To cover the poison's bitter taste,

Their smiles are deceit,

Their favors beg your haste,

Before you can see,

See right through,

Their pernicious lies,

And their red flag eyes,

While proclaiming the value in you,

You're not the fool,

They grandstanded their ovations,

You're still you,

Though they claimed your name in selfish invocations,

You're more than they are,

They feed on you with self righteous supplications,

Run as fast as you can,

You don't need to become their degradations,

Be the best that you can,

Leave them all to their psychotic desecrations

Falling,

Into what I see,

Breaking,

Traditions that are instinct to me,

Betraying,

Societal norms ingratiating me,

Pretending,

To deny the burdens that assimilate me,

Destroying,

Walls built of placated imagery,

Befalling,

Sins of confusing symmetry

I feel like I'm close to an idea to what can save me,

It's on the tip of my tongue,

But the answer escapes me,

I was born alone,

Because the wolves wouldn't take me,

Carve my poems into stone,

Because this world wants to break me,

Apprised of their lies,

Because the truth might devastate me,

Success is the guise,

Failure is the destiny,

It pays to be wise,

When the lies are so sedating

I felt so grown up and free when I left. Like I was living Tom Sawyer's life.

I started hitchhiking to Indiana and as I was walking, I found a 14k gold bracelet that had been run over. So, when I finally got to LaGrange IN, it was night time and I was walking around trying to find a place to sleep for the night and I found a place in the darkness across the street from this Mexican night club. That night I heard some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard and I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning I went to the jewelry store and sold the bracelet for like 18 bucks. It wasn't hard to get a store to sell cigarettes to a 14 year old and i bought some candy and soda and started back on my journey.

That night, I made it to Kendallville IN, where I decided to sleep in the woods on the side of State road 9 with my head propped up against a tree and the sound of the highway and I had one of the best sleeps I can remember. The next day, I got caught and had to go back home, but it still feels like a magical few days.

Begging and pleading,

To imaginary deities,

Please! Just save me from myself!

Requiems of empathy,

Redemption through self discovery,

Wishing for subsistence, not wealth!

Surrender unto thee,

Demand onto me,

Righteous indignation no excuse for your apathy,

Never took to violence,

Not to even save me,

Begging for your faith in perfect silence,

Your sense of irony doesn't evade me,

In my head it's always night,

Though I've surrendered to the light,

I have to feel everyone's pain,

And in this you delight,

I felt love from the stars,

I learned from my scars,

I've lived in kindness with the world,

I took that to heart,

I've paid for my sins,

You let me rot in my hell,

You hid me from your light,

But I'm not the only that fell,

Your grace is only a word,

One that I've never heard,

Your silence proves more,

Are you settling a score?

You will not erase me,

I've done what you asked and more,

Your threats no longer phase me,

It's your love I abhor,

You've broken every promise,

You're no shepherd and I'm not flock,

I've stayed kind, despite your resistance ,

No longer a loyal subject,

I'm just indignant of your existence

All I see,

Is the version of me that only you can see,

Everything I am,

Everything I can be,

I feel it's possible,

As long as you are with me,

Scared of losing you,

Your touch on my face,

Your smile shines bright,

Please don't let me leave this place,

Electricity runs through me,

When I hear your voice,

Love is a journey,

And a destination of choice,

My soul was broken,

You repaired it with a glance,

Fissures glued and taped,

Now seamless with one dance,

I'm prepared to walk forever,

I'm prepared to see it through,

The heartache and the pleasure,

Through the endless with you,

I could climb a mountain,

I could swim every ocean and sea,

I could tame the wildest frontiers,

Just to see you look at me

All I see,

Is the version of me that only you can see,

Everything I am,

Everything I can be,

I feel it's possible,

As long as you are with me,

Scared of losing you,

Your touch on my face,

Your smile shines bright,

Please don't let me leave this place,

Electricity runs through me,

When I hear your voice,

Love is a journey,

And a destination of choice,

My soul was broken,

You repaired it with a glance,

Fissures glued and taped,

Now seamless with one dance,

I'm prepared to walk forever,

I'm prepared to see it through,

The heartache and the pleasure,

Through the endless with you,

I could climb a mountain,

I could swim every ocean and sea,

I could tame the wildest frontiers,

Just to see you look at me

I wrote a new poem and it reminded me of another poem I wrote! So I'm enclosing both! Enjoy!

