Poems

Afterbirth
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
I could tell by the tone of her cries
And breathe of her voice, and the tears in her eyes
That this could be the end, my death over life,
Crying and fetal, a bond only blood can tie
 
You’ve got to be quiet, because I’ve got to decide
I’d be chained to fear for the rest of my life
It’s as eternal as the battles we fight
What gives definition to our mottled lives?
 
You can stop and reflect for as long as you’d like,
Just not so long as to miss the passage of time,
I remember it all, all that blood on her thighs
The struggle to personify every life
 
Oh, the leaves in the trees and all these suffering nights,
It tries to defy but lacks what defines
And it could be aspiring, it could be liked
It could be grey from time to time
 
And it can be just as clear is it likes
Suffering from noise, from sound, and from sight,
It needs to be clear, and it needs to be right
It needs to be crucified to get along in this life
 
When everything’s fear and everything’s feast
A cord wrapped around, a pole or a tree
What can I provide that you already need?
You’re smothering me, it’s so complete
 
It’s hollow inside, the faēade at my feet,
It’s on the rust of the world that I feed
When everything’s creepy and everything’s neat
Sitting there screaming, bathed in belief
 
It feels so complete, I feel so complete
I am the tinder from the fields that you reap
Everything’s coming and everything was
I remember it all, a vision of love


Alters' Down
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
His wound was made
Your youth takes ground
Our cover blown, my Queen, your King,
He, has been crowned
 
Her skin's not breached
Your defense is sound
This palace is safe, my Goddess, Love
But they've taken the towns
 
the sun goes,
the son goes,
the alters' down
the alters' down, my Love
 
Our love is deep
Entwined, our souls are bound
Your mind is weak, my Breath, my Hand
Your logic's not sound
 
Don't know where you've been,
I know it can't be found
Your allegiance gone, my Lioness,
Progress toppled to the ground
 
the sun goes,
the son goes
the alters' down
the alters' down, my Love
 
Your way has won
The dangers abound
Blood's been spilled, my Heart, my Health
On earth's sweet mound
 
We wake at dawn
A new truth found
Sympathy's faked, a lot my Dream
All my hope is drowned
 
the sun goes,
the son goes
the alters' down
the altar's down, my Love


Conscience
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
Sometimes you’re right about our collective condition
You’re forming impressions upon our cognition
But these expressions are already given
We’re way past division and you call this religion
 
You might need me to guide you through the process of retention
Rewriting history is the modern convention
Action without words is often taken for intention
But you know infinite knowledge is never redemption
 
And you hammer at the conscience to try to dissect it
Oh, the minds of the wise that you have collected
With the help of the deities of war you’ve erected
You’ll never get it and I can’t forget it … now
 
The process of memorization leads to invention
But your man of sanity is a hopeless contention
You answer, “We do this ‘cause it’s our convention”
But your inspired scripture is already exceptional
 
We mechanize in our attempts at reduction,
But are we only capable of destruction
Like a litmus test of all of these warring factions
You are not a distraction—you are not a reaction to this
 
And you hammer at the conscience to try to dissect it
Oh, the minds of the wise that you have erected
With the help of the deities of war you’ve collected
I’ll never get it and you can’t forget it … now


Consumption
© 2010, Jeffrey Trattner
Oh, the things we discovered,
The concept of dying,
The things we uncovered,
Bore holes in our hearts
 
Oh, the families of loved ones,
On hospice and health care
The brightness of oceans,
Conceals the silence of storms
 
Oh, hide behind science,
Eugenics and cyanide
Hidden in the voices
An image of God
 
Oh, plow from the fields,
An armistice of feelings
Die in the wilderness
Of consumption and greed
 
Oh, fend for your children,
Young men and young ladies,
Hanging on to threads
I am misunderstood
 
Oh, the things we discovered,
The concept of dying,
The things we uncovered,
Bore holes in our hearts


