Prologue
When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end
The goddess descends from the sky
Wings of light and dark spread afar
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting
Act I
Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess
We seek it thus, and take to the sky
Ripples form on the water’s surface
The wandering soul knows no rest.
Act II
There is no hate, only joy
For you are beloved by the goddess
Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds
Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul
Pride is lost
Wings stripped away, the end is nigh
Act III
My friend, do you fly away now?
To a world that abhors you and I?
All that awaits you is a somber morrow
No matter where the winds may blow
My friend, your desire
Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess
Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return
Act IV
My friend, the fates are cruel
There are no dreams, no honor remains
The arrow has left the bow of the goddess
My soul, corrupted by vengeance
Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey
In my own salvation
And your eternal slumber
Legend shall speak
Of sacrifice at world’s end
The wind sails over the water’s surface
Quietly, but surely
Act V
Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return
To become the dew that quenches the land
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies
I offer thee this silent sacrifice
— LOVELESS
There are ashes infused in torn wings.
I soar in this world no longer.
The days of fiery flight are gone,
And this phoenix is no more.
the american dream.
Trayvon moved out of the hood,
And into a neighborhood.
But the neighborhood watch didn’t like that.
Murderer.
I hope the last words of Mr. Trayvon Martin
echo violently within the red pulp you call a heart.
They sure as hell are echoing in mine.
I hope his black words—follow you.
I hope that you relive that moment in your nightmares,
the moment you gunned down an unarmed
innocent 17 year old—
claiming “self defense,” tell me,
since when has a grocery bag
full of skittles ever been considered
a dangerous weapon?
I hope that you are damned to the 9th circle of hell.
I hope thunderclap gunshots deafen you while you’re there,
and Death’s eagles feed eternally on your eyes like
Prometheus.
I am angry. Trayvon used to breathe just like you.
I wish I could meet you.
I’d say,
“Look me straight in my colored face and
allow me to enlighten you.”
It’s about time that human beings like you
stopped scraping by unnoticed.
You hazardous chameleon.
You won’t be invisible forever.
“Please, let me tell you something,
You have to understand.
You and me, we aren’t so different, you see.
We’re made from the same dirt.”
Do you dream in color?
Or are your lens black and white?
America is a phoenix promised dreams
unfulfilled broken fucked excuse of a country.
Fuck you.
I’m used to watching people’s backs.
It’s a feeling all too familiar
and I’ve seen all sorts of disasters.
But you’ve got three circles once freshly painted
red but now stained bruise blue.
Where ex-boyfriends would target practice at;
scars from where they backstabbed you.
I’m glad you’ve stopped living upside down.
Everything was crashing up for you.
My only question to you is:
How does it feel to live your life without a puppeteer?
After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers
All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.
This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I’ll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I’m like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.
This poetry, I never know what I’m going to say.
I don’t plan it.
When I’m outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
He is nineteen years old, six foot three inches tall,
and lives in my shadow.His mouth coughs up failure and rage at expectation.
He does not realize that as the oldest sibling of seven,
expectation was placed on me like
a forest fire that never wanted to be lit—before I was old enough to know
what the word “university” meant.I am a fossil that cracks
at the thought of you being angry with me
for trying to lead by example.You are not a failure; we are forged from fire, under pressure, always.
I waited eighteen years to become a man.
My first woman was a whore off Tu Do street,
But I wish I never felt the first wild
Gliding lust, because the rage and thrust
Of a mine caught me hip high.
I felt the rip at the walls of my thighs,
A thousand metal scythes cut me open,
My little fish shot twenty yards
Into a swamp canal.
I fathered only this-the genderless bitterness
Of two stumps, and an unwanted pity
That births the faces of all
Who will see me till I die deliriously
From the spreading sepsis that was once my balls.