Trail Out

The spotlights escort that dull whoosh

So you follow the trail out

Like the sundown voyager you are.

These are the tales of acceptable routes,

And the getaways

Cutting through central streams.

 

I’m the type with headphones on

Watching samples mate through meter

And lyrics express

The meaning behind new motion,

While loose in the lobby.

 

This one shows too much teeth

And that grin kills to win

Amused,

As they begin to fit the scheme

Burning through thin black strands

Once I man the play button.

 

I chuckle,

Retracing invisible grooves

Built on duty and vacation time,

Leaving another mark

That by most odds

Will only resurface as something important to me.

 

And now, I want procession, not herd flow

So I discharge through solid steps

And pan left to the spotlights

Blinking on their diagonal beginnings.

I leave shortly,

Armed with another view of meaning.

Tiny Vessel

Upon a jagged ocean

The heavens become constant

In vision, direction, and power of the moon.

Its slave tides play greeting games

Inches below,

With a hull familiar in verse,

Staying sturdy for survivors.

 

They follow a fear’s arrow in pieces

For the welcome mat of shore

Where a nod goodbye to the sea

Never means, respect wasn’t due.

 

Companions find comfort in the constant

For the thread ends at survival,

And the hope under moonlight

Streaking through the water,

Deep and black,

Lapping and lonely,

Never endless,

For power has its point too.

 

They fear it and swerve through its currents

Riding a tiny vessel home.

Sniff

This scrambled socket

Is pumping out the juice

That hisses electric

Toward your coma-like blues

You can call it passion

But it looks like a noose

And all those ghosts tell their secrets

When the drink sets them loose.

 

Someone squeezed my organs

And I rained down for years

Burnt out in the garbage show

Sneaking through top soil

I saw oil top the water

When I lost my teeth in dreams

And lit up this here lantern

Waiting,

Feeling nervous,

I checked for voices in pockets

 

So I took up breezes

And quick sightings of genius

But I left my pact open

To weep for none living

Like an empty room would

With only the cobwebs sniffing.

 

I’d please your eyes

When you said this land was mine

Current and unbroken

Until the dust gathered up in lines

And I’d run out back

 

I just couldn’t sweep fast enough to beat it to the punch. 

Shine Out Loud

I shine through overhead jazz

And caress my teeth

Behind a smirk.

I won’t die unnoticed,

My smoke in strong puffs.

 

I’ll have a girl when I leave.

One who takes a myth

And runs it up the flagpole

So she can pace peerless.

You learn you’re better with a story.

 

I recognize her shape at first

And then summon her tale

As she laughs herself backwards

With that notorious smile,

Encouraged wide on reputation

For delight in the night.

 

She can smoke me but

I won’t linger in the frame

Because my name never would

 

I raise the ante

And take my pose up in new settings

So I can shine out loud

All over again.

Other Than Naked

There’s a clock ticking outright,

A doomsday waiting,

She’s tattooed it to herself

Because she thought she believed in secrets.

 

Only now, it’s an imprint.

And in all rooms,

You can see right through her.

 

And she can think she’s bad

Until she cries out,

“My god, I’m melting!”

And this dripping sculpture

Is nothing other than naked,

Leaping towards the curtains

For quick closure.

 

Some say it’s sad,

When there’s no work

For the chisels

And a demeanor lays sallow

On a public stage,

But I’d say what’s flagrant will fall.

Lost Water

As I escort myself back to business

In a place that never stands still

I whip up a frenzy in joints

That already know the drill

Put the hard face back (on)

And stay steady in my work

Because the seconds hold out longer

If you keep minding every hurt

 

You even count by sunlight

When the temp goes up

Till they holler out

you’re losing to much sweat

cuz burn-up equals money

and heat collects in death

But you say the job’s not finished

No, not yet

Breaks down to less completed

On every breath you catch

 

How To Work On Error

How ‘bout a sign off?

I can handle questions.

I can just fill in the blanks

And oversee directions.

 

How about a minute,

And a seam to rip apart?

When the teeth come up sharply

Let’s start dancing through the dark

 

But maybe you’re too numb

To distract a growing bubble

Bursting underwater

And tightening the trouble.

