A Stagnant Barista

The workplace, a place unsafe
From mental exhaustion
Devoid of physical perfections
Customers consumed by their hate

I fell asleep at the screen
Unable to see a series of buttons
Ever moving in their caffeine summons
Praying these nightmarish Zs flee

A night of vice-filled binging
Provides a jumping point for rageful claims
Ungrateful heathens bellowing over misspelt names
Sanity resting on a razor’s edge deep in the fringe

Pop, pop, brrt
This number of shots
Normally reserved for the cops
Until the steam hits a temp too hot

I’ve been told this is just a mirage
True feelings differ in the light
Energy explodes out with great might
Appearing through a boisterous camouflage

We are all welcomed in
Engaged and seen without exception
Intentionality met with great inflection
Agreement served in a glass tin

Our respect is free
Earned through mere birth
Shared across the Earth
On a one-way train

People don’t think about drugs
Which of each they make their own
Judging against that which they do not condone
Pumping ounce after ounce into their lungs

Unaware to the expressions they bleed out
Pulling in senseless victim after victim
Wishing for an absorption in the system
Of the pleasure in their brain; a caffeine drought

But their violence never pulls you in
Each attempt to drag you under
Fails with each new blunder
A momentary crack in a pressure-built skin

Your existence already clouded
From the millions of insecurities
Coating the inside of your maturities
Or a lack of faith left dumbfounded

Disbelief in the abilities of persona
Remembrance of the failures ingrained
A series of historical villains trained
In the ever-constant identity removal

For the self fades
When all else invades
Running to the hills
Disappearing through a complexity of wills

Awareness to your capabilities
Doesn’t encourage forward momentum
When the self lacks incentives
To take care of the building blocks of identities

Years of a reflection confused
Controlled by pessimistic ideas deeply infused
Within the mind of a babe unchanged
Bewildered by a world perpetually rearranged

A series of explanations flood your mind
Unsure of which thought to give the proper time
Constantly distracted by the intelligence
Of beauty surrounding your complacence

A set of rules actively ignored
Enlarged in the pupils of existence
Impossibly visible for those seeking control
Impossibly punishing to those lacking the patience

I see you standing atop the mountain
Clear in the journey behind
Unfazed by that which lies ahead
Looking as if you moseyed on up untied

Without a single hinderance believed
Not a knot in the rope unseized
Wrapped around your wrists completely
Pressure releasing with simplicity

I ask how it looks so easy
Unaware to the miles of chains
Lining the pathway up with metallic remains
Of the demons resting dead and greasy

Centuries of war
Hidden by the gold and land
Resting beneath the floors of the passing cars
Traveling over bodies unable to stand

Poetically, we must forget

Historically, we must inscribe

Individually, we must be

Collectively, we must see

Clearly through the nigh
Lighting lanterns for those behind
Unable to find their footing in fright
Grasping for any guiding rail they can find

“What do I do?”

“Why can’t I do?”

“What’s the point of any of this?”

“Why do these buttons fade from my view?”

Darkness attempts to cloud
Vision unable to focus on value
Perpetually dragged under in complaints
Fighting to burn a little brighter

In a few months
The buttons grow clearer
Shining and drawing nearer
Like a plant fertilized in abundance

Working indefinitely towards the bright
Escaping from the presence of internal fright
Moving on from the struggles of last night
Building off the candle providing miniscule light

A fuel engrossed in your presence of self
Accomplishments encourage the goals once felt
A coming history of burgeoning doubts
Unable to break through an armor pouring from spouts

Marked for self-enlargement
Bathed in the potential of employment
Employment for the self
Working to build an architecture unaffected by shifts

Left, right, up or down
You’ll have to burn the whole town
Before I’ll rest in front of the camera
Caked in my mental frown

The buttons
Brighter than before
Guide you with instruction
How to make something heretofore
Unknown

A fork in the road
Paved by the wind
Of great beings that once soared
Hight above the plains soaked in sin

Keep your eyes peeled ahead
The lights won't always be on
Often fighting out of a green neon
Leading towards tonight’s bed

Where we will rest our heads
During this journey for future bread
Will there be land going forward?
Or will we be forced to swim shoreward?

Henceforth known across the sands
As a ship searching for new lands
Recognized in abundance
As the S.S. Competence

Sails set forth towards Self

Don’t forget to ask the crew for help