13 1/2 – Another Star Falls

“Sunshine and the Solstice” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – The first glimmer of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day… Winter Solstice… It wont be long now before Spring awakens…

This has been sitting in my notebook for a few weeks now… I revisit it every few days… I considered not publishing it due to language concerns… But the more I read it… Well… The more I like it…

Another star falls…
Falls from the flag and crashes into the earth…
Missouri burning… Misery ends with a peaceful ideas birth…

Before we can think we take off and run…
Just us… The cops… God and a gun…
Under a blood-red sky we bolt to the east…
Anyone who runs is considered a beast…

We are all thought of as the general public…
One god… One judge… Twelve jurors… Fuck it…
We are all considered public enemy number one…
Freedom is relative… Freedoms price is a gun…

Another man falls…
Falls from the throne and crashes into the streets…
Missouri’s heart is beating… Misery ends in mental defeat…

Riot in the city against the military machine…
Soon a tax-funded rain will scrub the streets clean…
Riots or looting… It doesn’t matter what you call it…
The only thing that matters is if you vote with your wallet…

Keep your nose clean… Keep your mind wide open…
Keep away from those who never stop coping…
13 1/2… That’s one judge… Twelve members of the jury…
And the half percent chance of walking free without a worry…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Reflections of the Past – Money or Freedom

“The First Rays of Sunlight” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – Cairn of stacked stones on Nine Mile Run… I like building these stacks because they require me to zone out… To me… This is meditation… I can’t wait for it to warm up enough for me to return… Maybe then my positive poetry will again outnumber the negative…

The following poem contains a bit of vulgar language… If there is even a slight chance that will offend you… Move along… This poem is not for you…

We are reflections of those we have met in the past…
We are nothing more than mirrors…
We are love… We are hate…
We get classified based on our mental state…
Classification is the mark of the beast…
Governments say comply while they fucking feast…
Non-profits say give while they get retreats…
Take massive pay checks while volunteers clean the streets…
There has to be a better way than this…
Drug abuse is rampant the streets are filled with whores…
Bad people rule the world while the good people are poor…
People stand in line with signs fighting over church and state…
Border walls answer the call for someone to segregate…
Why do we let others choose our fate… Why do I…
Why can I not let my baggage go…
Why do I not feel worthy…
Why do I feel my past classifies me as worthless…
Because it does…
So fuck your classification system…
Fuck your records and your tools…
My life goal is to make the doubters look like complete and total fools…
I will make you tools because I have no other option…
History so bad the background check cautions…
So I’ll have to make my own way…
A green thumbed vagabond… You have no idea…
Look up fucked up that’s me in the encyclopedia…
Thank god for art… Thank god for poetry…
Thank god for the possibility of a god…
Thank god that we can be…
Anything we want to be…
As long as we pay taxes on our property…
Not to mention a flawless history…
The secret to anonymity is now but a mystery…
We are all marked… We stand in line…
Comply unconditionally or pay the fine…
Monetary loss or loss of freedom…
Then add-on charges if we try to impede them…
We are nothing more than products on the grocery store shelf…
We are products trained to work…
We work hard so more hard work is expected…
And then we work some more…
We work to afford these modern conveniences…
We have replaced life with labor…
Experience with degrees…
Reality with… Whatever you call this…
This joke we think is normal…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Personal Beliefs and the Bullies Who Try to Change Them

“On the Winter Blue Forest” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – Spring 2013

In an attempt to not generalize anyone… I fear I have generalized everyone… Please continue knowing this was not my intention…

Beware of the eco-bully, and their terrorist regime…
Don’t hear what their saying, just wait and they’ll scream…
How do you find a bully, don’t worry they’ll find you…
I promise that they’ll mention, they are one of the few…

Not only will they tell you, about their lifestyle choices…
They’ll tell you why your wrong, using others voices…
Personal choice is just that, your own personal choice…
You talk shit on everyone, like you’re the only voice…

Studies of private interest, a source from the front line…
Than you reference a source, from the group trying to define…
A non-profit identity, corporations masked by charity…
The sad fact is corporate honesty, is something of a rarity…

Taking grants to get ahead, donated to your cause…
Taking gold and giving lead, the basis of your flaws…
Eventually the poor will rise, and this system will fail…
I want to build the coffin, and drive the final nail…

