The rain from the night
puddled his course.
Like sands in the desert -
the winds kicked up cold dirt.
Carrying thoughts peculiar,
Circling the odd world -
the loner marched forward,
Under pulsing light posts.

Clouds casted like sky castles.
Exhales lasted like chem trails.
Outstretched skyscrapers,
Haunted like tall tales.

The outcasts of the city -
Fixed like train rails,
Would outlast you for your pity,
In exchange for your giving.

Feening for their fix, sitting on a ledge.
Like pigeons bobbing heads,
Eating crumbs of bread.
Shaking cups of change,
Living on the edge...

The loner's mind lingered,
In a lost life, far off -
The desire for wholeness.
The feeling, the closest -
What he felt was the motion,
Like waves of the ocean -
So eager, the notion...

To escape the monotonous hum.

The uncertainty of wondering when he'd blast off into the mellow sun.
The beat of the drum that rolled on
Like tumbleweeds
To keep going...
And the alarm that woke him morning after morning,
buzzed like bumblebees.

The noise of familiar streets,
Taverns and theatres,
Now abandoned and boarded,
Lost in the ether.
Still played in the banks of memories
Like a recording.
Before times were foisted,
And the Lords took them over -
The Lord's, who he thought would help him survive.
But now his only means of keeping alive.

His thoughts - like a phantom,
Blended back into the havoc.
Coping in the dystopic madness.
A fix. A fiend. A son. A madman.

_

He buried his hand in his pocket to fetch his pass.
Hurried to catch his rocket before the time passed.

As the platform stacked with fraught faces,
Tracking their flights to depart from the station.

The craft, jangled and packed -
Made its way across a planet, mangled and scrapped.

Gusts of dust from decaying infrastructures,
Punctured the lungs of drunken, broken men.
Broken hearts from within,
Closed off from each other...
Open just enough to
Share the air in beaten tin -
Scrunched up to one another.

Barely human,
Barely being.
Hardly breathing,
Heart still beating.

Neither here nor there.
Feathers in the atmosphere -
Only feening...

For something more.
Somewhere far, some forever,
Nowhere close.
Something a fix couldn't fix,
Beyond the heaviness of cloaks.

The light above guided them home.
The slums beneath, howled alone.
The sun glowed on, settling in west ghettos.

Eyes sunken and worn.
Brows drooped like flower petals.
Bones floored, like gas pedals.
Smoke floated from plants below.

_

The fallen ones hung low. . .
Spoke in tongues unknown.

From thrones, they lusted.
They snuffed the life source of those that trusted.

Saviors they'd come,
But snakes they stayed.
For as many phases
the moon had displayed -
A myriad of shape shifting faces,
They'd take.

Coats of skins.
Nameless and shameless.
Scouted for dreamers,
To keep them in chains.

Their reasons for their cloaks would wane, oft.
Strong enough to control, but too weak to take them off.

The fallen ones watched where no eye can see.
From on high, they'd behold -
On whose blood they would drink when opportunity came.

Identities, replicated -
Frequencies, subjugated.
Their vulnerability. Their energy spent.
Their conscience, their soul, their every breath.

_

The loner got off on the Eastside of Ruble,
Bolted the door shut,
Threw his coats off -
And jotted down notes he right then and there crumbled...
He shrugged his shoulders,
And rubbed on his stubble -
Brainstorming his blueprints to flee all his troubles.

Bruises from many attempts to fly.
The rocket only blasted off in his mind.
It took every drop of power and time.

Names he would go by, and faces he'd make.
Jobs he would take. Promises he'd break.
Just to escape his reality's fate,
Hurt him, but not enough to cease from deceit.

Hours turned to days,
and days into years. . .
Chasing wind with make believe wings.
Until night fell again, he'd fly and fall again.

He danced in his labyrinth of his past.
He existed on the outside looking in.
Blueprints to take flight beat like his pulse.
Feeding his imagination of pretend.
_

He'd mutter,
"I don't want to feel,"
For years, he had chased it -
A rush to fly.
But how far will he take it?.

'But, but, but, but,'
His inner voice sputtered...
Like engine attempts
That failed to shoot up.

Old identities ,
Now clutter and cloaked -
Poked at his conscience,
Digging their holes...

He clutched the rope around his neck, a silver heart charm.
_

A picture of his parents -
Both been long gone...
The Lords depleted them.
Rung them both dry like rags in the sun.
The cries of his mother
Rung in his heart.
The scars of that day,
Dug trenches through his veins -
Puddled up his brain like muddy waters when it rained.

Inmates of emotion,
Couldn't lay dormant.
They'd tend to escape -
Breaking through the cage.

Like an owl in the branches,
Shrouded in blackness -
His complexities drove him to the rooftop for clarity.
To a god of unknown origins - he'd plea in sincerity...

In ways he couldn't word, or too worried to say.
Too nervous this lord would hear what his thoughts could convey.
An alien. One of the Lords, in a way...

He shoved his fist into brick, on the brink of extinct.
Feelings mingled like drink, it made him so weak.

Eyes blood shot.
Tears splat on the rooftop
Like ink blots.
In fetal position,
His soul was a sinkhole -
The glass ceiling above him guided
him home...

_

Then a light broke through a keyhole in the sky.

A ladder of gold rolled like a scroll.
The heavenly light met him
Where he lay sunken on the floor.

His eyes ripped through the illusions, like a sword.
His heart, like a lion on the prowl for more, roared.

In awe of the light,
His life was like liquid in the wind.
Soaring through the veil of stars,
Clutching his silver heart charm. . .

"Come forth," a voice from on high commanded him.

Without hesitation, his spirit abandoned him.
In an instant, he understood, without ever understanding it.

Catapulted like a cannonball up the ladder -
Like the teeth on a key, he opened up the door.
Mind, body, soul like batter in a bowl.

Dissolving into the ether -
Turning inside out.
He found himself, not in himself,
Outside of time.