Drinking Arsenic Like Medicine

Ladies and gentlemen
Let me present you with a
Perfect new precedent
For acting like an idiot
Here in this very room
Over in the corner sits
The hero of our story, or
Should I say the idiot

Some people simply have
No shred of common sense in them
Would you believe that he is
Something like an idiom
A metaphor or simile
For oblivious naivety
A character for study if
You can stand the scenery

Let us have a toast to his
Odious achievements. He
Had the best of health before
Showing up this evening
Staggering in agony
Begging for the Tylenol
Was poured a glass of arsenic
And presently imbibed it all

The moral of the story
Oh, ever-present audience
Is: when you have an ailment
Never look for medicine
It’s safer on your own and
You are better off with loneliness
Than asking for assistance
And ending up with arsenic

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Buried Alive

Trapped inside
Buried alive
Clawing the walls
That hold them below
Cries unheard
Muffled by earth

Cast aside
Sealed up to die
Living emotions
Words left unspoken
Fighting to breathe
Deep within me

Shut and nailed
Packed and sealed
Covered with reasons
Left out to freeze
Dropped in a coffin
To rot and to soften

I can hear them scream
Piercing the ground beneath my dreams
Dragging their nails across my belly
Writing the things they cannot tell me

I can feel them pound
Shaking the thoughts I can’t let out
Trying to break their borrowed tomb
Awaiting their turn to be exhumed

Heretic

Lash it on, lash them tight
Light the darkness tonight
With the kerosene of flesh
From the hands of heretics

Bring them out, bring them down
To the center of town
Tie them up without a sound
Burn the wicked to the ground

God, I feel the singe on my skin
And the ropes around my wrists
Where is the evidence for this?
There is no evidence for this

God, I feel them breathing down my neck
As they set us all on fire
Take my spirit if you must
But I will not be a liar

Oh, the truth shall set you free
Free in flames; free in flames
But they see no fault in me
Unashamed; I’m unashamed
Spread my ashes to the wind
Tell them I would not repent
I will suffer for the crowd
But I am not a heretic

How can everyone who knows me
Think that I would be so ugly?
How can even those who love me
Think that I am so unholy?
Will these ashes bring redemption
If the crimes are your invention?
Prove me guilty here, I dare you
There is nothing to confess to

God, I feel the smoke attack my lungs
And their words upon my back
Would you leave me so unarmed?
So unready for attack

God, I know you led me to this place
If you leave me for the flame
I will stand beside my choice
I will not repent for pain

The truth shall set you free
Free in flames; free in flames
But they see no fault in me
Unashamed; I’m unashamed
Spread my ashes to the wind
Tell them I would not repent
I will suffer for the crowd
But I am not a heretic

Arts & Crafts

My arts and crafts
Are hearts and masks
Cut out of thoughts
And glued together

Paper faces
Lines I traced
From other smiles
And other places

Take a razor
And a paper
Make a face that
Suits me better

Crude constructions
Simulations
Of expressions
I can’t fashion

Take some scissors
Strong adhesive
Bend the edges
Shape the pieces

Lips for smiling
Eyes for lying
Skin like armor
Just to hide me

My arts and crafts
Are hearts and masks
All colored neat
Inside the lines

If there’s mistakes
We can erase
And start again
With better pens

My arts and crafts
Are jokes and laughs
To cover scratches
Fresh and bleeding

Paper faces
I created
From the things
Left strewn about

Untasted

A bitter drought has gripped your reign
Bring forth the women and their spawn
Pray to your Gods if they can hear
Our jaded kind to carry on
The trusted vintages are dry
The teaming rivers turned to dust
Sun scorched the bones beneath the sky
Will you return to dine with us

We are the fruit
The ones untasted
All your silences are wasted

We are the wine
The finer spirits
As you cry too loud to hear us

We are the sustenance and pleasure
As you suffer at your leasure

We are the future to replace you
But our flavors are untasted