For Joey, Robin and Philip

For Joey,  Robin and Philip

Philip Seymour Hoffman
Are you coming to the tree?
Oh Philip
I am sorry we were not at the tree
You didn’t wait long enough
You fell
You couldn’t see
All that shit in your veins
clouded your vision

Robin
Were you waiting at the tree?
Did you see Philip?
Your lights were so bright
Maybe you blinded each other

Flares
Sparked and Spinning
Bright whirlwinds of light so piercing
No one could
see past your shields
those god damned shields
My friend had one too
I tried to smash it
Stared so hard I couldn’t see anything
Didn’t know where I was anymore
I never found an opening
I never broke through
And he never got home
Burned up
Faded out like a shooting star
Nothing but smoke

This earth keeps pulsing
the faint rhythm barely perceptible at times
Can explode into a stampede that pounds the senses
And sometimes it is so hard to bear witness
Turns you dark
Burns you out
Burns you up

This twilight is growing dimmer
But it’s not all smoke yet
Sparks flicker here and there
And you gotta capture those like lightening bugs
and hold them in a jar in your heart

Babylon

Part one

Babylon
you come from all angles
suffocating you surround my physical being
Pushing you are pressure
on the energy I emanate from within
I feel you
weighing heavy
coming from all angles
the poison air I breathe, brother
to the river running poison with
industrial waste
while the pleasure saturated population
continues to consume greedily with haste
Babylon you come from all angles
shooting out from behind the eyes of strangers
from all angles you come
we grow feeding on your pollution
my lungs are black from your factories
my mind was once tricked by your lies
my hands are hardened from struggle
you've created so much work
it seems insurmountable
Babylon
you come from all angles
you are so hard to beat
you push back
on the energy I emanate from within

Part two

in vain
searching eyes
we are a scanning tribe
glaring over your black topped horizons
we gasp at skies
of dreams untold
we are a drain
in your swirling sea of misery
a light
without shadow
holding true to our breath