Protect Yourself

You never know where life will lead you,
You never really know,
Or what people are thinking,
No matter what they show,

And though you can't judge a book by its cover,
Its cover, you can surely judge,
And when that's all you have to judge by,
Surround yourself with those you love,

And, when that's all you have,
To protect yourself from content,
Collect as many as you can,
To minimize each's affect,

On you being alright,
Because you will find,
When one opens itself up to you as your enemy,
The rest will have your behind.

The World of Good Intent

Has anyone ever lived in a world,
Where no one thought ill,
Of anyone or anything,
And the sun always shone on window sills,

The birds always sang,
And disasters never came,
Without a universal understanding,
That we are all the same,

And live under one sky?
Was there ever anyone,
In this world who imagined that,
This isn't the situation?

And is it alright,
That I have lost that naivety,
And am suffused with distrust,
And anxiety?

Getting Away From Yourself Is To Define Yourself

The longer you are outside,
The farther you are away,
From the things you know intimately.
And if you were to drive the car away,

To those places you only know,
From pictures you have seen,
That have stolen your heart and mind,
And you imagine are relaxing,

You'll find you cannot even find yourself,
Because you're running away,
With your soul, out of your body.
Reality's made this way.

You're alright,
Even if you've lost all you have,
Because you're not the sum of your possessions,
You're what you think is contraband.

Why Some People Are Not Nice

It's good to have friends,
They don't grow on trees,
And everyone wants at least one,
And most have no problems seeming,

To be one, even though their intentions,
Are not what you'd think,
Unless you've already been burned once,
Then you're always wondering,

If you have a friend or an opportunist,
Looking only to get.
It's hard to believe such people exist,
And yet,

They're common alright,
Because they've been burned, too,
By no one looking out for them,
IN this harsh, harsh world.

Revenge

If there is a person in your life,
Hovering on the periphery,
Who represents everything you despise,
And that you never thought should be,

The natural advice is to forget him,
For what good would obsessing do?
Instead, live a good life and he will see,
That he hasn't gotten to you.

Of course, there's something to be said,
For a different kind of revenge,
And for ensuring that his dishonesty,
Does not come to hurt another person.

And it's alright,
If you were wrong about him from the beginning.
As the Butthole Surfers once said about regret:
Better about what you did than about nothing.

Lying Story

He ended up destroyed,
Because he lost himself in the ploy,
After he found himself defending a lie,
About a high-powered, remote toy.

The sun was out and the heat was on,
As he met, by chance, is very best friend,
From whom he'd borrowed money to buy a gift,
That he never bought in the end,

Instead, he paid some bills and got drunk,
And now he has nothing for that same friend's son,
As he tells his friend that he was robbed,
At the same time the two of them were on a run.

But it's alright,
He has another friend or two,
That will stay his friends until that time,
When his best friend tells them what he can do.

Intentions

Can you misrepresent yourself,
So that other people think,
Your intentions are other than they are,
To hide that you are a rat-fink?

It all depends on your definition,
Of the word 'intentions',
For if you want to avoid all mistakes,
It should be synonymous with 'actions',

And then no thought exists before its actualization.
Oh, what a shallow world that is,
Unless you stop to think about all of your own thoughts,
That may as well never exist,

Because they're alright,
As a reverie.
The risk comes taking some of your darkest thoughts,
And making them reality.

Who's Crazy

Yes, everyone's crazy,
Because no one knows for sure,
If what they're being told by everyone else,
Springs from nature,

Or from deceit, if you consider them opposites,
And no one knows if what they're saying themselves,
Is based on truth or even honesty,
Because humanity's innocence fell,

With the decision to live together,
And to spare each others' pain,
For both require a certain amount of obfuscation,
And estimating what's in the other's brain.

And it's alright,
There is one test for finding out:
Just compare what someone says to what they do,
And if they match, then you can suspend your doubt.

It's Not About You

No matter how much you think about it,
Nothing will change,
Unless you take it upon yourself,
To amend your brain,

And consciously make the world,
Not how you naturally see it.
Because, remember, nature is a combination,
Of who you are and what you found yourself taught.

And it's bullshit if someone tells you,
You were taught all wrong.
With everyone in the world taught differently,
They're just angry that you'v got more going on.

And it's alright,
If they search for themselves in everything that you say.
Chances are they're just hoping you haven't found out,
How they actually have none of the things for which you've paid.

How does you know,
What people really think,
When it's so hard to find the place,
Where you are all in sync,

Where you all know you're speaking the same language,
And want to do the same thing,
And there is no doubt that you're not all separating,
And backstabbing,

And talking to each other about how,
One of you just doesn't get it?
If minds were only open for observation...
Well, then, there be no need for poets.

And it's alright,
There may not be any, anyway.
It all depends on the truth behind,
What others say.

Daggers

You can't escape the daggers,
If you pretend like you don't care,
Or rather, if you truly don't,
Because you're just laying yourself bare.

It is hard but you need some kind of perspective,
That is consistent and outward-looking.
It doesn't matter if it's right at first,
Because you will eventually calibrate,

To what is happening around usually,
And where the hints are of a coming coup.
And these hints are all you'll ever have,
To help protect you.

And it's alright,
If you never want to do something great,
You're basically not living anyway,
So let those daggers penetrate.