West Tokyo, Japan.
A cold, early day in an even colder January.

Full of trees, this destination is never sought for pleasure, but for pain.
Good, my dear friend, you’ve left us for good.
Desperate and unidentified, you see no path to continuance.
Taro, where will you go? Why must you leave?
Your mind is the foundation your life is based on.
Use it.
But you see no path to continuance.
It must cease. All. Everything.
You bought a one-way ticket to the forest,
And in this forest burn trees for miles.
The dead are never found.
The officials fear more deaths.
Promises spent on 20 percent less.
But they don’t care about you.

Built up inside, you want to die?
Or do you just want it all to get better?
Burn the forests down!
Burn the forests!
Burn everything that stands in your way.
Both you Taro, and Japan.

Save the trouble, and the trip.
Please Taro, please.
You will be missed,
Whether you go missing in the forest,
Or because we have finished talking.

We lost some soul today.
Events that have occurred have now been erased.
Stories shared are now oil based, but not beautiful.
The factories have been overtaken by men who do no work.
“It’s a shame,” the man said.
His words were true.
This poetic masterpiece has been taken from us.
It’s being held captive in one mans mind.
This beauty may never be seen again.

Hurry, hurry and catch up!
The cloud has been abandoned.
It did not want to continue on.
We must save it before it falls behind the hills and it is lost forever.
We can still repair it but it all gets blurry.
Where are the other clouds off to?
They float away to a better place.
To sit along the coast,
Over the water,
Where they are collecting,
Where all the clouds flock to.
To express.
For freedom.
To do what they do best without hurting anyone.
Hey abandoned, you’ve got the wrong idea.

Never have I fallen so low.
Or been pushed down to the ground.
I bleed from all angles
And the lights don’t flash fast enough.
The siren doesn’t howl loud enough.
You’re sightless to my becoming.
A little farther away from you.
My nose bleeds. My elbow’s scraped.
I don’t want to feel.
Fury and resentment boil up inside of you
And I’m the breath of oxygen that sets up the blast.
I am not here out of want sir.
Just let me finish and I’ll stay out of your way.
I’ll be gone before you know it.
I’ll leave you alone, everlastingly.

Staring into a blank space,
I don’t see very much.
This is all too difficult for you.
To put a key in the door
But not for the night out.
I never was the perfect shape, was I?
Or the right size?
I never said anything just to make you happy.
What would you learn from that?
My shape doesn’t help you.
What good am I to you?
What use have I served?
You were never one to answer questions, were you?
The aqueduct is flooded.
My sense of right and wrong gets distorted by a random hug or an “I’m proud.”
So take your restless life out on me.
So that one day I can beg and plead!
For the forgiveness of my brother and mother.
For leaving them.
For not returning home until the ship passes.

Hello. I’m a heartbreaker.
I break hearts.
And souls and trust and minds.
I break innocence and friendships.
Things of that nature. All kinds.

Now, I could be lying to you.
My words are alleged fakes.
They’re good at that.
But look at my words, my demeanor, this face.
I could never hurt that bad.

They say if anyone were to hurt me that those people got nerve.
I’m a gentleman.
Some dream come true.
It’s not what I deserve.

But I’m so successful in so many cases.
My sense of security has you fooled.
Your belief in my innocence is what makes me dangerous.
I do that on purpose. This smile’s my tool.

Now if you listen to the words that pour out of my mouth.
They’re like thieves in the night that sneak house to house,
In search of a fight or an argument alike.
They always do wrong when trying to do right.
Like boys do to girls on the playgrounds and black tops
When they frolic and shine inside a naive sandbox.
The way girls make boys do things of their choice
With a simple inflection of change in their voice.

And so with truth I will play,
Just like all the boys,
And you’ll be my playmate,
Your heart, the toy.

I was gone for 2 of ’em.
There hasn’t been very many of ’em.
And you were forced into the world to learn it all on your own.
I was nowhere to be found.
Your transtion was halted, troubled.
Letters cannot spell out the sorrow.
You screamed for help.
You needed me.
And I was too good for you?
Now, look at you.
16 years older with the thoughts of man.
God, I’m so proud of you.
Before, you couldn’t ask me anything.
I was the ghost with the empty bed that was filled only after late-nights.
It brings tears to my eyes.
I’m sorry. I am.
You must’ve had so many questions and thoughts.
No one to share them with.
You don’t need my help anymore.
Never will I tell you of my regrets.
Never once will I claim to change.
I hope now, a year later, you have seen that change.
And I don’t believe “I love you,” will hit it like “I’d die for you.”
I’ll never leave you ever again.
You’re one in a million.

They speed atop the track laid out in gold.
Pleasure guaranteed.
Destination: Life.
All who are ready to ride today: The captain and the Mrs.
All who ride today will live on forever,
Because on this train the coals never lose spark or flame
And it always gets to where it’s going safely.
All he had to do was hop on.
He could lead this ship out of the bay, in through the pacific, and onto the other side to then vanish in the distance.
But lord was he scared to fly.
He jumped in.
He rode for a while.
His eye always looking back.
“This cannot be it,” he thought.
He could not be satisfied.
And this train began to move.
The coals burned with angst!
Flames ten feet tall!
This train was definitely headed in the right direction.
The ship glided along the waves.
The eyes widened.
But holes were exposed.
The ship quickly filled with water
And surely began to sink.
He proceeded to jump from the plane onto the tallest mountain in the world.
His head buried in the clouds he managed to scream.
He exclaimed with his voice the life he felt.
Then he watched the plane dive into a large body of water.
Casualty and all.
Pilot he was.
Captain of the seas.
Conductor of heart.
But never worthy of the titles.
How could one let it all slip away?
He walked away more harmed than ever,
Yet unharmed to your naked eye.
The bandit inside always robs the train.

Punched in the mouth.
Blood sneaking through the cracks between my teeth.
Knocked around. Slapped.
Kicked to the ground.
With bloodshot eyes and an anger filled fist I arose.
I stood up with all my might.
I looked him dead in the eye.
He wanted more you could see.
Picking this fight.
He picked this fight.
The one desire he had on his side.
With all my might my mouth opened.
My fist released.
Pity.Shame.Cowardess. thoughts filled my mind and surely the ones of others.
I could list the many things this person deserved.
And the suspense layed heavily on the wasted breaths of on-lookers.
This kid was looking for a fight.
But my elders taught me better.
This didn’t deserve attention however.
He didn’t deserve a word, a look, a kill.
And now the fight is inside.
Conflicts erupt within of proper methods of handling.
History showed me what to do but we have failed.
There’s the blood angered nature.
There’s the scared tired soul.
There are the words of the above.
There are the words of the surrounding.
What would you do?
You’re hit, punched, kicked and all he wants is some fight in return.
The utter jealousy is written all over him.
I walk away.
Always walk away or they get what they came for.

Like a roaring machine that exhales the most charming sounds.
I indulge in the splendor.
But orange lights flash.
Information has arrived.
When the notice arrives the cement truck spins with glory and pain.
Here we are again.
A call from the Governor, I see.
We are standing with taped mouths and vicious eyes.
Our brains do the talking and it’s not very nice.
Suddenly we encounter why we shut this operation down.
Too much energy.
No money.
Plenty of heedlessness.
And I marvel in its demise.