Lights on, get up, teeth brushed, put your makeup on. Set the stage, wear a face, convince everyone. Convince everyone. Gear up, punch in, big grin, show them what you've got. Set the stage, wear a face, convince everyone. Convince everyone. Yeah, alchemist, take a gift and turn it into a chore. Going out of your way to do what people dream for. Set the bar, set your sights, so high up you break your neck. Sun in your eyes, gleam in a tear, sparkles like your teeth. Sun in your eyes, gleam in a tear, sparkles like a vampire. Some have standards, some don't care, others take all they get. Phantom food chain, more for you to gain, set yourself apart. Sham, wow, canned soup, instant coffee, cookie cutter, microwave delight. Take charge, be a boss, your own hours, gas card, wanna start a fight. Choke, choke, choke, choke, choke on your bubblegum.

Don't you see Miss America walks with me But don't doubt her mystery You know she could be you False envy I've spit the seeds of your jealousy They stole the color from the leaves And taught us dead is the new true Sailed the ocean blue or the River Styx? Built a house made from blood-stained bricks We blemished her gown now the colors all mix She hasn't worn white since ‘76 The orange king with his empty crown Sits atop his throne of green Face painted with a permanent frown He screeches at the TV screen Lies and their consequence Are no commodities They used to both be worth two cents But now we get them free. Nothing but a group of strangers who play. By shooting at our our soft, pink layers. Hitting veins is the American way. But hitting arteries puts you in our thoughts and prayers. The orange king with his empty crown Sits atop his throne of green Face painted with a permanent frown He screeches at the TV screen His finger held over the button, Weighed down by the pre-diamond industry, Mistaken the kings for pawns, To help fuel his fantasy. Castles built on the shore of industry. The tide is laced with lye. Our leaders have the power to kill Without the power to die. The orange king with his empty crown Sits atop his throne of green Face painted with a permanent frown He screeches at the TV screen His finger held over the button, Weighed down by the pre-diamond industry, Mistaken the kings for pawns, To help fuel his fantasy.

My mouth and throat cemented shut The grit on my teeth coats my gut These webs These cracks These parts My home We’ve all had a life and I am no exception Born and lived and died And you are no exception But from the dirt I see The progress of technology Wrapped in my cocoon of roots Tombstone signed by the hands of dead children My mouth and throat cemented shut The grit on my teeth coats my gut I need not be released Just understand when you walk over me What hides beneath your sidewalk And writes not in doodles but cryptic predictions With a body made from white chalk That preys upon your fearless admissions? I’m pushing out I’m breaking free Can you hear my fingertips scratching In the night I’m only right outside In the night Right outside My mouth and throat cemented shut The grit on my teeth coats my gut What hides beneath your sidewalk And writes not in doodles but cryptic predictions With a body made from white chalk That preys upon your fearless admissions? Look me in the eyes This smile is not for you Permanent One day you’ll wear it too

Head underwater I look for the sky My lungs are on fire I’m fighting the tide I'm so afraid of the morning I don't wake up But I'm more afraid of living forever. I cut off all my hair But forgot to untie the ribbon. I mastered the shape you wanted to see Come from my lips and teeth I’ve spent so long pretending To be as happy as you wanted me Don’t lie about the shame you feel when I say I’m not getting better Because no matter how hard I work on myself, I’m always disappointed Rather than smiling like the people with the straightest teeth I’ve sought a self-portrait, how I think I should be So no matter how wide, there’s a gap in my smile The ash in my bones will keep it clean It’s a life on repeat repeat repeat repeat If our dreams are only cyclical then where is the progress? Misconstrued my pyromania for selfishness The heartless hang empty lockets from their necklaces So we cried for our mothers While our fathers fought our wars We lined the pockets of our brothers And called our sisters whores And this is our condition A chronic shame we bury deep Make certain it feels ingrained The guilt must come naturally If we don’t fear each other And we don’t hate ourselves Then we may come together And make something else Don’t lie about the shame you feel when I say I’m not getting better Because no matter how hard I work on myself, I’m always disappointed Rather than smiling like the people with the straightest teeth I’ve sought a self-portrait, how I think I should be So no matter how wide, there’s a gap in my smile The ash in my bones will keep it clean It’s a life on repeat repeat repeat repeat If our dreams are only cyclical then where is the progress? Misconstrued my pyromania for selfishness The heartless hang empty lockets from their necklaces One day we Will both be

