I am stuck in a box tonight
And the people don't care.
I am not acknowledged.
I am not missed.
For all they care, I don't exist.
So I must spend my evenings
With no one.
They laugh. They fight.
They eat their meals or sit quietly.
They don't care about what lies
In the corner of the room.
They don't want to know what's locked inside.
If they did, they'd find what's left
Of a friend they never had.
They'd understand that some must exist
With no one.
Nothing great can stay.
Everything's sweet for awhile,
But then it goes down.
A castle becomes a house of cards
And kings become statues.
The great empires become
Sunken cities full of
Demoralized nobodies,
Half buried in foolishness.
The children studying
And waiting to be leaders
Become laborers waiting for their overtime,
For nothing great can stay.
Rooms become walls,
Schools become prisons
And inevitably,
When you are lonely,
The world is a void.
Cities have sunken
Into the ground.
Dreams have died,
Buried alive
Like flowers
In a late snowstorm.
Hope has been
Crushed like those
Unwanted insects
We step on
Every day.
When you are lonely,
Your soul is
Just a speck
Empty, lifeless spaces.
The only places
Where you can find me
Most of the time.
The parties deny me.
The groups ignore me.
The masses detest me.
Vibrant spaces
Full of life
Can spare none for me.
Empty, lifeless hours.
The only times
When I can be myself.
There is no pressure
To change or to try
Fitting in with the crowd
If I could be anything
I'd be the thing that eats you up inside
Or that person you dream of at night
That special someone you can never have;
If I could do anything
I'd do the things you said could not be done
I'd go to places you have never been
I'd see the things that you have never seen
I'd say the things that no one's said before
And if I were in charge of the world
I guess you wouldn't be,
You'd just be a
Face in the crowd
An unremarkable
Unrecognizable
Indistinguishable
Imagine being a
Face in the crowd
An unremarkable
Unrecognizable
Indistinguishable
Devoid of uniqueness
Face in the crowd,
Why are you there
Nobody knows
Nobody cares
Everyone else is a
Face in the crowd
Surrounded by people
And yet so alone
You might as well be
On a desert island
Are you gonna miss me
When I've left this place
To go somewhere else
And I'm gone;
Will you remember me
Or just forget me
Like those leaves you stepped on
Last fall
That old food you threw out
Last week
Those papers you recycled
Yesterday
Those old friends you lost touch with and
Who knows
Where they are now;
I know I'm gonna miss you
I come from things incomplete.
Rooms half cleaned.
Dinners half eaten.
Assignments half done.
Those projects you started,
Never finished.
Books you gave up on,
Never read all the way through.
I come from things forgotten.
Songs you never sang
Because you didn't know the words.
Stories you half-wrote,
Then forgot they existed.
Christmas gifts you bought,
Then forgot to give
To that special friend.
Conversations permeate
Throughout the busy area.
Who the voices are,
What they could be saying...
It's all unknown to me.
Fingers point at another building.
Viewed from a distance,
It looks like a cabin
That often goes unnoticed
By those who can hope.
To those who can't, it looks like a classroom.
They only see one difference.
No one appears to be learning.
Instead, they wait for nothing,
For they have nothing to study.
I could be one of them,
I went over the list again and again,
on the long drive out to the home
I’d left such a short time ago.
I rehearsed my performance,
illusory strength I knew I’d need,
for this one last meeting, this
necessary gathering over some
physical property. I entered
not wanting to stay a moment longer
than necessary, not wanting any debate,
any negotiation, any volatile atmosphere
our sparking emotions could ignite.
Just take what I had to have, reveal nothing,
draw my lips tight, not engage, all said
and no reason to say any of it again.
This mask, that book, the small TV.
Tell me about my mother,
because I have to come to terms with her.
I must.
I see her life in my face
and her ghost in my eyes
everytime I stand in front of the mirror to shave.
Tell me everything,
just do not tell me that there is no reason.
I can't walk away,
When I can't even stand.
You said you'd help me up,
But you took away your hand.
I'm falling down,
Slower than quicksand.
You were my only stability.
I fell back to the land.