City Creature

I am an urban animal

I journey through the great concrete canyons and asphalt valleys
Shark movement, eyes forward, always on the go
Weaving amidst crowded sidewalks like elite drivers through heavy highway traffic
Backs to the wall, facing into the room, unless with my pack
Arachnid daydream webs being spun between moments
Chiropteran and chthonic nightmares tumble from above and below
Running through forests only a few miles square
My jungles contain the most dangerous of the apex and unmatched beauties
From orderly grid work to sprawling borderland blight

I go to beaches and do not swim
I go to parks and avoid the trees

Fall arrives- house parties, park drinks, planning adventures, twilight enjoyment
Hoodie life explode
Winter comes- ash on cold corners, hibernating, prayer to the gods of heat and hooking up
Partying and events slip
Spring blooms- rainstorms shake the glass towers, clothes shorten, we all work out and body watch
Exploration is the mode
Summer scorches- backyard BBQs, sweating on buses and trains, escaping underground death
AC on the roadtrip

In any season, you can enjoy/tolerate/hate the human mosaic
Sometimes all at the same time
Pan sexual and more colorful than Benetton hit by a rainbow
It is maddening but enlightening, frustrating but joyous
My environment can change but I still remain the same
Viewing the world through life-lived, smog colored, predator seeking glasses

I am an urban animal

Cool Kid Confusion

Damn, I was smooth

I mean, I am STILL smooth
Drinking until I was nice
Always making the crowd laugh
Maintaining my end of the conversation
Master of this social contract, folks
Numbers? Secured.
Friends? Numerous and ever growing.
Kisses? Stolen, given and all enjoyed.
All good.

Then my coolness collided with your confusion.
Or maybe my confusion.

Not to say you weren't cool yourself.
You were one of the coolest.
You were just a different brand of cool than the others.
That's how it usual goes, right?
The world could see your cool; I just could see your cool in its entirety.
Your wit, your moves, your shake, your sass, your laugh, your smile.
Your cool attracted my cool.

Your cool confused my cool.
My cool had never been shaken as much by another's cool.
The only thing is I'm sure my cool did the same to yours.

Was it an even collision? I don't know.
I'm unsure at times still.
I definitely think my cool said "TILT"
Yours? I don't know but you were definitely bumped out of your groove.
I'm at least at that level of cool.

I'm living in cool kid confusion but with an assured feeling of my feelings.
I believe you are trying to retain your old cool or find an unexplored cool.
This I understand; I lived there once in that place.
My current confusion just has me shook up to ill logic sometimes.

Maybe one days we'll get our cools properly attuned.
Go to a cool mechanic for an alignment.
Or, do it like I like, DIY style.
Til then, I think we both live in the land of Cool Kid Confusion.

Damn. I was smooth.

But

I only half miss it.

The Great Beast

I'm happy today and I haven't been in this mood for a time now
It's because The Great Beast slumbers
I can hear the rumbling snores and feel the twisting of its body
Maybe it has been surprised by that weird knight that counts random numbers
Or maybe it has been exhausted because it knows that this battle it fights
Will ultimately be lost

There are times when it has me on the ropes, beaten down with world vision
But I can never give up; my stubborn barbarian won't allow it
He speaks in grunts but always drags me through the battle
Even when I don't see the point of the fight, he is there to rumble
At times becoming as bad as The Beast itself
Still, I'm glad for the assistance at the end of it all 

The Great Beast has allies and I need all the help I can get

The Great Beast is often followed into war by a crazy daemon
He rides The Beast sometimes and has me worried that my good mood isn't natural
Is that what is going on now?
Does the daemon have control again?
No, I'm merely content not erratic.
Both of those monsters are asleep in their cages, along with the dragon

It only began as a wyrm when I was young but I caged him quickly.
While others felt free to let out their young dragon, on a leash or not, I kept mine in check
Afraid of the fire it spit out.
I've seen it in action in others, growing out of control.

No way would I let that occur with me.

In the dungeon you go.

Somehow still, the wyrm grew bigger.
I tried to starve it but while battling other monsters and beasts, it ate.
It consumed all the negative experiences and grew strong,
Straining at the limits of its room becoming a dragon named Fury.
It is still in check but I fear the day it'll get loose.
I fear the monsters I could have become under its influence.
So, for now, it's caged and kept far away from the influence of The Great Beast.

The Great Beast still sleeps and the daemon is far away.

Still, I have two monsters I am consistently fighting against.
One is as old as the first breath I lost and the other is new as...well
We'll get to that one soon enough.
Let's go back to the former.
Generally skinny, tall, smiling with menace, I hate the first monster.
He stops me but at the same time I must battle him to move forward.
Changing forms, each battle is new; the results are different depending on will.
He eternally stalks me, all of us.
Some are better at staring him in the eye and striking him down.
Others succumb to him, much like they do to The Great Beast.
We all must face him at one time or another, How you do decides your path.
I always know this but must remind myself before the opportunities passes.
It can be beat but the struggle never ends.

