Volcanic Ashley

You wear your frustrations
so much better

than acerbic I do

Though I desperately try
to play the cool guy
my blatant sarcasm
always exposes

a bitter side

impossible to hide

While your simmering anger
you mask very gracefully
with that sweet innocent smile

Who would ever surmise
the delicious evil
that resides internally

right beneath

that immaculate facade?

My angelic assassin
with volcanic passion

poised to erupt

at the slightest provocation

Such the dangerous obsession are you

Riding the Time Line

From it's perch high
here on the edge of eternity
Time watches over
Circus Humanity

as the Calendar of Forever
regulates the great clock in the sky
tracking the morsels of minutes

that Time allocates
to all Earthly inhabitants
who exist obliviously
beneath the umbrella
of a force
they can not directly see
but the remnants
always resonate
the ultimate reality
to be navigated collectively

Confessions of a Cynic

These lofty ideals

I use to carry

in my attitude 

unapologetically

now lie in the ruins

of this gray crime scene...

Crumbled dreams

chipped away

by decades

of steady disappointments...

Replaced

by the sharp jagged bricks

of current bitter indifference...

Now I'm just another

cynical commentator

blasting a society

that failed me

though in reality

beneath my wrecked facade

I know full well 

I failed myself 

Freedom Dreamer

So here we are

deep into this
commitment abyss

Every moment

a tug of war
for control

as you tie me up
with all your
constricting restrictions

so today you may have
the upper hand

but

someday I will escape
the maze of destruction
you have constructed

Find my way
over the wall

and never look back     

Under the Influence

Don't waste your indignation
on heartless cretins
who are beyond
any hope of redemption

Save your rage
for those who teeter
between
good and evil

Maybe they can be saved

from a life depraved  

if you use
your powers of persuasion

to properly shame them straight 

Of Myths and Us

I do so regret
that I will never
get the chance
to impale a dragon
on my unicorn's horn
and take the bloody carcass
to the meat market
and have it sliced
into serpent steaks

I love mythology so

even though I know

it has no practical value

here in the 21st Century

Keeping Company

Hi Ho
to all my fellow
bottom feeders !!

Come commiserate with me
and we can share
our varied tragedies

Collective misery
that flows
deeper than the sea

Let's forge unity
as we join forces
to blow away our enemies

Maybe together
we can elevate
each other
and levitate
out of this hole

At the very least

we'll love each other's

miserable company

Well Hung

Noose in tree

Hanging free

Neck in noose

Moment of truth

Feet off ground

Snapping sound

Limp body

Swinging loosely

Cut him down

We took a life today

the eye for an eye way

like the Roman's did

when they crucified dissidents 

Loco Motions

The first step
on that bumpy path 
to happiness
is to accept
none of this
was meant
to make any sense

Tis all an illogical
free style dance
of random circumstance
where we make up
the steps as we go along

So there is nothing wrong
with stumbling
and taking a fall

We all do

but we get back up
dust ourselves off
and adapt as best we can
to impractical reality    

Strained Bedfellows

Load cannon

Aim at the wall

Fire repeatedly

Stand back

and watch it fall

Roll the artillery
over the ruins
of our enemy's tragedy 

After the glorious victory
the vanquished
line up for reparations

Suckling the funds we send
to rebuild them
and hope some day
they'll be our friends

Our aid
they will gratefully take
but their appreciation
will be fake

There's no forgiveness

from those we have wrecked

Just simmering revenge

behind the hand shakes 

of our gunpoint allies 

Love It Up

Dinner time TV

The news blasts daily 

Prejudice and bigotry

Ignorance begets misery

Our curse throughout history

The fix is no mystery

To mend the global tapestry

an open heart is the key

Let your love flow free 

and redirect the destiny

of our troubled humanity

Earthly Inheritance

The future of humanity
may hinge ultimately
on how we take care
of those in extreme poverty

We better heed
the growling rumblings
in the rapidly
diminishing distance  

for someday
the abject poor
we choose to ignore 

may grow into
the nothing to lose majority

Then we will notice
the economic inequities
we have thrived on
when the peasants 
storm our castle walls

Pulled Plug Apocalypse

Morning power up
as we enter our devices
to access our world
when much to mass chagrin
the country is devastated
by no connection

The mother of all hacks
had occurred while we slept

The magic data cloud
we could no longer access

So who stole our internet?

