Zambia's Song

These children are beautiful, but they're dying by the dozen.

Pick up a box of eggs on your way out, but make sure to drop them on our doorstep.

How we make such a fuss of worthless objects that we worship like our God.

but young daughter, its not your fault that you were born without the means.

I mean life gave you lemons, but you lack the water needed to make that succulent lemonade.

We watch you walk miles but the television plays it as dull

so we change the channel hoping for something like an earthquake or another dead soldier

and let the importance and gravity of the situation roll off like water on a freshly waxed car.

But "carry on my wayward son/there'll be peace when you are done/lay your weary head to rest/don't you cry no more"

because by the time you get this message I'll be way too late

and the sack cloth and ashes will be prepared for morning.

Once the mourning starts your mothers eyes won't be dry for months on end

and the rest of the world sits like Jobs friends but for years instead of days

until your sister gets a microphone and stands on the stage and preaches a word that breaks our hearts

and the cycle starts over again!

Let the timer count down. We can take wages. Will the trend last days or years?

"Oh, I'll put a 50 down that it lasts at least 267 hours, 42 minutes, and 6 seconds!"

They tell me that the poor don't even try to stay afloat in this world

What they don't know is that something like a flood flashed before their eyes and they've got so much water in their lungs

They're just trying not to die, and they don't seem to care about anything other than how to get by

yet with all of their sickness and disease because of their situation they won't be hired

and because they aren't hired they get sick with disease

and because of their disease they bring about so much dis-ease

I just wish they didn't lie when they said loving people would be this easy

Our cameras are so focused on ourselves while we study the backs of our hands

the backs of our knee caps and the weenus is getting neglected.

I hope when you hear this you feel the guilt that balances out the shame and hurt that our people feel.

There are so many cracks in this globe we're just spitting to make some mud to make it flush and hold itself on its own

For Those Too Lazy To Take Down Their Christmas Lights

Hung like Christmas lights in mid-July
I’ve got my tongue caught up in a bear trap
I’m losing sight of everything that I’ve wanted to write.
She placed a hand on mine and I wished the world away
My eyes were opened and I couldn’t see
oh the Heavens know the things I wish to say when I sit to type.
These fingers stretch out like branches of barren trees
The fruit is rotten and falling while worms nibble at the roots.
Vines stretch forth and choke the earth around the trunk.
This burden is so easy and the yolk is yellowed
I want my soul to be poured out like water not held inside this bucket whilst I make a ruckus and shake a little bit of my thoughts out over the sides
I think I’ve run out of things to say that are of importance
so I will stand here and yell nonsense at the top of my lungs just to silence the crowd and feel like I’m in control of the ocean
No! Screw the ocean, man! I want to be in charge of the rotation of the earth
so If I move left fast enough I can bring everything back to perfection
I’m not even a perfectionist but I love the harmonies you sing to their swan song
and I want to be the melody but my voice only sings in the key of C and E is a distant dream to a vagabond like me
Sojourners and refugees make a home on a piece of cardboard to soak up your tears
I’M SO SICK OF THIS SHOW
Who are the Kardashians anyway?
Bring the justice and righteousness like a flood
make it flash and we will have a celebration as the whole world dies off again
Again? When was the first time?
I’m sorry your Sunday school doesn’t tell you that God killed EVERYONE when Noah sailed off high and dry.
Let’s argue this out, and you can call it a debate.
I’m still searching for something solid to write on. To place my hopes on.
I’ve lost my eyes in the light.
My name is Eli.
I’m strung out on thoughts like Christmas lights in mid-July.
Just leave me up and eventually I’ll find my season again.

Family Life.

Let's gather up the mirrors.

We can melt them down,

and pour metallic surfaces into the mold of a woman.

We can call it a relationship.

And it will be the only way mutuality will ever be reached.

YLFC

I had the opportunity to spit at Yorba Linda Friends high school service, and this is my piece. Enjoy.

I'm just a big city kid carrying small dreams like pebbles,
speaking softly and walking with a stick hoping to hit Mark McGuire home runs without the steroids
but somewhere in God’s Great Big Book it says that the weak will shame the strong
and that Bible Scholar Bullies like myself will be left wandering a desert of humility
wondering what dreams are made of
and whether or not we were wrong.
Yet it doesn't take much to have the faith of a mustard seed,
it’s maintaining that faith that takes the shade of vibrant honesty.
But the Lord has a way of dragging out the maimed and unexpected
and delivering them to a seat of power.
Isaac was an old man with a barren wife,
Moses had a speech impediment,
Jesus was a good Jewish boy,
and Rahab was a whore.
But you don't see God at the sidelines screaming,
"You aren't good enough to play on my team, little boy! You haven't fixed up your life so that its perfect"
But instead he tells us to sing
"all of you is more than enough for all of me for and every thirst and every need. You satisfy me with you love, and all I have in you is more than enough."
And the spirit of a loving God reminds us that we are his portion,
and that the things which we consider as being not good enough simply mean that we have ignored what He sees as the right stuff to participate in an active empire.
so I challenge you today to see the field of dreams and the bloodline of biblical proportions
To see the significance that your story could be leaving
and when you're done doing all of that, then see yourself differently.
"For it is one thing to be admired, another to be a guiding star that saves the anguished."