Vacation

Vacation isn't about changing
The temperature or the location
It's about leaving myself
Right here where I am in this sky box

And applying something soothing to what hurts

Lemon zest

Poison courses through
Each organ that has begged me
For less food, less sugar, less joy
They beg me to remind them of hunger

And I can no longer bear the pain of content

My cave

This here is who I am
And has been from the start
Cast any shadow of any size
You will not take me to any darker corners

Than the ones I have written myself to and from

Conditional love

If you love me you wouldn't hate me
If you hate then you wouldn't fear
If you fear then you wouldn't pity
If you pity then you wouldn't force

If you force then you'll never love

Stay the course

We weren't happy
We were just less unhappy
Than this, this endless lonely
Dark abyss we know too well

But the longest tunnel takes you farthest from here

Rubbish Rubble

The tornado within
Doesn't simply dissipate
Until havoc has destroyed my home
And every known bridge out

Only then can I truly build a new home here

But not solidarity

From this intense loneliness
Were the first fables created
Of Gods and heroes, all legendary
Powerful, vengeful and all-knowing

With answers to our loneliness that visit us only in solitude

Highest Pusher

That's the end of your fix
Now take a moment and think
Before her, before the chase, the emptiness
What was it you wanted to tell Me

Spread that message and I will repay you with the finest herb

Retail Therapy

Massimo, Massimo
Wherefore art thou Massimo
Noble merchant of ego and luxury
Dreamweave a life worthy of chronicle

And cast me as the well-dressed lion of the concrete jungle

Wait loss

Just wanted us to
Lose ourselves in each other
But we lost each other in ourselves
Wanted us to shed the load we saw in each other

But had to shed each other to lose the load

Dressed together

But on clear days
When the humidity breaks
And the chill of the season
Reminds me how naked my fears are

I remember being royally robed by your fervid loom

One Day

Okay cupid
I am at peace with you now
I fear not your arrows anymore
With my lioness by my side

Your quiver has nothing to pierce deeper than her claw

Decent descent

Winds of change
Pierce me with the debris
Of my transgressions past
Freeze this chasm organ with your icy chill

I surrender this mountain and retire to the valley

Burning man

When I, the black raven
The black cat, the black man, despised
Had racial fuel poured over my dignity
What would you do to protect my eyes

From burning red leaving nothing to be desired

Pity Party

As if you weren't loved
Throw yourself a woeful ceremony
And tell yourself it wasn't real
And then that it won't happen again

And refuse again the raindrops that quenched your dying thirst

Halter Hurt

Tomorrow, you'll see
I'm going to change the world
I just can't today, not today
Because today I can't even change you

And you mean the world to me

Next Summit

Anything less than the majestic valley
Or the endless blue sky
Where happiness congregates and
Everyone recognizes that this is paradise

Means you're still on your path

Pitch perfect

There's a point to romance
Beyond pursuit and intoxication
Not to be captivated and overwhelmed
But to be calmed and made conscious that

You both are now in tune with the greatest harmony

Dark beginnings

The evening is where I thrive
When everyone prepares for dark
But I spent the whole day
Waiting for things to simmer

And when the audience is ready I can perform

Common Ground

I've teetered between
Searching for happiness
And having happiness find me
And I'm not sure which is better but

I know happiness and I will not meet in this pit

Nneka Psalm

Set me free as you say
From babylonialism and ego
Bring back to my senses and sense
A new attitude until death

Giving my soul mouth to mouth, voice to voice

Quicksand

The more I squirm
I am immersed deeper still
And yet you hold me here only
To convince me it's the mud I care for

But I only rain danced for your healthy harvest

Rise and Shine

There is always that thing
That you will always say you would do
And always have a reason not to
And until your heart has been awakened

You will lay under the quilt sewn of longing and desire

Laundered feelings

Put me out of your mind
Beat me against the rocks of truth
Hang me out in the light of the day
And if my odour still does not please you

You know that what I am now you can not have in your home

Park Bench

For both of us
This will have been
That time we sat together
To share all of who we once were

And to have learned finally who we want to become

Lightning won't strike

In these times He tests us
When darkness lurks from above
Embrace the storm, fear no thunder
All you can do is wait out the hurt

And let His rain have its time on you

Crossing over

Fistfuls of grass
Face to the dirt
My spirit has escaped
Through my rigid spine

To let the hurt do to my body what it won't do to me

On Cloud Nina

For what ended too soon
But felt like a lifetime
Was a holy moment to cherish
And there was never space in my heart for disdain

And you will be even more beautiful when I'm gone

Intercession

This gentle brook
Flowing beneath the bodhi roots
Fig laden and pulsing with life
Is where one life ends

But where the many thousand stars hid their secret

Awaiting dawn

I did nothing then
But think of you with me
And nothing since
But myself without you

Some sunsets are not as beautiful as others

Anchovies

They're all dead
Because I tried to change the water
But the poison was already there
Left to fester beneath the rocks, now exposed

So my only option is new fish in the sea

Until Shiloh

This is not betrayal
Nor poor circumstance or bad timing
Not pettiness or insecurity
Not anymore sir

All that slows my journey now is indiscipline

But before I go

You would be so cruel
To leave me here unsettled
Knowing some of your lies and not knowing others
And you would meet up with me to possess me

But you would never meet me to set my heart free

Word currency

Blessed are those
Who have been lied to
And given a moment's reprieve
To experience pure adoration

To repay I will shine no more light on the truth

Juventus

I give up on this body
Which is to say it gave up on me
Or better yet to say I put it to rest
And will build a new one from orts

And free my soul from the cracks of this beaten coffin

Prince of Persia

Your wicked wandering eye
Which always told the truth
And prefaced all your cruel impulses
Run again to your castled knight for affection

I was simply a bridge to cross the moat before you threw me in it

Daybreak

Everyone can see
That my light has dimmed
That my feet were settled
Because it pained me so to move

But I will walk until sunrise and only fall to my knees under his light

Better Samba

If you would so have it
I will listen to your heart
As it pulses from your fingertip to mine
And after the spark of first contact

I will dance to the rhythm of you through the night

As though you were five

I don't sympathize anymore, with your constant lies
I worked it out with my cousin as you suggested
And she cleared up how you kept trying to keep in touch
While you fed me more garbage and kept secrets

So I will break any remaining ties since they were just ribbons of deceit

Caitlyn

And is it breasts
Or makeup and ombré
Or fair vanity and skin deep arguments
That you will tell your daughter she needs

To protect her feminity from his entitlement

Now all I am

As a hot day
I am your past struggle
Birthing the joy of perseverance
The pride of improvement

And the excitement for a new tomorrow

Free to soar

We often mistake
When a songbird flaps her wings
We think to ourselves
That bird is pushing herself up

Not seeing the invisible truth beneath her music's ascent

Thirty Two

My words are lost
In a constant need
To relate emotionally
But words are really for

Breaking apart the past from the future

Provoke me unprovoked

When you find me
Reading by that windowsill
Not paying any attention to fate
I hope you have it in you to save me

A smile will do, for me to recognize us in old age