a long way gone (to ishmael beah)

Their words, I feel
their words
through me they run
like tattered feet
swift and unkind to the eye
when rebels come by,
telling me what I know
and do not know,
cutting me like dry wind,
machetes,
surfacing from the corners
of my mind:
memories and memoirs
far from done,
showing me that this luck is
sparing me and unworthy am I
to wake up this morning
a long way gone.

cool?

Reality is shaped by perception

How do I not see
past your painted tees
and logo-ed caps that
scream more of the cool you
framed and less of the
originality you claimed?

I will try and perceive you more
than you would me
because I know that
the man makes the clothes
and the clothes make the man-
cooler than he will ever be...

and I wear rags
or what ever I could not make...

Tell me what you are and
I won't believe you
because I see you and
can't perceive meaning past those words

reign

Don't fall on
me or
Graze my skin
How I can't bare the burden of
Millions of your fighters,
One entity,
That clean me out

When outside I
am you and you I
Taste you I do
Mouth wide open I starve
But never grow thirst, carve
A hole in my chest
Before I drown, caress
My lips and my cheek
As I overflow, and my lungs creak
Ribs crack and inside seep
To the ground onto my feet
With the rest of you, that i could not throat,
I float
and you take over me, I
Am you and you I

Disguise my eyes
Wipe my tears clean
And rinse the salt trails
That track down my face
And leave me reason to believe
I had to surrender