A Second

I did this already,
I completely forgot,
There was a flight and car rental between,
Also, three hours bought,

Outside of time for five hours, you see,
And this is what you get,
Could it be things changed and I'm not aware,
Housed in a time-travelling, space-warp jet?

Is the world better than when I took off?
Wouldn't know how to tell,
If you started off in a hellish world,
Chances are it's still hell,

That's perspective,
What makes you really you,
If you like it, then stay just as you are,
If you change it, then you'll be changing, too.

Your Worth

Where's your worth located?
In the values you've learned,
From the experience of past ages,
Touting the taciturn?

Is it in the opinions of others,
You choose to be around,
They molding you with their expectations,
You celebrating not being put down?

Perhaps you take pride in keeping your word,
No matter the outcome,
Or have faith in the council of your heart,
Despite all opinion.

Maybe it's all,
With one goal in your mind,
You choose the tool you need to achieve it,
So that your worth lives in a future time.

Disrupted

You are so succulent,
Veins bursting below flesh,
Still, were I to embrace you as I'd like,
Your thorns would make a mess,

Planted as you are, no desire to move,
Except to drag things in,
What more should you want when all's brought to you?
Sounds to me like the perfect existence,

One which you deserve, since you did not pick,
The pot in which you grow,
So sit there, eat, breathe and love as you will,
Until I  stub my toe,

And then look out,
Your life's no longer yours,
Thorns be damned, I'll rip your flesh, steal your juice,
Do you take it, or engage in a war?

How To Make Friends

Don't try to live a lie,
No one will like you for't,
Same goes for telling the truth all the time,
A life you should not court,

Best you should mingle a little of each,
Spread 'mongst everyone,
So you are free to tell them what they want,
With no compromise to your narration,

Then I don't think it matters what you do,
Shit on flags, smack babies,
You just paint them in colors people'll love,
Fuck, could give them scabies,

They'd still love you,
Words are stronger than acts,
That's why the most notorious villains,
Rule nations and win trophies, that's a fact.

Why You Hurt

This cat just screeched and hissed,
Threatening another,
Violence as real as two men in a brawl,
Some misspoke, careless word,

Or bloodshed between soldiers in the field,
The sentiment's the same,
Anger at something outside of yourself,
Reduced to an object without a name,

But more than that, for who cares about things?
You can only hurt life,
Life all removed from what you understand,
But can still feel the knife,

So, so do you,
You're hurting yourself, see?
It's the pain you imagine th'other feels,
Giving meaning to your reality.

Why Did You Do That?

You can think things happen,
Specifically for you,
A changing red light, sudden ceasing rain,
A distant country's coup,

But what if the un'verse don't work that way?
Things are just happening,
Instead, you're placed in a specific time,
That's most in line with your state of being.

Or not, there's lots of people who don't fit,
Like they just have bad luck,
Or perhaps they had it even before,
Their mom and dad did fuck,

If they e'er did,
I wasn't there to see,
Maybe you were dropped down by aliens,
Pushed out the nest to find your destiny.

It's A New Day

Can the world ever change!
From one day t'another,
Oh, you thought I was lamenting gov'ment,
It's eternal torpor,

But, what about those moments you feel lost?
What? That is now your call?
All you thought you were's suddenly at risk,
With no back-up you upon which to fall?

Well, just like the weather in Newfoundland,
You just wait five minutes,
The clothes of the world are ever-changing,
And everything in it,

Just like you are,
You don't want to stay th'same!
Why choose t'fit one life into your one life?
The point's to leave diff'rent then how you came.

Walking By

Guy's rousing on the street,
Sleeping bag on cardboard,
Woken by morning traffic driving by,
No room in which to hoard,

Never have I woken up on concrete,
Cold fries left by my head,
Probably no meetings scheduled that day,
No mortgage on the place where I just lied,

Still, I'd have to watch the people walk by,
Though they hardly see me,
Not much different for anybody,
In this society,

So, which is free?
Silly question, I know,
So obvious I have syll'bles to spare,
'Fonly time was as'vailable, also.

Take It Back

Oh day, please do not start,
Yest'day wasn't so bad,
Worst part was thinking about this morning,
Oh, how good it I had,

Time defined by not being where I'm now,
Still, moving t'wards a death,
What cru'lty of the structure of this all,
I can't just stay with my children in bed,

Pick my moment, as the last in my life,
A kind of reverse hell,
Has it already passed or yet to come?
Well, only time can tell,

Then it's too late,
Lying, waiting to die,
Wishing you'd known more when the moment went,
Either way, all the best ones would slip by.

Number Two

Finished another one,
It is one of a kind,
May be hard to guess if you read them both,
They came from the same mind,

Still, they share the same questions I e'er ask,
Packaged differently,
S'if they have nothing in common at all,
From diametric'lly opposed real'ties.

Then there's the style must be identical,
Though it's hard f'me to say,
Like children from the same womb may conflict,
They're the same shade of grey,

'Sides, it's just cool,
Once, I'd ne'er even guess,
So much could come out of this brain of mine,
This isn't even the end, I confess.

Do This

There's a truck that shrieked by,
Much faster than it should,
The driver must have an emergency,
Lest, I don't think he would,

The signs most clearly state a slower speed,
And though, yes, who needs laws?
Does it really matter how fast I drive,
If I've got quick reflexes and sure paws?

Isn't the limit just to write tickets,
Or find someone at fault?
We'd probably save a billion bucks a year,
Not checking speeds at all.

This tongue in cheek?
Well, it was meant to be,
But, now I wonder what laws we would miss,
If they weren't passed on through history.

