by Justin Wetch
When she never felt that she belonged.
Everyone judges the girl down the street,
Throwing stones and tapping out tweets;
No, show love and make your words sweet;
Who let you take God’s place in the judge’s seat?
LOVE IS DEAD
Making love
Has become ‘Netflix and Chill’
While smoking green and popping pills
Sending flowers
Has become sexting emojis
Nobody remembers “taking it slowly”
Quality time
Is a thing of the distant past
We love for a night and nothing lasts
Ballroom dancing
Has become dance floor grinding
O-faces have replaced smiling
We don’t connect, we hook up, we
Don’t get together, we ‘get lucky’.
Kissing in the rain
Is now beach party hook-ups
Between childish grow-ups
True Love
Before honesty required whisky
Died off with Walt Disney…
Love is dead
And we are each to blame
When we took lighters over wild flame.
Rest in peace
To love, once indescribable,
Now nothing desirable.
ROME
Rome is filled with gleaming white pillars
Crumbling and cracking from the inside
The cobblestone streets are polished but
Under a mask of perfection, decay hides.
The powerful eat from never-ending feasts
While the farmers grow tired of poverty
The people grow weary of corrupt rule
And dream of an overthrown sovereignty.
Death and gore are brought on a silver platter
Colosseums rise up where blood and pain
Are used to entertain all alike, and truly
The emperor rules, but gluttony reigns.
High, impenetrable walls protect the city
Surely even God could not make them fall
But the gate guards are drunk and merry
And never hear the closing call.
Rome, the world's greatest empire
Assailed the most by internal decay
Rome, victim of a slow-acting poison
For every rise there is a price to pay.
America, the world's greatest empire
Assailed the most by internal decay
America, victim of a slow-acting poison
For every rise there is a price to pay.
Stadiums and TV replace colosseums
News and gossip are a daily drug fix
Our thoughts are the result of the media's
Choices of acceptable topics.
Read the youtube comments section
And tell me you have hope for the future
See the pain that amuses our world
And tell me you’re inspired by this culture.
The scales of justice are tilted by money
Lady liberty will take no more weary souls
We're building walls against ourselves
Black versus white, young versus the old;
A house divided against its own self
Is said to face an inevitable destruction
Democrat, Republican, religion, race
How do we expect this house to function?
Constant warfare makes the nation weary
And for what? For corporate greed and oil
The melting pot has reached a tipping point
Society is nearing an unavoidable boil;
We are on the precipitous peak of society
And here we are faced with two options;
Fall off, as Rome did, accepting decay
Or change paths and fix our problems.
AMERICAN JUSTICE
American justice, pure and infallible
In theory, but the reality is laughable
Funny how the bankers who crashed the economy
Got off Scott free, but note the dichotomy
Between that and a nonviolent drug offender
Whose jail sentence was a life-ender.
Fines for being too poor to pay fines
While the rich pay green to do white lines
Fame equals freedom despite it all
Because the powerful will never fall;
Some lives matter less to the justice system
How many more dead before America listens?
The scales of justice are tilted by money
It's rather ironic but far from funny
The powerful get cuff links, not handcuffs
While prison bars make others' hands rough.
Celebrities get rehab, everyone else gets prison
Our justice system has become a cartoon villain.
CANDLES
A sea of darkness overtakes the place
Pitch dark like looking up into outer space
A hush, a silence spills out abundantly
I breathe in to appreciate the profundity
of this moment.
Suddenly a lone flame appears
A spark, in the shape of a falling tear
It sputters, flashing, uncertain
Before standing strong and determined
to exist.
A similar sputter, and now there are two
The first did not shrink, it even grew
Now another, and another, many flames
Vow to keep the world from being the same
fighting stagnation.
Now the whole world is alight with yellow,
orange-ish light, a field, a meadow
celebrating the existence of this thing
This new idea, taking lift, taking wing
into strength.
Like a candle giving its flame to another
Selflessly, spreading light and color
It takes nothing of ourselves to inspire
goodness in others, to speak life and new fire
into existence.
