The heaviest sound lays us to rest
Tied to the steak and eats our heart out
Composure fixed to the evening sky
Swivel the scenery then throw me away when I am colored dead
Let's all pose then fall down the well together
Understudies for the part we weren't meant to play
Courage for cowards in the rewriter's chair beating the around the rose bush
Sink thirty thousand feet into the shoes too narrow for human feats.
Back to factory settings until you can learn how to sing let alone speak our names
Caution tape leashes the struggle bus in gear on your best days
One step further than slipping up on a Monday, blue and battered
I wake up to the sight of the out of boundaries shred to pieces
Water for the pills stuck in swallowing fashion
Wings tied to the bed abstract as ever
We dreamt of the rise and fall of the house of us
Blueprints of further disappointment with marble inlays to hold onto this moment
Shock jocks of jealous siblings gnashing at ankles going home
Nostalgic for chaos and that bitter root
I didn't know that I was this obvious
Innocence donated with and without the will to live
Lover, Lover
The nighttime sings our names
Ballads of the figurative Juliet
Radios hiss hearts spilled the shadows hide naked ambition stilled
Neglected emotional hills wafts through valleys of past lives
Karmic backlogs review their closing percentages
Futures flood the floors hold the line between fate and tears
Shadow people alone in the twilight
Illuminated letters, walls woed to sleep
Dreams from the shoreline as phantom vessels waltz on the silver linings
Postures of stable footing, top of the line, kings and queens of value
Thumbs circle the knuckles, bone kisses bone, the familiar taste of home
Haunted hems lines explored in tribal pursuits
Please keep me waiting
The specter of tender frames evaporates
Morning ghosts caress the memory in travel
Neckties versus deadlines
Power brokered, breath that betrays the dream
Folded napkins
Cocktail napkin epitaphs
Check please
Is it just exscuse or ignorance
Its been over twenty four year
Shes still taking this substance
She is so bang on the gear
Though often says her reliance
Could one be anymore sincere
How anyone has the paitance
I am suprised she is still here
Perhaps a high level of tolerance
Though has little worrie or fear
What seems like a life sentance
For which l would stay well clear
An old write 2014 follow on to a stark reality
Chasing the light written rewritten 2020
Emotional turmoil
Sudden surges of recoil
Bursting flames of rage
Black chunks of coal
Purged from the soul
Embers of grief and regret
Made promises you didn't keep.
Just words in the moment to appease.
Words that sounded good at the time.
Mere words with no substance.
Words not worth their weight in gold.
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
In my country
For you to make sense
You need to have money
For you to be respected
You have to throw money around
For you to find love
You need to have money.
Every effect
A cause
A man's wife may either
"Make" or "break" him
Everyone has their
own style of expressing things.
Forgetting we're souls
Not the body
The soul is limitless
And the body is very limited
We're from the infinite source
Never to be limited to substance or things but purpose.
when I block the light
I then become a shadow
form without substance
Having tasted substance abuse,
today in truth,
many of the young
are wasted in their youth.
But 'God damn' only the pusher
you didn't oughta
as, without the doer,
the dealer, he'd be dead in the water.
One and the same, they're both to blame,
as off each other they will feed,
the former for avarice, a.k.a., greed,
the latter for a misconceived need...
if not to allay his fears,
but cede to the pressure of his peers.
If only my life I could live over again
and the years unfold in my daily scuffle,
as at the thought of growing old,
I recoil from this mortal shuffle.
With apologies to; George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) and William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
Filled with substance,
Never know who I’ll be next -
A person in disguise
Like the back of an earring,
Lost in the fibers
Unsure of what thought comes next -
But I feel more aware,
Yet still so alone -
Misunderstood,
Substance,
You’ve held me so tight.
Made me feel safe
But without you, it’s so much clearer
I cannot replace,
I must escape
And learn to live without you
Breathing in can be the hardest part
When you stretch your mind and heart
So very far apart
I'm bleeding from the inside but no one see's the kill
I read between the lines.
Those lines are where I write my will
So if you'll take my pardon
I'll fall back into the garden
to return...
To the substance of existence
I would rather be the incense
you burn...
SUBSTANCE WE 2-
You have access to me
I am me inside you
Let us be real
Being truth and true
We are the substance same we two
6/5/24
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
I speak my thoughts...you do not hear. I reach to touch...you are not near.
I matter not to you, nor to any other. I am invisible...you do not see me.
I have no face; I have no substance. I try to speak, there are no words...you took my voice! So, now I huddle, fetal form. I strain to hear the dullness of my heart as its beat slows and fainter gets. Now even I can no longer see a speck, a shadow left of me. I am void.
SUBSTANCE FIRED TRIGGERED OUT TAIL MAN BUTTOCK MOVES- A Grook
I lit the substance it fired not
I pulled the trigger something shot out
I shake my buttock, yet don’t have a tail
Like a dog we both move…WELL>
2/1/24
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
She knows when to say yes and when to say no
She gives you so much, you keep asking for more
She manages her own home, kids and money
Straight talk, her words are not dripped with honey
She knows when you lie and looks you in the eye
Nothing misses her sight not even a fly
She can bulldoze her way into anything complicating
Before you know it she’s got everyone clapping
She will sacrifice her life if she believes it’s worth the cause
When she puts her mind to something there is no press for pause
And so we have, Indira Gandhi, Indra Nooyi and Sudha Murthy
Michelle Obama, Angela Merkel and Jacinda Arden
All these lovely ladies who need a good applause and garland
Am I
abusive
to myself
if I'm substance
how can I be abused
I abused
Grounded turf
I am dirt
with a spirit soul NO
From the heavens I'm fleeting energy
Placed temporarily
in a vessel
body what I look at my eyes
are dirty
I abuse
what I inhale my lungs
are abused
I think thoughts that I retained
At birth death rots
I am abused
I touched that I should not
I am abused
in my wayward forward
I'm backwards
I birth
hurt
I am abused
I'm touched at not
I am not what I touched
I am abused
I take partake
I taste
I'll wait
I inhale
I exhale
I drink I eat
I am abused
in this land
that I stand
I am firm yet softened
I'm accused
~
I am abused
~
I await
I constantly hate
I am relevant
I am positive
yet negative
I am abused
who am I how am
I where am I
why am I
all I know is that I'm am was abused
10/30/23
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2023©
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