Memorial Day Sale

My father calls me every memorial day, and says "They tell me I'm supposed to thank a veteran today." I tell my dad that he's only supposed to think of me today if I'm dead and gone. I tell him to call me back in November, when the holiday for surviving veterans comes around.

How about that, instead of making sure my fellow veterans and I don’t end up homeless when we get home and/or giving us every benefit we deserve, we get a bullshit holiday in November where school kids who have zero concept of war except for maybe the TV show Army Wives, and propaganda style commercials meant to get them to sign a contract, have to stand at 11:11 on November 11th for a moment of silence. Well, at least that's what they made me do in my school.

And how about this, for the ones who don't make it home, they get one day near the end of the month of May where people get to miss work and throw footballs and Frisbees and get drunk and eat good food all in the name of their sacrifice. How about that.

I propose that we just end all wars, that way we don't have to observe these ridiculously inept holidays. But unfortunately I'm just too smart to realize that in our world peace is nothing but a 5 letter word that looks cute on a bumper sticker.

I would imagine that whoever owns the company that makes those mini American flags just adores the end of May.

I view Memorial Day with the same lens that I view Valentine's Day, Earth Day and Mother's Day/Father's Day. You should always treat your significant other with respect and love as long as you choose to and you don't need expensive flowers and stuffed animals to do so. Picking up trash on the highway one day a year in April will not save the planet. And you should always respect and love those who raised you as long as they did a good job and deserve the respect.

Maybe if every single day of our lives we were reminded that people come home from far away places with flags draped over their coffins, we could all be a little more hesitant when it came to allowing 600 billion of our tax dollars to be spent on guns, and tanks, and nuclear weapon storage.

And those flags on those coffins? They're American flags. The same flags that car dealerships and furniture stores wave when they have their Memorial Day blowout sales. Using the death of good soldiers in an effort to sell a $500 sofa or a used Honda Accord. If you ever need to describe the United States to a foreigner, tell them that example.

Maybe if we all realized that there are some very sad, confused and grieving mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and grandfathers and grandmothers and children and cousins and aunts and uncles and friends who get cripplingly despondent on more than just one day a year.

And what's so hard about remembering those who died in the name of "freedom" every single day? I do it, it's killing me for sure, but I do it. Mostly because I have no choice, but I can sure as hell guarantee that I would NEVER, ever, send young, promising men and woman to a war in order to sweat and die, especially if it's completely and totally unnecessary.

Freedom, yea right. The freedom for bomb makers to make a ridiculous amount of money at the expense of innocent human life.

Grief does not follow a 365 day schedule. Grief cannot be let out one day, and put away the next. This Memorial Day, don't only think about those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, also think about those people who are doomed with the daily reminder of their loss for the rest of their carbon based lives. Maybe then you will learn something about loss, and war.

You don't even have to wait until Memorial Day to do this, you can start today. But if it's too hard to think about the people who died so Macy's could have a 50% off sale in their name, well, then just pick yourself up a yellow car magnet.

Two's Day

I drop it in with my kick like john stanier slamming the skins whats so bad about sin? pour smoke out of a hole above my chin like my name is Andre three. thous.and and I spit rhymes like hot coffee, just cocoa for the youngins, i dont want to get caught like lohan with mascara runnin, whats so funny? Mr. Carlin with the initials GC. now I see, now i believe, now ive got a bullshit american dream to achieve, a son and daughter to leave, and enough CO2 expelled to help my race push ctrl-alt-deleeeeete.

Coma Toes

I paint dash lines like yellow dripping icy melt all across your floor,
Painting my way out of the front door.
I paint my face black and stay in the middle of the middle of the night,
I am always right.

Heart breakers? Risk takers? Money makers? Fucking fakers,
All those billions of fakers.

And who do you think sat frustrated dreaming up chaos to sweep across,
Who do you think is completely lost?
Who do you think sat with eyes red, feet and legs all tangled in a mess,
Ripping all the threads of the sheets off of this here bed?

Leaf rakers, medicine takers, tax payers and baby makers,
Fucking fakers.

And now all I'm doing is playing catchup with Death,
Paging through all these chronological regrets,
Interest rates, healthy markets and the slavery of debt,
Everyone around me trying to convince themselves there is no death.

Fakers.

blegch

My fist in the air, blocking out the sun If only I had a definite record of all the crying I'd done The business of being an alcoholic's son All my miles and measurements, I'm feeling stung Keep your pennies out of my wishing well my thoughts lead me to dwell, melt and swell Got an internal organ with 4 chambers forged in Hell My soundtrack, beats me feelings that I could never tell And I am still trying to tickle myself well, again, But this internal organ, so swollen, please mend got a parasitic adventure of death in this head. drawn and spent, ripped apart, so much for these 4 chambers in my heart. So much for these 4 chambers in my heart. So much for these four chambers in my heart. warm and sticky riding fluid into your center, i materialize words and letters, im a goliath of your dreams and i make everything better. i make everything worse and hellish, things i say are disgusting and brackish, i leak radiation and my teeth are yellow, hello, goodbye, no more hello's.

Gastronomical

She stood like my mother holding a newport cigarette
the fake smile of depression soaking everything wet
and my beams reflect the eyes of a ghost outside
My fogged breath, and the proof that I will die

And now I float above the air, United Airlines 747
I make realities; you are all 1-10, I am eleven
And the benadryl soaking my cells, coach class hell
Tripping the Atlantic, kingdoms in the clouds that swell

And as I dig at the insides of my weak guts
I am candlelit eternity introvert, drowning in love
And as I trip through my own catacombs I create inside
I find a static vision of you happily haunting me all my life

My eyes will be kept shut air tight, and my ears peaked
to hear all those frequencies laid out neat
And my past is NOTHING but mine
I'm teaching myself to travel time.

Big Ugly Mouth

I realize that Henry Rollins has a spoken word CD titled "Big Ugly Mouth". I am not trying to copy him in any way. I am, in fact, a fan of his work and remember listening to a CD of his on the way to Frankfurt one night drunk as hell, he is great.

The Ugly Mouth came about from a line that I had written in a poem. I liked it enough to write it on a giant poster in my room, and attempt at using it as a moniker.