Don't be a Hero

They say the average life expectancy of a 1st Assistant Director is 54 years old
But Grips
are expendable

You are a hammer
A tool to be wielded by hands that haven’t seen a callus in years
We break and are replaced

Don’t be a hero, they tell me
Don’t wander off the beaten path
The one less taken is suicide
Just stay in line
Don’t fuck around
Don’t waste my time
We are working
Just keep your head down
And your mouth shut
And you might get paid

Don’t be a hero
The tallest blade of grass gets cut down first,
Do not disobey
Initiative should not be taken
It is not encouraged
Get some brown on your nose
And move slowly

We don’t need heroes
Not the Knight in shining armor
Not the song by Bonnie Tyler
Not the TV series
Heroes
are a Myth
They don’t exist
Everything you were ever taught of hard work was all for naught
Just do your job
Obey commands
Hurry up and wait
Get down on all fours and we’ll tell you when to breathe

This, from friends with good intentions, is the hardest jagged suppository to swallow
That doing anything inventive
is liable to get you fired
That offering a creative solution
is a serious problem

That the shadow I tried to leave behind by feeding my mind
Is breathing down my neck
My employers want an Animal
A beast with opposable thumbs
That can lift, run, climb, and tie anything

I’m not gonna lie

I want my Conan moment
I wanna rip the horn off an Evil God
And shove a blade between his eyes
I wanna lop the head off a Sorcerer
And send it rolling to his followers

I want the Ball, Coach
Game’s on the line
No time left
I want it
But not at the cost of my body and soul

I am told
That the film industry will chew me up and spit me out
I’m half cooked chicken
Equipped with the corn starch to make the gravy thicken
I’m proactive like a Lion in a China shop
Cause after the bull’s done breaking everything,
It won’t eat all the customers

I always forget to remember to be afraid of the consequences
But I will not go quietly into the night
I broke out of my cage ages ago
And so long as there is breath in my veins,
I will not be sent back to that school of thought nor its barred windows

The world needs Heroes
Not the Knight in Shining armor
Not the song by Bonnie Tyler
Not the TV series

We need Teachers
Coaches
Mentors
Activists
Artists
Because without this thing
This sharing of one so that others may have
The world becomes bleak

without laughter of youth
Without the giggles of their own experiments come to life
Of achievement
Of success
Of unconventional thinking being the exact key necessary to be in tune with the solution
Without that,
The silence is deafening

I wanna be a Hero
I wanna heal my people from a crippling methamphetamine epidemic
I wanna shape the mind of the first Native Hawaiian President
I wanna pull the islands out of rising water levels

I choose to be a Hero
Because all that is necessary for the forces of Evil to conquer the world
Is for a few Good people
To do Nothing

Haiku Time

Father Time is Old
But that Fucker moves quickly
When you're not looking

The Sky is Falling

(For Nana and Grandma)

An apple fell from the sky
And suddenly Isaac Newton knew why
The Sun and Moon
Set
And rise

Or so I'm told
I'm sure, as I get older,
bolder forms of the story will unfold

But for now,
The Moon is in a constant state of falling into us
The first satellite to chance upon this trite little orb
Orbiting since its formative years
Protecting the planet from massive damage
Carved scars into her life
and we have the nerve to call them craters

She has been called Goddess
But She and my Grandmothers speak often
I call them Cousins
Patient and loving Amazons
They have nurtured me since my birth on Earth
And turned away tidal waves
in hopes of preserving our lineage

Yet, I delineate
And as of late, I haven't been around long enough to stargaze
but just late enough to miss the meteor showers
You see, they are solar powered

My grandfathers had such large and crimson hearts
But once they became Red Giants
it reduced my childhood to ashes before my eyes

But They survived
Derived my problems solution
And kept my spirit Alive

Driving forward forcefully
Pouring Agape Love
in the absence of the Light
That once was in my Skies
And now resides in the Heavens

When I was hungry, they gave me food
And now they approve of the Artemis
With which I hunt
they are wonderful

Tell me that Newton was right
That my Lunar predecessors may forever fall into my arms
Tell me my Moons are not leaving me

Not when we're hurdling toward the Drain
What was once thought to be many holes in the sky
is now considered to be
A Singular, Unfathomable expanse of NOTHING
At the edge of our universe
Staring at the gaping maw of the abyss
Nana, Grandma
Give my forehead one more kiss
And tell me that this
is not the end

Tell me that I may bask solitary in the light you emit
And feel solace amidst
A Midsummer's Nightmare
Tell me
That I can tell you jokes that make you HOWL
with Laughter
And the moment after
When you tell me
That you miss me
'cause I can always make you smile

Please
Stay awhile
And let me wonder as I wander
Through the labyrinth of legends and myths
That have served as nourishment
for years of enduring punishment
Let me
Return the warmth that has sustained me
Through all these winters

Thank you
For teaching me how to treat a woman properly
that she's not just some celestial body for me to
stick my flag in
and claim Pole position
but she should be the glistening Face
that makes my night
a Light in a dark world
A pearl made from grains of agitation
Motivation to shatter the sky as a limit
And reach for new heights

