
Foisted Fear
I won’t scarper anymore from your foisted fear
As my tormenting treadmill keeps me near.
The more I run, the more the belt turns
Till eventually I fall with irrational hope burned.
I can’t let your voice convince me I’m wrong
The way it convinced you, you were right along.
I’m not responsible for what your jaded past accrued
Yet I inspire the encouragers who invigorate you.
It seems your heart turned binocular blind
But why would you care? You’ve made up your mind.
Your avoidance technique, offensively sealed
With inscrutable evasion that stings so real.
I may miss details, but I feel impassioned bursts
And I felt your eyes cut through me as your butterflies dispersed.
So I’ve unplugged the carousel, this revolving door.
With a mandate from my soul, no more… no more.

Vanquishment
Why do you shut-in such a beautiful soul?
Everyone admires you, I want you to know.
Even the doubters who seemed not so loyal
Chose you every time and anointed you royal!
Each of them hold you in such high regard
While they convict this stranger like some bothersome bard.
I know the scars run deep, I’ve been there too
And they all just wonder, what should we do?
The suffering so sweet when sprinkled with spice
With your demarcation so preciously priced.
Your persistent pain so politely bestowed
Your stoic steadfastness, the reason you glow.
And I could care less about my name defamation
The spirit comes alive through religious abnegation.
So throw out your arms and turn your face to the sun
Let the wind blow your hair, girl, you’ve already won.

Interstellar Inclination
I wish your stars would fall down to me
Shine so brightly
Move right through me.
I wish your moon stayed full all the time
Light my way
Show me signs.
I wish your galaxy would spin all around me
With beautiful wonders
And nebulous seas.
I wish your love spanned the edge of space
Wrap me in a bubble
And show me grace.
I wish you and I could go interstellar
Leave them all behind
With cosmic propellers.

Circe 2: Opulent
The dogs begin to smell
Her delightful scent
Where did I take her, what’s my intent?
She’s locked away deeply
She can’t escape
The bars squeal highly, as her fingernails scrape.
The sour shackles bind
Her rusted shame
Protecting my psyche, from going insane.
Self preservation is her claim to fame
As she boasts grace
With absence of empathy, my being defaced.
Her release will not be bartered
Circe, the enchantress
Her frigidity exalted, her feelings repressed.
So she’ll stay here with me
In perpetual vexation
A cerebral prison, with permanent mentation.

Let Her
Let her see me struggling over here
Let her enter my gracious soul sphere
Let her feel my heartbeat so near
Let her escape that pain in the clear
Let her walk down that life giving pier
Let her know I’m fighting off the fear
Let her focus on holding back the years
Let her trust me ignoring all the jeer
Let her hear that jarring wind shear
Let her release her angst with crocodile tears
Let her love me… because I love her so dear

Once Time Returns
Goodnight dearest friend
Maybe someday we’ll meet again
When our weary souls stand tall
And our alkaline tears don’t fall
At least, not to the floor
Because I promise I’ll catch them
Since I could not before.
But for now I’ll settle for the image
Of you staring back scrupulously
With a jaded, edgy glow
As if to say, “Impress Me!”
As your dark eyes gaze right at me
And I smile a smile of joyous glee
With the power to thwart all agony.
I’m trapped in an incessant moment
Where time promptly went away
And I’m left to repeat
The same intractable day
With a constant yearn
For time to return
800 serene sunsets on display.
Reconciliation, such a noble goal
For when time returns
My only prayer for you and I
Is two harmonious, humble souls
Where your gut-wrenching grief is gone
The perilous past has perished
And pain stays trapped as we move on.

Lesser Brother
You’re the lesser brother
Every single day
Your heart so distracted
By work or by play
Your face is like Thanos
Your breathe even worse
You make me vomit
You’re a vexing curse
You step up on your pedestal
Right out of the sand
But your arrogance reeks!
And your flavor is bland!
So I offer you this
You hater of lovers
Awake from your delusion
Learn respect my brother!
If this is too much
For your small brain to grasp
Then I’m not surprised
You’ve never shown class.

