Vagabond

Mystery man
Blood on your hands
Rubber band
In a foreign land

Heart of Gold
Bought what was sold
Home on the road
I've seen your face before

Out in the sky
Somewhere you fly
Pass me too
Black and blue

Smile full of pain
Almost insane
Blown out your brains
On the sidewalk

Guttering spills
Violence that kills
Leads me to see 
The man I'll never be

Mystery man
Folded up like a clam
Lying stiff on your side

I'll tell them who you are
You are

Surrender

A gun is easier to feed the tongue than seeds
A heart breaks fast to quench the thirst that bleeds
And silver spoons and black platoons tread long
A forfeiture to please the king of deeds 
A heavy price to fill a suitor's needs
And golden moons and glossy boons play song
Become! A name enslaved with thoughts engraved feasting on eternity.

Hate Song

So this is how it's going to end?
You just give up? We Just pretend?
Everything is alright?
And I'm alone tonight
My face against a dark wall
With open eyes, an endless hall

Your hands holding someone else
Your breath taking me away
To places I don't want to go
And I have nothing left to show
You while the sky folds dim and gray

Where once you used to beat my heart
And now it feels I cannot start
To reach out and love again
With burning memories of you
Dripping down these frozen bones
Welding me to times of When

Days would drift our fears away
And you'd plead and beg for me to stay
But we were so much more than lovers
Hiding love beneath the covers
Where you masked inside your hate
For me that patient gift to wait

Yet someone else was there to see
The you inside but wasn't me
And then you ran like hell in pain
The world around you danced with rain
While I sat by watching from
The shadows where you'd become undone

So this is how it's going to end?

The Current

New is on the corner of fear and just open

Where people meet and never say hello
And shadows cross without hands ever touching
While laughter rings out and no one's there to hear
And lights flicker but no one understands what they mean.
New is just above the decision to have or not
Where pondering is the phoenix of difference
And choosing is the ambiguity of what is correct
While consequence creates a chasm of disbelief
And beginning is death to a closed door.

Crimes Against Virtue

I have lived in the darkest depths of Babylon
And Walked the endless road to Hell
I have felt their footsteps with my fingers
And touched the world's beating heart
I have given to shame a fameless name
And poured tears across a starless sky
I have wrestled in the midst of hope
And torn away the skin of lust
I have built a thorny hedge of hate
And sheltered love with barricades
I have scarred these hands with sin
And peeled away the blistering burns
I have scorned the weak with bitterness
And poured salt into open wounds
I have slipped the edge of fear
And jumped into an endless chasm
I have ripped branches from the trees
And slept in other worlds
I have singled out the painless touch
And drowned in puddles of thought
I have murdered choice with change
And set fire to these bones
I have hid in the darkest shades
And worn the mask of lesser men
I have bled the hope from every pour
And yielded to the unknown beast
I have paced the days of boredom
And yearned for greater freedom
I have bound a soul in chords
And wrapped a twisting smile with a bow
I have fed the mass with impure hands
And mocked the Gods above
I have left the hopes of the living
And tasted the dreams of the dying
I have slaughtered love with anger
And covered tracks with penitence
I have warred the sharpest sword
And kissed the stain of pain
I have known the tides of rushing waves
And skipped the heights among the stars
I have stepped on hands
And drifted through the blackest fields
I have sat by thinking, settling,
And time has never taken me farther than here

A Man’s Response

...because honestly, I could care less what your hair looks like or the color of your eyes and how dark you've made them by saturating every last poor with paint...or the way your lips curl crisply under your thin drawn nose, and I like that your shoulders almost reach mine, but not quite enough, yet enough for me to wrap my arms around, and…and I don't care the way your curves hang out here or there, if only I can blanket myself in your warm bosom as though it were a battle of comfort yet comforting battle, and don't ask how a dress falls about your waist and hides those handles beneath. I wish your legs would stand right there, without moving this way or that, always so upright and tight, always perfect like lamp posts yet quaint as bending branches, and rid those heels the stumbling you dance upon, and let each toe seep into the grains of life, where every print made engraves upon my heart some melodious chorus strung on every valve beating within me, and don't mock how often I forget when each second of thought saturates the fiber of my flesh wishing, waiting, just to touch yours, and don't tell me you're alright with those pupils lying, somewhere a truth unbearable to share...but still you ask, and still...I could care less really, not really that I care less but so much I do that every moment questioned divides my caring to worlds unlived, abhorred...and don't ask how much I love you!  Sufficient is to be here, aside you, breathing the same air, drifting into untouched spheres, losing every part of my soul, found in the palms of your hands.

Valor

    
     And there were some

     The kind who ruled the world

     And there were some too

     The kind who never change

     And there were few, who do.

     And some were strong and sharp and grand

     And some were weak and dull and bland

     And some were here and there and nigh

     And some were where and when and why

     And some were glad and full and fun

     And some were lost and dull and done

     And some were wise and meek and bold

     And some were proud and harsh and cold

     And some were bright and slick and clean.

     And some were bought and priced and seen

     And some were kind and brave and tough

     And some were mean and glazed and rough

     And some...some were men.