Crescendo
© 2008, Jeffrey Trattner
Anthems, anthems without meaning,
Photographs of prophets,
These souls are always taking,
Take away the anthems,
Take away the screaming
 
Chaos, chaos in crescendo,
Chaos gives us meaning,
A warning on the label,
A tried but tired method,
Of beleaguered breathing
 
I scream, I scream in crescendo,
A photograph of endless,
Spirals always talking,
Talking about anthems,
Talk until the meaning
 
If you, if you had to die here,
On this endless path of dreaming,
Would you smile slyly,
Or would the silence faze you,
'till silence turns to screaming


Crown Of Thorns
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
My crown of thorns
Has left scars upon your feet
A rose begins with nothing
Oh, don't you tread on me
 
I’ll be the judge
Let me be judged
A light begins in heaven
Only heathens under me
 
So, if I stand on water
What will you call me?
My crown meant nothing
There’s pain in hypocrisy
 
You shall not press down upon the brow of labor
This crown of thorns,
You shall not crucify mankind
Upon a cross of gold
 
I‘ve washed the stones
I’ve bled on sheets
The Church is not my Wisdom
There’s just no one left to bleed
 
Can't you see?
You’ve scarred me
And I meant nothing
I want to set you free
 
So, if I stand on water
Will you talk to me?
Or create another martyr
With thorns above his cheeks
 
My crown of thorns
Has left scars upon your feet
A rose begins with nothing
Oh, don't you tread on me
 
Don’t walk all over
You can hardly speak
I tread emotion
You stumble ‘cause you’re weak
 
Because you’re weak
You tread on me
I cannot speak
You tread on me


Darkening Skies
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
A God in the making, so rough in her apprenticed hands
A world’s for the taking, threats of ambitions supplant
But something’s discovered in these moonless, darkened skies
There was something deleted, and sold at too great a price
 
The time that she’s chasing, the eons that she’s laid to waste
With every breath she’s taking, she too easily welcomes disgrace
When all that she’s wanted, runs ruined in torrents above her,
And all she believes in, crumbles in front of her face, what’s left to say
 
There was something deleted, something important that we used to share
A kind of kindness mistaken, for a genuinely compassionate air
The beating she’s taken, I don’t think she can shake it
Or maybe she just doesn’t care to be anywhere but here
 
She’s already hated, by the greatest that history’s known
The something deleted, like a wound that makes her tougher to loathe
But her heart’s still beating, a ticking time bomb ready to explode
In history’s pieces, she lies tattered and tarred in despair, soothingly unaware


Demons
© 2009, Jeffrey Trattner
This monster's falling ashes,
Falling demon's falling wings
The clatter of the clamor
In the courtyard it beings
 
Bring down the demons of the world
And of the drink
Cast the body's bloody
And the shroud is in the sin
 
Off the heads of puppets,
Meager mortals on their strings
Off of something sturdy
And on with something weak
 
I am of the demon
Of the sun and of the wind
I am talking dirty, talking heavy,
Talking spin


Devolution
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
There is just one way, or a practice to patience
Give us a day, what’s the rate in this place?
When you’re breaking bread at the State of the Union
You’ll never escape, you’ve got no where else to pray
 
Devolve; devolve, just to evolve again
Rotate around this sickening experiment
You’ll contemplate on your plain of existence
Hesitation is fatal resistance
 
Evolve; evolve, just to devolve again
Revolve around this endless experience
Extrapolate from the pain of persistence
Hesitation is fatal existence
 
On a one way trip to a deserted island
Let him have his say, which card's he going to play
Dead on arrival, in the heart of the Heartland
Let us curse this false abomination
 
Evolve; evolve, just to devolve again
Revolve around this terrific accident
You can instigate in the face of the Religion
Hesitation is to fade from existence
 
Devolve; devolve, just to evolve again
Rotate around this endless experiment
You can’t extrapolate in the pain of persistence
Hesitation is always a fatal mistake


