Ode To Low

 I’m always happy to show you what I know.  Bass is the most important instrument in the band.  Good looks.  Style. Technique.  Foundational song structure.  Always being late, consistently.  So many underrated qualities.  

Some people play bass.  A select few are bass players or bassists.  I’m proud to be a bassist.  I’m more than happy to be left in the band van.  Very comfy.  Kind of musty, but it’s ok, because I got invited somewhere.

Truth be told, my first gig ever was a punk show in the middle of a field in College Town, Pennsylvania.  My best friend needed somebody to play bass bc his bass player bailed.  I told him I didn’t know how to play bass.  He told me you’ll be aight.  Just play these three notes fast and loud.  The rest is history.  Bass is an answer to a calling.  It is the way.

Timing.  Always be late, but sometimes early.  Bass is the one.  We own the one.  We are number one.  When you count 1, 2, 3, 4, snare hits on 2 and 4.  Drums own the 2 and 4.  Bass owns the 1 and 3.  Bass dominates the 1. Always. And don’t fuck up, cuz everybody is gonna know you didn’t practice 😂

Bass controls the soul.   Bass is The Mother of Groove and Harmony.  Drums is The Father of Time and Rhythm. When bass and drums lock in, sweet, sexy music is born.  Bass also glues the many layers of sound in music, how the audience hears it, how the musicians perform it, and how the overall experience is gonna go.  You feel the low-end in the chest, in the heart, and in the soul before you hear it in your ears.  Powerful intensity always and forever resides within the four thick ropes of steel.  Bass hides in the shadows, never seeks the spotlight, but you’ll miss it if it’s gone.  I can go on and on, but nobody ever wants to hear a bass solo…

Duality

 Chasing a feeling that will never be there, holding on to a dream that has faded away

Nostalgia vs reality

Conflict of a strange duality

If the self were represented as two opposing halves, I’d rather they not be so diametrically opposed, but rather heading towards some sort of alignment or synchronization

It’s not turmoil but more of a resistance I believe I was experiencing.  Resistance to accept the present.  Resistance to change.  But change we

Must before we turn to dust

Penny Fadeaway

 I feel myself 

Fading away

I don’t know who this guy is

But I fear he’s here to stay

It’s Not evolution

It’s Not adaptation

Just a reminder that 

Nothing gold ever stays

I don’t know why

I don’t know how

But I pray 

My family keeps me around somehow

I

Really

I’m not concerned

Necessarily

Because

People channge

But I just feel myself

Fading away

Like dust

I don’t know 

Or better yet

Like sand

In someone’s hand

And before you know

It’s gone

I don’t know 

What’s gonna be left of me

When all is said and done

I just

I feel like

As I gaze into the mirror

I wonder about the man looking back

Who could that be

How could that be 

I look at myself

Like I’m just a distant memory

Not really there

Shifting

Shrinking 

Graying

Doing all

But ever staying

I see myself fading away

But I’m still there!

I’m present…am I?

I don’t know

It’s unsettling 

Am I an outsider

Am I lonely?

I’m not alone

But I don’t know 

Exactly what’s happening

Anymore

I look at the world

None of it makes sense

People look crazy to me

And I to them no doubt.

I’m not engaged to social media

And from sports and AI, I indeed stray away.

I wonder if 

me quitting drinking 

Is contributing 

to this sensation

Is this clarity?

Revealing the masquerade

Of a wayward society?

Am I fading away?

Perhaps, but perhaps not.

I can’t quite tell you

Of what’s to come

Or What will be left

When all is said and done.

The Stranger

 Random dude, never seen him in my life, came up to me and said, "Man, you need a day off."

I responded, "Don't we all?"

He looked at me, took his shades off, obviously for dramatic effect, peered right into my eyes and said, "Nah man, YOU need a day off.  Fuck it."

Kid you not, I almost dropped this route then and there.  But then I thought about it and couldn't justify that the stranger who smelt a little like yesterday's coffee, last night's beer, and today's piss was making a whole lot of sense.  

Who was this stranger, and as I write, I wonder, is the stranger really me from another reality?

Winning?

 All of the assholes are winning.

Selling their soul and whining

But nevertheless they’re winning

It makes me wonder 

If I’ve been the asshole all along

This doesn’t feel like reality

Am I teaching my children lies?

Am I deceiving them about how to succeed?

Is it a fallacy to teach them integrity?

I don’t understand.

All of the food is ultra-processed and killing us

With pumped up hormones and the disguise of convenience

Organic food is marked up in price and they keep us on our cages of sugars, chemicals, and fats.

Like they’re the wicked witch in the forest and they’re trying to bake us in pies

What are we doing?

What are WE doing?

I truly don’t know if there will ever be an answer to the madness that is every day.

New and Improved Autonomy!

 The robots are coming. We’re all gonna die. LazarBeams will blast

from their beady red eyes.

This is the end. 

Mark my words. 

The end of humanity 

and all of the birds. 

Corporations will win. 

Humans will lose. 

AI is here to stay. 

They will no longer pay.

“We are here. 

So run for your lives.

We’ll burn the men

And take all the wives.”

Yeah

 The endurance of a mailman is legendary, pain and discomfort are customary, but when a goal is firmly implanted in the mind, only positive results are what you’ll find.  We’ve got something good going, and I plan on seeing it through.

Conflict resolution

 I’m just curious

If we were to have a conflict,

How would you resolve it?

Would you cry about it,

Boohoo?

Would you run from it

And stew?

Would you yell and lash out like a

Banshee?

Or would you fix it

And proceed?

I choose to address it,

And mend it,

And do all I can

To never forget it.

I don’t cast aspersions or blame

But I want harmony to remain.

