Turn down
Where we used to roam
Put down your hands
And hang up the phone
These streets
We used to call our own
But many days have passed
And now it seems distant
Irrelevant
The places we used to go
Filled up with words
Unknown
When the joker becomes the king
And the king the joker
The chef the librarian
The musician the chef
The lawyer the doctor
Doctor the salesman
What is going on
Who knows anything
Is there anything left
What is going wrong
What is going on
This is where we are
Our regular
Monday through Friday
Everyday
Every conversation
All the way
From Indiana
To San Jose
What sense is it all to keep going
When the darkest seems to lie ahead
No way to get ahead
When my best just comes up short
When words fall in the wrong order
Or when I have no order at all
Why keep pushing on
Why keep writing
It helps deal with the overbearing burden
Of my own expectation
My own internal complications
Not for you
Not for pleasure
At most times just for my own good measure
So when I lay down
I can out gain my own expectations
That is the one hope I have
And giving up has no place in my heart
Life is short
Create ART
Growing up in an extremely sheltered catholic midwestern household I was always taught some very simple “guidelines”. Whether it be good or bad this is the life I know. It was always God, Family, and Country. Whether it be right or wrong – that is yet a whole other discussion but today we realized something as a country and I did as an individual. These are the truths that we live by in 2016:
And here we are. This justifies all votes and support for the great devil when applied to this diagram. It is undisputable as I have debated and spoken with thousands of people over the last 9 months of my life. It makes how we got here so very simple. This is the truth as voted by our own fellow countrymen. If you study this diagram you will begin to see the problems we are faced with currently. I see this in the eyes of my own parents. The rest is just shit talk. They can say what they want, but these are the new principles by which my own family lives and a much larger population as a whole. I have devoted an entire year of my life, $30,000 in personal debts, and countless unpaid hours working to promote Unity in 2016. But the truth is I believe Unity is currently where I put it in the diagram: dead last. I understand this. I get it. People love to use their mouths instead of their wallets. They want to talk about power and money and how they can acquire it at all costs – this is the baby boomer generation. Consume, consume, consume, and shit on the rest. I challenge you to see where this diagram applies – to me it sums up 2016. For anyone overseas – may God be with us and protect us. We are in for a dark time in our countries history – I can see it in the eyes of the people.
PHOTO CREDIT: EVAN PERIGO
In a nebulous state of mind
The concluding chord rung out
Wrung out
Fascinated by the quick sequel of progression
How one planned moment
Moves to the next
A grape plucked from the tree
Quickly becomes a past tense
Cattle that pine for the open fields
Excellent presentation
Not quite overstated
But rather I am fascinated
That now a moment planned now is
More present a moment unknown
A hat floating off the cliff
Taken in
The borrowed riff
I am happy to report
There are birds
In the trees of Brooklyn
Out the windows
Chirping at 6 AM
Heard through cracks
Walls and siding
Singing songs
All morning long
Happy little fellows
Outside the window
Just east of Manhattan
In the morning sun
In Brooklyn
The skyline hails the sun
In a stretch upwards
Calling the blue from the moon
Orange flecks gold over the estuary arm
Setting for the even
The empire reaches high and mighty
As the east river ferry barrels through
The wind stricken water
The brooklyn bridge reaches Manhattan
Strong and grounded
As planes launch from the ground
One world trade as new as a baby in the sky
Brooklyn in the back
Heralding the spring night
The rocks
Tucked with miss on the Brooklyn beach
On a Friday night
In New York City
Distortion drawer
Tucked up high
On the fifteenth floor
Looking scraping skies
Off buildings 529 feet high
Steam belts
Ring around tops of structures
Under the sky punctured
In the city sound
When it’s your home
You’ve found
Oh we are trying to leave
Yea we’re trying to make our way
But we can’t
No we can’t no no no
Lord we can’t
–
Turnpike turned all white
These semis turned upright
Lord keep me away
From these wicked roads today
Driving around
–
I’ve got time to burn
There is one thing I’ve learned
Holding on going on
Make my way through this song
I won’t take too long
–
We shut lights out late
The snow won’t go away
Burnin candles in daylight
Makin’ me feel all right
In this winter cold
–
Oh I know
Oh, yes I know
It will be alright
I’ll hold
I’ll hold you close
Through the cold
–
Oh we are trying to go
Where this ole road, goes, rolls
Oh I know Oh I know
That’s there’s oh so long to go
With you
–
When I turned seventeen
So long ago it seems
27 I’ll make my way
Hear what mom and dad have to say
Bout me now
–
We are going to find a life
On America’s east side
Good friends left behind
This was the only time
To get away
–
Turn-in the countryside
For those city lights
A studio with some clothes
Good lord we got to go
And make it big