Forgiven
© 2009, Jeffrey Trattner
I am sharp and I am sad,
I am the best you've ever had
I am here, and looking for forgiveness
 
I am wondrous and glad
To lose all that I've ever had
For just another night of your wisdom
 
I am running short on time,
I am going out of my mind
With worry and the sadness of precision
 
I am deaf, and visions blurred
I cannot see a single word
I would kill them all for your religion
 
I know not what I say
I want to love another day
I am in the throws of your passion
 
You hope that heaven held your head
Less you wind up quite as dead
You are running through the cavern of the echoes


Glass
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
You are immortalized in glass,
Paint and canvas never last,
She is expressed in brilliant hollowed clay
Everything’s seems so much richer in your face
 
The ink pours from your chromatic eyes
I hope you can hold on tight,
Elevating to places so high
Evaluating with your mind
 
I see right through your mirrored face
You refract light as it passes through your heart
It can bend from the end of earth to its start
Come out like glass—amorphous at first
 
The sound storms in
Just a taste of broken glass
The moments over much too fast
Taste of blood and everything
 
And stars express the sky, so effortlessly
We lay on sheets of perfect glass
Like ice inside, cold and sharp and plane
Twist us into art, quartz, mercifully
 
Artifacts washed in bitter glass,
Smoky water aftertaste
And I can’t leave this place
Confined in this infinite waste


Grace Is an Illusion
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
Whirlpool going down the drain
We stood alone and watched him shatter
Woeful, unaware, you are getting much too close
Don’t get much closer
 
Ignorance, ignorance is bliss
And I don’t want any part of this
Faith hurts much more than I can bear,
And what if Grace isn’t there?
 
Blood flows down in sheets of rain
We stood by and watched him suffer
Painfully aware, you stood afar
Can’t get much further
 
Ignorance, ignorance is bliss
And I don’t want any part of this
Faith hurts much more than I can bear,
And what if Grace isn’t there?
 
Knowledge flows through the rivers of pain
We float along as if that matters
Ignorance left me much too scared
Paranoia doesn’t mean that they’re not there
 
Ignorance, ignorance is bliss
And I don’t want any part of this
Faith hurts much more than I can bear,
And what if Grace isn’t there?


Just an “Us”
© 2008, Jeffrey Trattner
If I drink the fire,
And I walk upon the air,
If I pray at your rivers,
Will you join me there?
 
If I fly from heaven,
Into the depths of your despair,
If I leave your flames burning,
Will you be mine, anywhere?
 
Just a thought, just a feeling,
Just a dream, just a touch,
Just a, just a meaning,
Just a “me”, just an “us”
 
If I steel my resolve,
And if I do not wear,
If you think that I am brave,
Will you help me when I’m scared?
 
If I am guiding songbirds,
And am invisible at night,
If I worship at your alters,
Will you fly me from this fight?
 
Just a thought, just a feeling,
Just a dream, just a touch,
Just a, just a meaning,
Just a “me”, just an “us”
 
Will you taint the reverb?
Will you take me to your skies?
Will you stop my heart one day, baby?
Will you make me cry?
 
Will you steady time for me?
Will you lay down by my side?
Will you stop my screaming, baby?
Will you take my smile?
 
Just a thought, just a feeling,
Just a dream, just a touch,
Just a, just a meaning,
Just a “me”, just an “us”


Monet
© 2002, Jeffrey Trattner
Serpentine, higher
Points, blue and gray
The portraits are perfect,
But where is Monet?
 
He’ll paint an image,
An image or two
One of them is redder,
And it’s making him blue
 
Bridges like fire,
Points of pure vision
Monet’s silence
Is his infinite wisdom
 
You know where he goes,
When it’s getting late
Its time to put painter
In his sterile case
 
He saw the doctors
His vision was hate
Can you paint eyesight
On your canvas, Monet?
 