HOW TO TELL IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
IS OWNED BY A CORPORATION
Have you ever noticed that your elected representative
Coincidentally seems to work for the rich corporations
That gave them money to get elected?
My oh my, what a strange coincidence!
But surely that can’t be the case, for that would mean
We are a democracy of dollars, and not the people.
Well, regardless, I have invented an easy test
To use when one desires to determine
Whether one’s representative isn’t representing.
If you turn on CSPAN to watch a voting session
And your congressman is constantly looking over
Their shoulder, like a dog looking for their owner,
If they seem to sweat and look generally slimy
Like their conscious is sweating out
From within and onto their skin;
If you notice any of these signs, you can be sure
That your representative is owned
By a rich and powerful corporation.
You might naturally ask, what can I do about this?
Oh, sorry about that, you can’t really do anything
But you can watch as your future is bought and sold.
WELCOME TO AMERICA
Welcome to America, check your culture at the door
Speak one language, identify one way, or it’s war
Welcome to America, the dream is dead and we’re all poor
Religion is dying off, the new church is the store.
Welcome to America, land of the free and the brave
Here lies freedom, the surveillance state sits on its grave
Our population is fat, entertained, and dazed
And we only see blood right after we’ve shaved.
Welcome to America, a Wall St
reet Corporation
Where the stockholders are rich and own this nation
Where cubicle preparation masquerades as education
And people of color are guilty by association.
Welcome to America, just kidding, go home!
Immigrants must have Stockholm syndrome
To see these messages of hateful fire and brimstone
And still want to live here against all wisdom.
Welcome to America, where we preserve the environment
But the city environment has a violence requirement
Discriminatory attitudes have come out of retirement
And our generation has a sense of entitlement.
Welcome to America, I’ve painted a bleak scene
But it’s better than pretending our nation is serene
So look closely at what it has come to mean
When we raise the banner of the American dream.
AND SO SHE WEARS BLACK
She swore she was different
Or just odd, at least
While all the other girls wore
Black leggings, ugg boots,
And a puffy vest, she
Rocked the world's irises
With a neon onesie
And leopard-print glasses.
But that was a while ago
And being different gets tiresome
After a while;
People enjoy the novelty
Like a new tv show
But when a little time passes
Society is all too willing
To become a mold,
Crushing us all into
Identifiable shapes.
The neon onesie was replaced
With a more normal attire
The leopard glasses became contacts;
She wears mostly black now,
Saying that it's the
Absence of color, and
She wears it because
That's exactly what
Society told her to
Be; colorless, bland, don't rock the
Boat, don't stand out.
And so she wears black
Hoping to fade away
Into the darkness.
MILLENIALS
We are a generation of nostalgia
But also of forging a new path
We are a generation of artists
Of social media sociopaths.
We are the spray tan generation
Who also won’t eat GMO’s
Social media picture filters
Have replaced artistic photos.
We want gluten free bread
And products responsibly sourced
But when it comes to drugs
Well, it can’t be helped, of course.
Our entire lives are stages
And we constantly perform
Each one of us is a star
Narcissism is our art form.
We are so public with what’s private
Fame, we can’t get enough
Yet we want the government
To stay out of our digital stuff.
We are the fast food generation
Worshipping popular stores like idols
Max out all the options
With a diet coke, check your vitals.
We post our best selves on social media
But want to be loved for who we are
We delete our worst moments
But want the future to read our memoirs.
We are a generation of contradictions
Of casual existential despair
But maybe we can muster the energy
Just maybe— to ironically care.
GLASS RECTANGLE
In a room, sitting in a circle
In my pocket, that glass rectangle;
The circle fades to gray,
The rectangle lights blue.
Pull away from society
Privatize my personality
Humanity causes me anxiety
Quietly leave for sanity.
My appetite for sunlight
Makes me turn off my device
Despite my peers advice
Strolling long into the moonlight
Waiting for the dark of night
To feel this sole paradise.
Being alone, who remembers that?
Most people these days couldn’t last
And let more than one moment pass
While leaving their solidarity intact.
