A People, Their Flag

Words are ©AlexNess2026 flag is public domain

COST

I haven't the ability to escape, but who wants to leave paradise?
This world offers nothing good, I want only comfort and silence
If I measure the cost of living I know that I cannot pay the price
I know others struggle too, life has a cost but I speak as just one
Living does not guarantee good results, if my pain is relentless
I'll endure, but not as a champion, as a weed that never gives up

To each life a purpose

Every ounce of flesh, desires to be fed
Every lung that lives, desires its breath
Minds call to learn and desire to be more
Every day of life, beckons answers sent
Night to follow, breaking of a bread
Creatures of habit will desire rhythm
No escaping purpose, we must refresh
We are songs but made into anthems
We sing for a new day, never regret
Time given to meaningless things
Rather rise and praise each day
For it is in living we understand
Our world was made for humans
We're all made to serve a calling

Between temporal and permanent dreams

My desires and hungers, they drive me
And I have no mind, to let them decide
Is to live for breath, with nothing more
My only flesh bound existence chosen
As I'm entertained by functions of life
Rather than take my one life and invest
Taking each moment to strive above
My sorrows and my joys are not a test
The bodily existence is bound in love
Until you are founded upon that truth
You'll quest but will run out of time
For it is limited, but love is not

After a change

There is no moisture or frost coming out
My cold breath is a memory, it isn't doubt
I know my way, walking this way often
What is left of me, is memory and dust
My world was shattered without warning
My life was not worth saving, but others
I lost them all, with every unique being
Cast into darkness, no hope to survive
I am lost in sleep, my soul escaped time
Dreaming new worlds to come to be
While I pray and ask God, the maker
What happened to the ones so good
Because without them, I'd have nothing
Without them I have nothing, not even...
                                                           My memories

They Who Remember

The valley contained the bone archives of a past civilization
Eyes widened in horror of how detail oriented archives were
Each life complete in death in a box shaped tumor of shapes
The tombs of their civilization was laid out beginning to end
Perhaps every decision is recorded for history by archivists
Hidden in walls of dwellings, not speaking, just recording
Every people have an ethos, in traits that set them aside 
Perhaps doing everything as a corporal body, remembers
In their memory, a people group lives still, in time's way

False Persistence

I no longer know why I endure, nor why I ever tried. Even when I did. It isn't like there is anything for me here. I might hope for more, but what if there is not a big ol' reward waiting, or something for the lucky guy who waited til the end of the film. It just ends. We all die, it will come. It always does. Death is the end, I don't see it so much as being bad, it happens at the end of everything that came before it.

Maybe I should think about life as less a marathon or a party, see it for what it is, a journey from point a to point b. At least then I can understand why I should bother, if at all. It is a math question. I wish all things could work that I now cannot make work. I wish I could give wonderful acts of kindness to those who need them most. Honestly, living has left me exhausted, and my flesh is weary, my mind is tired.

My life was preordained in the ways that it has gone. It felt like I was playing a role, not finding my story and narrating it. Having little to do and unable, at that, has left me raw. Perhaps it will change.

NO FUTURE HOPES

We never knew how quickly it'd come
Shredded like tissue, flesh never lasted

Ripping of roots, visions once granted

The world mattered less with every age

The degeneration led to need for a cage

Humans were given a destiny, but lost

Unable to perceive, unable to pay cost

Each generation thinks it is the future

We collapsed on ourselves, abusers

Wait for new generations to save us

We've lived, but only in this abyss

Impermanence

The impermanence of existence, bleeds me dry

There is nothing left for living, finding out why

My flesh, each breath, my future life and death

Why worry, it'll be done, sapping all my strength
The end is promised, but beyond is unknown
Yeah I might be broken but I am not alone
Future's are left to the afterlife or nothing
What can I do? What do I know?

Empty Living

Sleeping in all my waking hours, dreamless
Life has drained me of the hope, in duress
I can't bear the weight of my burden or sin
Memories are lost, my heart breaks within
Life given as a gift, but I'm missing living
Every day is not the same, but even worse
My mistakes, my flaws are legion, a curse
I stained my king's banner, hope shattered
 A role I play waiting, existence has purpose
A world alive with danger, our life is blurred

Your sanity has been revoked

There will be those who flee impending destruction
But Damnation is their own cause, lives are fleeting
Survival hasn't been promised, fear is unapologetic
Struggling to take breath, struggling to even scream
The flesh is the soft leather case for the being inside
Minds alive, as a body fails, we become prophetic
It always speak to a mind's archive of existent lies
Displaying life's collection of untruth, denied lives
The life we desire is not the same as what we live
Trails we leave behind us, we aren't able to forgive

“I see paintings or drawings in the poorest
cottages,in the dirtiest corners. And my 
mind is driven towards thesethings with an
irresistible momentum.”   Vincent van Gogh
 

 

Nosferatu

Nosophoros, cruel killer
Known as a Disease Bringer
Mad foreigner, alien, immigrant
Sup upon the blood of children
Steal from the surplus of wealth
Taster of despair, of innocence
Infections devour their core
Wearing the cloak of stealth
Abaddon, son of the dragon
Yes you bring disease, for the poor
But the elite endure only fear
Elites fear as you threaten them
The poor will become victims
As you stalk the black night
For new lives to steal

