Welcome to Ameri-K-K-KA

Land of the damned and home of the enslaved

A place where land is worth more than a fair trade

And someone's final destination is either in jail or in a grave

We live in a place so socially divided that we love to judge someone on their culture, but could never judge ourselves

We are also divided by poor and wealth where the rich people can live in mansions but the less fortunate has to fend for themselves

We live solely off our government, but let me not get into that

If I talk too much they'll surely have it out for my ass

We live in a land that used to be segregated by color but now even the white folks can call niggers brothers

Welcome to Ameri-K-K-Ka, home of the KKK

Not the people you used to hear on the news everyday

No, the people that you walk pass crossing the street

Yes, I mean every single individual that you meet

Take African Americans for instance

We are so hell bent on destruction that we're killing our own race

Let's forget the government placing guns and weapons in our towns, they did that so we can die off at our own pace

We live in the land of opportunity but opportunity never arrives for refugees

They can't cross into our border and if they can you'd find them on the streets homeless, cold - looking for something to eat

They're too broke to even apply for government cheese

Yes we live in America where you see a mixture of races, but mostly whites

You see black people but the vast majority of them like to get into fights

It seems like everyone can come together and fight for social injustice

But do nothing when a leader causes warfare with just a push of a button

Yes, welcome to America, the greatest country in the world

Where we don't hold back any boy or girl

We just let them act a fool and make them famous cause while doing it "they look cool"

We live on a land where Native Americans live on refugee camps and homeless veterans gets no type of respect

Depressed people are often neglected

And bills to enhance our lives are often rejected

We're trying to be a light of hope but that's the opposite of what we're manifesting

Religion often divides us along with money and power

Christians judge others and send them all downwards

Hey.. I bet people in Flint still can't take a shower

I bet Native Americans been stopping that pipeline for hours

But hey don't pay attention to that, watch this

A cute little doggie can do a backflip

Better yet, stray bullets killed 3 kids

Not only that but there's a new virus that's making everyone sick

But on to brighter things there's a giraffe that's pregnant

Oh she finally had her baby? Better late that never

So let's forget about bs like that and find out what the government has done behind our backs

Hello, this is America where voices are left unspoken

And every rise to power is often left broken

But don't be afraid we're the greatest country ever

And just like a church the doors to our country are open

Welcome to America

I forgot

I'm confused

I can touch

But I can't

I can feel

But I can't

I forgot

I truly have

And I can't

Remember

What.

It happened in the library.

I saw John Wallis cry.

Not a hysterical sob or a mourn stricken wail, but rather a gentle stream of tears to say goodbye.

I saw John Wallis cry.

His tough guy exterior melted when his father said die.

I saw John Wallis cry.

He looked at the book in his hands watching the memories fly.

I saw John Wallis cry.

Tear-soaked pages from the his father's yearbook of '85.

Anxiety is like walking up the stairs too fast.

You can't catch your breath.

It feels like a matter of life or death.

And your mind tells your body it's serious.

You fight to find stability,

But the world around you is moving faster than your feet.

Anxiety is bright, bright light.

A dark, blurry tunnel surrounded by white.

It is scorching heat,

Rising from your feet.

Filing the blood vessels right beneath,

Your vulnerable skin, so sleek.

Constricting your heart as well as your mind,

As you fight just to find,

A single sentence lost in tangled thoughts.

But your ability to think clearly comes to a screeching halt.

It feels like biking down a hill too fast and it's not your fault,

When the tires flip you over the handle bars onto the asphalt.

You lay there speechless unable to comprehend. 

You feel like your life is coming to an end.

As it flashes before your tunnel visioned eyes,

At that moment you despise,

Your aching soul that's been compromised,

By the conniving words that endlessly float through your mind.

She will never escape from my head.

No matter how many tears I shed.

No matter how many years ago I fled.

No matter how many drinks, I still pretend

That I am fine.

But I always hear her in the back of my mind.

I just want peace in a positive mind,

But until then I'll pretend that I'm fine.

Because anxiety is like walking up the stairs too fast,

And I still haven't caught my breath.

Alice sits and plays with her hair

At the edge of the world she's without a care

Alice, dressed in something other than blue

Perhaps she's happier than you

While she fumbles with ribbons of white

And paints imaginary pictures of delight

Cats inside-out and bloody things

Squashed caterpillars infected with wasps stings

The despair of rabbit, crucified on a clock

The Queen left dead on a chopping block

Yes Alice skips the day away

Insanity is only a conviction if you see the crime

The dazed, distressed, those very first signs

The delicate fall from grace that's a feather in the wind

But its final decent will crack the world with its sin

Little drops of mercury that turn to led

Found in the stomach of a hatter, poisoned and now so dead

Like the rest of Wonderland as it burns in burrows all over the world

Alice's pyromania has the news confused

Don't cross Alice or she'll bring you your death

And their will be no tea party for you before your last breath...

© Richard Withey. All rights reserved.

Ashes anticipate ability

Behind bands of burden

They thrust tolerance to the tension

That those tired, tangled, thinkers

Will with wit, vindication, wrestle ways

Filling further formulation from

Inner imagination

Poisoning peril push

Previous, past, present,

Artist allay agony

Allowing all affliction

Venom widening within

Blood bending beneath breath

Calm, collected, conclusion

Circumvent courage

Live listless

Endurance enhances execution

Ignore indication to intoxication

Remain ruthless, relentless, rigorous

Tearing, tedious tasks to threads

Continue contesting conflict

Withdraw, wild, vivacious

An artist allowing all affliction

Allows ascending abilities to array

Following fortnights forge forward

Flourish for fatality

everyone tells me

how to stitch my own wounds,

they say

boys will be boys,

they say

girl, don't you swoon

i say

everyone shows me

just what to do when a

boy breaks your heart,

they say

sing your own tune,

they say

be your own moon,

i say

nobody tells me

just what to do when a

boy's never broken my 

glass heart in two,

i say

girls will be girls,

i say

boy, don't you swoon

i say

nobody shows me

how to stitch my own wounds,

i say

he is a her,

i say

she was my sun,

i say

everyone told me

our love was a gun

and i'd never convince if 

i don't find my prince,

they say

this is a sin,

they say

you're lost within,

i say

everyone tells me

how to stitch my own wounds,

they say

boys will be boys,

i say

girls will be too,

because

nobody told me

just what to do when a

girl leaves your glass heart

broken in two.