Particular Words in a Specific Order

Here again in the shadow of the tree
Sleet stinging our washed-out skins
We can hear the roar, the siren, the scream
I'm just imagining them
Focusing on how it might be easier if it were worse
Asking for numbness to set in
it will not

If time is want to pit any one against another,
Progress will always be rival to Experience
Their friction writes our law, swings our history into eras, halts suddenly as a commanding chill sets in.
I did not realize that either tenet could be forsaken
nor both

The roar is incessant urgent relevant real
Sound that will carry you far and leave you deaf
The high road is too far from the ears of the people
All the voices too quiet to turn heads, too kind
Cruelty relates kindness to naivety, I have been made cruel
Chorus of soft-hearted angels sing from on high
Your music will guide our damned souls
We will be dead and justified 
if remembered

Die down wind,
Be calm about change
And do not plague the world with your own disease
Don't give it away freely, at least
Your fault becomes and consumes you
Courage and cowardice alike keep it hidden
Can you set aside collective wisdom 
to find your individual hate? 
To find pride and identity within it?
I must lack some fire in the heart 
to be incapable of 
that thing which my neighbors do so effortlessly. 
judgement atop grace

Time to change this world out for new linen!
and learn that despair is never unaccompanied.
Looming there, behind, an absurd determination to find 
meaning or finality, 
or merely to look for where they would be.

Abrupt and uncouth, be multitudinous in your pain
Roar with wrath and fear as they entreat with you
Inflict relentless mercy upon foe and fellow alike
Drown in the shallow waters of the east
Burn in the ruthless fires of the west
Or struggle and live aflame
So that you might burn in the east
So that you might drown in the west
We have earned much more than we can take
Rip from life an opportunity to suffer uniquely
and you have been lied to before, so you know that
There is no gentle easing out of a tight grip

2025