Unconcealed Disfavor
All those times I waited for you
Praying for that conciliatory chance
Wasting away in a caffeinated crater
Performing scenarios in a mental trance.
A fool taking part in an onerous game
Your mysterious aura deemed unfair
Hope versus grace in a bruising brawl
Desires misaligned with roads to nowhere.
Memories now spill anxiety’s blood
From time-wasted wounds that sting like ice
In that cold dark cave north of the tracks
Where my external timidity paid an internal price.
This unrelenting pain now dull and can’t cut
Has become my slave as I mandate its order
It daily seeks to flee my subliminal snare
While its world is reduced to my compulsory borders.
So as I continue to mold this malleable misery
As I waste away in these caffeinated craters
I’ll bolster this pain with a reluctant ransom
Hoping grace will outclass your unconcealed disfavor.

Myopic Culture
She calls it perversion.
I call it beauty. Art comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and designations. A photo of a man, woman, animal, or object, if aesthetically pleasing to me draws me in. It’s not sexual. It’s not sensual. It’s not even intimate. It’s simply soothing. It’s soothing to my soul. It comforts me in the same way that stress eating comforts a person. That harmonious instant when my eyes, functioning in mysterious, fascinating, even inexplicable ways, tingle at such beauty. That instant, that moment, that millisecond can change a person’s feelings, their mood, their day. She can call it perversion all she wants. I’ll call it beauty.
They call him a thug.
I call him a human being who didn’t have the same chance I had. He didn’t have a father who was there to direct him and set an example on how to be a man. He didn’t have a mother who only worked one job. His mother worked three jobs. She did what she had to in order to make ends meet. He wasn’t raised by his parents. He was raised by a system. He was raised by a system in which he was given missions instead of chores. His commission wasn’t given to him by someone with his best interest in mind, no, it was given to him by the local drug lord and survival literally became part of his life, part of his daily struggle.
He calls it bad parenting.
I call it a child with challenges you cannot even imagine. The signals from his brain work slowly, differently than yours, differently than mine. Where you or I have already self-regulated, his signals are still making their way to their destination. Until that time, he simply doesn’t have control. He must be taught how to cope with moments that you and I take for granted. You have a bag full of tools to help you process and cope. His bag consists of one tool and he’s still trying to figure out how to use it. His behavior isn’t the challenge for him, his tools are, or perhaps even more so, a judgmental society is.
How do we see what others cannot? Why do they not see what we can? Has society become so shortsighted that they only see what’s right in front of them? Do they only see their reflection?
It feels hopeless. As long as they’re fat and happy though, I suppose everything is fine.

Audacity Endeavor
Madness they say
While healing takes place
Hear his words
Look at his face!
He shares his pain
An audacity endeavor
He’s making it up
Mendacity. Whatever!
CAST HIM OUT!
Or we’ll fly this coop
His stuttering words
His devious stoop!
We’ll twist his writings
Then share them around
He has no rights
We’ll leave him bound!
Off with his head
This writer of words
Off to the stocks
For sincerity unheard!

Game of Numbers
How many of us would they kill
And leave in the streets
Were we to threaten their riches?
These leaders we so desperately follow
They see us as part of their system
In the same way
They see that system as necessary.
We are but digits
An increment or decrement
In a game of numbers.
Dehumanization knows no bounds
As it forces you to choose a side
To create the illusion of valor
In its game of prosperity.
We could leave
But we can’t escape
Because their greed always catches us.
We can’t please everyone, they say
We must be mighty
The poor must stay poor
The excuses flow like the mighty Mississippi.

Receive Your Throne
She’s like the wind
Through my tree
As dead leaves flutter
She thinks of me.
The moonlight restores
Her lunar smile
Which was stolen from her
A crime so vile.
He’d have his foot
Pressed against her back
Don’t give him lip
Don’t give him flack.
That lording mongrel
A putrid breed
Parsimonious priorities
Her desire to leave.
So call out to me
My solemn sister
I offer you protection
From this macabre mister.
Eliminate his manacles
Erase his restraint
Eradicate his scorn
As he sashays like a saint.
Look in the mirror
It’s time to atone
I see you my queen
Receive your throne!

