The following three poems were a part of a spoken word performance I made recently at a public event:

THE DENIAL

Some one who looks from the outside in
Then takes a step back and looks again
Can defeat the denial of what is wrong
The denial of things
That, if we could only see
We would take a step back
As see things as they are
Not what we wish to see
And they could see us
As we truly are
And not what they wish us to be

LIVE IT DOWN

I can’t leave town
I have to live it down
They have me all wrong
They won’t hear this song
Their minds are closed
Have to live it down
This is my town
It’s where I have to stay
No matter what they say
If I am to be judged
Make it for what I truly am
So I can do what I can
To live it down
With my feet on the ground
So I say around
Squirming in my seat
AS they spit at my feet
This is the only place I know
I have nowhere else to go
So I stay here in town
So I can live it down
I know I can live it down

DATA DECONSTRUCTION

Do I need a pie chart
To explain my art?
Do I need a graph
To show the times I cry
Cross-referenced
With the times I laugh?
How much of my live
Has to be carved away
With Orcam’s razor knife?
You just sit and smile and nod
So they will feel like
They’ve known you all their life
But when they’re finally gone
You compose your notes
What is right, what is wrong
But how can you measure
The brilliance of a song?
So instead you play along
You think we’re weak
You think you’re strong
So this is for your benefit
It isn’t for mine
But now its four o clock
And we’re all out of time.