1. |
Return to the Basement
03:13
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2. |
Chain Reaction
04:56
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Purple lilacs,
Words set in stone,
The smell of smoke,
That always brings me home.
An orange sunset,
That lights up the sky,
A place where we’d retreat to,
Where our youth never dies.
Where hallways echo,
With the thunder of drums,
And the alleyway is full of things,
That make you go numb.
Where the nights are full of tension,
And the thoughts that always creep,
They follow to the park bench,
Where you lay and fall asleep.
Those days are gone,
But the memory remains,
How we’d spin in hectic circles,
Playing twisted childish games.
And on the outside,
We’d find a way to thrive,
Some made it out alive,
But most didn’t survive.
But the views along the way,
Were worth more than I could say,
All the beauty and decay
Were right there fully on display,
The water on the sand,
Was like feet on the concrete,
And the nights were on repeat,
Starting hot on the downbeat.
And the pit was always churning,
Like my stomach always turning,
The fire always burning,
And its spread was not concerning.
There we found the safest place,
Yeah we made our sacred space,
Where we’d embrace,
A little break from the rat race.
Red bricks,
Drenched with ink and scrawled with names,
Where we’d squeal like fucking pigs,
And refuse to be tamed.
Where the oceans always met,
Clashing pure good and evil,
My last memories of friends,
Who lost their battles with the needle.
Where tensions flared,
And we always stirred the pot,
But we’d squash it in the pit,
And shake hands in the parking lot.
Where violence gave way,
To the rules we’ve always known,
A certain type of closure,
That we’d never find at home.
And when we left the spot,
Yeah we’d always watch our backs,
Those fucking tweekers in the night,
Always roamed on the attack.
And even though it was a long walk,
To get back on my street,
I pumped enough adrenaline,
To keep me light on my feet.
I miss those days,
And those warm summer nights,
Where we’d pound our weight in booze,
And get ready for a fight.
Those days are gone,
But the memory remains,
As the years went by,
We found divergence in our lanes.
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3. |
Sacred and Sun-drenched
04:28
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I’ve seen the other side
And I ain’t writing home about it.
I’ve travelled far and wide,
To see you come alive,
For me
And under the cold weight of a winter night,
You cast a sacred light.
Some people don’t know where the hell to go,
They’ll talk like its the path that you should know,
But I found a path that led me straight to you,
And I’m grateful for the hell that it dragged me through,
‘Cause solitude is peace but love is a thrill,
And love with you leaves me so goddamn fulfilled,
So you don’t need to hide, I’ve seen the other side,
And, in hindsight, it left me quite unsatisfied
You, my light,
I’ve seen you come alive,
It’s a wondrous sight,
And I would die,
To see that look inside your eyes,
That I saw that first night,
And before then,
I was waiting, watching from the other side.
I don’t love you for the view,
But, damn, you’re so nice to look at,
There’s something about you,
That makes me come unglued,
At the seams,
And when I feel like nothing more than a blight,
You cast a sacred light.
Some people don’t know where the hell to go,
They’ll talk like its the path that you should know,
But I found a path that led me straight to you,
And I’m grateful for the hell that it dragged me through,
‘Cause solitude is peace but love is a thrill,
And love with you leaves me so goddamn fulfilled,
So you don’t need to hide, I’ve seen the other side,
And, in hindsight, it left me quite unsatisfied
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4. |
Nobody Likes Milhouse
05:04
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Hello again,
You’re a shitty fucking friend,
You make my hand quake
When I touch paper with my pen.
I don’t really want to think about how my life will end,
Or how I’ll never ever hear my mother’s lovely voice again.
It seemed like for a while I was hearing from you seldom,
But now you’re making visits that are as frequent as unwelcome,
And when you arrive you get me caught up in a panic,
Got me counting down the days til I go back to being manic.
But for now I’m treading water and you’re putting me through hell,
I can’t get out of bed and my bedsheets fucking smell,
Every note I play sucks and I’m feeling uninspired,
And if I miss another day of work I’ll probably get fired.
But fuck it,
I woke up this morning,
And found you laying in my bed.
And when I closed my eyes,
I found you hiding in my head.
And yeah, I know I’m sick,
Though I was fine the other day,
But there’s a few things you should know,
If you’re planning to stay.
That you’ll probably catch me slipping,
But you’ll never catch me sober,
You’ll catch me tumbling through my life
Like it’s a fucking roller coaster,
Catch me screaming on the tracks,
Hoping we never go slower,
And you’ll catch me truly winded,
When the whole ordeal is over.
Hello again to that side of me,
Traversing ground always beside of me.
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5. |
Boking on that Fun Guy
05:52
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Flat on my back,
Cross-chatter on my mind,
Taking in every cloud that passes through the sky,
A perfect backdrop splashed with blue dye,
That steals away every single thought that I come by,
I bet I could make a list,
Of every single thing that couldn’t exist,
Crumple it up and ball it up in my fist,
Cause reality’s a drug that I could not resist.
Man I need a fuckin smoke,
But I won’t get one from you,
‘Cause you’re sketchy fuckin folk.
Although I should have never spoke,
Cause I’m bout an eighth deep and I’m bout to fuckin boke,
And I can see it in my mind’s eye,
Meet my friend Boomer he’s a really fucking fun guy,
Keep on your toes he’s not one to run by,
He’ll leave you petrified and wear you like a necktie.
Wake the fuck up,
This dream isn’t real and you pissed in my cup,
I gotta call for fuckin’ backup,
‘Cause I’m crunching all the numbers,
And this story doesn’t add up.
