Virtue Reality Check

Keep a muzzle on your mind
and a leash around your limbs
unless you dare to die
in a battle you can’t win.

Principles have perished
with virtue on their side.
But life cannot be understood.
Greater men have tried.

It’s best you take it lightly
and silence all the sounds.
The best that you can hope for
is just to stick around.

The Meaning of Life

You’ll just know.
You’ll just…
know.

I finally know.

Intuition
like a lightning bolt,
like a realization
at the tip of my tongue
yet light-years away
and not composed of any words at all.

Reaching out to touch it,
my chest caves in
as I cross over dimensions
and break through magnetic fields.

Crushing. Imploding. Recoiling. Resounding.

The universe aligns
and I catch a glimpse
of a worm-hole
black-hole
holy grail of light.

If you open up the sun,
life as we know it
will end.

I catch my breath.

Yes.
This is it.

Epiphany

Synapses
overstimulated.

Neurons
no longer firing
but on fire.

Heart and mind
racing.
Only one
can win.

Can’t catch my breath.
Can’t catch my thought.

And even if I did
my hands are too shaky
to get a grip.

Insight?
Insanity?

Who said there was a difference?

I Am Not Opaque

There is a strange beauty
in my world of chaos.
And I have grown to realize
that I would not want it
any
other
way.

This is why I stray
from all
safe
hypocritical
havens
and bask in the glory of
dangerous
uncertain
truths.

My madness
is apparent
in the tears I cry.

Your madness
is hidden
in the words you lie.

I am translucent.
This makes me vulnerable
to those who wish ill
upon my insides.

But I can turn light
into a million different hues
as the particles diffuse
through the membrane of my skin
and create
Pablo Picassos
within.

Sometimes the colors swirl
into a sorrow so blue
I wish I never let the light in at all.

Other times
red and yellow
burn such passion onto my soul
that I think I’ve finally found—
The Answer.
I finally know!

But then the grays
cloud over my thoughts
saying
black and white
do not exist.

And I am happy
that light tortures me like this.

Liberal Hypocrisy

Ok, I just need to get something off my chest. This whole “Miss California” scandal angers me, but not for the reasons most of you would assume, coming from me.

If I had to choose between calling myself Liberal or Conservative, yes, I would say I am Liberal. But above all, I am RATIONAL and LOGICAL. As such, nothing angers me more than a hypocrite because a hypocrite is someone whose actions and/or words contradict each other—the antithesis of reason and logic.

It seems to have become vogue to associate conservatives with hypocrisy (or maybe that’s just because I live in a liberal social sphere?), but liberals can be just as hypocritical. And being that I associate myself with liberalism, it probably angers me more to see a liberal hypocrite than a conservative one; it undermines what liberals stand for.

As such, it really makes me mad that Liberal Media & Co. has crucified this Miss California woman FOR STATING HER OPINION! For the love of Darwin, do you not see the hypocrisy here?! No, I do not agree with her opinion. But it is her opinion. And if you listen to her response, she is fairly diplomatic about it. Here’s a link to the video of her response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XMvviFbkf0

Now, I’m not saying it was the most intelligent of responses (“in my country…” xD), nor the most direct (she never specifically answered the question about whether or not other states should legalize gay marriage) but it was honest. She said that she was glad that Americans are able to choose one or the other but that she herself believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. This was actually quite bold, given that the question came from judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay man. She could have played it safer and given him the answer he wanted to hear, but instead she remained true to her beliefs.

Let me be clear: I do NOT agree with Miss California’s opinion; I think same-sex marriage should be legal throughout this country. I could come up with many arguments against her position and I could point out many inconsistencies in her beliefs (as further articulated in her recent press conference), but that is not my point here.

My message is to you, my fellow liberal friends: Please remember that freedom of speech is the cornerstone of liberal values. Do not censor your enemy; if you believe so strongly that they are wrong, then this should be apparent when they speak. And if so, present your counterargument and disprove your opponent. This is the only noble way to fight for your cause. Anything less will only work against you.

Anointed Ashes

Back against the wall.
Shoulders bearing heavy weight.
I prayed to bend
instead of break
but I guess my spirit was not so malleable.

And so break I did,
into a hundred thousand splendid pieces.
Some shiny.
Some shabby.

Some sparked into a fire
activating Fight or Flight!
in my central nervous system.

Except not—
for all my senses were dulled.

Major Depressive Disorder
plus
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
equeals
Delayed and Inappropriate Response to Stressors.

So I just watched
as the pieces of my soul ignited
and spread like wildfire at my feet.

I welcomed the warmth.
And then the burn
as the blaze engulfed my gutless limbs.

I am convinced
I would have watched myself incinerate
without ever batting an eyelash
toward the flames.

Had it not been for
the wandering wind that called my name.

A silent whisper
across ethereal space
blew out the entire conflagration
and dropped me
in my place.

Verse

Poetry
expresses truth
without committing to facts.

It is the essence
of being
resounding
from the Earth
and into
the writer’s verse.

Reality.
Duality.

Life’s symphony—
set to words.

Citizen

An over-saturated photo
depicts the definition
of my physical existence.

Although my face was rounder then.

Stamps
signify my passage
into foreign territories.

Visas
indicate a longer,
more deliberate stay.

Sometimes superfluous.
Sometimes absent altogether.
But it’s all symbolic anyway.

Crossing borders
through cities
of countries
and neighbors.

This little booklet is my proof,
my passport
to the world.

The pages of my life story.

As such,
it offends my orderly olfaction
when they carelessly stamp
out of sequence.

But I keep moving.

I keep moving because
if I stop
I start thinking.
Wondering.

How can lands belong to people?
How can people belong to lands?

And how come I don’t have
a passport to
my soul?

Stubborn Solution

Stir, stir, stir!
A swirling, cloudy blur.
A silent prayer:
Dear Alchemist, let this be the one.
But sediments settle.
Mind unsettles.
Elusive solvent elixir.

Cephalalgia

Questions

upon circles

skimming patterns

of figure-eights

in hot-cold flashes

across my forehead

pulsate the weight

of existentialism’s

symphony

of silver-shelled

facades

onto my shoulders,

into the ground,

unto Thy God.