One Belt, One Road

A belt keeps your pants up,
May constrict your bowels,
Black and wide looks nice with some slacks with stripes,
Strapping will produce howls,

A road will get you through some rough terrain,
Open up worlds once closed,
Military boots get farther on one,
So are owned by the country with the most,

From Xian to Venice and then back again,
Plus stops along the way,
The pages from colonization past,
May have something to say,

That I've not read,
P'haps enough time has passed,
The West had ample chance to make things right,
The more things change the more they hold on fast.

Happy Truth!

Live the life that you want,
It should then come to you,
Searching for things only leads to searching,
That's all you'll ever do,

But act as if what you want's what you have,
Then you've already won,
Maybe your true desires will find their way,
Through circumstance into your possession,

Then when you find yourself on your deathbed,
With none of what you'd hoped,
You'll have no regrets for wasting your life,
Coiling an endless rope,

'Cause that's the thing,
No matter what you do,
You'll never have what you want in your life,
I just didn't want to make you feel blue.

One State's Oppression

Burma's in a crisis,
It has been for a while,
The daily life of too many folks there's,
Tantamount to exile,

From what it should be to be free humans,
To spout off narrowly,
Be able to run to the arms of life,
Not choose twixt death and fleeing fearfully,

Perhaps there's a joy in fighting for life,
Standing 'gainst oppression,
Watching the death of loved ones far too young,
Extreme sports ten point one,

Though I doubt it,
Without firsthand knowledge,
I'll go out on a limb and say out loud,
Fear for one's life's never a privilege.

As The World Turns

You can just imagine,
Any terrible thing,
Horrors you wouldn't wish on anyone,
If you had an inkling,

Of what many would call humanity,
But I am not too sure,
Based on acts many are capable of,
Seems our potential goes beyond nature,

Individuals shooting down strangers,
Unprovoked everyday,
Governments repressing its citizens,
Feigning democracy,

Then there is me,
Collectively, I mean,
A part of the sum of this deadly race,
Doing nothing to change this horrid scene.

Down

Life is filled with endings,
It could be anything,
Someone you love dies right in front of you,
Then just keeps on walking,

Your world view becomes annihilated,
For it gets no respect,
You must decide to search new surroundings,
Or kill the person who lives in your head,

Perhaps you ended something long ago,
Withou e'en realizing,
Too far back to turn around to get it,
Too old for realizing,

It's not too late,
Time's end will never come,
If beginnings replace disappointments,
Rebirth will always follow destruction.<\blockquote>

Anna

She is not regretful,
How can she be, so young?
Her mistakes were as stupid at her age,
As mostly everyone,

Instead of spending the night with someone,
That she just met night,
She asked for money from the powerful,
But they could afford it, anyway, right?

She wanted to start an art foundation,
That's not fabrication,
Says she'll use her fame beneficently,
No that she's matured some,

The fake heiress!
Though NOT a socialite,
Certainly, someone who's lived more than most,
Surely, more brazenly than many might.

Ode To The Mariner

There are people thriving,
Have and always will be,
If history and present state of things,
Name perpetuity,

The albatross was slain cent'ries ago,
But killed e'en before that,
What world of ghostly apparitions could,
Exist, but one in which a god does act?

Who decides chaos should just run its course,
Like multiplying cells,
Let them believe after death, not on earth,
Reside heaven and hell.

Then rain might fall,
Black lips turned red from black,
Still, souls must suffer lest living be free,
Of dreams of worlds where suffering does lack.

Don't Change

Life's not about control,
Of yourself or others,
Both have agency behond your purview,
Between one another,

Nor can you sway the events of the world,
Or of your daily life,
Try changing one and you change the other,
In ways you wouldn't have done otherwise,

Also, don't even try to change nothing,
That's a losing battle,
Like trying to turn left, riding a horse,
When you're just the saddle,

But don't assume,
You still don't affect change,
Just by simply existing on this earth,
To make room, things had to be rearranged.