A moment captured in my eye

This life with you, there's one thing I saw

A world rebels, an empire before the fall

My body, my mind, my flesh unrequited

In my thoughts, I'm in a prison, indicted

Flesh is a cage, my grieving heart taken

All I've desired forbidden, I'm breaking
The past is not the place for healing
It is a wasteland and is hope stealing
Surrender now, refuse to remember
You have no time to reconsider
Time the eternal gravedigger

I OWN A HORROR

These are my visceral horrors of knowing
I shall condemn another being by lies
My flesh corrupt, I will be lost forever
I fain myself the omnipotent, a God 
As I keep secrets that cause others to die
My will was not forged, for others to suffer
No, I forged it myself, for I am weakness
I am a stain, I'm not strength, I am meekness

Sleepwalker Nightmare

Somnambulist stands aware, of dream
Sleepwalker sees within a nightmare
A spiral staircase moving between floors

The world looks no better in waking state

No hope left, but the days of joy are past

Make hay as the sun is high, sure to care

I'm without foundation, crying tears of fate

The golden days of childhood go by fast

The time for freedom and reaping the wind

Goes far away soon, swift beyond compare

All we must hold upon flees our grasp

There is nothing left within

The substance inside us tears

Reality revealed in a slap

Saying it is now done

The Path of Brokenness

By now in every throat, feelings choke

Turning ignorance into the endgame

What if by trying we might choose now

Find a way through fog and indecision

I'm permanently broken on this path
In a road of destruction and wrath
The days are shattered in memory

Taken As Far As the Wind and Currents Take Us

We spent our life rowing our dragon ship, fighting an enemy
The world was bigger than our imagination, and time together
We didn't have a plan, or map, or guideline, an empty destiny
But the world was far older than we knew, perhaps forever old
As stars above the ocean shine, the moon gives light upon a way
Rowers count and rhyme in sequence, know that good is waiting
Whatever shores we aspire to reach, whatever hoard we'll take
Every day offers more than toil, as long as the pilot navigates
Our mother is the earth, our father is our guide, together
Face what we must, fighting back to back, hand to hand
This world is our home, wherever we will land

Dedicated BWN1961-12312022

An old scribe shared truths with the young kindred

The elder scribe gathered around him
Began to tell the listeners how to live
We know goodness as we know evil
A thought primitive and eternal calls
Inside we make sacrifices and hold
The selfish never met a time to share
As those who have abundance inside
What is too much to the mind of one
Is far too little and without substance
Another who has learned to survive
Find reason to endure, others do not
Some never need to find the reasons
Some never live without challenges
Making the best of lives is enough
Helping others survive is truly love
Find your end goals, gather your kin

Dreams End

The day death comes, I hope to know better

At the moment, the future is cold and empty

I'll die before the day I finish my endeavors

I'm fool, a sinner, a heart dying in my winter

Yes I'm hopeful, it might be this world is hell
Death's day may be end to pain, as it lingers 

In the end, choirs sing anthems, ring the bell
The loss of material existence will seem pale
Compared to a possible loss of eternal being
Eventually we will truly know our eternal fate
The after life offers greater life than dreams
Beauty, glory, golden streets and anthems
Eternity has no tears, for it only has peace

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not
the same river and he's not the same man.” Heraclitus

A mind etched in pain

The night cannot hide my fear, found in a sleeping heart
Found inside my mind, the tears there are bound in scars
Bleeding while I know the voice of pain, inside I'm dark
Betrayed by a mind, I was stabbed by an anger and pain
Flesh cannot continue to be healthy, rotting, I'm insane
An outer visage equals my inner rot, I scream in pain
My life reached an end, I wait now to die, for release
I have nothing inside me, I will never have peace

Alone but certain, Isolation will not kill me

Time in life is fleeting, filled full of obstacles
The fields of forever are the light for my mind

Forced marches across fields of violent battles

Where I somehow find my way through them
Through these empty mind numbing vacuums

Perhaps nothing exists outside of narcissism

Solipsistic nightmares, fears need a disguise

Try to find asylum, seeking escape from untruth

My savior was murdered, our struggle is proof
For we must be not as they are, I seek refuge
I'll not conform to the cruelties of the mind
In the life I've lived they'll not understand
They do not wonder, never ask me who I am
I am unmoving, unafraid, as time moves
For I am unique, unwilling to surrender
My life has never been theirs to program
All the choices were mine, not my flaws
And others do not get to choose for me
The mirror is cracked, it has no reflection
I know that isolation will never slay me
Even as it wounds, by mental starvation
I'll seek the final answer and I'm ready
Life's luxuries are certain to betray me
Therefore I will forever resist, I'm steady
Waiting, just waiting for transformation

Cold War moved on but we've still enough hubris to die

With retreat into days of crisis, peace isn't near
As we ignore all hope, doves turn to albatross
We get closer to the edge, from reasonable error
Death smothers hope, innocence is stolen, unfair
Button pushed, we swiftly pass the line to cross
Never trust the ruling old men to decide in favor
When you refuse this ongoing military crusade
For lives and half lives, so much more, are lost
The future dies and we've no innocence to save
By an excess pride and ignorance, we shall fail
Thereafter lighting the pyres for our species