Every sound, every action
Is so much more obnoxious when it comes from your mother
Splattering mouth farts, lively laughter at what is most mundane
And I love her

Speckled with splattered pieces of her heart
Sun dried tomatoes pasted on her flesh
So her heart is always exposed, beating
The older she gets the more she loves
And the more of her soul I see, painted polka dots on her smooth skin

She tells me I am her ladybug
It is a sly way of letting me know she sees my heart, too
Deja Vu
And she wills me to be as spotted as I can
Subconsciously steering me away from face cake and powder
Because nobody loves a ladybug with a clear complexion

The freckles of the night sky
Stare down upon us, beaming as our skates cut the ice
Scraping on the smooth surface so contradictory to our relationship
So symbolic of our hearts, beating for one another
Cutting and ripping the powder from the face of the pond
So that we may see the specks of dirt in the glass beneath us
Dotted i's in the language of the Earth

Snow, the frozen tears of God
Weeping of beauty and grace
My mother and I, walking hand in hand
Sewn together by the strings in our souls
And the buttons on our faces

America
We consider feminine beauty
To be the physical equivalent of a seven year old boy
We'd rather see a ruler than an hourglass

America
We house 5% of the national population
And waste 25% of national energy
We're a lively bunch

America
We wrap our toes in conquest
And are balanced by racial inequity
But we'll deny it, scratching our upturned noses

Hell, we're proud Americans
We know what's right, what's up
Because we're from the United States

And we carry a big stick filled with nuclear testing
In case anyone dares to disagree

The Mechanical Beast

A sea of soaring souls dip and flutter
Through this wall of glass
Somehow, in all its rapid chaos
There is serenity

A roaring is heard in the distance
And even the woodpecker shudders more than usual
Drilling a hole with the sound of pure terror

And the snarling grows louder - spitting, growling, snapping
Approaching with incomprehensible force
Faster, still
Shoving winter's tears aside
Parting them like the Red Sea

Every creature is hiding from this unknown beast
And they tremble, desperately pleading with their feathers
Willing their slippery coat
To defeat the trepidation

Suspense, stillness, and then
A whir, and it flies past them
Emerging out of the assorted variations of blue
Mere inches away, a blur in the center of time
Spraying them with its crystal venom

A shower heavier than the last, as if a storm had swept over

And the monster continues forward
The bellowing ceases with distance

There is stillness

Absolute stillness

Sly glances
Heads peeking out
And the shreds of down continue to fall
Slowly the chaos is resumed

Again, everything is peaceful

Which is more disturbing:
Eating strips of dead animal
Digested carcass
Or juicy, ripe life
Fruits and veggies
Who's screams, to us, are inaudible?

Or maybe processed nonsense
Made of one thousand fabricated substances
Essentially, plastic?

I've lost my appetite.

Humanity has created something similar to a sunset
And as our electric fire sings softly
Gasping for a slight breath of the heavens
I watch
Absorbed in the haze of artificial pink pollution
Like cotton candy
Equally as mesmerizing
But the bitter taste of reality
Is raw
And it lingers
So that I might never forget

Have you ever reached to the sky above the shower
Listened to the water trickling down your figure
And pretended you were beneath the pounding falls of the rain forest
Roaring to compete with the beasts of the jungle
Leaking, more dainty than the delicate creatures of flight
Fluttering in ceaseless golden spirals around them
Have you ever pretended you were beneath them?

Have you ever stared into the eyes of the night sky
And willed them to tell you the answers
To the questions you don't know how to ask?
Have you?

Have you ever lain atop a mountain and closed your eyes
Mere inches from the edge
And trusted the sun to keep you from falling?
Washed your face in the light, blinding and cleansing,
Closed your eyes and floated to another place
Where there was nothing, and it was everything you needed?
Well?

Have you ever begged a tree for forgiveness,
Played Iris and Hermes in the theater for human kind
Asked if it was okay to climb them
And listened, waited patiently for a response?
Sat upon their broad shoulders and swung your legs
Because they hadn't any nests, and needed the company?
Tell me!

Have you ever lost yourself so entirely in a poem, a story, a novel, music
That time did not exist?
Have you ever danced within the pages of a painting
And created something more beautiful than what you began with?
Tell me you have!

Have you ever been so open minded
That you deliberately let down the walls
You thought were keeping things out
Only to discover they were made of sponge
Absorbent, letting substance in but never releasing it
Seen your thoughts flying rapidly away!
Has your mind ever been a room with no borders?

Have you ever used silence as your canvas
Painted the picture of one thousand breathtaking melodies
Then stopped
Because music was lurking in the silence all along?
Haven't you?

Have you ever taken advantage of the world we live in?
Ever drank its light
Simply so you could radiate it?

Have you ever?

No?

Then, tell me..

What have you?

I glide upon the wave of one thousand white stallions
Stampeding through the masses of the British Regime
Stoic and unmoving
Every horse galloping together, each drum beating as one

Dancing, I am filled with power and gratitude
Fiery, melting what is beneath me, spinning symbols of eternity
Leaving what was made mountainous, rolling valleys
Smooth and icy, sharp trails of sincerity

Flying, I am flying, I am no longer touching the saddles
They are powerless, drifted together in whichever way
The wind threatens to take them
Alone they are feeble, but with God's slight breath of air

They are gone.