I live in a world where children are robbed of their childhood

Blood and tears, sweat and fears

I live in a neighborhood where worries drip from tired faces

and disturb the dust of dreams

Their beasts rage, caged

Not knowing what or who or why

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the most human of them all?

I watch the painted pretty take their places in the line

Shampooed luxurious, sways next to the Goodwill t-shirts

I close my eyes and sniff. I want to forget

Manicured lives don’t see the reasons; they won’t ask why

The lines on their faces demand conformity and are sick of shit

Justice rubs people the wrong way, out of step, from one end to the other

Change gets in the way of progress

You roll yourself up in your bubble wrap and suffocate on selfness

Each dying for his own reason, each judging, encouraging insulation

I live in a land of sunshine and plastic, each secret more fantastic

Museum houses entomb their treasures with their thoughts about the others

Starving and thirsty, their lawns will drink first

But the shadows grow taller around the glistening lake

Stabs reach higher than the last, broken glass and limbs underfoot-  claim your stake

your place in no one’s book

Fake dawn screens blaring in their eyes

We won’t even recognize, the lies

No more will we realize our dusty fingertips reaching from the ground

Faceless papers line their pockets

Pull the blank sheet cover up

smooth the broken pieces colliding in the garbage truck

She sees it all, wipes the sweat from our brow

Will we ever learn? Will we ever, how?