Space Waves
So many think that the Earth spins slowly
Like a turtle, sleuth, or roly poly.
As the days drag on like a boring vexation
The years affect us with little causation.
Reality tells of this roundabout of death
A thousand miles per hour, can’t catch a breath.
Constant motion shows an eerie truth
Spinning through space seems so uncouth.
Our sun seems annoyed, so yellow and sour
As we circle its face at sixty-seven thousand miles per hour.
But not so fast, there’s a bit of a twist
The sun’s own gravity caused all of this.
But the Sun’s not alone, Jupiter lurks
Protecting us from comets, those icy jerks.
The gas giant’s size can cause climate change
But the separation makes us feel so estranged.
Thirty billion planets in our Milky Way
Seems inconceivable. What can you say?
But the Hubble doesn’t lie as it magnifies
A Peeping Tom who orbits high above our skies.
Knowing all this should open your mind
Don’t box yourself in. Don’t be so blind.
Sometimes the truth can be so subjective
But you’ll find the answers. Keep shifting perspectives.

Ego Erected
I just needed a chum in the midst of a dispiriting climb
An iota of encouragement could have lasted all of time.
So I dropped to my knees with my spirit-man weakened
I bowed my head in disgrace like a dog who’d been beaten.
When I was struck from behind, I could hear the bones crack
I didn’t want to alarm her, so I took a step back.
When I came to my senses, one image projected
A cowardly wolf stood snarling with his ego erected.
With an injection of courage I gathered my might
And stared down this dastard, this piteous blight.
It was then when he realized he had picked the wrong clash
These wolves advance quickly, but retreat in a flash.
But that’s the life of a bully I suppose.
These effects that choose us are from the paths we chose.
So when that wolf in your life invades with aggression
Foil his advances. Flex your might. And fade his oppression!

It Chases
This thing, it chases me. Everyday
It never stops moving, a mental ballet.
It chases the thoughts right into my mind
And once they are conquered. It continues to twine.
I can run through the meadow
I can run through the street
But it won’t stop pursuing. I can’t even eat.
I try to confront it, but it only yields dread
Of a future so bleak
The shoes of my mind are all out of tread.
It breaches my dreams with a contemptuous smile
After I plead, “GO AWAY!”
An invasion, so vile!
As it chases me past a wall of mirrors
I stop in an instant. The picture now clearer.
Then I see myself in a solitary stance
Nothing is chasing. Unaccompanied dance.
But I continue to run from this debilitating cyst
Like a twisting tornado.
It’s just me chasing me… through the dank, ghostly mist.

Fade From Black
Please soften the sting of my hurting heart
With your gentle and resolute healing power.
A subtle smile or nod or gesture
Can make so sweet what once was sour.
Could you dedicate to me a moment of time
With no distractions or hurry?
The weight of truth, an extricating element
One gracious word could free all the worry.
Even prisoners get that one special call
When first they are detained.
But I never got mine when I was locked away
Just a cold square room and a toilet of pain.
I know your anguish is real like my spirit is jaded
I would never discount something so true.
Your trek is a maze, shrink-wrapped in a bubble
But the soul of another is in agony too.
So, I’ll write for a century if that’s what it takes
As my aching hands cramp so tightly.
Living in a bottle of misunderstanding
While half-truths crush down contritely.

Dirt on my Name
I can’t be who I want to be
No options remain, so I’ll just be me
Goin insane
All these things they rack my brain
Imagination trumps information
A tug of war in combination
Observation of possibilities
Leads my mind to false realities
Just toss some sand
And throw dirt on my name
In the end we’re all to blame
Fighting my power to destroy them all
Endless schemes
Harrowing dreams
Lights go out for a one way trip
No coming back once the day is flipped
Nightmarish break in a four walled world
No escape when the rules are all furled
I’ll just be me
I’ll just be he
When the dust all settles
Things will be the way things will be
Nothing to change. No waning plea
Corrupted options
I’ll never see what I choose to see
I’ll just be me. I’ll just be me……
I’ll just be me.

