Red Rain

Loans are NOT financial aid

 Loans are not financial aid.

Loans don’t aid me. They imprison my dreams
Keep them locked up wasting away behind
Iron bars green like the money
I have to make to pay them off.
Giving up passion for practicality,
Cuz really, what can I do with a degree in history,
But teach? Philosophy, but teach?
And who gets a degree in English these days?

Thoughts of writing the next great novel
Shelved, forced to cede the spotlight
To contemplations of accounting.
A noble profession- kind of-
But it’s not exactly what makes me tick.

Bamboozled by assuming our definitions of aid were the same.
Seven thousand dollars too far in to drop out of the game.

Somehow you claim that there’s good debt,
But now I’ve heard the story of precious Fifi
Who viciously attacked a five-year old
Who just wanted to pet her, cuz she hadnâ...

Social Commentary

1, 2, 3, 4

How many "isolated incidents"

does it take before you see

you've got a war?

5, 6, 7, 8

Because the media

Will always

Sell it to you straight.

10, 12, 14, 16

Societies Response: None.

After all, what's one more dead

Black son?

Why?

 It hurts…aches
Deep down where almost
No one can see.

There’s no relief.
Day. Night-how long
It takes ‘til the sun returns-
‘Til I dawn the mask
Of happiness and contentment.
‘Til I act, play the role,
Of court jester.

But still…it hurts…aches.
When will it cease?
How long can it go on?
How long can my soul
Pine for such a distant shore?
How long?
How?
Why?
Why?
Why now?
Why me? Why us?
Why her? Why that way? Why??

They loop. Repeat. Cascade. Through my brain.
My life. My soul. A piercing ache
Fiercer than appendicitis.
The Amtrak to insanity
Is trying to figure it all out.
It’s a cluster graph,
An interrelated web. Break a
Strand and it all collapses.
Pull a strand and it stretches…
And stretchesââ‚...

Red Rain

 Who said
That what doesn’t kill you only
Makes you stronger?

No matter how many times
You lose someone you love,
It hurts the same.

You still aren’t ready,
To let go, and live.
You still want to
Join them, bring them
Back. It doesn’t actually
Matter which.
It doesn’t matter that it’s
Impossible. That
Even if they could, there’s
No body for them anyway.

If someone told me, that if I bled enough my mom could come back,
The streets would be bathed in it.
It would rain red. It would fill every stream, river, creek,
Well, lake, sea,
Ocean on this planet.

Land of the Free

 I live, in the home of the brave,

the land of the free.

Unless

you look like 

me.

The it's prison, packed in like cattle.

Branded a failure. Inhuman.

Justice is blind, or so they say.

It must be true

cuz rarely do I see

extrenuating circumstances 

come in to play.

Abuse? Not an excuse.

Rape? Nope, but hey

"At least you can't get pregnant

that way"

Mental illness? Don't worry,

we'll make sure you get your meds 

where you're going.

"Please, I've had a rough life too.

You don't see me running around killing people,

do you?"

A common wisecrack, during the lead up to a trial.

But we don't know

everything that they've been through 

or how it's afected them.