Shortest day,
hunts the night;
buries the
suppressed sun.

End of light;
longest black,
stretched shadows run.

Stay the heart,
exhale exhausted;
vague are the days
that haven’t begun.

Our lowest point;
echoes the ancients,
bend time —
become undone.

the winter is cracking,
the streets are ensnared.
a crisis of cruelties —
wrapped in a flash bang flare.

truths have been learned,
lies have been told;
we’ll think with our minds,
but decide with our souls.

public on notice;
we can make our own news.
the fires that guide us,
are the freedoms we pursue.

I told myself
they do nothing
So I did nothing
I told myself
they’re all the same
So I just complained
and blamed
never once
questioning the frame
and now they
kill in my name

write a poem,
give birth in the dark

sell secrets,
hidden in your heart

fasten knives,
bladed death sharp

cut out stars,
to spark ardent art

war consumer,
bought and sold;
baby boomer,
beyond control.

oil assumer,
profits in bold;
death diffuser,
world catches cold.

deadbeat doomer,
gilded in gold;
embalmed abuser,
heads gonna roll.

failed-state groomer,
petty and old;
wealth of tumors,
as countries fold.

i am taking my heart
running away
slipping into the night
with nothing to say
gone in a vanish
i was just as startled
my ghost got made
like a rising vapor
i am dead today

Only on Mars:

• jump three times higher
• plant potatoes with Matt Damon
• visit Valles Marineris, 10 times the size of the Grand Canyon
• recall meeting a prostitute with three boobs
• fall into Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system
• deprive a billionaire of oxygen