All the usual suspects
are contemplated
in a last ditch attempt
to make sense
of this unusual
and unprecedented circumstance

The Chinese government

Those hard core capitalists  
top our suspect list

or maybe the Koreans
are still pissed
about that dictator flick?

and the Russians 
can never be dismissed 

That Putin dude 
always the joker
in the global deck

Enemies all
rejoice
as our economy stalls

The stock market falls
as the brokers
scramble to find
ticker tape

The best techies will be called
to solution this national calamity 

A geek convention in DC
to be convened
as a state of emergency
is declared

The worst side effect without a doubt
now that we have to do without

is that we now
may have to actually
talk to each other!!

No more tech time buffer
to edit what we say

We are live and real time
personally connected

Oh my oh my!!!

How will we survive
living so 20th century???

Don't Poke The Wizard

Once again
we are undone
by our misplaced
good intentions
that sought to regulate
and stifle the powers
of  forces
we did not understand

Laws were passed
in secret midnight sessions
under the broad umbrella
of homeland protections

Of course
the keepers
of the sacred myths
would have none of this

They rallied their army
from the bowels
of the Under Earth
and mounted 
a fierce resistance

Now we find ourselves
in a desperate war
with an enemy we created

All because
we chose to stir
the scalding cauldron
of Hell

Wedded Duress

Marriage vows

Real life fairy tales
played out daily
all over the world

Such a pretty litany
of lovely promises

Rose petals
paving the way
to eternity

We all know the reality

Statistical history
that measures
prior nuptial disasters 
will fully quantify
the wreckage
of happily ever afters

In spite of the odds

they line up anyway

to take that leap of faith 

chanting the ancient liturgy

hopeful that their words

do not fly off

like a mocking bird

Liquid Salvation

Sometimes
you just need
to go out in the rain

Dance in the passing shower
of non judgmental absolution

Naked to the world
for all to see

Fully exposed
to the cleansing elements
from above 
that wash away
the toxic pollution
that oozes from our pores 

Stripped of all pretense
we stand in our own
puddle of humility 

Totally vulnerable
is when
we rediscover trust

Only then
can we allow ourselves to be
baptized by Nature

and born again 
in the pool of humanity

Viewer Suppression Advised

Disturbing images
dance across
my cynical eyes daily

All these flat screen tragedies

Persistent global calamities intrude

A steady stream of troubled guests
in my living room 

After decades of pain saturation 
the cruelties on parade 
no longer register with me

I've developed disaster immunity
from the horrors
that befall humanity

I reside inside 

my steel reinforced bubble

quite unapologetically 

These indifferent walls 

serve as protection

from our flammable world

I can no longer abide

It's as if none of this is even real

It is television after all 

Story Bored

There are no
hard absolutes anymore

Certainty has been shaded gray

Truth now just a hybrid blend
of convenient definitions

No one dare deviate 

Ambiguity rules the day 

The neatly packaged condensed story

Fully diluted and neutered

so as not to offend

the bland majority
of popular mediocrity 
who askew
the nuanced subtleties
that muck up
the comforting narrative  
which keeps all thought
and trepidation
to a minimum

Cover Story

So here I be...

Spinning
the latest tribulations
of my current

stormy reality 

Contemplating
the harsh truths
of this fractured state

I've become
such an abject figure
of detached indifference

Wounded passions
suppressed and numbed

by tough guy camouflage 

The fake smile

Well placed cliches

All to cover
my displaced place

in this indifferent world

Deflecting truth very effectively

I can't let anyone see
what has become of me

Such is the level of my denial

I no longer see my real self either

Better to Believe

We all need to be better
than our impure pedigree
or at the very least
try to fly
with the angels
we strive to be..

Tap into all that
upside potential..

Control these
inhibiting insecurities..

Confidence will set you free..

Get self maximized..

Ascend to the pinnacle

of all you can be..