I must be too high,
Cause something went awry
And I tried to call my rabbi,
Met him in the alley and I was really fuckin’ tongue tied,
He left me with a black eye he’s a real fucking tough guy.
It don’t make no sense,
This story probably isn’t real but I’m sitting on the fence,
You know I’m tryna make amends,
With my ex,
But I hate her homophobic fuckin’ friends.
And I hate being sober,
‘Cause I’m always fucking anxious
And I’m always seeking closure,
I ain’t got no alibi,
You’ll find me in the bushes always boking on that fun guy.
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6. |
And Now You Rest
06:18
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I saw,
You carry the world,
And now you rest.
The hummingbirds sing
For you
So that you may rest.
And though,
I grieve for you now,
I know you’ll rest.
The earth and sky,
Filled with you,
And now you rest.
And then I’ll celebrate,
Your life and everything you gave me,
Just like you’d always say,
But I think it’ll take me a minute to get there.
And if you’re watching me,
I hope you know I’m thinking of you,
Everyday I miss you.
I miss you
Blue waves
Burnt sand
And your voice
And now you rest.
A garden
Grows there for you,
So that you may rest.
And though,
I grieve for you now,
I know you’ll rest,
And in time,
I’ll smile for you,
But now you’ll rest
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7. |
||||
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Dissolved
Like flesh in acid
Swept away by gusts
That rip the air from lungs
The shattering of beautiful images
Pressed upon stained glass
The cacophony of drums
Of hospital machines
Of Piazzolla tangos
And of one million
wind chimes
Crashing into the shore
All that’s left with me
Is what fell from your ascent.
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8. |
Requiem
03:54
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9. |
Porcelain Figurines
03:49
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Come closer,
The world is quite unsettling when you’re cold,
I’ve felt it,
Some winds will break down even the most bold
You can’t always be
A knight in shining armor made of gold,
Sometimes you,
Get lost in clouds and tunnels dark as coal.
These days do feel that way,
Like hopeful thoughts are efforts made in vain.
And though it seems like,
The world grows more grotesque every day,
I want you,
Like precious figures sculpted bare from clay,
To always be,
Yourself in your most loveliest of ways.
Some storms will,
Rage hard against the dying of the light,
And we find ourselves
Holding those moments close in our despite,
Building castles,
To prop our fears on pillars painted white,
Snuffing candles,
And biding time in the darkest of nights.
It shouldn’t be this way,
Your world has vivid colors to be seen,
And you know,
That the wrong trails are still covered in green,
Though life is,
Spinning like porcelain figurines,
I know you can,
Take the words and find meaning in between.
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10. |
In My Wake
03:33
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So many miles,
Underneath my feet,
And I have yet to find
A place to feel complete
And when I look back I see,
That every step I took
Was my best guess
Shooting in the dark
Leaping before I looked.
Never once did I think,
That all I did was right.
You know, I’ve lied about a million times,
To hide away from truth’s straightforward sight,
And when I look back I see,
That every move I made,
Was made by stepping on the hands,
Of those I loved,
Who never should have stayed.
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11. |
Shooting at Squirrels
03:46
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12. |
Spin Cycle
05:45
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No,
I don’t want to hear it,
I’m like a fish out of water,
Bleeding out from when you speared it,
You got me burnt out,
Looking like a damn fool,
Armed with all the wrong tools,
And drowning in this cesspool,
Yes,
I really hate the way you speak,
Every single word you say,
Makes my future look real bleak,
So it would do me well,
To get a little silence,
Walk away from shitty guidance,
And ignore all this violence.
But,
I have to hear it and I have to fucking see it,
Getting mobilized to fight my neighbor,
Because you guaranteed it,
It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy,
I knew him before I met him,
Because I read about him constantly,
No longer navigating consciously,
Compassion’s not a thing,
And reality’s like a lobotomy.
Can’t understand the cacophony,
And honestly,
This is not the future that they promised me.
And now we’re drowning while you take us to the bank,
But we gave you all our money so there’s only us to thank,
Draw us a divide and tell us to pick a side,
But what side are you on when it’s your family who dies?
And now you got us all wound up,
Your pockets stuffed with ratings,
And then you leave us for the roundup,
You’ll take a picture of us bound up,
Set fire to our families to watch them burn from the ground up.
We can’t tell one from the other,
Every single fucking mouthpiece that wants us to kill our brothers,
How will we ever recover
When you preface every story with their mother fucking skin color,
It’s hard to have a heart,
When life as we know it seems to crumble apart,
It’s hard not to let loose rage,
That’s been trapped like a child who has been locked in a cage,
You know it’s hard to have hope,
As we stumble down this slope I find it really hard to cope,
And I know it doesn’t sell well,
But love and compassion will lift us out of this hell.
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13. |
Much Ado About Nothing
05:25
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You might have heard,
The whole world is burning,
Jesus is returning and there’s a man underneath my bed,
Or in my head,
But instead of confronting him I think I’ll just get high instead,
The world is in a crisis,
And I don’t really like this,
And I’m hanging on by a thread,
Until I’m dead,
You might have seen,
The news stories telling,
All the anger that they’re selling,
Saying this is not a drill,
It gives me chills,
But as boring as I seem you know I’m living for the thrills,
This is a different story,
I’m not interested in glory,
Cause I’m living on free refills,
Until I can pay my bills,
Help me pay my bills.
You might have felt it,
The big one is coming,
We better start running,
I don’t care about the news,
Those ain’t my views.
I’m no longer amused and that ain’t the life I choose.
The world needs more bassists,
Our president’s a racist,
And I still need to pay my dues,
I guess I’m screwed.
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the poet proletariat Anaheim, California
broke music for broke people
IG: @thepoetproletariat
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