I starved in pursuit of pulchritude
But wits, too, left me of bread bereft
Dangerous drug is solitude
With heavy threads, to weave, deft hands must heft
Dining alone, no less, confess, I'm treasured guest
Presence over presents
Empyrean ere tellurian
Less material, more ethereal
Watch feasts carrying carrion
I don't need a hello
I need, "Oh hell, he's approaching"
A whisper in the river
As the storm is encroaching
I'm salt of the earth
But I lost no savor
Rain cloud in the dearth
And my rhymes are the rails in the trails that taper
For the dreams of slithering enemies
I've an ink-filled saber
My voice is horse upon the track I am riding
The hellscape course pen has had no trouble finding
My voice is hoarse upon the track I am writing
Of landscape coarse eyes are too addled for sighting
I'm skeleton given the skeleton key to my moira
Revenant smelling the roses at funeral
Picking and counting afore I awake all the petals at wake
Even my echo is stuttering
Many a domino falling and shuttering followers wondering
If I shall forsake the muffins I have left to bake
My eye exams from Medusa
Handed the hand of Midas
Touching my woes
I see my gold reflection
Tears and mirrors have made me Mansa Musa
Dancing, in rain, can be fun
Cloudy days are only dour if you yearn for sun
They say they want me cooking but I spotted them hiding the spatula
Fortunately I'm prepared for the wolves and trolls in fabula
They want to know if I'm a dilettante or if I pay the toll
I've been paying dues since incunabula
Truthfully, I've been conditioned to pick up device
And peruse with the same blind ambition
And vigor that ancestors looked at their scripture
We hunger the same, well go figure
All changes revolve around figures we worship
And strengths of our warships
Find myself hoping subconsciously
I'll find the love that my family promised me
When they said, "Honey, you'll find someone, honestly"
Though I know, consciously, that Tollman offers no apologies
When he collects my path's fee
Take a strand of hair from body of my work and know me
I'm a shepherd not a counter, of the sheep, in sleep
The trophies, never, had the same effect, as strophes
Mind your biases and what another's advice is
I traveled to different continents and found the same vices
And while I found some fascinating idiosyncrasies
All in all, same people different prices
Maybe I do fear
Comely match will near
And I'll be fain to sacrifice the precious resource time
Upon the altar of an undeserving goddess
Got this
Beanstalk, I have come to harvest
This Jack, fears not, what atop the stalk is
Prowess isn't underpinned by recognition
Rodents in the Weser didn't need to know who played the flute
Many passionate pushed to contrition
Because laymen don't know the difference 'tween desperate and resolute
Oftentimes, I fear sleep
'Cause I fear to wake another day to hamster wheel
The emergent quality from meter, beat, rhyme, and melody's
Enough to dictate, how you act and feel
So I don't worry if meaning goes under listeners' radar
Whether my speed or diction is the culprit of their confusion
If I can conjure art that's true to self, no matter how bizarre
Remain I confident that it will find the audience it's chosen
You smell smoke, from my boiler voracious
Steam, feeding engine of my craft, in a billow
Coal, in my spacious tender, is endless
If rest wasn't earned, then I don't touch a pillow
Born peering out my third eye
And I learned from life
That it doubled as a bullseye
I fear no strife
Taking the banes and boons
Balloons and pains
And amidst the slew, galumphed through, I look high