All you poets of the gutter

Kings and queens of living words

Cutting through the verbal clutter

Jagged rhymes like stainless swords

With the hammer off your passion

Crafting language into verse

Neon rhymes forge our obsession

Magic spells to lift the curse

Of our arrogant, complacent,

Self entitled little worlds

Isolated in our placement

In the tangle of the cords

That inject misinformation

Reinforce our daily roles

Showing only the reflection

Of our self deluded souls

Pouring molten truth like lava

Through our ears in searing lines

You burn off the silly stutter

Of the parrots in our minds

Like the madmen and the prophets

From the times of ancient lore

You peel back the moldy layers

And expose the rotten core

Not for profit, or for glory

Trinkets that distract the fools

You reveal our real story

Never bending to the rules

That restrict our range of vision

And hold back the train of thought

Breaking lines of our division

Giving that which can't be bought

And for this you pay a tally

Bloody tax of shattered dreams

Sleepless nights and dirty alleys

Broken hearts and unpaid bills

But without your insistence

That we hear what must be told

We would sink with no resistance

In the heavy plaster mold

Of our vanity. Your struggle

Our society defines

Do not quit the road less traveled

We depend on what you'll find

At the dawning of creation Mother Nature held a feast

And she invited all her children from the greatest to the least

And to make the day more pleasant

She asked them all to choose a present

And not be modest in the least

And so the humans asked of Nature that, which only she could give

And the other children listened to their words in disbelief:

Natures powers of creation

And her every revelation

They desired to receive

Now, no other child of nature wanted Men to have such stroke

And they all as one attempted this unfair request to block

But the lady calmed the chaos

And with wisdom, grace and fairness

To her human guests she spoke:

"To receive a thing of value there's a price one has to pay

And so to give you this great blessing on you a curse I now must lay

You will have this thing you're after

And each of you will be the master

Of your night and of your day

But

For the meager satisfaction of having given it your all

For the chance to spit the devil In the eye before you fall

You will shudder through your heartbreaks

You will work until your back breaks

You will run until you crawl!

And should you ever find some measure of protection from it all

And by consuming your own brothers can this misery forestall

You will choke on your affluence

Find no joy in your influence

Always, ever wanting more!

Know that only in the struggle satisfaction you will find

That your ultimate reward will be to know that time is blind

Know that every ounce of pleasure you in pain and blood must measure

But if all your wealth and treasure is obtained through some half-measure

It will only break your mind

But as every last death-rattle is followed by the birthing screams

So too, this curse I lay upon you is not as heavy as it seems

Though I give this admonition

I take no joy in your condition

You are the children of my dreams

You will be at your most perfect as you strive against the odds

And the stars will shine in wonder as you outgrow your gods!

So I ask you: don't be bitter

But this curse - a gift consider

Hold no malice in your hearts

I float in Dreams, I sink in Life

I try to find my place

Desires burn and leave behind

A charred and hollow taste

While teachers teach and preachers preach

As if they can erase

Their own despair, and fill their fear

With certainty and grace

There is no key that fits this lock

Unless you talk of Death

There is no plan that can survive

Reality itself

There is no island in the storm

No place to catch a breath

Just lesions learned that we must buy

With sanity and health

And when we've spent all our reserves

And paid all we can pay

When those who shared with us this road

Have vanished on the way

When we are left alone and spent

To face our dying day

Our prize is only what we chose

To value and obey

The goals we've set, the dreams we chased

The friends and lovers met

Like Gods of old we set the scales

For judging our own Fate

We choose the prize, we mark the cost

And on that Final Date

We are the ones that face ourselves

Across the Shallow Gate

Come to my room and sing to me of Spring

And fill my head and heart with dreams of hope

I'll drown my mood and sorrow in the drink

Of life and lust, and set aside my rope

I want your voice to echo off my walls

I want the neighbors shame, to hear you sing

I want the dirty words on bathroom stalls

To guide us as we dance along the brink

Come with me, and we'll make each other new

Baptize me in your sweat and drink my milk

Feed me your breath and shove my mind askew

With teeth of last year's ice and lips of silk

And when the blinding moment starts to fade

And brittle pleasure slowly flakes from view

We'll sink together into mindless shade

Forgetting lines that break up me and you

What are you playing for?

What makes you take those steps?

What do you hope to gain

By placing all your bets?

Or do you even know

What kind of game you play?

And did you even see

The price you'd have to pay?

Or is it that you know,

And do not really care?

You play because you must

You'll settle when you're there

So show me what you've won

And was it worth the price?

How can you tell it's worth?

And would you do it twice?

Did you think you'd win more

When placing your first bet?

Or do you change your tastes

To fit the brakes you get?

Some think they deal the cards

Some swear they run the con

But you and I, we know

Ain't no one here that's won

For all their lucky brakes

For every winning hand

All those who play, must lose

All winning streaks must end

So place your final bet

And lay down your last dime

Pick up the hand you're dealt

And play it one more time

I dreamt of rain and driving sleet

Of graying skies that made me weep

Of golden trees that could not keep

Their color in the Fall

And I stood on the curb and begged

To board the bus and leave this set

Until the driver turned her head

And told me - "Not at all.

The bus is full, but we'll make room

We've waited while you chose your Doom

Now that you're here, we're leaving soon

Come on, it's time to roll."

And people shifted on the bus

And there was room for each of us

While through the water-speckled glass

The streets began to scroll

I saw the signs, I knew the way

I knew the price I'd have to pay

But we all pay it anyway

That's really not my call

I've chosen how I'd pay my fare

I've chosen where - that's more than fair

And when it's time, and when I'm there

I might not care at all

From concrete desolation of the Soul

Through neon bars and gates of frigid light

My living death attempting to forestall

Beneath the asphalt skies my Mind takes flight

With broken words my wind, and fear - my wings

Bright shattered dawn still bleeding in my sight

I search through graying hopes and faded dreams

For pieces of my soul I'll never find

With shards of pain I tear the poison sky

Embracing jagged truth, relief I bleed

The fuel I need to shed my fear and try

Not knowing if I ever will succeed

Gods of Lust and Gods of War

Gods of dead fish on the shore

Forged with greed and fear and might

We claim our mother as our whore

Choking on our godly right

With equal terror and delight

Filled to the bursting, wanting more

We try to outpace the Night

But there is nowhere left to turn

And no one will be left to mourn

Our flame - our vanity and spite

We torch the world and watch it burn

And screaming as we fall from grace

With our transgressions face to face

We vanish. Time shall now try

Scars of our passage to erase

I smear my heart across my sleeve and take it door to door

I wrap my hopes around my spine to brace myself for war

I raise my dreams like ragged flags

And go to beg old men and hags

Parading like a whore

Unwelcome and intrusive lover

Cold slender fingers running through my hair

My warmth and secrets hoping to discover

With manic glee she dances in the air

She pulls my clothes to strip me of my cover

She finds my hidden warmth and takes her share

I try to run - she tells me not to bother

There is no giving up on our affair

Her jagged kisses tearing at my face

Dry, shattered laughter echoing my pain

And all around me her children dance

To her sadistic song, as I, in vain

Try to escape her playful, rabid grace

While hands like frigid trails of seeping rain

Into my skin their burning patterns trace

And slowly stake on me her private claim

She pushes into me - her tears I swallow

Slow numbing ecstasy recoils through my bones

And in exchange - my breath, so sharp and shallow

Is scattered on her skin like precious stones

My vision blurs, the time to go is now

Much longer, and my warmth will not return

Her blind eyes smirk, but this time she'll allow

For me to leave as others take their turn