Please

Everywhere noise
I turn to scream
But only a whimper escapes.
All around shades must be worn
They act as if they don't see me
Clearly
They don't
Hear
Me
Here and now
In this return to frustration
Because amongst all the noise
They too are struggling to be heard.

I was hungry when I got in.
A ravenous desire lurked deep
But noise
And now my food grows as arctic as my heart
Wants to be
Needs to be
Because again
No one listens
And I am not beyond the fleshy outcropping
God bestowed upon us to hear
Maybe understand in a fleeting moment
There are other things greater than our selves...
©2012clarencecbess

Plantation

And there was awakening.
Eyes opened to truths and concepts virgin and raw
Juice dripped profusely from the fruit, cut into
Colored hands in sweet blood
Only to attract flies.

And there was fear with that great understanding.
Fear and lightning
Streaking vibrant and abundant across the flesh
Singed a ragged path
Straight to the soul
Left it a broken thing
No amount of rain could reconstitute
To allow any life to grow.

And thus it was pain
Becoming the remnant of life
A rust-laden vessel
Caked in the dried expulsion of tears
Which streaked across the flesh
Unforgiving
As it is with knowledge
And the dangerous appetites it brings
To the orchards and fields of...
©2012cchristopherbess

Side-show Orange

His hair went this way and that
Unbound
Like choices made
Consequences excepted
In his clearly mixed
Pish-posh way of life.

He studied the surroundings
Returning to her
A final attempt
To purge the ghetto out of him
Away from him
Because someone got it in his mind
That other part of him
Was less-than.

Studying some more
He glanced my way
As they all eventually do;
Tried to look past me
But
Saw me
See him
And make the marks
To remember him
At this moment
In this place
Where I questioned
Only to seek answers
In the face of a stranger
Because I had no mirror.

Saw me
Unzipped his sideshow orange hoodie
Disappearing back into the tapestry
Of this ever-moving place.
©2011cchristopherbess

Angry Again

He'd think it all was fact
If he didn't know any better
Took a look for himself
Beyond celluloid dreams
Behind the curtains of their theatre

Might just sing their songs
Overblown
Too many notes to dwell upon
But you could say that he knew better
Had heard the harmonies
Of struggle upon the breeze
Lifted to a great creator

He didn't see the wrong
With his being
Until he stared in the mirror
The one beyond all eyes
Never seen
Til someone's staring back at you
That you thought you knew

But all those tears
It made him better
Forced him to look
At all those spaces between characters
Between words
And after thoughts finished
And forever
On to dreams
Of the greatest joke played
Upon those who stared out
And looked into his mirror
Living a one truth
Yet condoning a prison of lies.

It always is the truth
If you don't know any better...
©2011cchristopherbess

Stranger Tides

Stranger still
Fascination fades
Upon callous eyes that stare
Seek to abolish me
To a fate I once thought
Only they
Those acrchitects of history could know

Stranger conceals
masked by soil and seas
Where our commonalities drowned
Seeking to return to familiar shores;
Better death
Than division
A mantra passed down
To generations now;
A condition
Worked endlessly
First into speech
On to gods
Till it permeated
Flesh and curl
Sank the spirit
Through repetitive example
To a death
Greater than any before or sense;
Methodically precise
It's no wonder
We've spent all this time looking for heaven
As we are already living in hell.

Stranger still
Silently hiding
Behind eyes so similar
But truths so varied
One would dare acknowledge
Ultimately it is the flesh
Which matters most...
©2011cchristopherbess

Trouble's Brewin'

Clouds upon the horizon
Obscure a dampness between
Things I've come to know as truths
And those things I'm left to envision

Children waiting on corners
In packs
Hungry for a taste of revolution
Looking to be a part of something
Greater
Than the small sum of what they know
Multiplied by their shrieks

And I'm on my way again
For momentary release
At the bottom of a glass
A chance-filled roll of some dice
In this place
Where it is so easy to escape
So easy to hide and forget;
Even though they notice
They'll never see me cry

Clouds upon the horizon
Obscure a blue infinity above
Countless prayers
To what's believed to be fact;
As our race toward annihilation
Moves ever faster,
Will our gods provide answers to soothe?

People waiting on corners
Increasingly intersecting their screams
Though not a single mouth moves
Their frustration beams
Blinding me
Till I want for a place to go
Want for a place to hide
Forgotten by the approaching storm
Seeking to divide.
©2011cchristopherbess

Back to Reality

It was the hands.
Smaller
More fragile now
Between my fingers
As I held them
Wondering my own path
To age.

It was the multitude
Of collected things
Strewn about those walls;
A pish-posh of souls
Forever entwined
Despite absence
Which made me wonder
What would they do?
What would they want?
Would they even want
To crowd their walls
With the memory of me?

It was the grey.
That cold steel slate
Nature connected
To here and there
Which made me think
Reminisce
Ultimately bring me to content
And a knowledge it was time
To take a step forward,
No,
Several
To ensure my survival
Now
To then
And beyond
As I looked to my own hands
And the passage of time...
©2011cchristopherbess