Is it warmest inside the sun, the way its arms might crave a planet to hold. Supernova Superficial Is there a flavor that you’ve craved since birth but never tasted? It’s the dissonance of the distances that keep me coming back. We sit atop our tables like a holiday feast And eat the words we say the least Bitter and rotten, we try to hide our displeasure Baked bread but forgot the yeast You and me Turned to us and we And we’ll carve the statues of each other Because the marble will not believe The way we think we look Wheeling down the wooden paths The brakes weren’t cut We just didn't care They labelled us contagions Hands dragging nooses behind us Like tails between our legs Memorials of webs lost to a dust rag Crack open the urn and lay out the lines Honor the dead by consuming the remains We fed them to the fire Now the fire feeds us Arid, my skin has cracked and broken A glass shattering beneath the open sun Maintaining my borders Maintaining my fences Maintaining my isolation The only way to look over Is to look down I want nothing more than to find you But what will I see when I do? Are you still broken? Is some assembly required? All the roads point away from you But the river washes me home. I broke my teeth on the gravel in your driveway Trying to dull the edge that came from your words. Here I stand Take your best shot You may hold me down With the talons and tethers you were assigned But you will never break this All of these wounds are self-inflicted You will never know the pleasure You will never know

Spider with four legs Red-bellied It sank in its fangs as I thumbed the scars under your eyes And you told the stories of the beast That tasted you before you had flavor. Stopping and dwelling On every word that was said And making me question The contents of my bed Eyes forward Hands at my sides Be a good soldier Don’t break rank These walls can’t be breached If we maintain the strength of numbers Maintain the strength of years Fingers in throat, I purge myself of . . . Stopping and dwelling On every word that was said And making me question The contents of my bed We were just two inconsistencies, too afraid to abandon the familiar. So I tricked myself into thinking you owed me something Made myself believe nothing changed over time Remember when you puked in your lap From your breakfast of smoke and pills Drove home and crawled into bed And asked me to cure your ills I brushed the powder from your hair And whispered as quietly as I could “You called me to come, does this mean you love me, too?” “No, you’re just the only one who would.” And when you finally snuck out the back And waved good-bye to what could have been And stopped being what I hoped could happen And became an, "I remember when." Opportunity knocked

Commune, growing, side by side, one for all. Bonded by burden and responsibility, years spent in pattern, when one should fall, another will rise. When times were worst we stood firm and held up the weight of the world. Strength in numbers bound us closer as one, In unity. Then, a change. A shadow. A beast. A claw comes forth. Hesitates, we knew not why. It strikes, it had taken aim. One of us taken hold. Their tight grip was broken and sent screaming into the sky. Those closest to them, fear had left them frozen, Only could reach out and cry. Another victim chosen, seemingly at random, All that could be thought was why. It felt like hours to watch them suffer, How am I still here? Our numbers have narrowed, So much, it's so wrong, unjust, and cruel. What have we done to deserve this fate. I could not imagine why I was not chosen, How I had been spared from this. Was I set aside for when the thing returns, or was I left as someone better? Who had the right to choose? What had set us apart? If the aftermath had answers, I could not bear to search for, The pain and loss too much to take. Those closest to them, fear had left them frozen, Only could reach out and cry. Another victim chosen, seemingly at random, All that could be thought was why. In due time the beast came back for us. One by one uproot the ones we love. Somehow I remain a witness. Pluck!

The foxes are screaming Our society is saturated and ugly But they’re focusing too much on the fish And hide what they don't want us to see Claim first in a race Just have to pledge your allegiance Well we’re drawing the line With our deplorable achievements Join the prison industrial complex Innocent incarcerated, a quota met The thirteenth freed those enslaved But the convicted can work without a check The red white and black’s not the red white and blue If you’re coming for them then we’re coming for you They told you the lies, you believed they were true Prepare for the many to stand with the few And so we live in a world where people are condemned Not for their hateful speech, but for the color of their skin So when Nazis march in the streets they’re given police escorts But the counter-protesters are gathered together and arrested There’s a misplaced idea of equality Where we are only the same if you may declare it From high above The red white and black’s not the red white and blue If you’re coming for them then we’re coming for you They told you the lies, you believed they were true Prepare for the many to stand with the few Lady liberty’s blood isn’t blue but grey Lobbyists investing in a 401kkk Place me in a system Then erase me from its means Force me in a corner No one’s allowed to leave Protests drowned with crocodile tear gas Even if you don’t have black skin Fight until you have black eyes And no matter how many black lists Don’t stop until those black lives Matter

Places I used to go where you would be the only one I’d know. I doubt I’ve crossed your mind these last few years. I doubt anyone really remembers. I made too many appointments that I cancelled last minute. I have ruined this. I have sabotaged myself and now I’m staring at an empty glass. They say that everything will be fine. Maybe it’s worth believing, but I can’t keep lying to myself. The hole in my heart I use to pour blood Into the glasses of the ones I love And tell them to drink the wine I make Only as long as I keep breathing I live life dwelling on yesterday Maybe I will forget it tomorrow Shadowboxing in a hall of mirrors The walls lined with portraits of children Smiling for all the wrong reasons I’m striking matches and throwing them Into the hair of the people around me And hoping one of them catches I can’t believe a thing I don’t see with my own eyes I can’t believe in me The lights in the attic may be on But that does not stop the house from burning me up So when they tell me happiness, Well, it doesn’t cost a thing How come when I search for it I find only misery is free? So when they tell me happiness, Well, it doesn’t cost a thing How come when I search for it I only find misery is free?