Danger: Words may be larger than they appear.

“Do you really know Kung Fu?” he asks, He’s one of my favorites, Sometimes he walks up to me, Says “Hey Bill” he calls me Bill because, “Keynan doesn’t fit”, “Did you ever take any martial arts?” He prods, “I took Karate once, and I know poetry,” I teach high school kids how to build robots with my spare time, It’s really fucking rad, “How is poetry a martial art?” He asks skeptically, Block, Parry, Metaphor! Poetry is like Aikido smooth, soft, and uses the weight of others for its’ strength, Poets will snap your head back like a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick, Words can stop your heart like the five finger death punch, I can rip your soul out like a Mortal Kombat character with the depths of my mind, When I help these kids with their English homework it hurts, I want to give them some of this feeling, So they will be excited about the power of punctuation, Explain how ‘gangster’ proper grammar really is, For them to understand that language can be a

Welcome to manhood, I hope you read the sign on the way in, You aren't allowed to have feelings or display them if you do, Those are accidental and pretty gay, Whoa whoa whoa, Back it up, First off, thats kinda fucked up and second, Last I checked we're all wired for that emotional shit, So sit down and shut the fuck up for a second, Just because you're a man doesn't mean any of that horseshit is true, A real man brings his lady flowers, Not because he fucked up, But because she'll like that shit, Real men fall in love, Get nervous, Cry about it, like a pussy, No scratch that, like a human being, And probably won't even mention it, Unless there's some idea of a chance, Make an ass out of himself, Be embarrassed and try and play it off like he just fell down, Emotionally, Isn't that what those awkward conversations are anyways? Real men don't fuck around with that "Not allowed to have feelings" Old world shi

They know how to break you down, Not to say that some of us don't get back at them, In terrible fucked up ways, They say all is fair in love and war, I think that needs some revision, Look at us, we're the nice guys, You already knew what that meant signing up for it, We don't win often, We don't get laid a whole lot either, But you still signed up, I wish there had been a recruiter, Who would have told me the legitimate truth about this, How much it would hurt when they left you, Or how it still hurts when you leave them, We are the ones who fall for the girls, Dating our friends, We are the ones who keep quiet about it struggling in silence, We are the 'nice guys', But we don't easily give up on that, We are the silent zealots of love, Constantly believing slightly further than our doubt goes, Falling in love too easily, Too quickly, Too loudly, Too truthfully, And unapologetically, They know how to break you down, But we

Color me like your favorite tragedy, Grey, and Melancholy, and Bittersweet, Touching you in places you try really hard to ignore, The soft spots, Where people can get in and see you too easily, Now turn the light on, Notice how it bounces off me, The way I live on it, Thrive on it, Without the light I would be terribly boring, How I imagine I am when I'm asleep, Unmoving, balled up, Looking as lonely as possible, Go away, Before you realize how strong I'm not, Before I recognize the need to shut it down, the light.

Dear guerilla rebel in my otherwise preoccupied heart, I want to put out the order for your cardiac arrest, Hold you in my left ventricle until I know what the hell to do, With all these monsters I invited in to clean out the last one, To break down the barriers and slay the guards in the name of love and better things than myself, I have a shopping list of problems ranging from simple jealousy, All the way over to the aisle for vaults that don't let things go, Even when you want to, Living with these things alone is way easier than growing up, Your presence humbles me, I am the shadow burnt into the wall from your atomic explosion.

Broken the minute your heart stopped beating. Now I have no fingernails. I'm not sure why I bite them, Probably has to do with how alone this place is without you, If I had fingernails I might try and rip a whole to somewhere I could find you, Finding myself.

I got hit by a car last Sunday, No metaphor, It's not a metaphor for something life altering, But it was on some level, That could have been it, Blam, Ragdoll, Insurance mess, Criminal trial, Crying mother, But I'm still here, Again, I think it's about time I fucking listened, Instead of looking at what I don't have, I need to ask myself point blank in the mirror, What are you going to fucking do today?

