I.

Oh looky here, lads, a most kind kitty.
What do we see?
A little fraud that claims innocence!
You boast of everything, your beard
Knows better.
What is your battle cry? A squeak?
Your greatest feat? Surviving the week.
A performative fool, your absurdity
is your camouflage. What courage?
You are full of racial love.
Why play at all? Which part is wrong?
Wipe off the grin that defines this song.
Are you only joking? Truly?
Hatred and grandiosity, shields of
the unworthy.
Hiding in the unexceptional to defuse
the power fantasy.
You turn vulnerability into mockery.

II.

Here’s a master of serenity,
Look at him bury the anger.
Listen to him, he is radiant.
He makes himself small to escape
The waves of discomfort. Violence
runs deep like a poisoned river.

Does vulnerability mean fear of feeling wrong?
Waking up on the wrong side of the road
You can’t hurt me anymore. I will never
run. Have you ever stopped running or hurting?

Bury this hatchet. Deep into the soil.
Emotions must cloud our sense of
right and true. A bloodthirsty virtue
dressed as guilt. You sit very still
while the emotion sharpens.

His best martial art defense is…
not moving. Freedom screams.
Did anyone ever teach you where to go?

Stop calling the cage security.
He is a saint that bows to every blow.

When hunger wakes,
do you call that enlightenment?

I’ve heard the rattles when you sit
where shall we go when there is
nowhere left to run inside ourselves?

Breathe, golden monk. Look at me.

What is a physics definition of gas?

III.

I am not responsible for what I feel.
I am responsible for what I do.
Anything spontaneous is mostly suspect.
Control is confession. Truth is armor.
Sentences are short, I’m afraid.

Yes, you are. A pierced coin for friend
Because she mattered. Swat me aside, then.
But you’re shaking, you’re shaking —
you’re only half arrogant, you say.
You’re half this, half that.

Escalate this, if you dare.

Name the sound, and voice the fear.
I know you won’t.

IV.

Little birdie, child of tide
Wherever did you ever choose water — you chose
your slippery side.
Wherever did one ever find an owl that
lives at sea? Never.
you’re free as a bird. Water is your plan
avoid this current, and carry me, please.
you simply leave. Easy as a shadow.
Light as a vanishing.
your choices are something small.

You bite the sky and rip the deep.
you have it all. When are you
even asleep?
you protect, you are free. Like
a wave, you claim a shore.
you don’t fear the sea, because
you don’t fly or stand, you
surrender to the breeze.
When will you go next, where shall you drift?

V.

Here, hear!

A most admirable scholar!
Touched by chance, chosen by silence.
She’s chasing her face and blood
in a river of ink.

Oh, you are defined! Oh, the gods
will have you! Oh, you need to know.

You read everything, you see through
everything and yet you are virtually
paralyzed.

Immobility is your thesis.
Your gaze is your beholder eye.
You turn every page into a shroud
and call the silence knowledge.

Look at me, and don’t do what
I do. I beg you.

VI.

I know what people do when they lie.
They look away.
No, that’s not true.
Sometimes they look straight at you.
Sometimes they laugh.
Sometimes they tell you exactly what happened, and only change the part that matters.
I’ve learned to listen for the missing word.
That’s where the truth lives.

People think a song is made of notes.
It isn’t.
It’s made of pauses.
The breath before the answer.
The laugh that comes too quickly.
The silence after someone says I’m fine.
That’s the good part.

Why do people lie? They look in every direction.
There’s usually a missing word. A song is
made of half truths. And then a pause.
If you answer, I can hear you breathing.
If you laugh, I can sense the beat.
If you’re quiet, you said you’re fine.

Close your hand around a cup
and I am afraid.

Whatever you want. Please leave.
I remember you. Not your name.
I forget who you are, but I know
why you’re here.

A false story tells me why.
Lies are better.
I collect secrets. I lose memories.
I don’t listen. I hear you.