The path that were on, will soon lead to recourses…
The name of this game, is control all the resources…
Wars fought for oil, protecting the earth with a gun…
I would bet some day, we will fight for the sun…

We never have enough, we have voltage in our blood…
Our hydroelectric dam, is someone else’s flood…
The wind in our turbines, controlling electrical rates…
The monopoly of resources, will soon be our fate…

Generations build themselves, then bury all the rest…
Claiming gross entitlement, while we are second best…
Paying into programs, social securities pyramid scheme…
Bury programs for the poor, with political pension themes…

The only thing that seams real, the only thing that’s true…
The connections I have, through the garden and you…
Forget about the bullies, put your clenched fists away…
Put your hands in the earth, plant your seeds and play…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Land of the Fee – Home of the Grave

“Next to Go” – Dumpster Joes house… Slated for demolition… A monument to blight…

Today’s news is shipped to our chairs…
Relevance based on Justin Bieber shares…
World wars based on the tone of a meme…
Bit coins used to fund a government regime…

Terrorists in a cave watching Miley Cyrus…
If not for the taxes our government would fire us…
The cops will always be just bully’s with guns…
Shooting at anyone that gets scared and runs…

Defend the law till the law comes looking for you…
Say the wrong words and charges stick like glue…
A fair and just trial is just what they’ll call it…
Innocence aside it’s the depth of your wallet…

Twitter and Facebook will be used like tools…
Military’s will use them to recruit the fools…
Cops will use them to eradicate crime…
The government will use them to reverse time…

About the only right I can really kinda see…
The right to claim that we are supposed to be free…
We claim the civilians could rise up and fight…
Yet they still suppress us with recessions and blight…

They cut human benefits and then take a raise…
Live in a mansion while the poor people praise…
Each and every one of us are just federal toys…
Our minds are washed while we are just girls and boys…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Individuality – Make Your Own Way

“SOLO – Almost Floating” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – Sculpture of stone… Free standing cairn…
~
A gift to the stream…

The day of the individual has come and gone…
Now were programmed to be corporate pawns…
We will work until were blind dumb or dead…
Fighting for crumbs while the big wigs break bread…

There will always be someone just a little bit cheaper…
Computers replace man like the fucking grim reaper…
A corporate soldier that’s been assigned a code…
So the company can determine your financial load…

This is not a world where I could coexist…
I’m too much of a shit that just wants to resist…
I ask too many questions and look for blame…
At minimum wage we are one and the same…

Resistance is futile and our futures are bleak…
The only hope is the independence we seek…
Depending on nature is depending on your self…
Not paying the standard rate for food off the shelf…

Stand up for your most basic of human rights…
Food in the cupboard and children’s night lights…
Anything extra is for the corporate class…
Lack of food is one way they own your ass…

Pay a living wage to make sure we get to work…
Eat with your hands because a fork is a perk…
Subsistence pay is a form of human slavery…
But in the corporate world it’s a sign of bravery…

College degrees in hand like the soldier boy…
Sent out across the land like the generals toy…
Don’t be another fool or a disposable tool…
Our lives depend on principles that each of us rule…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Slaying Dragons – Felon Dreaming

“The First Rays of Sunlight” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – An older photograph… But perfectly suited for this poem… This cairn is a representation of how I want to feel… I want rays of sunshine… Not the black cloud often seen following me…

Eyes on the ceiling… Back to the ground…
Rain drops drop in a rhythmic sound…
Thinking about how my life would be…
Living without heroin and a felony…

My arms show the scars of a million pricks…
Result of a mountain of heroin bricks…
Experience that only earned me a fight…
Desire to live lies in my will to write…

Writing is my last shot at redemption…
Art and photography my only salvation…
The few worlds where pain gets you paid…
One of the trades I bring in spades…

No options but to carve my own path…
Stand up and give the haters my wrath…
Take away my voice but can’t take my pen…
Thanks to God I still have a friend…

My only option is to continue writing…
Accept reality and continue fighting…
I will never be a part of the white-collar crowd…
Searching for a way to make someone proud…

Looking for a reason… A will to live…
A continuing reason to charitably give…
Locked out of opportunity… Left alone…
Societal failure… I’m on my own…

Can’t look down I gotta keep looking up…
When my glass is half empty I’ll hit you with my cup…
The world always seems to be pushing me down…
The jokes on you… My best work is on the ground…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Probable Cause

