The Antagonist

Pull out the thorn, and bury your god. Swallow hope and spew forth your reasons
Holding you down. Forced open mouth. Fingers in throat purging the faith
Like a rain dance in the desert. Like a fallen rainbow in the arctic
Broken, and bleeding it's colors. Soon it's faded and disappears
Now everything is a brackish hue

This place smells of roses. It's like a nightmare never-ending.
All the people here are smiling. Counting teeth. Avoiding the eyes
You looked uneasy. I felt nothing at all

Life is performance art. Everyone playing a role. Most go, some stay
 Keep those walls up. Build that fortress tall
You can't let them in. They want to know it all
Stay alive. Suck it all in. Oxygen. Nutrients. Absorb the life force
Making memories. Carve out a hollow epitaph
Some folks never get there. Sometimes the beanstalk only grows so tall 
Living life in a shell. Keep it holy. Keep it well. Heaven waiting for the ones without questions

Reject it. Deny everything and everyone. Refuse, and resist
Hold your breath. Starve yourself, and withhold
Opposition and strife are all you know
Peel it all back. Puke it all up. Pull off the face and reveal the lies

No truth. No reason. Everything here is a fucking fairy tale.
Remember when you were the one. Remember when you felt the cold burn. The fire and the flame. The singed embers on your flesh. The truth and it's unforgiving face

No one can ever know. That bitter taste left everything sour
Remember it well. Life is performance art. We are here to dance and sing
They want us to fail. We were born to fail. It was meant to die. Nothing ever meant anything more

Hold your grudge. Find a reason. A furrowed brow and nothing more
Self righteous and proud. It makes me sick. Vomit. Shit. Blood in the stool

Tethered

Tethered to the root. Engrained in the sod and immersed in the dark
It grows deeper. It only gets colder. Sullen and gray. The crow-path grown over
Chains keep you here. Rusted and weathered. Bound in the moss and the weeds overgrown

Kept in the dark and left there to rot. Veins are corrupt and hair falling out
Only the gums are still bleeding. Too old to scream, too tired to care
 Too many years and too many bottles. Acidic and vile. Yellowed skin. Narrowed taste
Too sick to vomit. The children grown, and jaded they stray

A deaf man will speak. A blind man still sees.
Dead men know no such things. A clinking glass. The empty jug
Stay the course. Never gone dry. Kept to the hilt, pour just one more
Welcome the darkness. Relishing seclusion.
Mirrors long shattered. Windows since boarded
His eyes have grown weary
His clothes are all tattered
What once was, will no longer be. And when he speaks, the tongues are unknown

I said goodbye. I tried it one time. Too many years
I said my goodbye. I meant it then too
Inherit the scorn. Keep it with you then.
An engine for hate. And It burns clean

A dog on his chain. A dog in his cage.
Embittered by fleas and foul with his mange
His dirty eyes don't bother
He wants nothing more
He expects nothing less

So I'll leave you alone
I expect you to rot
You expect nothing better
Now the bloodline is shot

Colder

A lonely march toward the ocean. Something beckons, far away and unknown. Drawn like a moth to the light
Feet are calloused, chest is burning.  Gathering sweat on the brow. The sky ahead, unexpectedly bright

A slow dive into an ethereal cloud. Is this death? This is so pure
There is no sound. The light is failing. I've never been so sure

A dormant ache. It's stirring now. Ignored for years and now rekindled
I've been told that life will be this way
Something colder tugs at my sleeve, and I know it will not go away
I've kept the wolves and all their masters, I've been waiting for this day

If nothing else, you deserve your answers. For that I will give you, your reprieve.
Just know that now I have found meaning. And when you see that, you'll be at ease

Between the Lights

5 years as a ghost. Coming and going and walking between the lights
Sometimes the sun seems so far away. I can taste the brush fire in my throat
Never closer to death. Somehow feels more alive. Inside my head the clock lags
Those tiresome, loathsome hours spent. Basking in dim light like a reptile
Languish under the weight. Knees don't buckle but the mind is weakening
Porous. Cavities rife with the tumors. Planted long ago
An acquired taste. Soon the dirt tastes like wine

There are the loathsome days. The bitter hours
Fire, urine, sepulchral smoke entwined
Dust coats it all. Choked with poison and holding a ransom
A mind that is clear. Twin eyes. Beholden

Crawl. Dragging your knees. On your belly. Blisters. Ooze
Everything went cold. Chittering insects beckon
Follow it down. Pull out your eyes and drown out the sound

Bitter Moon

I keep a cannon in my bedroom
For shooting secrets to the moon
Although I know they'll never reach her
I still pretend she'll read them soon

I wear a darkened mask at night time
I paint it this way so no one sees
Because the air around me is too thick now
Sometimes I find it hard to breathe

I sit alone in my own prison. I wonder where the answers lie
The bitter moon above me scowling. I think of all the men she's seen die
Sometimes I hear their cannons blasting
And then I know I'm not alone.
Since her heart is made of cold rocks
That's when I know I'm not the only one she's stoned

Closed Casket

Last night I saw you at the laundromat. You pretended not to notice
Your skin looks like porcelain or glass. I want to smell your hair
Nauseated, sick, brain and thoughts turn foul. I can't even look and I tried, not to care

Bristled and burning, locked jaw and fevered blood. Stiffened gait and swallowed tongue. I can't even remember what brought me here. Arched back. Swollen throat. Heart ablaze. I forgot my coat

Smashing clocks. Burning curtains. Bedsheets soaked in gasoline. A closed casket heart. Inert. Sterilized. Comatose. Days once bathed in sunlight all went cold.. All of the warmth is gone. The trees are all dying, the leaves all withered. That river bed is dry. Everything now is gray and pale. The crows have long since gathered. I haven't eaten in days

Clean Water

Plastic people. Adorable costumes, playing their parts. They come here and they play their bit. They know their role and they fall in line. Commonplace. Comfortable ideals and nothing more. No feathers to ruffle, no turf upturned.

The truth machine runs dry. Unclean, virginity soiled and fouled by poisoned cosmos. Terrestrial ambiguity and a tambourine plays for nothing, for no one but me. Crippled by the truth. Foul taste. Foul ideals. Forgot the day when it meant more.

 Remember the sunshine. Clean water. Pull up, pull out, dry the bones. Take this towel and bury it. Take me home. Take me home and tuck me in. I want it to end. I want it all. I wish I never met you