The world is vast
and yet so empty
grime and filth flood these city streets
shaking metal
concrete mazes
people that change less than moon phases

Last skyscraper built decades ago
our last attempt to touch God.

We have all given up
we all run to green
it lights the streets
it floods these bars
where people I went to highschool with
flood their minds
to block out their sense of hopelessness

Our world is shelled and hollowed and barren
like a church on a Monday afternoon.
Where I sit and ask for forgiveness
for being born into this

We are all lonely
We are all desperate.
Desperate for love
Desperate for happiness
Desperate for a sense of self worth

This TV floods my ears
it buzzes its lies and exaggerations into my skull
it horns its subliminal messages into my synapses.

We have driven these roads of red and green
we've seen all there is to be seen
Shock value no longer exists
Trust us when we say we've seen it.

There are no more surprises on an Earth so damaged and retired.

(My nephew said to me the other night "Tell me a story."
He said it in such a way that he wanted something original
something filled with honor and heart and family and glory:
A story no one's ever told before.

I'm sorry kid, there's no such thing....there's no such thing anymore.)