Unhinged
“Door slam” is a phrase originally coined out of the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator system as a means of self-protection, specifically for the INFJ personality type, where someone cuts ties with another person who has deeply wounded them. As typology has progressed however, I feel like any and all personality types can be, in some fashion, associated with the door slam, not just the INFJ type, although an INFJ may be more likely than other types to slam the door on someone based on how the underlying cognitive functions stack up.
Healthy door slams take place when someone has been deeply wounded by a person repeatedly and they can no longer tolerate the person’s toxicity. Unhealthy door slams take place when there isn’t a pattern of toxicity. Perhaps the person’s intuition (a dominant trait in the INFJ, INTJ, ENFP, and ENTP personality types and used by people of any personality type, albeit as a lower priority) flashes some warning sign. This is not a reason to slam the door on someone, although sadly it happens frequently. A flawed perception of reality does not give someone the right to door slam another person. I’ve unfortunately been on the receiving end of such a hasty reaction and it left me confused and bewildered.
So, when should a door slam take place? I do not think it should happen hastily, or early on, or without factual information, but with the understanding that everyone is different, I believe the reason for a door slam is unique to the individual. Whether it be some rational boundary or something even more idealistic doesn’t really matter. I do believe it should entail a high degree of fairness (“do unto others”, right?). There should also be a certain amount of familiarity involved. For example, if some total stranger attacks you on Twitter and you block them, that’s not a door slam. That’s a stranger being a jerk-like troll. Door slams are more personal. It’s something that takes place with someone you know. After all, can you really slam a door that hasn’t been opened yet? That’s certainly something to think about.
Healthy door slams take place when someone has been deeply wounded by a person repeatedly and they can no longer tolerate the person’s toxicity.
I also believe taking a personality test, then forever labeling yourself as the resulting type from that test, then taking a few memes to heart, and door slamming a person because someone in your past has “treated you badly” and the meme told you to do it is what nightmares are made of. Determining your personality requires a much deeper dive than taking a test. You need to learn the underlying concepts, like cognitive functions in socionics or MBTI, so that you can better identify which type you truly are. You need to introspect. In some cases, a personality test may serve as a good starting point, but even that can be quite misleading. Of course, if you’re just learning your personality type for fun, that’s great, but you shouldn’t go around slamming the door on people because of it.
I’m generally not a fan of the “door slam”, but if I were to slam the door on someone, that door would remain unlocked. That leaves room for change and even more importantly for forgiveness, which I think is vitally important in life. If the other person does what needs to be done, then the door can be opened back up. If it were up to me, door slams would never be necessary, but with so much hatred and so little humility in the world, I think it is absolutely necessary at times.
So, in the future, if someone makes you angry or uncomfortable in some way, instead of slamming the door on them, perhaps communicate with them in some way, as if you see their soul equal to yours. If that’s not possible, then just lay low and wait for a pattern to develop.
I’ll leave you with one final nugget of caution: If you put up too many walls by slamming too many doors, you may just come unhinged.

Shattering Star
Free me from this shattering star
I once softly shouted to a stranger.
Shady. Shunned. Shackled. Shhh. She said
Desires deliver such a delicate danger.
Pressure purposed to laborious life lessons
Presently pivoting on a premise of peace.
As forces fasten to this fleeting heart
My container can’t contain this lamenting lease.
Future flashes with a fallacious freeze
As allies apathize in utter abdication.
Self-starved spirits steal the warmth
And restless residence pardons permanent pacification.
So as my stellar structure blazes brightly
Harnessing heat for a hapless heart.
A mystifying millennial takes a tumbling toll
While my shoe-shined soul slowly succumbs to dark.

Too Many Moons
Hello old friend, you’ve traveled so far
I’m sure your frigid feet ache intensely
Can I get you food or drink or warmth?
May I feel your discomfort immensely.
Did the waterfall jaunt offer you spiritual bliss?
Were the green pools clear like crystals?
Did the fresh forest smell ignite your spirit?
Transporting you far beneath the superficial?
Please talk to me love and comfort my angst
Your powerful vibe gleams intoxicating
Speak light through wisdom and truth in the cold
My anxious heart longs to feel you pulsating.
I see you’ve morphed from an ambitious young soul
Into an enlightened, forbearing, wise old master
And you chose to traverse mystic lands to find me
Evading trolls and orcs and natural disasters.
But it seems you have waited too many moons
I have changed into someone you cannot know
And my emotions have all been turned into stone
Your past gift of agony has been fully bestowed.