As always, you can buy me a coffee on Kofi my digital tip jar!

~~~~~~

The world has beauty standards, but I don't agree,I won't let them steal this moment from me, no one tells me which moments are precious or have validity, only the beauty I see gets to control me,they try to negate, the racing of my heart, it's not a debate, when I feel I found my other part, now, with my wholeness in tact, you frantically insist these aren't facts? Your weights and measures don't influence how I choose, my fate and my pleasures should only matter to those who walk in my shoes

I will not follow!

I will not comply!

I live my life my own way!

Free from your lies!

T.F. BURKE POETRY

they criminalized the human body,

they take away my right to speak,

they cant destroy my curiosity,

so they destroy the information i seek

they try to aggravate my terror,

they say theyre always right,

but im no longer scared,

they cant destroy my will to fight

i didn't know, how far i could go,

i couldn't be the one to hurt you,

i couldn't say, you needed to go,

i just lied when i said i love you,

contradiction, is all that i know,

(chorus)

i didn't mean to make you cry baby,

i didn't mean, to lose all control,

i didn't mean to say i love you,

i didn't mean to be addicted to love

i couldn't be what you need,

i couldn't see, the door to your soul,

i got to be true to me,

my feelings matter, its all that i hold,

i try so hard to say what i mean,

the fire’s gone out and i'm so cold,

(chorus)

all i need was some faith in me,

was that too much to ask,

i wouldn't blame if you thought id hurt you,

i've done it in the past

i couldnt be who you need,

and now our time has passed,

i didn't know how it affected you,

i didn't know, how far i could go,

i didn't know how to tell you,

i couldn't say, you needed to go

I'm in 2 anthologies, “Of ink & iron” https://www.battlebornpoetry.com/product-page/ink-iron-2024-a-battleborn-poetry-anthology “The Unseen” https://a.co/d/9fDNvl9

And of course, my own book Waves of Clarity!

I spent way too much time marketing Waves of Clarity. I thought it deserved more sales before I published again.

I'm about ready to publish another collection and I don't want to make the same mistake!

I should've kept releasing stuff.

So, with the new collection, should I still be marketing Waves of Clarity,or should I put that on the back burner and focus on the new collection?🤔

You were destroying me,

Absorbing me,

Free from sin,

You were absolved by me,

Sanctified by my purity,

Intentionally,

Attached to me,

Taking me to obscurity,

Painfully,

Your beautiful form blurry to me,

Sinfully,

I got lost in your eyes trying to see me,

Unsuccessfully,

Where you keep your thoughts of me,

There's no beauty to see,

It's filthy,

It's not a reliquary,

It's an obscenity,

The insanity,

The lack of humanity,

Exclusively,

Just for me,

Unpleasantly,

Consuming me

They hate what poetry makes them see,

The journey is inward,

Even if it escapes reality,

Inside yourself,

In corners you refuse to believe,

Of yourself,

In jaded memories retrieved,

Who are you?

Means who is it that you hide,

They don't hate poetry,

They hate the truth amidst all the lies,

They hate who they have to be,

They hate how you make them see,

A self they concocted,

The laughter that drowns out their cries

Elastic realities stretched as far as it can go,

Stealing my solace in slumber,

Becoming part of me through every image that it shows ,

Incorrect definitions of myself i now believe,

Abstract bastardizations of my true self,

Fragile psyche rewritten with devastations in dreams weaved

youre a cancer on, society, youre feeding on, the weak and their dreams,all night long, youre beating up the streets, no solace nowhere, not even in dreams,how could you say, you'd be there for me,

it all crashed down, your face i cant see,

no youre not there, to be by my side,

taste my fear, my pain i cant hide

(chorus)

never been so, confused,

never felt so, abused,

never been there, in vain,

never went there, insane

my minds burned out, with hypocrisy, i'm fighting for the weak and their dreams, your ass looks great, in those tight ass jeans, but how many guys, have you been underneath,what do i do, to prove this to you,

dont play no games, man im nobodys fool,

been down that road, so many times,

this shit ends, i sever my ties,

(chorus)

you try to deny, you miss my touch,

you try to deny, you hurt me so much,

