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The Lady Bird

by

When That First Bird Hatched “InT.O.” That Egg That Egg Became A Lonely Bird Knew How To Fly Before A Bird Never Stopped until Destination Reached #MissionCompleted Always Got The Best Bread Crumbs A Bird Can Taste The Freshest Cleanest Water Not Even Man Could Get This Water The Best Bird Bath Ever Was Taken They Called Him #BIRDUP When He Landed She Always Told All The Other Birds & All The Other People “I Shit Accident Money” I Call Em Blessings Was All White With 2 Colors From The Rainbow Beak Gey ThunderStorm & Eyes Red With Headphones On Jammin “I’ll Fly Away” By Kanye West Screaming Wesssstside!!! Lol 🙂 “The Miracle” The Illest Shit Known To Man #BIRDUP True Story

Interest on an Inheritance of Silver

by 

The silver pieces from my father’s leather purse
never run out
while I pump them into the empty vending machine
for longer than I can remember
and though each coin I insert
makes my flesh grow thinner
like rain on paper
my skeleton stands eternal
condemned to an infinite glowing
like that stale light
from the droning vending machine
at the end of this dark hallway
where deactivated bulbs emit alternating currents
of dis orieNt AT ION
through this hotel
in the common cold after a blackout
where from haunted balconies
flashes of lightening in the night
look tangibly present and deeply frightening.

The Truth Will Set You Free

by

A light over them hills I see,
The hills of ash where they’ll bury me.
In these hills I will forever be,
And let the truth set you free.

A bleeding man dies in the dust,
A dead woman leaves footprints of rust,
Soulless children play in the streets,
While the murders of crows arrive in fleets.

The blind scour and feed on our tongues,
As the smoke fills and builds in our filthy lungs,
Unaware they drop with disease,
Their bodies sprouting into trees.

I look at a tree and I see no lie,
I see the truth before my eye,
Let them bury a tree over me,
So that the truth may set me free.

I walk the way with the dead,
I hear their voices in my head,
Thinking of what they wanted to be,
Before they cast their dreams down into the sea.

In the sea the dreams would drown,
As life goes on within the town,
Of this I hope I will never be,
I will let the truth set me free.

The day would come that brings the rain,
The bullets hit end my pain,
Bleeding like ink over the floor,
I only wish I could have done more.

Blackness seeps into the white,
Life is a never ending fight,
A struggle that I’ll never win,
Was I all I should have been?

No time to wonder as the moments passed,
Nothing ever really lasts,
I open my eyes and take one last breath,
As my life transforms into death.

As the light left my eyes,
The killers crowded my corpse like flies,
And I could not believe what I had seen,
For was something that should have never been.

For my closest friend had stuck me down,
Right in the middle of this god forsaken town,
And all the people stopped to stare,
But none seemed to really care.

The crows in the distance called for me,
The time had come for the truth to set me free.
I awoke in the hills alone and cold,
Dumped off behind this dusty old road.

I awoke to my body beside me,
And so it seems I had been set free,
Free of the prison in which I was kept,
Free of the prison in which I had wept.

And now I was free to fly with the crows,
To feed on the dead bodies of those so wounded,
The people who are blind and wander the way,
I pray they have enough to pay.

So listen to me when I say,
Do not even waste a day,
Look at the world with open eyes as can be,
And let the truth set you free.

Nothing Here

by 

You lost me at the first line. But,
hooked me in to read another. Then,
shut me out to slam my teeth 
on your fist of brick and mortar.

I smiled through the blood and broken teeth.
Giggled really, when you pushed me 
to my knees. I’d felt enough but,
then again, I didn’t try to understand.

Now you see—you’ve done your job
admirably. You took a brute by
the scruff of his neck and instead of
drowning him, you put a mirror to his face.

Water has that quality for men: it is
the place of death. By death regained
a different face and name. Regained then 
or remembered enough to shake.

So in the water they can cry again.
Tracks on faces like a fountain pen.
Writing first the memories on their
Skins. Hides wiped clean of memory until

Only the black man cries black tears and
they are whipped and bent into shape. Now
many many are locked in chains. Now
they are stamped on the pearly gates.

Right now I’m found because they
fished me from the water and bludgeoned 
my brains onto the books. Right now I
remember more than you.

Dog

by 

I dig a hole in the backyard.

Grass stains my hands

as I bury all my simple treasures;

words and ribbons and bones.

I pray that you won’t find them

as I wait for night to fall

so I can dig them out frantically,

lay them out one by one to admire with fervent joy.

I wait for you as the sun rises,

hiding my hands—mud covered,

sitting, fetching, adoring you

all for a simple pat on the head.

Loyal, they call me, devoted, they call me

but they don’t really know the truth:

The chain you’ve wrapped around my neck

and yank when I don’t follow command.

To play dead, if only for that luxury,

to bury myself within my treasures

the secrets I hold to keep me sane

and prevent my mouth from frothing white.

But to ignore your demands would only be futile,

to bite or growl or bare my teeth

would bring me to the sterile cold metal table

where a single needle would do the job.

I grow tired and wearisome,

old and haggard from sitting pretty for treats.

you replace me before I’m even gone,

a pretty new pup with a silken bow.

Your eyes light up when she is near

and I am just the background, the comfort, the usual.

I’m the hair on the couch and the piss on the floor,

though I still try to please, I’m long forgotten. Already dead.

You’ll bury me in a cardboard box

with a nearby stick to mark my place.

I will fade away with the autumn wind,

only to be remembered by the stains on the carpet.

Father

by 

I’ll mold my life after yours
I swear.
I promise to always love my children.
Teach them to love me,
like I will endlessly love you.

I might have my Mother’s temper.
But I blame resilience on my Father.
He taught me to never settle down.
Settle up.
Because no matter the weather,
you know there’s always a bright side.

Quitters may never win.
But men with hearts never lose.
So chin up slugger,
The bases are loaded.

Don’t be anything less than incredible.
Be someone’s worthwhile,
the index of a book,
remembered.
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