Souls in Her Storm
Girl, I know you know you made a mistake, although you’ll never admit it. Not to me. Not to him. Not to anyone. You don’t need to. The past reaches up like roots creeping out of the ground. It grabs your ankles. It binds you. Roots trip ya know. I see you fighting.
You love him, but you feel his disinterest. You want to be first, but you know you’re not and never will be, although you hope for it. You may even create an imaginary world where he loves you the way you expect, but something deep inside of you, subconsciously in touch with reality, knows better. It’s like that dream where you’re trying to grab something, but it infinitely eludes you. You envisioned a world that was better than the previous one, and you got it. Maybe you’re satisfied with that, but it’s still not what you had hoped for. You deserve better. You feel tremendous relief from before, but that feeling has a new foe, the fear of failing again, so now you’re caught in the middle of your own World War II.
No one blames you for anything that happened in the past. We’re all in a war, thus we all fight and lose battles. You lost a battle, but you’re a mighty warrior. You overcame the bloodshed and you walked away with scars. Don’t hide those beautiful scars girl. You’ll overcome this too. Don’t let patterns of the past dictate your future. I know they nip at you. Although that hopeless battle raged hard against your sensitive soul, you came out of it with a glorious edge. We all see it.
Where you go from here is up to you, but it’s you who must stay true to queen status, to warrior status, and to yourself. You continue to hold tight to your personal value system that lays down roads and highways and allows you to overcome those anxieties that haunt you. Take those roads and the bridges that connect them and escape that anxiety. Go where it cannot follow.
We’re always here to catch you, friend. You’ll never have to fall all the way to the ground. You are protected, regardless of what has happened. Our nets are out and ready, so stand firm, don’t fret. Chin up! We won’t leave you or forsake you.
I hope this promise gives you the comfort of that cozy bed in a spotless, cool bedroom with the subtlest of light slipping in from outside as the raindrops fall slowly from the sky while a delicate breeze sweeps gently over the landscape at midnight while you are snuggled in tightly under perfectly warm blankets with the pitter-patter of the rain massaging your soul. Your very essence deserves this.
When the day comes when we’ve all gone away, I hope you’ll remind yourself, “They were here for a purpose, for me.” And when you do, I hope you’ll realize that we haven’t gone away. We are still here like departed souls watching over you through the storm.

Grace Citation
Hi there friend, so here’s the deal.
You need to know how you made me feel.
Since you won’t communicate or offer respect.
And your wolf is a cowardly piece of a wreck.
First thing to know is I realize your deal.
Guess what, I’m an empath. I can’t help not to feel.
Things didn’t go the way you hoped they would.
That doesn’t mean you can’t still do good.
My peace offering was genuine not counterfeit.
But you imposed your scorn and threw me in a pit.
When I inquired about your feelings you reserved your rations.
You wrongfully convicted me while boasting compassion.
You kicked me down with a short-sighted claim.
Then raped my name, in an attempt to defame.
You secretly watched as I tried to heal.
And I’m sure if I was starving you’d plunder my meal.
I’ve said this before with no hesitation.
You’ve locked me away on a grace citation.
I’ve been in this prison for quite some time.
Treated like a criminal. Reduced to slime.
So as I ooze away with nowhere to go.
There’s just some truth you need to know.
Love is organic. It’s God in His glory.
He wants you to have it. He’s a fan of your story.
Those who blindly put their hearts on the line.
Are the ones you can trust. Their love is sublime.
But that type of love falls bigger and harder.
It crashes down fast. It stings so much sharper.
So move forward with confidence as you’re misunderstood.
But be gentle with souls who seek to do good.

Blood-Stained Snow
Blood-stained snow resembled shaved ice flavors.
I seem to have startled you as I worriedly approached.
My concern mistaken for desire without favor.
A topic you wrestled with but refused to broach.
Coagulated gore flows red from my veins.
Deep wounds left alone refused to heal.
Your vivid, dark fear pierced like poison dart pain.
Yielding paralyzing passion only feelers could feel.
You whispered so fiercely: Wrap my pain with your being!
But your grief had no name and was locked up so tight.
Yet your soul still persisted while my gaze peered unseeing.
Take my pain! Take my pain! But stay out of sight.
I saw only red as it filtered through.
That cold snow melted into a broken heart shape.
You sauntered away while the blizzard consumed.
As I reached for redemption with my gift of self… raped.

Astrocrow
Astrocrow scares all the aliens away
With betas and alphas and hummingbirds of prey
Velvet-laced limbs confer in scooping trance
While exotic vine rockets in confetti dance
The vivid colors glisten in mirage-like allusion
This protector purposed with paranoid delusion
Assume the persona of a patient woman
Who need not a face, but the perfect plan
Keep them away. No cost is too grave
Push, pull, perjure, poke. Just hold them at bay
As the darkness sets in and she’s all alone
Less human each day. Less chance to atone
Just snuggled in grass that sways here and there
Astrocrow observes. All aliens beware.