The Fast Life

Like spiders 'cross the sky,*
Folks exploding with life,
It's better to burn out than fade away,^
It will shorten your strife,

Not that you have to die 'fore you get old,#
Don't matter anyway,
You miss just as much dying at ninety,
As you would leaving earth as a baby,

Which is to say that you would miss nothing,
For nothing e'er changes,
Unless by force of the remarkable,
Who don't live by ranges,

That implies time,
And you can't afford it,
That's the diff'rence 'tween those who live and die,
The first use time, th'others simply hoard it.

*Jack Kerouac, ^Neil Young, #Pete Townsend

Before The Game

My son's taking a nap,
Told him I'd write 'bout it,
An underground garage, in the back seat,
Will he sleep? I doubt it,

In fact, it's now seven hours later,
He didn't want to sleep,
I smiled at him and said it was okay,
So then other things did our bodies reap,

Like a chat over hot dogs on the curb,
Musing o'er sc'narios,
Like Jays losing jobs 'fwe don't buy that cap,
Then poutine or 'za, yo?

They were good times,
So then, what did he learn?
When you sleep you don't know what you might miss,
And that, after all, his dad's not that stern.

As She Lay Dying

About this time last year,
Almost to the minute,
My hand rested on a dying body,
With no life-will in it,

She was peppered with growths from head to toe,
Up against pain killers,
No doctor'd e'en pretend there was a cure,
And no one had to bother to tell her,

It was already days she'd stopped talking,
Her thoughts were a closed book,
Ironic, she e'er wanted to write one,
Now no one got to look.

Then she just died,
Mine was one of three hands,
No need to explain why she moved inward,
 To experience death, you've just one chance.

A Fast One

Just choose any moment,
The one happening, now,
Wait, the one happening now, no wait now,
Okay, I don't know how,

But imagine you could grab one like that,
Unpack it like a boss,
The nick of a razor, lift of your lids,
Your despair at the moment of great loss,

All these things are just you experiencing,
Even in a fist-fight,
Spread them out and it seems you're not alone,
That is the human plight.

Are we alone,
Or are there aliens?
Space invaders infiltrating our lives.
Knowing would help guide how your behaivin'.

It Will Pass

All things end, event'ly,
That is life's saving grace,
When you're feeling you can't take anymore,
You can't keep up the pace,

That your body will fail under the weight,
If you find no release,
That if you let it crush you, that's the end,
You'll fall to the level of lazy beasts,

Like you've been born again with no future,
Simply awaiting death.
What? You've never experienced such stress?
Probably for the best,

No person should,
E'en though most people do,
There's a structure we've built that must stay up,
Despite what keeping it up does to you.

Getting Through It

It is all relative,
The pressures on one's life,
Expectations, demands, disappointments,
They all cut like a knife,

And just like a cut, you must tend to them,
'Th'wise, they will just fester,
Your body is made to heal all its wounds,
And of those of the mind I'm no less sure,

Perspective is the first balm to apply,
You're not the first or last,
Of the people you'll never hear of,
Who've been cut in the past,

Then keep it safe,
No one need know it's there,
Most of the time it's the last one standing,
Who has managed to put on the best airs.

That Hunger

Hunger's coursing through me,
Beyond physical needs,
You know, your heart yells at you to be true,
For truth's on which it feeds,

The truth we all recognize at birth,
Before our eyes can see,
That all before have tried to fill the space,
Where only the truth can truly be free,

All we are taught is designed to hide it,
For truth always means change,
Stagnation may as well be a desert,
Without its life's great range,

Only the sun,
Blinding you like a babe,
Forced to drink from the one watering hole,
Placed under the one spot set up with shade.

Where Are You Going?

What's your expectation,
As you walk down the street,
You don't get run down by a drunk driver,
Concrete stays under feet,

The place you're going to is still standing,
There hasn't been a coup,
That no matter how far you travel to,
You will find someone waiting to love you,

You won't get scooped up in revolution,
Never do anything,
Live out your dreams just as a memory,
'Fore you started walking?

What if you stopped,
Came face to face with fate,
Saying you've gone in the wrong direction,
Would you just shake your head and say, 'too late'?

We In The West

I know you'd like to help,
There's a lot that is fucked,
A woman was just tortured and then killed,
For refusing wedlock.

Can anything good come from such culture?
News doesn't cover much,
Hard to believe anyone could do that,
Or that most people wouldn't think it sucks.

We where it's free can't do much anyway,
Living's too expensive,
By the time work's done and the bills are paid,
No time or cash to give,

'Least we're not them,
No vi'lence need we fear,
Just do what you're told and you'll be alright,
Won't even notice if you're a good gear.

The Words That Come Out Of Your Mouth

A nugget in your head,
Born like an amoeboid,
Stretching out to feed its curios'ty,
From your brain's wondrous void,

No different than what's born in others,
Except when it grows legs,
Crawls tentatively to your mind's surface,
Changing shape, adapting to the new digs,

It grows until free of your influence,
Has a mind of its own,
Still dependent on your voice to be heard,
By thoughts others have grown,

But no one hears,
Their own beasts are too much,
Even though they're all born of the same void,
And so exist in the same brain, as such.

Live On

Each day, y'have to go on,
E'en if your life has changed,
You've lost all your friends, your job, loved ones,
Not ended, rearranged,

You have to hold onto what you know's real,
The things you've created,
The air leaving your lungs, joining the earth,
Those things you have not believed, breath bated,

But don't let too much time pass, mulling these,
You'll become memories,
Stop time as it continues all around,
What is real will then flee,

You'll disappear,
You'll witness your demise,
Learn how little others considered you,
Like seeing your funeral with your'n eyes.