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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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.

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

Worthy

Perhaps
With time
I’ll be able
To change myself
Enough
To be worthy
Of your love

Because
I know
Who I am
Right now
Isn’t even
Worthy enough
To be
In your presence

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

Trapped

I find myself trapped
By the very rituals
I made to survive

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

That Comes With A Question

There is a twisting
An internal shifting
A tangential listing
That comes
With a question of existing

There is a thirsting
An internal enlisting
A tangential resisting
That comes
With a question of persisting

There is a wanting
An internal insisting
A tangential manifesting
That comes
With a question of coexisting

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

The Knife Of Hypocrisy

The knife of hypocrisy
Cuts deep
My shadow’s blood
Leaks
Painting an already ruined floor

The boat’s mooring
Has come undone
Now we drift
Upon the whims of a moon
Covered by cloud

The dehydrated man
Dares not drink
Because he knows
He cannot swim

The monkey
Rages in the cage
He created for himself

The ant
Toils with its fellows
Oblivious of the destruction
Left in the wake
Of their queen’s rage

I write
Words on a page
Knowing they will never be understood
By those
Who inspired them

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

Toward Eternity

The small
Quiet voice
Asked me to write
Of the highest of callings.

That I should turn my gaze towards the gods.

That I should speak of grandeur, greatness and glory.

I was not moved.

No words came,
Other than these few;

I feel nothing
But the sun upon my skin,
The dirt under my feet,
And weight of this moment
Stretching toward eternity.

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

spider

i killed
instinctively
moving before thought
its body crushed under my heel
only in death
could I see
the beauty
of its life

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

Mere Imaginings

Almost everything
I remember
Of you
Are mere imaginings

Just the stories
Shared
Of a man
Long gone
Made real
By the desperate
Longings of a son
To feel
Something
Anything
For his father
Other than shame

My dwindling pride
Clinging
To the hope
That perhaps
You were once
Something more
Than the shell
You became

I tell them
I never knew that man
That those memories
Are not mine
Yet now
Those lies
They are all I have of you
Beyond the small scatterings
Of pain
I learnt to forget

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

Triggered

I cannot whisper
The words I wish to scream

Tears fall
At the precipice of silence

Unmoving internal chaos
Catatonic rage

Memories of the present
Give way to realities of the past

All again
All at once

Visions flash
To the beat of the body’s rocking

The internal observer
Watches helpless

Why can’t you see I’m suffering?
Don’t you dare touch me

Thank god
For Valium

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

These Words

These words
Are such a limp expression
Of the rage
You’ve evoked
Within me

You cannot fathom
The pain I could induce
Were I to yield
The full weight of my mind
Upon the sole task
Of destroying yours

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

The Mountain

If I knew
How hard
I’d have to work
In order
To not have to
Work so hard
I’d have probably
Settled for a day job

Only now
Do I realize
Just how tall
The mountain
Truly is
And how strong
I’ll have to be
To climb it

Nonetheless
I am grateful
For my ignorance
For it made me
Strong enough
To believe
That I can become strong enough
To make it
To the top

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