Reach for that glass rectangle
Like a baby with a pacifier, tranquil
Perhaps one day we’ll be unable
To even live without this I.V., this power cable.
PATRIOTIC
I've been called unpatriotic for criticizing my country
But what's patriotic about pretending everything's lovely?
Society is sick, be honest that illness is ugly
Even an untreated flu can kill slowly and softly.
I would bleed just to keep the red stripes red
And cheer when I hear that democracy has spread
I feel pride when the flag’s allegiance is pledged
But look, we’re breaking apart like pencil lead.
The United States of America, in decay
Less united and in a state of disarray
Freedom is dying, liberty has already passed away
Our best days are available for replay.
But why do I point this out so bluntly?
Because, quite simply, I love my country.
I wont let it be destroyed abruptly
Even if that means my words get ugly.
A real patriot wont pretend everything is fine
Sit back in an arm chair and blissfully recline
While the streets burn I’ll point out the signs
And maybe we’ll fix this country of mine.
section two
love
SECTION II: LOVE
CONTENTS:
Your Song On The Radio
Partner In Crime
Orbit
What I Fell In Love With
Someone Else
To Love Is To Lie
To Love Is To Live
Reaching Across The Distance
Paraphernalia
Forever
Muse
The Heart Collector
High On Your Perfume
Eyes of the Wildest Tempests
A Fool’s Ode To His Love
Love & Logic
Anesthetic
Write Your Name
Colors
Lithium
Love is selfless; only attachment is selfish.
YOUR SONG ON THE RADIO
Time machine to the past
Step back a few years
Old feelings, like lazarus
Suddenly reappear.
It's your song on the radio
And it's your hand in mine
As this wave crashes over me
Our stars again come unaligned.
Passion, buried alive
in a coffin of struggle
Has dug itself free
Memories, a sharp shovel.
It’s your song on the radio
And here I lay afraid;
That if I change the station
I’ll lose you as the signal fades.
The illusion of being okay
Pops like a floating bubble;
The winds of life blew too hard,
This house of cards crumbled.
Scratched out of the picture
But the empty space screams your name;
Past demons haunt the present,
Charred wick now fresh aflame.
It’s your song on the radio
and only tears now dance;
Your voice doesn’t sing along,
Twilight of a dead romance.
PARTNER IN CRIME
I remember those warm summer mornings
Kicking up dust in the back countr
y
In a red truck, speeding along
Whooping, shrieking, laughing,
Just having a good time
You and I
My partner in crime.
Do you remember the time
We snuck into the forest
Beating the sun to wakefulness
And built a fort in a clearing
Swearing we were running away
From society forever?
We said all we needed was each other
And we’d keep this escapade
From everyone else.
Everyone knew that secret, of course
But no one minded much
For such are the ways of love.
I cherish the simplest memories;
Like the time we were playing in a field
And I tripped over an old log;
You knelt over me
To see if I was quite alright.
The sight of your long hair
The way it looked
Like rays of the morning sun;
The way the wind tossed it playfully about
As you looked down in concern at me;
I had never seen something so beautiful
And you so took my breath away
That I couldn’t even speak;
That was the first moment I had ever been in love.
That was before things got complicated.
People started teaching us
All the ways that love
Was supposedly so complex
And that simple thing of ours
Was just not enough;
We learned about the dating game
All the rules and the criteria
And love became so similar
To ordering at a restaurant
Choosing and ordering
But those meals were
Never truly satisfying.
So let’s forget everything they taught us.
Let’s run wild and free
And pursue every breeze
The winds of our hearts
Demand that we be.
Let’s throw out the rules
The criteria, the nonsense,
Oh, let us become again
Partners in crime.
ORBIT
Like two stars in the depths of the sky
This gravity is just irresistible
We spin around each other, you and I
When I fell for you, I fell into your orbit.
Our constellation is a beating heart
Two, beating as though they are one
The galaxies would cry if we were to part
If ever we fell out of orbit.
Giving into this gravity is a scary thing
I tried to pull back and to hide