Life's little reminders

Art reflects life and
art comes in many forms
That twinge of memory or pain
Brought from someone else's muse
Can come from
A well timed beat
A LCD screen
A set of bound words
A streaked canvas
They are a reminder that we are
still alive
still human
still moving
And we have miles to go
before we stop

Life Happens

Life happens
So quickly
Too quickly
A blink of an eye separates
That one time in school
When everyone saw your Little Mermaid underwear
From
that one time you ate pizza in the dark
Because electricity powers a house and food powers you
But there was only money for one.

Life happens
So slowly
Too slowly
We chose
what we risk
How we sacrifice
Why we are motivated
And each decision is slowed by a hypothetical tar
We've poured too thickly
Causing travel from question to answer
To take too long.

Life happens
So carelessly
Too carelessly
A single wrong turn
on the right road
And potential crashes
Hope Burns
Like a Salem witch
Wailing her profound innocence
She didn't mean
To turn that guy into a toad
She didn't know
he had a family to feed
But innocence is not dependent on intent

Life happens
So cautiously
Too cautiously
As children we dream
Of why
The world is made for us
As time fades in and out
Those dreams
Become a million flickering stars far out of reach.
We dream of risks untaken
We desire the path untraveled
But we fear to travel on
So the stars fade

Selfish

The selfless ones
Live their whole lives
Giving freely...
Loaning out pieces
Of themselves
Here and there...
An arm to him
An ear for her
A heart for them
Thinking if they give enough
Maybe
They will be enough
But as time fades
They run out of pieces...
Stretched sections
Martyred in the name of
Those they love...
They hold a single piece
Hoping for the chance to
Take for themselves..
For someone who
Will loan arms
To hold again.
Will loan ears
To listen again
Will loan a heart
To feel again
But the selfless
Can be the most selfish
Once you give to them
There can never be enough

The Music

Every time I turn on the radio

I can hear you
All the songs beat
with a rhythmic cacophony
That connects me to your heart
Each lyric a brick
formed from mold of our stories
the melodies are the mortar
holding together the bricks
Pounded together by the beats
All coalescing
to form that long, winding road
that leads me back to you.
I can shut off the radio
But the music plays on

Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blue got his name not for his sky colored eyes,
but for the blue tinted bruises he wore like a disguise.
Each day that passed in his short little life
was filled with a dark, secret strife. 
Each day was spent being a shield 
against relentless attacks that never seemed to yield.
He spent his life under his father’s control.
Days would pass, taking with it bits of Blue’s soul.
Every drink guzzled would strengthen his father’s fist.
His mother the prey his father just couldn't resist.
She was the target of his father’s fury and hate
When his father’s drunken stupor made him irate.
Blue would hear his mother's painful scream
and go to fight the tyranny of his father’s regime.
Blue would battle for the chance to stand in her place.
So his father would break his spirit along with his face.
His father’s pummeling punch was happily aimed at him.
The anger of his father like a drink filled to the brim,
Spilling out rage without thought or concern,
A fire of cruelty that did nothing but burn.
His entire life was spent like this.
A fight for his mother’s life more so than his. 

Thirteen years had passed since Blue first begged for mercy.
His father felt nothing as he beat him at three.
Now a young man, Blue knew mercy was scarce.
From three to sixteen, Blue’s father was fierce.
Night after night, year after year,
Blue would stand for his mother despite his fear.
But the bluer his skin, the colder his heart became
until there was nothing but sorrow, hate, and shame.
Years of wearing the badges of a worthless existence
Left Blue’s hope and pride far off in the distance.
Three days before Blue’s seventeenth year on the earth,
his father burst through the front door beaming with mirth.
He had traded his wife’s old Belvedere 
for four liters of gin and three cases of beer.
Rage filled up in Blue at his father’s delight
Because it had been said the car was his birth right.
The only glimmer of joy poor Blue could not keep buried
Came from the sight of that car and the freedom it carried.
His father knew what that car meant to son,
and Blue looked for remorse but quickly found none.
“That car was mine!” Blue wildly screamed.
The familiar fire in his father’s eyes quickly teemed.
“Nothing is yours, you stupid boy. 
Everything in this house is mine to destroy!
That includes you and don’t you forget
I take what I want” His father spit. 
The final straw in Blue finally snapped.
He couldn't bare another day of feeling so trapped.
“I've had enough of your abuse and control.
You've taken my hope but I’m taking back my soul”
His father laughed at his son’s ill-conceived mutiny,
believing Blue’s threats worthy of little scrutiny.
But what he didn't know was the secret Blue kept
of the gun he’d hidden under the pillow where he slept.
It had been four years since Blue bought that old gun
hoping the act of using it would go undone.
But, he kept it there in case his father ever went too far.
Now he thought of each faded scar,
and realized his father had long crossed the line.
His thoughts cursing fate’s cruel design
He raced towards his room
and a murderous hate started to bloom.
He grabbed the gun, its weight heavy in his hand.
He marched back towards his father for their final stand.
Blue entered the room and looked in his father’s eyes.
They flashed with fear at the thought of his demise.
But fear quickly melted into a laugh,
the sounds of his glee split Blue’s patience in half.
“What do you think you’re doing, you spineless child?”
His father’s eyes bored into him, mocking and wild.
He looked at his mother all bloody and blue
Knowing that this wasn't something he wanted to do.
“Put the gun down, sweetheart, before someone gets hurt”
His mother pleaded as blood ran down her shirt
With one shaking hand, Blue lifted the gun
“I’m putting an end to all that you've done,”
and Blue pulled the trigger before he could think twice.
but Blue should have listened to his mother’s advice.
She shouted and ran to her husband’s defense.
With the gun’s loud bang, she went down with a wince.
Blue had protected his mother for thirteen long years.
Now he watched her dimming eyes filling with tears.
Her breath slowly faded as blood started to pool,
The tips of her fingers starting to cool.
He dropped to his knees and begged her to stay
Every inch of his body filled with dismay.
She reached up to him, just moments from death.
She whispered “I love you, son” with her final breath.
Then she was gone, leaving him all alone.
Blue looked at his father, his heart now stone.
"You waste of space, what have you done?"
and for a second time, Blue lifted his gun.
Irrational fury overwhelmed Blue,
"She is dead because of you!"
Blue screamed with such force
that for a moment it seemed his father felt some remorse.
"That bitch got everything she deserved!"
His father swung at Blue, but he quickly swerved.
Blue hit his father with the butt of the gun,
and the man grabbed the bruised throat of his young son.
Blue battled his father, fists like flying concrete.
While his mother's body lay motionless at his feet.
In the tangle of blows, the. gun let out a bang
From Blue’s chest a red river sprang.
In the heat of the battle, his father had gotten the gun.
With the pull of the trigger, Blue’s father won.
He would never know a life without fear and hate.
He would never have the chance to find his own fate.
Instead Blue’s death was much like the life he lead,
a blending of hate, sorrow, and dread.
At the sight of his son, Blue’s father ran,
showing the cowardice behind the abusive man.
Blue laid next to his mom and curled her up in his arm,
never again could his father bring her harm.
In his final moments, Blue finally found peace.
Death brought him his freedom, his sweet release.