Waking up Wake up in a dream, Stretch like the sky, Peel like a banana, Fly out of bed, the shower weeps On my shoulder, Refreshed like a finely tuned god, For a fresh pair of socks I search, Socks have been searched, Breakfast floats in my dreams, The refrigerator shines like an empty god, Nothing in there but sky, I weep, Then decide on a banana, Eating my banana, Outside I search, Is it weeping? Like in my dreams Do tears fall from the sky? If so, suit up like a jacketed god, Why do we bleed? We gods, When we slip on a banana, Into the sky? For composure I search, In my wildest dreams, Over this I would not weep, For when we weep, We betray our appearance as gods, Walking through each others dreams, I curse the banana, And to the bus stop, I search, For curiosities in the sky, The sky, Is boring when overcast, it only weeps, Off and on, for sunshine it searches, Like a needy confused god, I want another banana, I guess I can dream, I am su

Wanted – $200 bike that is a giant piece of shit. This is what the ad would have looked like, If I had made one for my Christmas present from my mom, It’s not her fault, I still really appreciate the gift, Just not its’ lack of function, As of today, I have ridden my bike 5 times in 3 weeks, And 4 of those times, it has popped a tube, This, Is bullshit, If I wanted to be on the side of every fucking road, Using patches that never fucking work, I would be a pothole repair man! About that, Hey Mayor McGinn, If you ride your bike to work every day, Where do you ride? Because all I get are streets with smooth open middles and fucked up shoulders, Maybe it isn’t where, maybe it’s what you ride, Where do I find a bike designed by German super-scientists leftover from Nazi germany? Do I need a mayor’s salary to buy one? Because I’m kind of fucking broke, I could sell you this shitty bike, When I got it I thought: ‘Yay! Now I can get places faster!’ The actual trut

Dear future girlfriend, Know, that I am a little odd, I walk around with my chest open and you can read what’s on my heart, My mind is a bit harder to make sense of, I still don't know how I do it most days, Know, I wear my lies on my sleeve, So I try not to make them, Always with that, ‘Nothing is wrong’ smile, The kind reserved for customers and rude family members, Know, that I will love you, Ridiculously, but not religiously, Religions make people do bad things, Not that I don't want to do bad things to you, Know, that when I get scared there isn't much sense involved, The logic switch, gets flipped, Off, I run in the real world to keep genetics from making me run from the things that matter, Know that I talk, A lot, But most of the time I will try to say something, If I am talking loud and saying nothing, Tell me to shut up, I need that sometimes, Know, that I wear t-shirts with my favorite things on them, Pants that are nothing more th

There's a burden to go with all this shine, Living for two is full time, But, every once in a while you run out of rocket fuel, Crash and burn, Like a stick in the mud, Thrown by Zeus, Awkward angles and all, The soft spots where they can see them, In your face, There are many things I would bleed for, But the biggest is banishing the dark-side Of all this light, I have to feel alone in a crowd of loved ones, So I don't do anything stupid with it, I lost you before I ever got to tell you what you meant, Or how I need you to get through the best times, I hear you at my worst, Like you reach out of the hole in my chest and touch me, Right here on the forehead, Tell me it's okay, Postcards to the anti-life are very hard to buy, So I made you one, Wish you were here.

I have mastered alone, It visits me in a room full of people, Who love me, And it's a two-way street, that love, The cold soft dark envelopes me, Familiar, Sometimes I break free out of rebellion, But usually I stay like a thirty-two year old in his mother's basement, All full of holes and nowhere to go.

