligent. I know you dumbasses still do it.]

Last Leaf

-
Where soft bread crumbs lined the counter tops.
A glass filled by dripping water faucet drops.
A lone girl collects her past, through and through.
As she watched the creaking overturned canoe.

The good times were but just a blur.
A simple time when nothing bothered her.
With cherries, berries, so very sweet.
Need not worry what she had to eat.

A little girl still has a right to dream.
For neither sugar nor an ounce of cream.
A right to apply what she had learned.
So that new leaves can now be turned.

Though she may leave much to be desired.
What, in her, had the new world required?
Another dollar another feast,
Everlasting, ceaseless peace.

In the reality that she had come to use.
She would notice not what is beneath her shoes.
An overturned leaf that is now beside her.
A pattern that looked much like a spider.

Now what ever could this mean?
Who could paint her such a scene?
A setting that is so serene?
What my open eyes had never seen?

Headphones

-
It was a time when we were unfamiliar with the tune.
I can't believe it's already been this long since June.
My fingers tremble and my body quivers in this seat.
Wearing my headphones, nodding back and forth to the beat.

I pray to Heaven that all your plans go according to your design.
The spirits may yet decide to take charge and guide me to mine.
My toes curled as I remembered every word so sweet.
Wearing my headphones, nodding back and forth to the beat.

The chapters in my life flip on as the month forms a verse.
I fooled myself into thinking that things just got worse.
We both saw it in me, as I sprinted on my own two feet.
Wearing my headphones, nodding back and forth to the beat.

I'm sorry if I implied myself to be something that I cannot.
If it reminds you wrongly of all the times we fought.
I hope you're home safe out past the night and the wheat.
Wearing my headphones, nodding back and forth to the beat.

Listening to all the things you know and love.
Believing what you will about the gods above.
Maybe together, for just one night, the two of us will break bread and eat.
Wearing my headphones, nodding back and forth to the beat.

Melting Clocks

-

So the birds flew backward skies beyond what the eye can see

How ever could they notice they were flying right under me?

As I walked I passed children on swing sets in dresses of fire and ice

'Quite bizarre,' rubbing my eyes to be sure they were keen and precise

The sky faded to a warm shade of pink as they waved and laughed

And if I wanted to wave right on back have I gone daft?

What is this realm drawn from the strange and surreal?

Where I can freely breathe and where I can freely feel?

All too soon the ground I stood upon was dark

Against the world around me I conjured an arc

Hands outstretched the children gestured an invite

Do I dare take what they offer and step into the light?

I flew with them beyond the cosmic pattern

Feast my eyes upon the most majestic Saturn

Came back down to this world of men

And there in London it was a melted Big Ben

But would you look now at the time?

Wish this time was yours but no it's mine

Tilted heads, the children's smiles turned to frowns

On my bed, I spun until I fell right down

Awakened I now into this perfect normal world

Was it just a dream to which my brows unfurl?

I stood up and stretched my body with a yawn

And with a smiled I stepped out to greet the dawn

I dressed up for work on that day

For the trials standing in my way

Turned the key to ignite,

And drove on far out of sight.

Before light came I passed by the swing set in the park

But I could have sworn two smiles put out the dark.

Endgame

-
Life carried on as if nothing happened.
Fires ravaged across distant farmland.
The neon grid of cities crumbled away.
It was we that brought the end of yesterday.

On the dawn of the new day our muscles ached.
What we couldn't do for the Order, we faked.
Contorted our bodies in impossible ways.
With knifes we carved a path to a whole new phase.

The cowards preached upon the corpse-ridden hill.
Of who we are and who they were willing to kill.
"Lord knows who deserves to live"
But we didn't have anymore fight to give.

To nodded to each other and then we ran away.
They gave us chase up til the very next day.
And there we stood in bleak disgrace.
Joined our filthy arms in weak embrace.

The cataclysmic dawn too would then follow.
Choking on propaganda we couldn't swallow.
"Maybe we should buy their lie" was all she said.
We've come this far that we're better off dead.

She told me "I'll misdirect their trail."
I could only hope that she didn't fail.
God, I feared all but the worst.
Die by the templars or of the thirst?

It's been forever since Endgame night.
Wondering if I'm pardoned unjust indict.
Among lawless refugees I now learn to cope
For then at world's end there is yet still hope.

Revenge and Justice

-
Honor is a rare gift unmade by feeling and hand
For human beings are as plentiful as grains in the sand.
In a second, we drop to our knees and begin to fall.
Pouring out our hearts and burying it all.

So I threw forth my arms with a single shed tear exclaiming "Not I!"
I can strengthen my heart and find an answer to the question "Why."
The process is simple with a tormented heart.
To grasp the bindings in a world fallen apart.

We contort our hands to slip through shackles of obsessive misery.
To take hold of the weapon and use it as our personal artillery.
But if we love ourselves we wouldn't need revenge.
For on this newest day we've no one to avenge.

So we dismantle their cannons and their guns.
For we do not need to punish anymore sons.
But always remember a most important lesson if nothing else will expand:
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

Peaks of Light

-

On the horizon past bridges crumbled.

Do we as people made life fumbled.

We press forth on the Peaks of Light.

A sacred cliff from which Zeus took flight.

So here I stand atop this steeple.

To pass pause unto less fortunate people.

It is in this aegis of light that I am enveloped.

To repel spells of blight the darkness hath developed.

It is in the core of these hills that I trust.

To do what is true and what is just.

At the end of the day peace is all that is real.

With our own collective brand imprinted on the seal.

So let this lesson be the coal you spread apart.

To temper the white hot iron that is your heart.

And on the final day I promise you will take flight.

For wings will carry you too up to the Peaks of Light.

The Healer

You weaved the thread to bring respite to the sick around the clock.
The very thread combined with the love of the children among your flock.
The ones gathered here within this very steeple amidst the bowers.
Pouring their hearts out into the shared cask of love and flowers.

Look around you now, healer of humble hearts and family alike,
For we are all like-minded children under God in this very night.
As we wash away our tears and look upon you in your moment of serenity.
Deepened and held steadfast as you rise up towards divinity.

For many suns and many moons you fought for what was right.
And even in your frail tender age you didn't surrender the fight.
You continued with deep, heartfelt, loving persistence.
As your children orbit around the galaxy of your existence.

So here I stand now court-jestering infinity.
As we join together to show you our humility.
May you now watch over us, vigilant of our growth and our health.
So that we may push forward in this mortal coil to find our own self.