how can you lie, we're more than friends,

why don't you cry, and pay for your sins

(interlude)

and i woke up, from a terrible dream,

and my life is, not as it seems to me,

and i realize, im not insane,

as youre leaving, mix pleasure with pain

your legend lives on, in your own mind, sold a piece of yourself, with every line, your sin steeps through, it blackens my soul, the sweat pours down, with every soul that you take, you die inside with the love that you fake

Oh yeah. He remembers that night better than anyone. He knows she wants revenge.

All of a sudden, a knock on the door!

He slowly opens it, as soon as it's open enough to see, he realizes it's the pizza he ordered.

“$18.55 today sir!”

He hands him a twenty and a ten, “keep the change.”

“Thank you sir!”

He is the one that killed her parents and she took the rap. He was supposed to visit, they were supposed to be in love. Now she

's out!

you wanna see the thoughts in me,

do you sense a connection,

you wanna be in unity,

and supercede perfection,

you wanna know what's on my mind,

you think you got the time,

you wanna see a reaction,

you don't get the satisfaction,

(chorus) will i strive when i strife?

will i push so hard?

will i see what i see?

will i have all the scars?X2

will i strive?

will i strife?

will i see?

will i see?

will i have?

all these scars!!!!

you wanna be the man inside,

you wanna see my intestines,

you wanna know the man thats me,

understand my intentions,

i can't be what you need,

my pain is your invention,

you can't be inside of me,

i don't need your infection,

(chorus)

you don't see what i see,

your self worths overrated,

you don't see more of me,

in innuendos you have stated,

i tried so hard to understand,

your lies contemplated,

i need a cure for your memory,

to suffocate this infestation.

(chorus)

If you like seeing my work, help me out and buy me a coffee on Kofi, my digital tip jar!

Hep cat conspiracies,

Impossible to refuse,

Bodies using,

And bodies being used

Pay cash for your crimes, you always win,

One time payment for absolution of your sins,

Grief is counter productive,

Tattoo your face with a permanent grin,

Money speaks louder than action,

Always will and always been,

Disrespect is a valuable commodity,

Keeps you free from looking within

But I dared not speak her name,

The night had perfect weather,

Every star was ours to claim,

It happened in a different forever,

The moon leaned close just to hear what we say,

Nature was symphonic,

It played every song it knew how to play,

It happened in a different forever,

Just as I leaned in for a kiss,

But that forever I imagined,

It was a forever that didn't exist

I wanted to make an article with a few of my poems in hope of selling some copies of my poetry collection Waves of Clarity. If you want to help a creator out, the link is in this article and it's only $2.99! You can't even get a cup of coffee for that, but you can get 104 short surrealistic poems!

If you look in her eyes,

Your soul will be hers,

Deep in your heart,

Where love is interred,

Her smile is intoxicating,

Throwing inhibitions into the breeze,

Your love for her will be all consuming,

Her beauty recalled with the greatest of ease,

Her existence is etched into every inch of your mind,

With every question that needs an answer it's her you'll find,

You can never have her,

Because fantasies are never real,

She will never love you,

And from this you'll never heal,

You'll think that you touched her,

But it'll be a terrible dream,

She wants to be loved by someone better,

A person you can never be,

Dreams of love are nightmares stings,

These are recurring realities of members of the Broken Things.

i write and i write,

more than ever before,

inspiration, blood and tears begin to pour,

words, words, words,

but it seems like less than before,

i spin the thread,

it turns to gold,

then corrodes to dust,

with none left to hold,

i took control,

i forced my pen,

write the things,

that make me happy again,

yes, the tomes of old,

turn gold before the dust,

oiled steel runs well,

until it rusts,

my pen will make these pages bleed,

with every scribbling thrust.

they arrived without warning, their eyes were cold as ice, they spoke of conforming, but i wouldnt pay that price, they spoke of reforming, so i smashed their device, they said theyd teach us to love, but i couldnt feel that loss twice

Thank you for reading! If you get my book, I'll thank you again!☺️T.F. Burke