Modern Day Peasants

You
and I
Are just
Modern day
Peasants

Convinced
By capitalism
To needlessly want

Controlled
By inflation
To pointlessly save

Coerced
By religion
To endlessly argue

The farm
Replaced by a cubicle
The hoe
Replaced by a chair
The grime
Replaced by paperwork

We
Are trapped
Idolizing
Those who escaped
The trap
The very system they now uphold

We devour news
As if we
Have any power
To act on it
Believing
That if we at least know
We will somehow survive
The next apocalypse
Our rulers say
They are protecting us from

We pretend
That the weekend is life
And that our work
Has meaning

We pretend
That we have fulfilled
The dreams
Of our childhood

We pretend
Because if we don’t
We will realize
We are
Modern day peasants

---

This poem is from the book ‘A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Nevertheless

I’m scared
Of what your love
Will cause me to
Face about myself

Nevertheless

I’m confident
That your love
Will guide me
Safely through

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Life To Avoid

Coffee to wake
Instagram to connect
Porn to cum
Alcohol to relax
Weed to create
Coke to play
MDMA to love
News to inform
Sugar to distract
Mushrooms to pray
Valium to calm
Melatonin to sleep

Life to avoid

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

In Your Absence

I can’t quite express
The confusion and the mess
That’s been left
In your absence
Why didn’t you confess
The demons that had you possessed?
Why couldn’t you
Escape the thoughts that had you depressed?
Why was this the only way you could address
The aspects of life that you detest
that had you dispossessed?
Perhaps if you got some of it off your chest
The world wouldn’t be one man less
One man that blessed it with his presence
Now all who knew you are left to digest
News of death’s caress via a self-inflicted process
We can’t protest
We can only attest
To the pain and existential unrest
Of the hole your life has left

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Legacy

In the end
The only things
I’ll leave behind
Will be the few memories
My children hold dear
An empty bank account
A pile of used junk
And
A few words
Immortalized upon the page
Waiting
For someone I never met
To misinterpret

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Foul Mistress Of Time

Release me
From these binds
Oh foul
Mistress of time

Let me
Deduce
The fountain
Of youth

The master
Crafts a puzzle
Then finds
The key

Sit and watch
The stone
To see
If it grows

We are born
A ticking clock
But die
A broken camera

The moment is
Only gone
When we
Fail to remember

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Expectations

While it’s never
As bad
As you think
It will be

It’s also
Never as good
As you remember
It to be

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

enough

why can’t
it be enough
to accept
that my life
simply is?

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Don’t Let Me Ruin You

I will tell you
That
I have your best interests
At heart

And I do

I will tell you
That
My critiques are meant
To help

And they are

I will tell you
That
I am working
For us

And I am

I will tell you
That you are holding yourself back
That you are embarrassing yourself
That you aren’t living to your fullest potential
That you can do more
That you need to relax
That you should forgive yourself
That you are worthy of love
That you are close to greatness
That you are my everything

I will tell you
How to fix your problems

And you will listen
Any you will change
And you will be ruined

By me
Unintentionally

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken

Complementing The Future

By complementing the future
She crafted the present.
Her words revealing a truth
Others couldn’t yet see.
Not for lack of trying,
But because she hadn’t yet spoken.
The truth was merely a dream,
Waiting for her birth it into reality.
Now here, its eternal nature is manifest.
The future, now present, informs the past,
And thus, her words were true before she ever spoke them.

---

This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken