Clipped Wings

Light pierces through my breaking dawn
And I await the world anew
With expectation so remarkable it seizes the heart within my chest
Still I sit like a sparrow with wings clipped
Yearning to soar, for soar I must
Lest my fate be like those confined to the ground
But freedoms release is not mine to hold
Nor is the sweet satisfaction of rising beyond my wildest dreams
Pressing on me is the dark veil of unfortunate outcomes
Cocooned around these wings is an iron egg
Forcing this heir to the sky to walk along the earth
Forever constrained by missed chances
Broken opportunity turned to mortality
The cruelest fate for him destined to be immortal

I persevere

Am I more than the sum of my fears, the outcome of my insecurities?
Am I the product of my tears, the bane of my existence?
My own personal blight
If the meaning of my life, my eye never see, and my mind never comprehend
Am I, then, reduced to squalor?
Nothing but Inconsequential filth caught in cyclical drudgery
Cyclical pain
Cyclical steps without reciprocal gain
If my tomorrow is yesterday’s image of my man in the mirror,
Then what does my future hold?
Death, disdain, displeasure?
Fate choose none, for I am both fire and water
Consumer of all parts, swallower of the whole
Unmoved by what this existence may breed
Fear, pain, and doubt - I take into my soul and breath back
Until my spirit floats, like many ribbons in the sky
Free, blithe, and unfettered
For I choose strength over weakness
Courage bourn through the fire – I persevere

Potent Calamity

Am I poison, like cyanide to the brain
What you once loved will quickly cause you pain
There is a quarrel in the mind, the proverbial ying versus yang
The seed of confusion, desire, and apathy - falling like acid rain
Tearing through your being until your world bleeds crimson red
Fear me not, though, for I am not conscientious
No meticulous plans to harm encircle my mind
Just confusion birthed in ignorance
The self-fish desire to have the best of both worlds
So your blood, I take it in - Immune to your ills
And reciprocate with cold passion - The only kind that kills
Until you are sucked dry and the thrill wanes
Then we remain still and I become your most potent of calamities

We Just Might Not Work

for you I starve
until a pit is carved in my deepest being
the core of my inner person
the space which yearns to taste and see
like forbidden fruit hanging from the tree of life
is your heart
fashioned from mortar and stone
impervious to yearning and wants
yet still I wait, until we rise
from this mire and confusion to new heights of a unified self
until then, like Romeo and his Juliet
we form this blessed tragedy
steeped in sweet ruin and perilous bliss
waiting to be acquainted with a damned tomorrow

An Ode to Uncertainty

the future was never promised
but naivety still exists
we live, we laugh, we love
like immortals blessed by Apollo’s bliss
youth lives forever in the minds of the young
who’s grandiose dreams fashion bright tomorrows
but until ink pens paint our own Dorian Grey
man will never know the instant when his life will flash away
and become a fleeting remembrance played on death’s harp strings
from the womb to the tomb, that’s the path that fate pre-tells
and once the soul is laid to rest, all that matters is heaven or hell

Scarlet Letter

She was the queen and he her scarlet letter
He, once free, she would rightly fetter
With bonds so strong the past would be forced
To let breath the future
Blemishes and stains disappear like water down the drain
Pleasure and pain, the two in one, forever remains
Like dew after the purest rain
It’s insane the magic, as the wolf is seduced by the sheep
A touch so contagious it turns water to fire
He no longer runs, she’s become his desire
Higher, like on the wings of a phoenix soaring towards the sun
Together they burn and watch melt, that letter
Sown in sinew through tendon and flesh
The mark of what once was, embraced and forgotten
Replaced by something new, in silver and gold
It grows as they rest, under the full moon of unity
As night turns into day and day no longer exists

Young, Black and Broke

We not on par cuz we young black and broke
Life’s got us in a choke, a hold so devastating we
Can’t keep up with the status quo
‘cuz for sho we weren’t born with no silver spoon
No tune of happiness or good fortune
Just the steady drudge of the struggle
Day in and day out
The constant enhancement of mechanisms with which we cope
Hoping, forever hoping, but never achieving
Dreaming of the day we can climb out of this pit
So vast that not even education can bridge it
Playing the ying versus the yang
Balancing the need to be good against the need to be crooked
Because when the checks stop coming in coke, dope, and blow
Whatever you wish to call it – puts food on the table
Makes up finally able to raise our heads above this water call life
So we rob, we sin, we kill
In hopes that our actions will solidify our tomorrows
Sometimes, when the weight of the world is on your shoulders
And when the chips have been stack equitably against you favor
You do what you must
Because it isn’t a gift, it’s a God given right
To live, to breath, to eat