I would rather face any of these than the new monster.
With all those other monsters, I have control; I can figure out ways to stop them with focused effort.
The latest monster is much harder to subdue, to stomp down.
Naga royalty with the face of the one you love that doesn't love you back,
Singing a siren song that always brings you back under its control.
It allows you to be happy listening to the melody of its voice
Before whipping your feet out from under you with its tail.
Landing right on your face, it rears back and punches a hole in your soul.
The worst is the icy feeling that spreads from the wound that begins to burn.
The only defense is the meditating monk that allows other thoughts,
Other thoughts to quiet the song and mask her/his/their face.
I love that monk; he's effective against many of the monsters living in here.

Speaking of, I can feel The Great Beast shaking its head.
Awaking to try to cause havoc again.
Reinforcements must be roused and defenses set up.
Never give up and call out for the monk.
That's the only advice I have at the end of the day.

Red Days, Cold Nights

Stuck, not enough time to get back to your tribe
All of your family is together for this moment, hopefully
You stand alone in a field of high grass
Trees sway far off in the distance as the wind kicks up
The sky is gray between bruised purple and fiery red clouds
All around is emptiness as you hear far off thunder
But it's not thunder
Those are explosions from the ships high in the sky
Dropping small stars to break us and the planet
Far away travelers with malicious intent
The reasons for the attacks were unknown
It doesn't even matter to you right now
Reason doesn't tell you if your family's city is burning
Nuclear winds buffet planes in the air, flying is impossible
Roads lead to craters and charred buildings, cars are a no go
Destruction or takeover?
No one knows the end game
We don't even know their faces
Reports run rampant on your small radio on the back of the motorbike
Rampaging gangs, zombies swarms, mutated dogs, toxic air
These are rumors but the devastation is real
Large machines also fall from the heavens
War-golems, screeching air wings, creatures in giant exoskeletons,
Large tanks with heavy treads unloading short extraterrestrial soldiers
Various sized enemies bringing one thing to this party- extinction
There is no time to contemplate strategies and plans
There is only survival and locating your family 
Cities will be vaporized, buildings will fall, crops will be burned
All you can concern yourself with is getting out of the path of destruction
Finding the way out of the darkness is the only option
Climb on your bike
Turn on the engine
Ride out
Avoid the highways
Stay low
Stay warm
Stay smart
Find your family
Strike back if you can but
Survive
That is your true mission

On Small Towns

Sweat
The beer bottle looks like it's sweating
Sitting in this Land Cruiser, playing rap, drinking the last home beer
There is no rap music in the bar, or at least very little
So I soak up some more urban beats as I sip to the bottom
Bathe in the last dregs of my city music before small town dance
I adjust my bent rim basketball cap, my major league city hat
I haven't picked a local college team but I'm zeroing in
The major sports team here sucks but the ladies make up for it
Small classy country chicks to big badass backwoods mamas
I fall in love nightly, again and again
And they love my up north talk if not my old city walk
Even the guys are friendly, to a point
They hate my comic book t-shirts I wear around here like armor
Like it's my business suit because I avoid an office
But it's Saturday and I'm here to mingle and not talk about that
Doesn't matter where you live, weekends and late nights are Lethe
Except here you sit under giant fans and the talk is syrupy slow
At least for the first few hours
It can be syrupy sweet too but you gotta move fast
Things close earlier down here, 'round here
I pull my sticky, faded Superman t-shirt from my chest
My baseball hat gets another shift, it's faded too
I'm on my way to faded, from drink, not smoke
Though if I find Jimbo I might go down that back road too
But my goal is a girl who dances in tight jeans tonight
Dancing awkwardly but well at points in an equally tight shirt
Black like asphalt, brown like fudge, red like this dirt
Yella as the sun or white as her uncle's Klan sheets
I'm happy with my partners on my dance card
Swaying back and forth in the summer's heat
Humidity like a Zion party, sweaty walls
Tumbling to a pick-up, groping in a dark room with bad A/C
Collapsing in joy and from sheer exhaustion and drink
Leaving in the morning before she rushes off to church with her great aunts
Me? Heathen
Plus I got work to do, pictures to draw and words to write
My mind and thoughts an offering to older, ancient deities
Whose god or gods or goddesses are real?
Who knows? Who cares?
I left the jungle to pause time
I'm just here to enjoy the slow, smooth comfort of small town living

Eternal Battles

Good vs Evil. Chaos vs Order. Dark vs Light.
Single vs Relationship. Mayo vs Mustard.
Only one of those I care about consistently (although Mustard is MY winner)
In your heart and future vision, you see that vision
Shadowy but there
You like them or your friends like them
Or you're lucky and it's both
It gives you a warm feeling of comfort
You want to stay there
It's easy, with a few fights, but still better than a lonely Friday
Even if FRINGE is great
And there are still so many pretty people you haven't met yet
They say the world is small
It is
But it's also HUGE
People abound, EVERYWHERE
Black, white, brown, yellow, red, maybe purple
I love all the women
I fight all the women
New faces and names breed new adventure
Short, tall, skinny, thick, fat, crazy, slightly crazy
It's a smorgasbord of new experiences
But is it as good as the tried and true?
The eternal battle rages onward....