And then it will be easy
to begin liking yourself finally

Red and Black

Red is the color of blood

and the hue of love

Murder and lust

the story goes bust

Passion and pain

it's all the same

The stain of cherries
cascades bittersweet

The heart eventually

bleeds out

as the veins run dry

Screeching rats are born
from the womb of poverty

while the elite old guard
keeps denying
their own mortality

They all get to exist
before they finally die 

Black is the color then

my way too temporary friends 

Shooting Star Express

When you stumble
across amazing

Take a break
from the mundane

and admire the extraordinary

Wrap your tired arms
around this moment

Take a mental picture
and store it in memory

Cause when
the magic show ends 

who knows

when it will come 

your way again

Sad in a Box

She represented
the only good thing
in my wretched life
of selfish excess

My wellspring of joy
who supported me always
though thick and thin
aged rapidly
due to my nonsense

I should have let her go

cause I knew

I was her poison arrow

Now I kneel down before God
with this postmortem confession 
as we bury my life today 

The mourners through the fog of tears
all thinking to themselves
if their was any justice
between Heaven and Earth
it should be me in that box

If only I had the power
to accommodate their prayers

Life and death is so unfair 

Loaded For Stone

Feel free to label me

in any of the conventional ways

For I care not in the least

about your lazy designations

So go ahead and apply

your best arbitrary tags

Just don't judge me

with outdated morality

lest I return fire 

with sharp boulders

and shatter the lies

that comprise

your glass residence

of hypocrisy

Sinking Feeling

Before our damaged ship
went forever down

Lost at sea terminally

We transmitted
a desperate SOS call
on every known frequency

but

the world was deaf to our pleas

Rescue from our demise

a practical impossibility

in this ocean vast

of lonely crafts

struggling to stay afloat

in these stormy times

Black Hole Crew

Don't wanna be bored anymore

with glorious stories

of human inspiration

Brave heroes

overcoming all obstacles

just does not do it for me

cause they provide zero

realistic hope

of fixing my untenable

tenuous situation

Please feed me instead

terrible tales

of monumental fails

Let's hear some epic

crash and burn legends

I can really relate to

So I don't feel all alone

and my misery

can have some company

Allow us downtrodden

perpetual losers

to mass wallow together

for awhile

here in this pit

of shared life futility

Maybe our strength in numbers

will allow us to find

a critical mass way

to some day

climb out of this detestable

deep depression

Bedraggled Doggies

If you study history

it is plain to see

that we

who comprise 
club humanity
are a mongrel breed
of angel and demon

Charred spirits

building great civilizations
and magnificent innovations

only to tear them down
with our damn arrogance

Somewhere along the way
our evolution went astray

Spawning a mutant legacy 

More dangerous
than any species on Earth

with toys of mass destruction

in the paws 
of hybrid mutts

fighting over the scraps
of what's left

of this defenseless planet 

Cookie Musings

Opened a bag
of chocolate chip cookies
I was dreaming about all day

cause I don't have much of a life

and besides

my sweet tooth
is the only craving
I satisfy these days

Anyway

When I finally penetrated
the tight air inhibiting seal

My treasure within
was all crumbled
into varying degrees
of jagged disjointed pieces

A visual abomination

Except for one
perfect treat sphere
that had miraculously
gone unscathed
and survived
life's rough handling intact

Too pretty to devour
as I delicately held
the baked flour
in my hand

and yet

I could not cast it back
into the sea of imperfection
from whence it came

so I gave it my my son

who failing to appreciate

the dilemma which paralyzed

as he indifferently ate my ideal

in one massive bite

Smooch Prime

The first kiss

is not always

the best kiss

or even the longest

but tis always

the most memorable

So savor the sensation

because this just may be

the kiss that sticks

when your love search ends

and you'll never ever

taste a first kiss again 

Anyone hungry??

Spotlight Shower

Do not insult me
with your desperate
cliche saturated
two wrongs
make it right defense

And please don't condescend
with that old everybody
is doing it nonsense

Cause in the end
we are action figurines 
judged as stand alone solo acts 

So let's all agree
that lame rationalizations
with all the convenient
excuses attached

for human misdeeds

insults our intelligence
and makes zero sense