the mark of Cain

the pinnacle of pulse….that drains the heartbeats….traffic heavy, horns honking,hurrying, hurrying….trucks and buses puffing cloudsof death into the air….neon signs keeping score.billboards selling the dream,street preachers selling Jesus….corner whores selling themselves….in sterile rooms atop the skyscrapers,far from the stink, far fromtrash strewn in the alleywayslike tiny lives forgotten,gum stuck to the shoes…..they gamble with futures,trading…

lights come and go,eternity breaks the glass.and right and wrong,frozen on the ground…smokestacks, abandoned cars,vacant buildings ran by rats.the hungry hand,the mouth of poverty.the addict’s needle,the body in the alley.the woman beaten,her face blackened and bloody.the click of the hammeron an empty chamber.and the houses beckon,with lighted roomswhere shadows move ina most familiar way.the smell…

that my heart cant hear…my heart bleedingby the grave…unmarked, and unclaimed.our tongues reaching through bars,our cells drowning in stone…only wings, and the soundof the river remain!

has to stand up,when no one’s got your back.has to speak out,when no one wants to hear…has to be human,when they want something else.has to ball the fists,and then open the hand….has to cry, has to give,when it seems like no one cares.has to try and fail,then try again….has to put faceson God’s dreams!

and the holy scriptureswe’ve hung around her neck,nothing but broken shoelaces!wars fought in her name,used condoms cast to the side.tainted morality in her image,burns like old photos on the fire.she’s not buying it!bird nests made of straw,human nests made of concepts.love itself doesnt wear clothes,cant be spoken…it must be lived!

dont wrap me in your conceptual boxes,i’m not a trinket or a talisman!dont imprison me in your temples,i am not aloof and untouchable!you cant buy me with your offerings,you cant use me like a sword!dont limit me to a frail body,dont call me father or mother!for i am life itself,evolving in a thousand different forms!you…