I will halt the light of the New Dawn if you ask me
just tell me
I can have some more time
with the Night

Legacy

I remember being asked,
As all children are at that age
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
And of all the cacophony of vocations
Astronaut, Firefighter, Cowboy, Doctor
The only thing that made sense
Was the one that probably didn't make any dollars

I said I wanted to be a good father
That I didn't wanna be an Astronaut
Because I was taught that I didn't need to leave
To Succeed
That I could climb to any height so long as I kept
My feet on the ground
My head in the clouds
And my sights on my principles

Didn't wanna be a Firefighter
Passion already blazed inside a frame
Too young of age to accept its power
Besides, I'm probly gonna spend a lifetime extinguishing my daemons anyway

We were already Cowboys
our Wild West days were just beginning
Tryin' to hijack a living from Bandits in Three Piece Suits
I may not be a Doctor
But I was given all the surgical instruments I would need to
Heal broken hearts
Stitch up old wounds and
Mend rifts between siblings

The teacher smiled
and chalking it up to childhood ignorance
Walked up to the chalk board and wrote
"What JOB (double underline) do you want?"

I grunted

"Mine's the most important job I've heard all day and
WHAT THE FUCK DOES MY JOB
HAVE TO DO WITH WHAT I WANT TO BE?!?!?!"

She jolted

Surprised at the Thunderclouds beneath my eyebrows
and the Venom in my voice
She had no choice
but to put me on timeout to think about what I'd done

Well I'd still prefer to Have a job rather than Be one
And the thought of a son is only SLIGHTLY more enticing than a daughter
'Cause with a son, I've only gotta worry about
One penis . . .
If he's straight

Now, for those of you who may be concerned -
I don't have any kids and I'm not expecting them anytime soon
but sometimes, I envision their rooms in my head
Of tucking them into bed and singing them to sleep
like my father did for me
Passing on the lessons that I learned from him

That Anger
will make you Strong

But Love
will make you Powerful

that family is the foundation on which all strong homes are built and
that wilting beneath the weight of or your tear ducts
is the true measure of a good man
So don't spend the saline solution frivolously,
Not when it can sterilize a tattered spirit
for It to begin the healing process

And that your Name
MEANS SOMETHING
that your imagination is the greatest toy and strongest weapon
You can EVER possess
and it's one of a kind
In a technological age where there's a perfectly logical explanation for everything
I will teach them to dream
For what destitute times we must be living in
When Children are so world weary
They cannot even believe in Magick
I will teach them to make lightning dance beneath their fingertips
To Sing with sea creatures
And Call the many Winds
By their first names
that there are many shades of Good and Evil
But that you gotta be one of the good guys
'cause there are so many of the bad ones running loose

And when I'm shaken loose from this mortal coil
Be brief in your mourning
I will be in the rise and fall of your chest as you
Breathe in the sunrise
I will be the eyes looking back at you from the mirror
and always remember that Daddy loves you

And if anyone's ever stupid enough to ask
"is your father dead?"
You hold your head up high and you say
"No he isn't
Because he lives
in Me"

Now I don't have any kids
And I'm not expecting them anytime soon
but I am Excited
To meet Them.

Sea Monster

Thank you Uncle Sam for all you've brought us
All you've taught us of your
Top Notch Synthetics

there is a field of plastic in my ocean
Twice the size of the Lone Star State
And it's growing

Maybe that's why everyone tells me everything's bigger in Texas
See THIS is the difference between what rape and sex is
She never asked for this

My people have kissed her moisture tenderly since our conception
We bathe in the waves of her orgasms
Like she taught us to make love
And we've been riding her frothy surf ever since

But you Tourist Nations
You Astringent Visitors
Holler at her 'cause you're used to Fly
Fishing
'Cause you saw her hotspot and were jealous that she didn't give it to you
So what the fuck do you know about the Pacific except for the Rim,
Assholes
Pimped out by everyone she brushed against just 'cause she was beautiful
Forced to wear the cellophane halter top that we made for her
And now it's shredded from the beatings
Feeding the seedlings
of the fish
So we are eating Plastic
It's growing

But nobody's gonna claim responsibility in international waters
Besides, what's a body of water like hers doing surrounded by countries
like yours
She's been raped in No Man's Land and her suspects
Are her theatre-in-the-round audience
She never asked for this

Any more than Hawai'i asked to be the 50th notch on Uncle Sam's Bedpost
the last people he fucked and publicly claimed for his Harem
The rest
He doesn't tell his wife about
She's gotta read about it in the newspapers

So starting tonight, I will cut a star out of every red, white, and blue mantle I see
And I will cast them into the sky
So that my family
Can finally find their way home
Have you noticed
that you can't see the stars from Honolulu anymore
WWMAD - What Would My Ancestors Do?
How would they feel?
Would their smiles be Content, Glad, and Proud?
What have we done?
Jealous of their fire, we plucked them from the heavens to illuminate our streets
And have made ourselves blind to the night
because we couldn't stand the sight of the American Dream
for the Nightmare it truly is
Boob Jobs, Bailouts, Botox,
And a prescription
for Eternal Life