Tomorrow is nothing but Sky, big broad american Sky, all the way to Three hours from now With my favorite future geniuses, I got older last week, That's what everyone said, I still feel somewhere around fourteen

I am a crooked-souled moon-walker, Living on the stars, You let loose your baseline jumper assumptions, And look like a globetrotter adversary, Whereas when I look at you, Nothin' but net, You see I've known plenty of pain since before I left my momma's soul, So it's no wonder the only goal is to feel whole, Free me from your expectations, So I only have mine, You can have yours back, Stick them to your blinders until you need them, My mind is a trapper-keeper, The coolest kind and I forget some days that I am spoiled by it, Words, numbers and magic float inside, And we grab it all quickly, You see I've known plenty of pain since before I left my momma's soul, So it's no wonder the only goal is to feel whole, One of these days we will realize, That it's easier to steal than to buy all the boxed lies, A whole generation with no jobs, Robin Hood has nothing on us, We steal from the rich because they're all there is, And we&#

Come get lost with me, Run away from ourselves, Be who we want to be in our wildest dreams, And then live that shit, Run away to where the lines blur and the cartoons become reality, Where we can find ourselves and the answers, The ones our hearts melt and our souls are on fire for,

Life is not a bitch, Just that girl you thought was your life, This is what I have learned to call her, Separation and friends taught me, That's what she was, I want her back, But she doesn't live on this level anymore, That girl that remembers talking on the beach so long our friends left, Left me on the beach too, I no longer need to learn living without you, Because I am, And it's not as bad as yesterdays nightmares would have guessed, Now is the fun part, Getting back to learning, How to live with myself, Who the hell I am and where I fit, Because she was just a distraction, A trip to the candy store, See me for who I am, We've got work to do. (Anyone who recognizes that line gets bonus points, and I love it so much I had to use it somewhere.)

You left me, With this nasty after taste, Betrayal with a hint of, Silly boy, That's me, Silly, For believing all that fuzzy shit we were slinging at each other, Silly for thinking that the king of disaster had made something work, Yet somehow you left and I felt like the jerk, Just want you to know, In case you ever read this, Or find it when I'm famous, You were just a distraction, A moment floating in time, That when I look back, It was better then than now, You've been demoted to a childhood memory, Like a cartoon that isn't that good, Or a toy thats just too simple now, Nothing left of you, But memories in my hurricane, Living a life like you wanted sounds boring, Sounds like everyone else, And if you ever paid attention, I am not everyone else, Have fun in your predictable, political, no win scenario I'm gonna go do what I do, and actually fix the world.

This is to everyone who helped me in my strife, This is to everyone who helped me keep my life, Somehow together in a confusion turbine she turned on when she left, I can never say enough, For those who called my bluff, Saying, Yeah I'm okay, "Well, you don't look that way," This is for everyone who helped me when things were way too hard, This is for everyone, exactly who they know, Who helped me find myself, Who saw me for how I should be and not how I was left, Thank you is never enough, But I figured its a step.

The adults tell me to grow up, Go to school, Get a job, Grow a life, But all I can scream back is, I'M SORRY I'M TOO BUSY BEING FUCKED IN THE ASS BY YOUR CONSEQUENCES!!!

Whoever designed me loved duality, I was given a heart that rusts often, Ragged and sharp with the pumps it keeps me alive with, Yet somehow I manage to shine like a halogen, Burning bright and clear when the switch gets flicked 'on' Other times I feel like a slug, Slow and steady and obviously going somewhere, But at this speed its hard to tell where, How far it is, Or why I'm going there, I was born with a heart designed for ache, Given a propensity of hope for something better, And a mind that doesn't quit whether I want it to or not, I do my best in the most hectic of situations, Something about that makes me think I should search out the madness, Always living at your best sounds, nice, But I know I wouldn't be able to keep it up forever,

Most days there is a hole where my heart rents space, It doesn't live there too often, Only in those warm moments when I smile, And then it recedes again into some phantom zone in my body, Most days I feel alone beyond repair, Living a life where your brain is wired for another one of yourself, Is harder than a diamond covered rubik's cube, I'd like to think my heart is out there living the life it should, But it keeps forgetting to invite me along, Whole is a feeling I get when other people are smiling, Hole is the other feeling I get when nothing is conspiring, Most days I just want to be something, To make myself feel like less of an empty space, Of the two, I am here, and sometimes it feels like a waste, Why me? Why not her, who made the decision? Would I be more motivated, happy, accomplished if she were here? I know why I'm clingy, I know why I'm sad, How do you think you would feel with a twin you never had?