Bending The Universe Read online

  When she never felt that she belonged.

  Everyone judges the girl down the street,

  Throwing stones and tapping out tweets;

  No, show love and make your words sweet;

  Who let you take God’s place in the judge’s seat?

  LOVE IS DEAD

  Making love

  Has become ‘Netflix and Chill’

  While smoking green and popping pills

  Sending flowers

  Has become sexting emojis

  Nobody remembers “taking it slowly”

  Quality time

  Is a thing of the distant past

  We love for a night and nothing lasts

  Ballroom dancing

  Has become dance floor grinding

  O-faces have replaced smiling

  We don’t connect, we hook up, we

  Don’t get together, we ‘get lucky’.

  Kissing in the rain

  Is now beach party hook-ups

  Between childish grow-ups

  True Love

  Before honesty required whisky

  Died off with Walt Disney…

  Love is dead

  And we are each to blame

  When we took lighters over wild flame.

  Rest in peace

  To love, once indescribable,

  Now nothing desirable.

  ROME

  Rome is filled with gleaming white pillars

  Crumbling and cracking from the inside

  The cobblestone streets are polished but

  Under a mask of perfection, decay hides.

  The powerful eat from never-ending feasts

  While the farmers grow tired of poverty

  The people grow weary of corrupt rule

  And dream of an overthrown sovereignty.

  Death and gore are brought on a silver platter

  Colosseums rise up where blood and pain

  Are used to entertain all alike, and truly

  The emperor rules, but gluttony reigns.

  High, impenetrable walls protect the city

  Surely even God could not make them fall

  But the gate guards are drunk and merry

  And never hear the closing call.

  Rome, the world's greatest empire

  Assailed the most by internal decay

  Rome, victim of a slow-acting poison

  For every rise there is a price to pay.

  America, the world's greatest empire

  Assailed the most by internal decay

  America, victim of a slow-acting poison

  For every rise there is a price to pay.

  Stadiums and TV replace colosseums

  News and gossip are a daily drug fix

  Our thoughts are the result of the media's

  Choices of acceptable topics.

  Read the youtube comments section

  And tell me you have hope for the future

  See the pain that amuses our world

  And tell me you’re inspired by this culture.

  The scales of justice are tilted by money

  Lady liberty will take no more weary souls

  We're building walls against ourselves

  Black versus white, young versus the old;

  A house divided against its own self

  Is said to face an inevitable destruction

  Democrat, Republican, religion, race

  How do we expect this house to function?

  Constant warfare makes the nation weary

  And for what? For corporate greed and oil

  The melting pot has reached a tipping point

  Society is nearing an unavoidable boil;

  We are on the precipitous peak of society

  And here we are faced with two options;

  Fall off, as Rome did, accepting decay

  Or change paths and fix our problems.

  AMERICAN JUSTICE

  American justice, pure and infallible

  In theory, but the reality is laughable

  Funny how the bankers who crashed the economy

  Got off Scott free, but note the dichotomy

  Between that and a nonviolent drug offender

  Whose jail sentence was a life-ender.

  Fines for being too poor to pay fines

  While the rich pay green to do white lines

  Fame equals freedom despite it all

  Because the powerful will never fall;

  Some lives matter less to the justice system

  How many more dead before America listens?

  The scales of justice are tilted by money

  It's rather ironic but far from funny

  The powerful get cuff links, not handcuffs

  While prison bars make others' hands rough.

  Celebrities get rehab, everyone else gets prison

  Our justice system has become a cartoon villain.

  CANDLES

  A sea of darkness overtakes the place

  Pitch dark like looking up into outer space

  A hush, a silence spills out abundantly

  I breathe in to appreciate the profundity

  of this moment.

  Suddenly a lone flame appears

  A spark, in the shape of a falling tear

  It sputters, flashing, uncertain

  Before standing strong and determined

  to exist.

  A similar sputter, and now there are two

  The first did not shrink, it even grew

  Now another, and another, many flames

  Vow to keep the world from being the same

  fighting stagnation.

  Now the whole world is alight with yellow,

  orange-ish light, a field, a meadow

  celebrating the existence of this thing

  This new idea, taking lift, taking wing

  into strength.

  Like a candle giving its flame to another

  Selflessly, spreading light and color

  It takes nothing of ourselves to inspire

  goodness in others, to speak life and new fire

  into existence.