“Scattered Pieces” – © chriscondello 2013 – Taylor Way – Wilkinsburg, PA

Looking for two black males…
Clothing description… Black on black…
What you don’t realize is…
This gives them permission to give everyone in my neighborhood slack…

Probable cause has flaws…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Eco Soldier – Resource Wars

“Resources” – © chriscondello 2013 – Abandoned House – Wilkinsburg, PA – What is a resource?.. It depends on your surroundings… You know… I have heard there are more abandoned houses than homeless people… If in fact that it true… The system is truly failing us…

How many trees will be cut to the ground?..
How much oil will be drilled from the earth?..
How much gas?.. How much coal?..
Another mine and we’ll be living in a hole…

Future skyscrapers… Gas tower skyline…
As dangerous as a nuclear land mine…
Sitting smack dab in the middle of a park…
And here we come walking in the dark…

Nuclear exposure… Tolerance builds…
Induced allergens… Medical bills…
Who the fuck is going to fight this war?..
Take this system and rattle it to its core…

We are all now ecological soldiers…
Gearing up to fight the resource wars…
Enemy combatants will come from far…
Just to fight over our sand and tar…

Domination is not a resolution…
Governments operate similar to prostitution…
Control healthcare… Control life and death…
Control the controllers every breath…

We are nothing more than a tax base…
Governments farm the human race…
Then they harvest our ripe green money…
Obama says it tastes slightly like honey…

Or a fine wine… Bought on our dime…
At an event that was attended by slime…
While they eat organic free range beef…
While you and I get fed Monsanto wheat…

GMO corn is like political porn…
Subsidies are just a way to weather the storm…
Farm stamp… I mean… Food stamp bill…
About the same as telling everyone to chill…

We got this… We got your back…
Would you rather we bring back a problem like crack…
War on drugs… Politicians are thugs…
Sweep the sweepers right under the rug…

Weather the storm… Storm the weather…
Either way we need to stand together…
We will never outgun the government machine…
Hold them accountable… Make them clean…

Stand up for what you believe in…
Whether God… Science… Or sin…
Stand up… Woman and men…
Time to fight… Words… Fists… Or pen…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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LGBT + S = Human

“Red Flag” – © chriscondello 2013 – The Garden Table Urban Garden – Rebecca Avenue – Wilkinsburg, PA – We all bleed the same color… We all go to the bathroom the same way… And everyone appreciates a nice garden… We are all essentially the same… Made up of the same material… So we all deserve the same rights… And the same dreams… To deny them to anyone… Is a failure of the people…

I don’t think it’s fair… I can’t believe this is even a fight… To me this is a simple matter… Based in human rights…

People are simply people… We all struggle with something… LGBT… LMNOP… QRS… TUV… W… X… You… And Me!..

We are all the same… We deserve the same voice… I find it ridiculous… People still think its a choice…

That choice… Well… It’s really none of our fucking business…

When filling out papers… I refuse to choose my race… Put sexual preference on them… I’ll throw it in your face…

My questionnaire… It would be one question… Are you human?..

That’s all that matters… That’s all we should see… The only choice that means a thing… One that brings equality…

Equality to you… Equality to me… If we live in this country… We are technically free…

Straight christian marriage… Freedom is a joke… A sad and blatant sign… Our system is essentially broke…

But don’t you worry… That’s about to change… The fact that gays had different rights… Will one day seem strange…

Our kids will laugh… History books will stress… We had the wrong idea.. About this whole mess…

I have written about this before… One of my favorite posts… – https://chriscondello.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/gay-by-association/

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Restless Friday Night

“Morning” – © chriscondello 2013 – Whitney Avenue – Wilkinsburg, PA – Guerrilla Garden between two abandoned houses on my street…

Hot and muggy night… First of June…
Sirens wail… And gunshots boom…
All the while police cars loom…
Urban sounds… In an urban room…

Peace is relative in my neighbor hood…
Unity makes a community good…
The higher ground is where we stood…
Silence is a statement that’s misunderstood…

Memories play on my mental display…
Helps me see what you call gray…
Up all night… Sleep all day…
Heaven doesn’t care when you pray…

Or who you pray to… A state of mind…
Look in your heart and you will find…
It doesn’t matter if everyone is kind…
Always move forward… Learn from rewind…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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