Work

Nobody explains the difference
between achievement and persistence
to you when you're young.
Yet everyone's dumbfounded
when we grow up and are astounded
that our dreams don't just roll off the tongue.
We weren't taught to appreciate what we've got
Or if we did, we forgot
Do you know how much work it takes to
produce that diamond?
First they find it, then mine it
then ship it to the manufacturer
Who spends the time to coax the glitter out
of lumpy coal
And yet, all you do is go down to the store.
Do we even remember hard work?
Long days? Uncertain futures?
The only uncertainty now is what we'll spend our
next paycheck on
The realities of life are gone
Lost, to a past that never appealed to our
short-attention-span, Veruca-Salt generation.
And this gap isn't confined to just our nation
It envelops the concentration, or lack thereof,
on a scale of globalization
We're not perched on a precipice
We dove right in
And it's no longer a matter of whether you can
sink or swim
It's whether or not you can come out ahead
of her, or him
By any and all means necessary
Shove the others underwater, show no mercy,
no compassion
While you use them to float
Maybe it's a crime of passion
But the passionate have built a better boat
And they're working their way out of these
tributaries of selfishness and greed
Filled with those wanting so badly to achieve
That they've forgotten the best way to succeed
Is to let your hard work take the lead.
And they scream as those who built themselves a better way
Sail on to uncertain, yet hopeful, futures.

Mean Women Poets

You poor, disenfranchised men
Thinking you're gettin pushed around by
all these women
Thinking all this male hating, man bashing
shit is brand new
Well I got news for you
The women of old must have been new, too.

MLK Day

The people say why.
Why is there an entire day to idolize
And I just roll my eyes
Because there's nothing wrong with an entire day to glamorize
A man much larger than his size
A man who never tried to victimize
Or tell his people lies
And still, they ask, why.

I'm not trying to sound contrived or
unscrupulous
But there's only a select few of us
who got their own holidays in the U.S.
And one of those was Columbus
and I don't see you making nearly as big of a fuss
Cause the post office is closed for the man
Who mistakenly stumbled upon this land
Then, over the centuries, caused it to crumble
As his people rumbled with the native people
Who couldn't even mumble a word in protest.
Yet Columbus has his own day of rest?

Then consider all the holidays we got
Commemorating the veterans and the
wars they fought
And the holidays commemorating generals like
Washington
So why exclude the one who led the march on
Washington?
Fighting a brutal, bloody and centuries-long war
While half the people didn't know what he was
fighting for
And was gunned down before knowing the score
One day off of school?
Martin Luther King, Jr., deserves all that,
and more.

There U Go Again

There u go again, giving me the puppy-dog eyes
There u go again, telling me u apologize
And there I go, believing your lies
Thinking this time, you'll try and be better
And whether or not you will has been answered time after
time after time: You won't.
So don't think by now I'm oblivious
Your tired old game is far from mysterious
You'll go to the bar, get drunk, drive home and try to
start some shit
But I hate to verbally spar with someone who's barely
aware of it
I'd rather u think out your points rationally, and
rational means sober
So move the fuck over, I'm tired of waiting for u to
get older
I've heard all your excuses, and you still need to
grow up
Tell me when you sober up that you'll quit.
I've heard that shit too many times
There u go again, biding your time
Until I start believing you've miraculously stopped on a dime
And my trust in you is restored
That's when I hear that key scraping the door
What will it be tonight? I think. Less, or more?
There I go again, thinking you've changed.
Thinking you're just being strange, instead of
exactly the same.
In the morning, you say, "I'm sorry. Don't cry."
There we go again, and I don't know why.