Listen to Brandon L. Rucker's music while enjoying this page
The world had died while I was sleeping
no intakes of gas
no honking, hollering
merely to exist
I found some ice
spilled in the crosswalk
and cleaned it up
knowing that the sun would not let it last
that the air would not forever give us our addiction
that there is no anonymous for our souls
The streets speak empty on Saturdays
we are broken from all the social expectations
we lie down in dandelions wishing ourselves whole
too tired to whine to anything but a television
We say to it,
Why did you ever dream?
Dreaming was unproductive; you just arrived
where everyone else is.
How come you didn't say no?
Just nodded your head
and went with the flow?
You say that maybe you should have jumped off that cliff
thirty years ago
while you had the opportunity
instead of caring for children that despise you,
spit on your image
and screw it up
to enlighten themselves on how much better off they are
But when the noise is deadened
and the dust whispers to you from the other room
you convince yourself of the success you had
that you lived on clouds of splendor,
safe within your mind
pleased we return to the bedroom to contemplate
the nature of subatomic particles underneath our pillow.
Sunday breaks into morning
and we dress in pretty promises
attend the service!
tell the congregation that we'll be perfect
tell them that the world has not won
that the skin on our brow is yet to wrinkle
And with great confidence we open onto Monday
Hopes alive in brilliant swirls around us
We have a chance to shift paradigms
No more living just to live.
We place our feet onto the calendar
wobble even though it seems to be a stable line
Today we dream, we say.
and like so many promises we fall into disappointment
fall like cascading schedules
written up by family members
thinking of your best interests
'remember to buy that steak
and watch that game
and hang out with friends you can't even remember the middle names of'
because that's just what you do
Yeah, just close your eyes
we're coming to the truth of things
