life swirls in Styrofoam cups of coffee

drank in through cracked lips & yellowed teeth

life twinkles in the distance,

flashing red bulbs above cell towers

stared at from highways on nights without sleep.

life is in the smile Of a waitress in the diner,

3 am cigarrette break & tips are all she has-

life lives in the tears

of every single divorced dad.

the same life that lives in leftovers,

tupperwared & saran-wrapped,

comes out your other end in the piece of shit you shat.

life is in the bottles That you’d smash to pieces with your friend

And life is really what you make it,

you’ll find out in the end.

Looking at a dead body elicits a unique feeling unto itself
You shudder with intense eyes

Non-action emotively draws to mind what was hyper-action not too long ago

Indicative of everything in its good bad wrong definite place

And to see the body after 

In a gorgeously painted box

Propped above the crowd 

Conveying a persistence of the soul

Or an almost worship like state of the body 

An idol to love

Adorned with various flowers 

Compounded with subtle music

And tightly wrapped mints for all 

Good breath for good greetings can be even more chilling 

The dead in their best clothes

Eyes shut and skin painted

For all to peruse for a few hours

Everything good bad wrong definite scrambled into its right place according to loved ones intent 

I once took sadistic pleasure in empathizing with the clear pain of a boy who bullied me in middle school as his frail body and face caked in pimples lightly shook when he stared dead-eyed at my dad in a casket

a little magic is gone from the world when

Eskimos doing blow

call women cunts in their tents,

blood-red eyes &

toothless grins

as they slap you on the back

& expect you to join in.

“Pier 11 Ferry to Belford”

Brooklyn bridge sun

Throws yellow grace at Jersey City towers

Steve, Tom, and I 

look through yellow sunglasses

Ripping through untouched waters

“Sea Bright to Asbury Park”

Everything the same 

Then,

Mansions 

Sweeping walls to block the opulence 

Or to block the unwanted 

Mansions sweeping mansions

They must have snipers 

-Reality check-

Through the Asbury Park Boardwalk tunnel

Impassioned carousel music keyboardist

Cigarette dangling

Hair dangling

Teeth dangling

Life dangling 

Talent raging 

With a huge smile 

And we smile back

“Asbury Park to Seaside”

Picture with B&B proprietor, George 

His sincere excited grin like my nephews

Swiss army backpack has to go 
Giant welts on my back, oh!

Inland detour

New backpack from army navy surplus 

Big ass camo 

we find our way to 

Point pleasant’s people and cigarette caked Boardwalk  

The sun casting powerful rays all over 

“Route 35 Mania”

Shark fin flippers for torpedo powerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr -breathe- errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr -breathe- errrrrrrrrrrrrr (drawn out for goofy comedic effect)
(said in an old man voice): 

uhhhhhhhh help meeeeeeeeeeee no water the sun the heat our legs our feet the sun the heat nail clippers are what I need please please please nail clippers are what I need give them to me!

Water from a hose on the highway was never so tasty

Seaside sand graced, we

Boardwalk cheesteaks ate, expensive not free

Mozzarella sticks and fries, tasty!

Sleeping on toms construction zone house deck, yes please 

“Seaside to Motel”

Stop at rite aid 

Cover up cuts and blisters 

Break, eat almonds, drink water

Stop at rite aid 

Cover up cuts and blisters 

Break, eat dried fruit, drink water

Stop at general store 

Cover up cuts and blisters 

Break, eat almonds, drink water

Stop at rite aid 

Cover up cuts and blisters 

Break, eat almonds, drink water

Sun block in my eyes

Toms legs fried 

McDonald’s bathroom flushing will surely fix my eyes 

B
  R

      E

          A

              K

Into 
           P

     I

    E

                  C

             E

                              S 

And über to a motel 

Where 

Everything’s closed

Out of water and we can’t even find somewhere to buy it 

There’s a nuclear power plant nearby 

Let’s just order a pizza pie

And not buy drinks

But be dumb and not think 

So order water and something else from dominos 

Chocolate lava discomfort follows 

And getting really choked up by 

the ending of Finding Nemo 

“Motel to New York”

