No day goes by where
I do not curse
The me on top —
The devious survivalist,
The asshole taking
Care of number one,
Whether I want it to or not.

Shadows crawl across the floor
Like instincts of the sinister —
I should know.
I recognize their every movement.

Never mind
The breaths between smiles —
It's life,
But not the good stuff.

Beauty is
A gown of ivy,
Kept with thorns —
Comfort is a luxury
Most can't afford.

Hold me
Tight and
Pull me
Closer still.

Water stains the buildings dark,
Gloomy in the muted light —
My mood has gone the way of rain.
The day is lost.

The little things,
Even those seemingly
Innocent and comforting,
Still kill us in the end.

I won't be to blame —
If death won't do us part,
I'll be right here, waiting
At the bottom of my heart,
Longing for the day
You'll be gone.

Feed the flame that never warms —
The bodies burning in the background
Are our own.

Here I lie,
Bound to stay —
My body dead,
My soul
A world away.

Overexposed, numb, and senseless —
Tricked to think that
This world,
This life,
This miracle of self
Is nothing special.

Retrace, retrace,
Erase, erase —
Replacing what can't be recalled,
Filling memory gaps with fiction.
Yesterdays
A mental game
Of Chinese whispers.

Fortified lines in the sand,
Trivial hills to die on —
Supposed rights cannot trump freedom,
No fight is worth a life.

Monuments of longing,
Towers of chiseled, sculpted,
Polished time —
Lifeless images, not reflecting
All we chose to leave behind.

Perfection is
The unplanned moment
When everything
Feels right.

Keep me warm —
Memories immutable
Defying time and distance,
Never to be lived again.

The well ran dry
Long ago,
Yet, we keep pumping.
Hope ran out
Before our time,
But no one told us.

What we want,
What we need,
And what is granted
Rarely matches —
Meat for the vegans,
Fruit for the carnivores.
We don't get
All we ask for.

Each a life our own —
Why care for what the world
Thinks of you?

Talk, soap, nor glitter could
Cloak your rotten soul —
Even the blind smell your aura.