Clementine

Clementine (2017)

In the burning red dreams of a summer haze

My mind was clearly in a daze

I found you so pretty and so fine

Please be mine forever Clementine

We went to England in July

Stars forever lit our flight

Beckoning what dreams may die

I'll hold you with all my might

In the ballroom you would rise and shine

As the music sang its rhyme

Glorious and so divine

Your beauty transcends time

The shots from out in the rain

Grabbed your shoulder you felt no pain

Then you were silent misaligned

In the chaos we both went blind

A long night of shivering fears

You were clinging to life like a tear

All hopes were dashed and died

Two nights gone you're no longer alive

In my mourning I will feel no might

No more love will be in my sight

I'll come visit your grave each time

If you stay mine forever Clementine

Blizzard Cover

Blizzard Cover (2017)

Oh, the blizzard's never seen the desert sands
I will set the tempo low in my commands
Come follow down the highway once trailed by my golden calf
Oh, the blizzard's never seen the desert sands

And I will drive it like a shepherd to the sun
It's the easiest decision I have done
Come follow down the highway once trailed by my golden calf
Oh, the blizzard's never seen the desert sands

And the bells up in the towers they will ring
And the frightened little choirs they will sing
They will tremble on their voices like it's from another shore
Oh, the frightened little choirs they will sing

I will sit up in the saddle of the storm
I will ride across the sea I stand before
Though the people on the beaches weigh just nothing bout themselves
I will sit up in the saddle of the storm

Oh, the blizzard's never seen the desert sands
And I never understood a written plan
I have set my house on fire 'cause I don't need it anymore
Oh, the blizzard's never seen the desert sands

Royal Carnival

Royal Carnival (2017)

              The travelling royal carnival was a sight to behold for the provincial citizens of the Dolmetha kingdom. They gathered in curious droves to witness rare examples of electronica technology as well as devices of miniature atomics, which were used to create wondrous displays of color and sound that adorned the midsummer sky. The old legends said these technologies were commonplace all around the world before the Last Great War. During that war the world shattered. Out of its ruins arose several kingdoms which have been constantly sparring for dominance ever since. Dolmetha was one of the few to successfully maintain its cache of Old World technology. Reginald stood in awe next to his father Edwin as the final array of detonated atomics lit up the night sky like a piercing beam straight from Heaven.

                “Father, look! Father, look! It… it is marvelous!” Reginald could not take his eyes off the glistening purple and blue display.

                “Yes, son. Amazing, isn’t it?”

                They continued watching the exploding lights in silence until the show’s climatic finish ran its course. While the festivities were dying down an unnaturally cold breeze swept across the field of observers. The chill must have come on earlier but the crowd was too preoccupied with the light show in the sky to notice. Edwin tightened his son’s light sweater around his shoulders as they made their way towards the carnival’s exit, but it was not enough protection from the suddenly piercing wind.

                “We better get home,” Edwin said in a worried tone. “The air is sinking fast.”

                “Why?” a curious and slightly confused Reginald asked. They picked up the pace. Tension rose in their extremities. Edwin did his best to press forward while maintaining his composure. Now was not the time to break into a panic. Not around his son. Not after the way last year’s attack took his mother’s life.

                “Can’t say for sure, son. ‘Been lots of rumors swirling around Khamna down south of us. Best not to worry. We’re hundreds of miles north of the border.”

                A murmur of voices from the crowd’s rear began picking up inertia as Edwin and his son continued walking towards the main road. The murmur then turned into a consistent hum until someone let out a deathly scream. The front of the crowd then broke into a run. Edwin scooped his boy off the ground and started running with the others. More screams followed from the back. The town’s analog emergency siren let out a series of bone grinding wails.

                “Hang on to me!” Edwin said in Reginald’s ear as he used his opposite shoulder to break through the crowd. The mass of people kept growing denser until it eventually came to a halt. The carnage in the rear continued to draw closer. Edwin and Reginald had nowhere left to go. The entire throng of people was walled in by a fence that did not exist even ten minutes prior.

                “What is the meaning of this? What is this?” a man yelled from the front of the pack.

                “They’ve got us trapped here on purpose!” shrieked a woman. “This can’t be happening! Not now! No! No!”

                Edwin stayed quiet and observant. He felt a strong sense of danger but did not want to react prematurely. He then tuned his attention toward the crowd’s rear and he heard the sound of his darkest nightmares. War hounds. Specially bred canines which were engineered to be of high intelligence and outfitted with steel implants in the claws and teeth. He heard human bones breaking under their insurmountable might. He heard gargled screams as the attacking dogs slashed the throats of their victims, moving from one target to the next with unparalleled efficiency. Then an electric voice broke through the chaos over what sounded like a public intercom. Seldom used technology, even in Dolmetha.

                “Test protocol thirteen underway. Running new protocol Population Control. Population Control status successful.”

                The message kept repeating over and over again in a maddening loop. The crowd kept trying to break the containment fence to no avail. Edwin braced for death. He held his son tighter and whispered in his ear.

                “Be strong, Reginald. I love you. Stay strong for me now, okay?”

