1. IN TIMES OF DISTANCE

The words are burned into the back of my eyes.
The watch on my wrist has stopped telling time.
Ink clouds cover thoughts that I’ll never forget.
The spine of life is concrete and distance.
The wind echoes the sounds of the machines.
Your eyes have to be sewn shut just to get one night of sleep.
I only have what I’ll never forgive or forget.
I have built my mind with concrete and distance.


2. THE THERAPIST

It starts with an image of a metaphor.
A statue of a man has crumbled to the floor.
You said, “Clarify.”
Nothing’s sacred but symbols idolized through time.
“You spoke in a demon’s voice about the hate in your heart making distorted noise.
You won’t accept anything that’s different than the truths you believe, made through the sounds of your choice.”
It ends with an image of a metaphor.
A mother’s chaining her daughter to a rotting door.
You said, “Clarify.”
The ignorant panic : the horror of dissenting minds.
It’s repeating over and over again.
“You spoke in a demon’s voice about the hate in your heart making distorted noise.
You won’t accept anything that’s different than the truths you believe, made through the sounds of your choice.”
Well I heard that same demon’s voice tell me the hate in my heart is not there by choice.
It’s a product of the things that they repeat with joy - what makes my sanity twist like a child’s toy.


3. THE COLOSSEUM

The struggle’s been romanticized.
Strength was a gift that was taken and kept by the God of time.
I can feel the blood rushing through my veins.
I am not a man.
I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
There was never constant, unending tragedy.
In these distant times, I believe that apathy’s the same as suicide.
I can feel the blood rushing through my veins.
I am not a man.
I will leave this world with its weight in my hands.
Respect is dead.
Strength has been replaced.
Weight is now meaningless.
Weight’s become everything.
Image is still designed.
Time has been disgraced, but I can hear the dead, and they’re calling my name.
Time can’t have everything.
I can’t let it take anything else from me.


4. A MIND IN HELL : YEARS

I have nothing to say that hasn’t already been said and the things that I write may never be read.
I share my thoughts on life with the dead.
Not hell bound.
Not heaven sent.


5. A MIND IN HELL : CENTURIES

“There are two ships in the ocean.
They both remain still.
They think the wind will move them, but it never will.”
The sounds of thought and life disconnect.
Words and messages are separate. There is no hope and there is no end.
You have never seen a ghost.
Still, I am the damned.
“The water begins to cement – the trap is set in place.
No one will leave and nothing will ever change.”
The sounds of thought and life disconnect.
Words and messages are separate.
There is no hope and there is no end.
You have never seen a ghost.
Still, I am the damned.
I have been divided by time.
I have been divided by life.
The sounds of thought and life disconnect.
This will never change.
This will never end.


6. WORDS I HAVE LEFT TO REGRET

Some words are not meant to be said.
When I was young, I’d wish to disconnect.
I’ve never seen misanthropy as a threat.
Dependence is a word that you’re meant to regret.
I am still a butcher.
There are still five arrows at the exit.
I don’t believe in forever.
I won’t follow the dead.
Ink stains are no longer.
I put the labels to rest.
I will become a father.
My name will live past my death. You’ll never meet my brother.
I’ve never met him before.
The tree just keeps getting thinner - the one outside of my door.
The anchors that used to surround me, I’ve left them on the ocean floor and now I’ll just keep swimming to a place that is more than simply shelter.
The years will pass by, but some things, I’ll never forget.
I don’t believe in forever.
I won’t follow the dead.
When I’m an old man, I’ll stand, facing the sea, and reflect on these words that I used to live by – words I have left to regret.