  HOW TO TELL IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE

  IS OWNED BY A CORPORATION

  Have you ever noticed that your elected representative

  Coincidentally seems to work for the rich corporations

  That gave them money to get elected?

  My oh my, what a strange coincidence!

  But surely that can’t be the case, for that would mean

  We are a democracy of dollars, and not the people.

  Well, regardless, I have invented an easy test

  To use when one desires to determine

  Whether one’s representative isn’t representing.

  If you turn on CSPAN to watch a voting session

  And your congressman is constantly looking over

  Their shoulder, like a dog looking for their owner,

  If they seem to sweat and look generally slimy

  Like their conscious is sweating out

  From within and onto their skin;

  If you notice any of these signs, you can be sure

  That your representative is owned

  By a rich and powerful corporation.

  You might naturally ask, what can I do about this?

  Oh, sorry about that, you can’t really do anything

  But you can watch as your future is bought and sold.

  WELCOME TO AMERICA

  Welcome to America, check your culture at the door

  Speak one language, identify one way, or it’s war

  Welcome to America, the dream is dead and we’re all poor

  Religion is dying off, the new church is the store.

  Welcome to America, land of the free and the brave

  Here lies freedom, the surveillance state sits on its grave

  Our population is fat, entertained, and dazed

  And we only see blood right after we’ve shaved.

  Welcome to America, a Wall St
reet Corporation

  Where the stockholders are rich and own this nation

  Where cubicle preparation masquerades as education

  And people of color are guilty by association.

  Welcome to America, just kidding, go home!

  Immigrants must have Stockholm syndrome

  To see these messages of hateful fire and brimstone

  And still want to live here against all wisdom.

  Welcome to America, where we preserve the environment

  But the city environment has a violence requirement

  Discriminatory attitudes have come out of retirement

  And our generation has a sense of entitlement.

  Welcome to America, I’ve painted a bleak scene

  But it’s better than pretending our nation is serene

  So look closely at what it has come to mean

  When we raise the banner of the American dream.

  AND SO SHE WEARS BLACK

  She swore she was different

  Or just odd, at least

  While all the other girls wore

  Black leggings, ugg boots,

  And a puffy vest, she

  Rocked the world's irises

  With a neon onesie

  And leopard-print glasses.

  But that was a while ago

  And being different gets tiresome

  After a while;

  People enjoy the novelty

  Like a new tv show

  But when a little time passes

  Society is all too willing

  To become a mold,

  Crushing us all into

  Identifiable shapes.

  The neon onesie was replaced

  With a more normal attire

  The leopard glasses became contacts;

  She wears mostly black now,

  Saying that it's the

  Absence of color, and

  She wears it because

  That's exactly what

  Society told her to

  Be; colorless, bland, don't rock the

  Boat, don't stand out.

  And so she wears black

  Hoping to fade away

  Into the darkness.

  MILLENIALS

  We are a generation of nostalgia

  But also of forging a new path

  We are a generation of artists

  Of social media sociopaths.

  We are the spray tan generation

  Who also won’t eat GMO’s

  Social media picture filters

  Have replaced artistic photos.

  We want gluten free bread

  And products responsibly sourced

  But when it comes to drugs

  Well, it can’t be helped, of course.

  Our entire lives are stages

  And we constantly perform

  Each one of us is a star

  Narcissism is our art form.

  We are so public with what’s private

  Fame, we can’t get enough

  Yet we want the government

  To stay out of our digital stuff.

  We are the fast food generation

  Worshipping popular stores like idols

  Max out all the options

  With a diet coke, check your vitals.

  We post our best selves on social media

  But want to be loved for who we are

  We delete our worst moments

  But want the future to read our memoirs.

  We are a generation of contradictions

  Of casual existential despair

  But maybe we can muster the energy

  Just maybe— to ironically care.

  GLASS RECTANGLE

  In a room, sitting in a circle

  In my pocket, that glass rectangle;

  The circle fades to gray,

  The rectangle lights blue.

  Pull away from society

  Privatize my personality

  Humanity causes me anxiety

  Quietly leave for sanity.

  My appetite for sunlight

  Makes me turn off my device

  Despite my peers advice

  Strolling long into the moonlight

  Waiting for the dark of night

  To feel this sole paradise.

  Being alone, who remembers that?

  Most people these days couldn’t last

  And let more than one moment pass

  While leaving their solidarity intact.

