Ode to Our Town

Cruising through the cemeteries
of tombed faces far away
I slip into the grave of days
where you and I used to charade.
Now there's only broken glazing
of raged eyes storming the crowds
sharding down upon our faces
razored hate from bloodied clouds.

Why can't I understand what you say?
Why can't I sympathize with your prayers?
Seems forever since we were friends,
how's this union gonna end?

Visiting the prisoners
of barricaded neighborhoods
watching, filming, bio-printing
the privacy of citizens – 
weary wearing looking glasses
telescoping every pore, 
live like burnt-out, boarded storefronts
hiding their emptiness within.

Why can't I understand what you say?
Why can't I sympathize with your prayers?
Seems forever since we were friends,
how's this union gonna end?

We use to talk about anything
fighting, laughing, hugging, forgetting;
now we can't talk about nothin'
without yelling about everything.
When you're at peace
there are no triggers;
when you're at war,
there's no forgiveness.
Why have we let them come between us?
Why let hate sever our united fates?
 
Fleeing from the holocausting
of our human decency
pitchforked by the friends of childhood
come to tar and feather me;
on the corner cyclops staring
decoding and redirecting
all our steps choreographed 
to the bottom line of the rich.

Why can't I understand what you say?
Why can't I sympathize with your prayers?
Seems forever since we were friends,
how's this union gonna end?

...and all the towns came tumbling down
as all the walls grew heavenward,
and from our bones meal be ground
to feed the feral, mindless herd.