Uno, dos, tres…

 I was stopped at a red light watching traffic go by, and I spotted two bikers careening down the highway.  Their engines were roaring like a lion being forced to maintain a vegan diet.  Clamoring for attention the bikers revved their Harley’s, obnoxiously, for all of humanity to see, two morons, in full admiration of their own stupidity.

These weren’t just your average morons, however, as I think I was the only one aware of their perverse peculiarity.  No something wasn’t right about these guys.  There was something quite strange to perceive.

I saw two grinning skeletons upright on two skeletal steeds.  I might be wrong, and i might be right, but what I saw disturbed my night.

Et tu, Rockay?

 Are they afraid of this man

Who is afraid of sound plans?

Are they afraid of this man

Puerile as he stands?

Are they afraid of this man

Who has fans in the klan?

Are they afraid of this man;

I do not understand.

I grow weary and teary

As I see the heroes of my youth 

Fall in line to kiss the ring

Of a man who makes me leary.

Corporation

 America’s not a country

It’s a corporation 

Dis organization 

thrives on

Eternal damn nation

Unclear

 Thanks for clarifying what was once unclear.  Now, more than ever in recent history, unions and collective bargaining are crucial to maintaining the frayed fabric of society.  The industrial monster of this country is notorious for grinding bones and crushing souls of the every day worker.  United, we’re strong, but sadly, the rhetoric and animosity of many on this post who want to leave the union, will inevitably lead us to our demise.

Start Now

 Start organizing.  Start showing up to meetings.  Start bringing your co-workers to the meetings.  Start voting on actions you want to enact.  

I’m frustrated, too.  Although venting online may help, it doesn’t fix the problem.  Be the change you want to see.  It won’t happen today.  It won’t happen tomorrow.  Over time, change will come.  It all starts now.  Start now.

Postal Pettiness

 Some of you people playing these stupid games need a hug.  It’s pathetic.  This desperation for power, attention, clout is unnecessary and only results in two people agitating each other.  What’s the point of this nonsense besides a commiseration of misery?  Do the work, go home. It’s easy.  But of course the band of button-pushing, booger-eating brothers continue to egg each other on with this petty lunacy.    Cowards.

The customer refused it.  UBBM. End of story.  We’re getting paid pennies to deliver horsespit that some people clearly don’t want.  But you, Lord Almighty of the Wedgie Wars, are trying to prove a point?  For what?  What do you win?  Get a hobby.  Or a cat.

To The Women Who Love Us

(V) I ain’t no saint

It’s just a bruise 

Got trouble with trustin’

And nothing to lose.

(V) Sometimes I’m afraid

People need a break

We’ve been through something

I don’t want to be fake.

 (I) I don’t mean 

to take 

it all out 

on you.

(V) Cracked a few ribs

And I can’t give a fuck

But know that deep down 

With you, can’t mess it up.

(V) Small vic trees ahead,

Rack em up 

Until there’s 

more than a few.

(C) Seriously though,

I can’t do this

Without you

Without you,

I can’t breathe

Without you,

Colors fade

And turn to black

Without you

Without you.

 

V

This is what

I have to do…

Is this what 

I have to do?

Cracks

 that’s my trick, too.  

Fingers gonna crack 

every winter,

 ain’t no fixin it,

 just gotta deal with it.  

I hydrate,

 Vaseline 

with gloves 

at night, 

but without fail,

 got these 

daily reminders 

on my fingertips 

that’ll fade 

as the days age.

I Fail

 Sometimes

I Fail.

I try and try

Yet To no avail.

Like a gull

Chasing a ship,

Flyin gainst 

The wind,

just to 

Sit on a sail

But

Sometimes

I fail.

Sometimes 

Most times

I Fail.

Like a fool

Comin in late

To the final 

Of life

Pencils unsharpened

Dead calculator

But genuine 

With every intent 

Hell-bent

To succeed

But sometimes 

I fail

Unbeknown

 Such a good word

I have a hungry soul.  I will feed you.  

(MAJOR PAUSE)

However,

I see my life as a handful of sand

Gravity mixed with time

In the palm of my hand

slowly slipping away

I ponder on the purpose of it all.

Existential crisis

Not quite yet

But well on my way

No one ever tells you yo about the tedium of monotony that is comfort.

I realize the personal recognition of my social anxiety originated from going to these house and Telly parties as a yooot in da hood, and being surround by all these sex people congregating  andgyrating in a hot ass basement of tiny kitchen that managed an island in a studio apartment, and knowing the underlying fact of my happiness is dancing to music, grinding with a bombastic chick with house music bumping, and watching anime in shared solitude all night with only one other like-minded soul.

I tell people I’m an onion, and they never believe me.

Goodbye

 I don’t like to be followed.

I avoid being under the influence.

Augmented reality looks like expensive enhanced hallucinations to me.

2024

We’re in the future, and it’s looking pretty weird to me.

There’s this strange disconnect with reality occurring that makes me somewhat dizzy.

I don’t do it for the gram.

I barely Facebook as it is.

I spend more time killing, blocking, prohibiting advertisements on FB, that I think I’ll call it quits.

You win, Lord Zuckerberg.  The endless scroll of doom did me in.  You stole all my friends and replaced each one with ten companies who want my money.

If you want to reach me, feel free to email me…but who will see this?

The algorithm encourages extroverts to post post post.  I don’t post enough to be visible.

Quandary…

Again?!

 Sometimes, 

I read the news,

 sparingly, 

more and more these days, 

and I wonder, 

if somewhere,

 in the infinite 

existence and expanse 

of global languages, 

if there is 

a word 

that describes 

the emotion of irony 

between laughter 

and tears,

 like when you go to KFC 

after a long day 

of muckery, 

and KFC 

is completely

and udderly 

out of chicken.