                “Okay, dad,” said Reginald. He did not know what war hounds were. He was not yet jaded enough to develop the fear of a government using destructive weapons against its own people. Edwin knew better. He served in armor for Dolmetha for six years before Reginald was born. He knew of the unspeakable tactics that kingdoms used during conflict, he just never thought he would have to suffer through one as a family man with a dead wife. He tried his best to comfort Reginald during their final moments as the hounds closed in.

                “I want you to close your eyes, Reginald. Think of a happy memory and pretend you’re there. Think of long summer evenings relaxing by the lake or the curious adventure of your first day at school. Then let go, Reginald. Relax and let go. We’re going to be okay.”

                “Okay, dad,” said Reginald. His expression was docile and accepting.

                A hound then leaped from the darkness and knocked Reginald out of Edwin’s arms. The boy let out a yelp but was quickly muted. The hound destroyed his face with several swipes of its enhanced claws. Then it crushed Reginald’s skull and ripped apart his throat and upper chest with its teeth. Edwin let out a primal roar and went to the defense of his boy but he stood no chance as Reginald was already reduced to a pile of bleeding flesh and bone beaten into the soil. Edwin turned around to search for the attacker when a second hound tore into his back. He attempted to fight it off but made no progress as a third hound clawed at the front of his torso and systematically shredded his organs.

                They went down one by one, the members of the curious provincial crowd. The hounds left not a single person standing. The recorded message playing over the public intercom was shut down and the fence was broken down and stowed away. The royal authorities of Dolmetha ordered a thorough cleaning of the field the next morning.

Synthite

Synthite (2017)

               Dennis Jones took the dose of powdered synthite with an abrupt inhalation through his left nostril. After the initial burn settled down he took a seat on his couch and prepared to ride out the first wave of psychosis and delirium that would soon follow. He knew the dose taken was sufficient to break through and reach maximum effects. He also knew that the accompanying madness would wreak havoc on his psyche until the moment he transitioned to the other side.

                The drug was still a relatively untested novelty, even for seasoned psychonauts such as Dennis. Reports of its effects first spread on the deep web news network called the Mystic Underground a few years ago, when it was accidentally discovered by an amateur chemist attempting to create a more potent version of DMT. The reports were profound in their nature. The first few users who broke through experienced the essence of an independent multiverse inside their own mind. They were able to live out a series of events not as beings with egos but as sentient particles of subatomic matter. They could form and create entire chains of multiverses and live out generations upon generations of lifetimes as the beings who inhabited them. The power of this drug greatly surpassed DMT, which was thought to be the most powerful psychoactive substance prior to the discovery of synthite.

                The first wave hit Dennis like a freight train. His body began to tingle and then slightly warm up while his mind began to feel like a balloon inflating at an exponentially increasing velocity. Memories of his childhood flooded his mind but they now were severely altered. Instead of being pushed on his swing by a compassionate father, Dennis was being whip lashed around by a snarling belligerent demon with thick grey horns. The psychosis had begun. More visions followed. Dennis’s body grew ever warmer and his perception of his own mind continued to expand, faster and faster.

                Within moments Dennis found himself floating in deep space, completely disoriented. A cold void surrounded everything he perceived. Then the demon returned, only this time it was much larger, and it was laughing at him.

                “What do you want from me? Where am I?” Dennis asked. He felt an intense sickness grip his senses. 

                “I am your own interpretation of you,” said the demon. “Why so troubled?”

                “You’re not me!” Dennis yelled back. His eyes were bulging out if his head in a fit of panic. His arms and legs flailed around in a swimmer's motion as he desperately tried to find something to hold on to.

                “You have much to learn. Do you even remember taking the drug?”

                “What drug? What the hell is this? This isn't real!” said Dennis.

                Dennis truly forgot. He forgot that he had taken the most powerful psychedelic in the universe. He was at its mercy now. The demon continued in a calm and collected tone.

                “I have much to show you,” said the demon. “First you must let go of the part of you that is tortured. It doesn’t get any easier from here on out. This trip is just beginning.”

                “I’m not tortured… I had a good life… then I woke up here… in space.” said Dennis.

                “This is an illusion. Don’t be dense. You took a drug, remember?”

                “No, I don’t remember… at all.”

                “What I will tell you next will shock you, but I assure you that I am telling the truth. You’ve been on this drug your entire life, Dennis. None of your life actually happened. You were an astronaut and you smuggled some of this stuff into your suit during a spacewalk. There was some trouble. Your ship and crew abandoned you. Now you’re floating in deep space with only minutes left in your life support system.”

                Suddenly Dennis woke up on his couch. The change of scenery occurred in less than a second.

                Deep space.

  The demon.

                What happened?

                The chilling memory of what the demon said remained with Dennis as he was coming to his senses. His current life wasn’t real. He actually was still deep space, minutes away from death, tripping on synthite. Dennis then began to question himself. Which reality was actually true? If synthite was as powerful as the reports said, then he could be tripping right now in his clean modern apartment while his true reality is actually him drifting in space as a lost astronaut. He did seem to recall vague inconsistencies in his life, even strange flashes of white and purple light which occurred in his field of vision from time to time. Could they be small seams in the drug’s grip of his mind?