Was Route 35 mania
Then Route 9 depression 

Now GSP North Blues

And Immense Blister Horror

But godammit we walked 70 something miles 

And it was wonderful

To see strangers seem familiar

Thousands of rubbernecking friendly smiles

sometimes i sit alone At night in a tent

with me, myself & the smell of my own ball-sweat

critical thinking & adventures in solitude

love company sometimes, if only just a text-message

from another guy

books i’ve read

& thoughts ive kept

within my head

are hard to get out

when i dont want

to open my mouth

One time a woman told me

im a smart person

& those words brought tears to my eyes

which sometimes i squeeze Shut

& im in the Liberty Science Center in a sleeping bag

with a sleeping dad

6 years old & Jersey City couldnt be more magical

I open my eyes & im in a sleeping bag,

side of the highway

gravel crunches as i shift

its cold & i

squeeze my eyes again,

trying to get back-

i never thought that im smart, & i never said im brave

maybe i never said those things

because im really just afraid.

Lonely young American man Born & raised in American land

Hair gown long & skin is tan

born with the name American

sees the world through red, white,

blue

the land of the brave, the free,

the few.

you can hitchhike all night

in the land of the midnight sun

stick out a thumb and trust someone

but know that

women

dont hitchhike

on the Highway of Tears.

Our Good Ol BoyWho art in a jacked up truck  

Hallowed be thy 35s 

Thy women: taken to a cornfield

Thy will: be done

As it is played in adult bars, purportedly, in a middle school dance too

Give us this day our daily catfish and ice cold beer

And forgive those who think of something original 

And lead us not into downtown 

But into copulation under the guise of hackneyed repurposed studio beats and not-even-subtly sexual lyrics that shower young minds

Amen!

Marco mans a little lost Without the dinerboys and the union boss, Italian kids in leather jackets, parking lot nights & streetlights that glow through the dark of New Jersey, the stuff we used to know, The Cups of coffee and pretty girls we never spoke to, K-Mart crushes long gone, concrete basements where We shared dreams not drugs, and talked about the kids we graduated with, How somehow, some of them made it, Our worlds were so small And we never knew that the world was so big, We never knew that it didnt end at Manhattan But I guess nothings the same as it was except the tattoos & the scars, Cause chainlink fences come down, and people sell cars.

Sometimes I think though, How did i get here? Where’s the world I used to know? Cause the one I’m in is pretty big, and it’s easy to get lost.

Float like a Butterfly

sting like a bee-

his hands can’t Hit

what his Eyes can’t see

The greatest ever

in death now free

the brave the strong

Muhammad Ali

From my understanding of the Situation I’m the product of the George W. Bush Administration, The “Afraid of Iraq and Iran” War on Terror in Afghanistan New Generation of young men & women dying for old-man’s Wars, weapons of Massive destruction MASSIVE lies which led to lost lives, liberty, and the expansion of capitalism So now The NSA has my information, Jack up police militarization Across America, For a nation We see As exceptional, We Are Exceptionally racist, Founded on unrecognized Genocides Then built up high by the blood of Slaves, then institutionalized By policies and legislation woven in Intricately inseparably dividing People, Racial divide leaving scars that won’t Heal and open wounds as large as wealth gaps that still bleed, Don’t Shoot, Hands up, Black Lives Matter and so do Facebook shares and social media spreading information telling us This is Happening, This is Happening Woah This Is NOT OK ok? Media talking heads spit shit that make heads spin, the “BE Afraid, We ARE Afraid, Security, Security Fear Muslims Mexicans and The War on Drugs is a total success!” (pipe-lining poor people to privatized prison Systems Where they’re set up to fail So that the money keeps flowwwwwwing) And that’s Normal! Pharmeceutical cartels driving prices of pills uP While docters perscribe addictions, Corporate interest groups sitting in government seats & Lobbyists passing policies, WHAT UP CAPITALISM, YES The National defense budget is a trillion dollars per year and people are starving to death down the block and live lives in fear, Fear for their bodies and fear for their children, and THAT’s

a little bit fucked up to say the Least but normalized police presence and white supremacists running for president Are the world WE’RE living in, The one that’ll be inherited by the first children of the New Millennium (that’s me, that’s US) so stand UP Speak UP, poets and People, white Asian black Latino American people, Are we a product of what we’re seeing? Because we watched from New Jersey in 2001 when black smoke rose from Manhattan, and we saw invasions, followed by outsourced protection, charred Blackwater bodies hung over the Euphrates like ornaments, feeding this insecure countries little “complex”- I’m just not buying it USA, I don’t dig it- the definitions have to change with the times, see change BE change, America needs to answer it’s crimes, There are lives on the line America YOU DO NOT DEFINE

Me.