  Reach for that glass rectangle

  Like a baby with a pacifier, tranquil

  Perhaps one day we’ll be unable

  To even live without this I.V., this power cable.

  PATRIOTIC

  I've been called unpatriotic for criticizing my country

  But what's patriotic about pretending everything's lovely?

  Society is sick, be honest that illness is ugly

  Even an untreated flu can kill slowly and softly.

  I would bleed just to keep the red stripes red

  And cheer when I hear that democracy has spread

  I feel pride when the flag’s allegiance is pledged

  But look, we’re breaking apart like pencil lead.

  The United States of America, in decay

  Less united and in a state of disarray

  Freedom is dying, liberty has already passed away

  Our best days are available for replay.

  But why do I point this out so bluntly?

  Because, quite simply, I love my country.

  I wont let it be destroyed abruptly

  Even if that means my words get ugly.

  A real patriot wont pretend everything is fine

  Sit back in an arm chair and blissfully recline

  While the streets burn I’ll point out the signs

  And maybe we’ll fix this country of mine.

  section two

  love

  SECTION II: LOVE

  CONTENTS:

  Your Song On The Radio

  Partner In Crime

  Orbit

  What I Fell In Love With

  Someone Else

  To Love Is To Lie

  To Love Is To Live

  Reaching Across The Distance

  Paraphernalia

  Forever

  Muse

  The Heart Collector

  High On Your Perfume

  Eyes of the Wildest Tempests

  A Fool’s Ode To His Love

  Love & Logic

  Anesthetic

  Write Your Name

  Colors

  Lithium

  Love is selfless; only attachment is selfish.

  YOUR SONG ON THE RADIO

  Time machine to the past

  Step back a few years

  Old feelings, like lazarus

  Suddenly reappear.

  It's your song on the radio

  And it's your hand in mine

  As this wave crashes over me

  Our stars again come unaligned.

  Passion, buried alive

  in a coffin of struggle

  Has dug itself free

  Memories, a sharp shovel.

  It’s your song on the radio

  And here I lay afraid;

  That if I change the station

  I’ll lose you as the signal fades.

  The illusion of being okay

  Pops like a floating bubble;

  The winds of life blew too hard,

  This house of cards crumbled.

  Scratched out of the picture

  But the empty space screams your name;

  Past demons haunt the present,

  Charred wick now fresh aflame.

  It’s your song on the radio

  and only tears now dance;

  Your voice doesn’t sing along,

  Twilight of a dead romance.

  PARTNER IN CRIME

  I remember those warm summer mornings

  Kicking up dust in the back countr
y

  In a red truck, speeding along

  Whooping, shrieking, laughing,

  Just having a good time

  You and I

  My partner in crime.

  Do you remember the time

  We snuck into the forest

  Beating the sun to wakefulness

  And built a fort in a clearing

  Swearing we were running away

  From society forever?

  We said all we needed was each other

  And we’d keep this escapade

  From everyone else.

  Everyone knew that secret, of course

  But no one minded much

  For such are the ways of love.

  I cherish the simplest memories;

  Like the time we were playing in a field

  And I tripped over an old log;

  You knelt over me

  To see if I was quite alright.

  The sight of your long hair

  The way it looked

  Like rays of the morning sun;

  The way the wind tossed it playfully about

  As you looked down in concern at me;

  I had never seen something so beautiful

  And you so took my breath away

  That I couldn’t even speak;

  That was the first moment I had ever been in love.

  That was before things got complicated.

  People started teaching us

  All the ways that love

  Was supposedly so complex

  And that simple thing of ours

  Was just not enough;

  We learned about the dating game

  All the rules and the criteria

  And love became so similar

  To ordering at a restaurant

  Choosing and ordering

  But those meals were

  Never truly satisfying.

  So let’s forget everything they taught us.

  Let’s run wild and free

  And pursue every breeze

  The winds of our hearts

  Demand that we be.

  Let’s throw out the rules

  The criteria, the nonsense,

  Oh, let us become again

  Partners in crime.

  ORBIT

  Like two stars in the depths of the sky

  This gravity is just irresistible

  We spin around each other, you and I

  When I fell for you, I fell into your orbit.

  Our constellation is a beating heart

  Two, beating as though they are one

  The galaxies would cry if we were to part

  If ever we fell out of orbit.

  Giving into this gravity is a scary thing

  I tried to pull back and to hide