                To get some immediate answers Dennis took out his mobile phone and called his good friend Jack. There was some initial static in the call, which gave Dennis a sinking feeling of doom in his stomach. Eventually, however, Jack answered the call.

                “Hello.”

                “Hey, Jack. It’s Dennis. I’m having a bit of a struggle today…”

                “You need to stop tripping, man. What did you take this time?” said Jack.

                “It’s more of what I didn’t take,” said Dennis as he sunk into his couch.

                “What do you mean?” said Jack.

                “What is reality? Are we real?” said Dennis.

                “That’s a deep philosophical question,” said Jack. “No one truly knows what reality is, but I suppose this is as real as it gets.”

                “If your whole life has been you tripping on a powerful drug, how would you know in the first place? What if you simply died when the effect began to wear off?”

                “Hmm… are you sure you didn’t take anything. You sound tweaked, Dennis.” said Jack.

                He was right. There was a lot of panic and tension in Denis’s voice. Jack sensed that his friend was in deep psychological trouble.

                “Look, I’m at a store around your area. I’ll stop by with a case of beer. We can just hang out and relax, you seem to be struggling,” said Jack.

                “Hmm… sounds like a good idea. I’ll see you soon.”

                They both hung up their phones. Jack arrived at Denis’s apartment about twenty minutes later with a case of beer and a few bags of snacks.

                “Good to see you,” said Jack. “Man, you don’t look so good. Maybe it is time to give this psychonaut thing a rest? It is breaking you down pretty badly.”

                Dennis did not answer normally. Instead, he screamed and reached for the machete he kept in the hallway closet. Jack suddenly got uneasy.

                “Hold it, man… what… what… what! What are you doing?” Jack began to backpedal but he could not escape. One precise swing of the machete sliced into his stomach open and he collapsed to the floor, bleeding.

                “Get away from me!” screamed Dennis. He did not see Jack as his normal self. He saw him as the demon from earlier. “Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!” He screamed the phrase a few times while pacing around in circles. Jack was on the floor, bleeding out and shaking.

                “No more! No more! No more!” Dennis let out several more screams and then charged towards the biggest window in his apartment. His flailing arms hit several shelves, knocking down all of their contents. Without hesitation he let out a primal roar and jumped while leading with his shoulder. He broke through the glass and fell twenty one floors down to the concrete street. 

                

One Path Left to Go

One Path Left to Go (2017)

All my Life I have tumbled in the wind

All my life I have walked the path of sin

The storms of summer come and the blizzards finally go

But my own fate I'll never know

Read it in the papers that they're planning for a war

Extraordinary weapons that I've always abhorred

Will lay a lonely child to waste

His momentary pain will then pass away

The leaders of this nation in their manicured place

Claim I've done awful deeds of horrible disgrace

As they launch their bombs unto the towns

The parasites inside make people drown

They'll tear out their insides in a horrible display

Of chemical perfection made in a lab far away

With money that you and I have earned

We pay to see these children burn

People are freezing and starving in the street

We waste our lives toiling for corporate greed

United we can take a stand

Money'd devils won't give us commands

Another time, another place, the world might be ok

But not tomorrow, not today, while we all drown in pain

The wealthy have bought out all our souls

And we're chained down, just one path left to go

Ani's Dream

Ani's Dream (2017)

In a dark blue sky
of ethereal evenings

a lonely siren sings 

She said... she couldn't...

meet in my garden

So then we gave her Wings.

Through floating dreams we don't remember

Tomorrows fade too soon

And if we dare to live forever

We start all dreams a new

They sailed away... to Red horizons

In floating thoughts they'd Sway.

But then we saved Our Cosmic Gardens.

and saw the milky way

She wished them Luck...

on towards Red's Journey

We'd never see them soon...

And I, Ghost Lord...

My Lady Timeline...

We blessed the crescent moon

Arise

Arise (2017)

The flower of life - 

A beaming beacon that dies all too soon

Dark Summer nights -

When wishes fail but bad dreams come true

Madness will arise -

And punish the unsuspecting brain

Chaos then comes too -

Until the subject cries in scowling tongues... insane

Does it ever end?

No. However, some days have their enlightened moments

And then comes death.

Why did we exist in the first place?

What willed it so?

Singing Sailors Cover

Singing Sailors Cover (2017)

There's a river between us now
Some state line borders, some broken towns
Some singing sailors doing what they please
Now I'm down to saying prayers on my knees

I've loved your eyes, your innocence
In the face of bad times and where it wents
There's no wind on this bitter earth
Time and distance claim my blues for what they're worth

I'd call your name when I grew scared
I'd write your home if you were there
I am so broken by losing you
Only life can heal and see me through

When it "rains" I'm all alone,
confused by lonely, headed for home
Some singing sailors doing what they please
Now I'm down to saying prayers on my knees

There's a river between us now
Some state line borders, some broken town
Some singing sailors doing what they please
Now I'm down to saying prayers on my knees
Now I'm down to saying prayers on my knees