Subterfuge

there's a flask of Old Monk
calling out my name
strange kinds of smoke
promise to cloud the pain

pills and ills
will keep me occupied
there's even that poison
waiting by the side

your going away
shouldn't hurt so much
so i'll numb it with addictions
for a lack of your touch

there's old Jack Danny
and a few liters more
of his old friend Johnny
walking on all fours

i don't know what to do
i can't see another way
of living on without you
now that you're going away

there's friends and music
that should distract the mind
chemicals to make me sick
should be easy enough to find

i can surely score a high
that will make me forget
that way that you sigh
and the nook of your neck

you may think this dark
or slanderous to say
but how else do i deal
with your going away?

The pretender

you aren't an artist
just because
you claim to have good taste
picking the best
from a lot presented
is an easy skill to waste

you aren't an artist
just because
you once clicked and shared
a random post
to bring art to facebook
as if you ever really cared

you aren't an artist
for disguising a rant
under the cloak of rhyme
and making it seem
like an easy task
you can do anytime

you aren't an artist
for ignoring the rules
or breaking the purists meter
seriously, do you think
for writing like this
you deserve some kind of feature?

true artists try
to express their world
both within and around
they aren't driven
by a selfish need
their feet are on the ground

look on those books
and see their words
it doesn't matter what you think
you aren't an artist
for writing prose
or for these grammatical sins

true artists rise
above the herd
no matter where they hide
people can hear
in their chosen words
a truth that seems divine

you aren't an artist
for knowing this
you are simply one of the lost
but the day you learn
what they call art
you will also learn the cost

you aren't an artist
if you are afraid
of what your art will mean
and you surely can't
aspire to it
if you've never seen the dream

Velocity

Penned on 19/12/13

we both know the truth
we just refuse to see it

this insane pull
towards an unknown
unseen
unimaginably beautiful
happily ever after
will end up crushing
every incredible moment
we have built
the last months of happiness on

we both know what's coming
we just won't prepare for it

it's common sense
that over time
and owing to
unwieldy distance
we will eventually change
until this equation
becomes unrecognisable
shrouded in apathy
and doubts
about it's very existence

we both know this feeling
we just won't guard against it

we'd rather drown
and be pulled down
to depths
to darkness
to death itself
instead of taking
the obvious step
and cutting loose
in the hope that one of us
might survive the sea

we both know it's over
we just can't accept
the harshest truth of them all
that knowledge
will never save us
when we'd rather turn our backs
and keep listening
to the heart instead

USG Ishimura

the vision aboard a haunted ship
screaming eyes and quivering lips

the needle dangles, iris flares
a moment's danger
a thrust, a glare

there is no hope here for men
there is no quarter but limbs being drawn
flee my friend, flee my friend
for if you stay you will be gone

a silence hangs in the stars tonight
no one can see the sordid sights

the crimson floats in blackened space
of many kinds
of many a race

there is no hope here for men
there is no mercy in these skies
flee my friend, flee my friend
anyone who stays surely dies

this wood and steel is no one's slave
this hull too dark to ever be saved

the ghosts that rule these vacuum halls
cannot be seen
and do not behave

there is no hope here for you
there is no more time to spare
fear the end, fear the end
the captain requests your despair