You’re in a cage if you’re hearing this and only this all the time.

There’s more than that to sing about.

There’s more than the girls/guys you crush on.

There’s more than the money you spend on yourself or them.

There’s the soul to sing about—something more powerful than the heart and mind.

There’s the hurt, pain, and struggle to sing about.

There’s hope and faith to sing about.

If you can’t sing about your hurt, pain, struggle, hope, faith, your love isn’t real—the song about the significant other is fruitless.

If you’re hiding behind your masks, you can’t show your true face to the ones you love.

Take a leap, open your ears and mind; we’re here for more than tiptoeing outside the lines, singing songs lacking soul.

We go to church and hear the word; we walk back out and forget to live it.

We write and sing songs that don’t face reality; songs that exalt carnal pleasures and material wants, ignorant of social injustice and the human condition.

We leave each other with empty promises from inverted tongues;

A handshake no longer means our word—it’s just another formality, just like “I love you”.

We’ve become talkers who aren’t walkin’, and run in the opposite direction instead.

We work; We keep them idle.

We climb; We let go.

We murder; We shake and smile.

Noise. Vexed. Hello?

Tech killed speech; eye to eye

The world within reach; can’t tell between goodbye and a lie.

A faceless call;

A text two words small;

A video you cannot recall.

Wires,yes? No it’s wireless but the question should be “Why?” No less.

Communication from person to person;

Lost in translation; the essence of expression has come undone.

This is where you remember that the world is round.

It gets darker,

Thee waves start to crash harder

The stars twinkle brighter and brighter.

This is when you ride the vicious waves.

This is how a twinkle’s born in your eye.

There’s a chance you’ll see a falling star.

You hope and pray that your horrifying waves take you somewhere new;

Deep inside you have faith it’ll take you there, then make a trip full circle around the world and take you back home.

Your waves crash and you realize chance is the child of fate.

The sky’s your favorite color, and your falling stars rain from infinity.

Your love’s been somewhere new, revitalized and ready to take a chance and do it all over it again.

Stuck in a world full of stress cases with pretty faces;

Making phone calls in uncanny office spaces

That’s what the race is:

Running towards the next hand-stamped diagnosis

Light-speed to a frown will be our handy-dandy prognosis

Every upside-down smile shoots daggers at symbiosis

Why do we wear “me” when we’re not wolves that deny embraces?

Who turned love into a burden? Why’d it make them dizzy?

Compassion’s homeless, everyone’s too busy.

Why do we stagger intoxicated, forget sympathy

Why do we brainwash ourselves ’til we’re machines of apathy?

Stop.

Take a breather, kick the parking meter, Don’t follow the red-eyed leader.

Maybe with hopeful lungs, we can be a little bit sweeter.

Retract our claws that kept picking at every little flaw

Ride the breaks, ’cause life is a dwarf:

This is it, this is your warning,

This is your new good morning.

I think that’s what’s beautiful about all of us, as human beings.

We’re messes of emotion and idea.

The fact that every one of us is messed up makes it okay that we are.

We’re messed up, but we can still be happy.

There’s always something there for us to fix–some change we should strive for; it’s true, real, and ongoing advancement.

Sometimes, we forget that we’re allowed to be messes together, and clean up together.

When you’re messed up, there’s no reason to be sad.

Since we’re all messed up, we can all still be happy messes.

I was driving on a highway filled with accidents and accidents waiting to happen. Even though I knew I was driving, there was also a part of me watching overhead, terrified of every single inch I drove. Then it happened.

I hit a car once.

Collided into a wrecked car on the shoulder next.

Smashed by a speeding car spinning into the shoulder.

I remember vividly, the part of me that wasn’t driving, just watching, screaming and covering his ears. My whole life really did flash before my eyes then. I didn’t feel the part of me driving anymore–I was just the one watching and I was floating up. Maybe the whole time it was my soul preparing for the worst in advance, jumping out to watch from above.

Watching myself die like that, I couldn’t help but mourn. But I wasn’t mourning myself, I was mourning for everything I was leaving behind.

The flash I saw was all the happiness, contentment, all the faces I know and love.

One of them that I knew and loved the most– when I realized I was leaving her behind, it broke me the most.

I couldn’t let go and come to terms with the fact that I was dead.

I was too young, I’ve made plenty of memories, but I never got the chance to make countless more. As I was floating up, I couldn’t stop thinking.

I wouldn’t know what it’s like going to college.

What it’s like settling into a small house.

What it’s like getting married.

What it’s like to have a family.

What it’s like to be in love with the ones I hold close like there’s no tomorrow.

But I had no tomorrow. I had no dreams tonight. I wanted to live so much more but my life was cut off so suddenly.

My soul was floating up and up; my heart wanted to beat back down.

Then I woke up.

I can’t even describe how happy I was knowing that I was still breathing. I could still have everything I loved. I loved that I was awake this morning.

It was more a dream than it was a nightmare–it did me more good than harm when I awoke.

Last night’s dream had plenty of nuggets of life for me to feed on.

I need to love even more every second I live. I need to love even more everyone I love now.

Yeah, we all know life is short.

But I think life’s short and the road is so long.

We move so fast through it, there’s so many stops we miss, we just crash and burn.

Life’s more than the rush it’s become now–more than everything material we have.

This morning–I’m genuinely glad I’m not mourning.