 

Don’t worry for the order

And try to fit in sense

Outside of your today

And what you thought it meant

 

Because a belief’s crack

Is the food of new arrivals,

And this warning, won’t hold its weight,

In the hands of skilled revivals.

 

For any type of bible is bound

In some degree of error. 

Everything Shakes Out

 

5 shot out

3 behind

4 more follow

12 to the line

our time served

for these mirrored sighs

where 24 red eyes

blink their goodbyes

 

This is the closing car

flying right

Of the neon drops.

In a chamber

I am alive

Under a sea of sound

And sonic leeway,

As I ally with the dark

To stay full in faint light.

 

My industrial sweat

Vanishes through battle

With a precision AC,

Itself soon just a trail

Of white noise

Zipping through my music.

 

Everything shakes out

When you live here.

The pieces, mad

And willing to withstand

Every shock.

So you nod at its angle

Hoping to gather voltage

Around the chatter.

 

Animate without the after

When this, I feel free.

Enter The Dungeon Door

This room’d make anyone sneeze

And days like this

Nestle you into unlocked ranting.

In hiding, the mold still flush,

Peels back your senses

And lets you fly, chest burning

Into the thick and dreary.

 

The heater is shuffling the dust

Like transparent tornados

Aimed at the chair

By the dungeon door.

What keeps a person here?

Money’s a simple culprit

But the sub-plot chimes,

And work is my easiest target.

Workbooks are chains

Tied to your future

And I’m bound to this hole

Cursing advice

That some title patience.

 

Exhaustion is what I call sleep deprivation these days.

Boredom is what I call house movement.

I prick my toes on a slew of pine needles

And just scream out “FUCK”

My roommate will check on me

And I’ll say its nothing.

I’d shrug my shoulders

If I didn’t want to light a match so damn badly.

Motherfuck this place

And every time I have settled.

Depends

I blink to forget them,

Across the street,

Thinking,

It’s a long road to restore.

 

I’ve never liked carbon copies

Or people,

Persistently colorless.

So I drink.

To cushion our distance

And preserve the feeling

That I must know more.

 

Sets me up like the idiot

When my steady

Comes in a can or bottle

And my face

Leaks its own color

For nothing other than lapses.

I’d still rather be me

Than those fucks.

 

But when I keep looking at it

Day after day

In the flip of the grey

It seems too relative

And I start believing that

I haven’t ever really known anything at all.

Compression

There are different degrees of sadness

And I’m just describing mine,

But I can’t help but think I should just stop.

 

Realizing the flash and cold shudder

That sucks my body dry

Is too compressed

And my distress is

Just another self-indulgence.

I stack it face first

Among other read plights,

Like a world traveler through text,

And I just can’t keep a vigil

For what I called up to be

Misery.

 

I think I’ll never sleep soundly

While my mind is still awake.

 

Armless children, shredded bodies,

I see someone who doesn’t know horror

And I’m too busy to use reason.

Tagging blame to the human condition

And saying, “these are the way of things,”

Are worn diversions

And I’m not sure if that’s enough

To carry me anymore.

Check In

I love it

When your bubble bursts

And you have to join the rest of us

Back here on Earth

Where even clouds

Are known to stock logic.

And if they can’t dodge it

You’ll suffer too

 

I just wanted you to hear it.

 

I didn’t need to see

The dreamer’s drop

Into a busted rock

Or escalate your age.

I just want to align us

Along the lines

Of a certain type of page.

 

You don’t have to build up to fall

Or give up to stall.

 

Here around the living

You don’t have to build up to fall

Or give up at all

while waiting out the breaks.

And no matter what it takes

let the sky alone.

Because in the end, my friend

The clouds can’t be a home. 

Casual Bandages

Is nothing undiluted?

Can’t one be clean?

For the gaze was never colder

While dragging down pristine.

These are raids

And lust can squash the suitor.

 

Those maroon sheets

Cry blood more than love

On a bed, frequent in new hands.

Do I see wasted heart

When you say all the wiser?

Because men can be fooled

By the upkeep

Or is it easy to just

Lie in a cocoon,

Steps past revolution

Feeling clever?

 

I’ll foreshadow your birthday

And combine your worse day

And in both

You’ll be tall for yourself

But in a land of steep selection

And casual bandages

The cause is usually

Much softer

Than the beating drum 

we all go looking for.