I guess its over
So long, on your way,
The paints’ just for color,
The portrait’s Monet


Please…
© 2010, Jeffrey Trattner
When you dot all your I's
And you've crossed all your T's
Don't fear for me, for my safety
Please…
When your thoughts turn to me,
Prayed alone on the beach,
Time and tide wait for no man, lately
Please…
When the fear starts to creep,
I miss your sighs of relief,
Remember our faith is unyielding
Please…
When you cry in our home
Hide the tears from our young,
You are glued to my heart, ever racing
Please…


Signal Fire
© 2003, Jeffrey Trattner
You’ve given me you’ve given me the sequence that signified scared
The issue isn’t how much but where
And another thing, I believe man that nobody cares
You give to me, you give to me this excuse and I cheer
 
You wear your red, white, and bleed
It won’t be long, son, till I’ve got `em running scared
You’ve given me you’ve given me the signal that nobody cares
Oh, baby, it’s the sequence that signified scared
 
You’re scaring me, this dividing line is thin man I swear
When the issue isn’t how much but where
Don’t take a chance with the people that care
The ones who wear a smile when the spotlight appears
 
You’re telling me, you’re telling me everyone wore smiles that signified scared
They deviate by miles man but nobody cares
They kill by the millions man but nobody’s there
You signaled me, you signaled me, can you taste the soot and the ash in the air
 
And tell me something, where they human and why didn’t we care?
They signal fired that they were scared
You’ve given me you’ve given me the sequence that signified scared
Tell me, tell me why are you always so scared
 
Tell me, tell me, tell me,
Why are you always so scared
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me,
Why are you always so scared


Skin and Bones
© 2006, Jeffrey Trattner
A walked into your garden
A place of hearts, fond memories
I starred up at you, as your weakness grew
Till I could look right through you
 
You were all there, but now we’re just…skin and bones
A safe place to stay so we are not all alone
These growing pains are over now
And we’re just skin and bones
 
A walked into the waterfall
A gall gathered up your things
I swore to you, we’d see this through
But now you’re far away
 
We were all here, but now it’s just…sticks and stones
There’s no safer place than home
The growing daylight’s over now
And we’re just skin and bones
 
Illusions shine, bright, light a reflection
Of collected recollections
Take all my kin, imprison them,
Cause we’re just skin and bones


Sunlight
© 2010, Jeffrey Trattner
I walk through the valley on the sequence of sunlight,
I walk through the desert on the brightest of days
Here's to the hope of a future of prospects,
Here's the blood of the solders erased
 
I walk through the darkness on pillars of moonbeams
I walk through the silence all but alone
Here's to the noose that they fit around your neck
Here's to the prisoner that is counting his days
 
I walk through the reminder of distance and defects
I walk through the fog that you all call the day
Here's to the heroes that we've long forgotten
Here's to the terror that we never have to face


The Barriers
© 2008, Jeffrey Trattner
The barriers, the barriers are high here
The secret, the secret doesn't sleep
The meaning, the meaning of the growing
The scent of distrust is only empathy
 
The violence, the violence that occurs here
The warning, shot across the bow
The fear, the fear is deep inside us
It is ripping, ripping us apart
 
The sequence, the sequence is alive here
The dreams, the dreams are nearly done
The death, the death that I am bringing
The horror seen, may the horror never come
 
The barriers, the barriers are weak here
The solders, the solders cower in the sun
The essence, the essence is all but gone now
It seeps inside, and forever shall it sleep


The Cave
© 2009, Jeffrey Trattner
I am gonna break you into pieces,
That are smaller than the pieces,
That you came here to begin with
I am gonna take you from the water,
And dry off all your feathers,
From the oceans that that confine you,
In the sequence you were born in
I am gonna pull the strings that hold you,
And tie you to defense,
And free you from the soulless
Wanting water, almost ringing
I am gonna take you to the mountain,
From the mouths that are the sand dunes,
From the canyon to the icebergs
That melt the sun around you,
I am gonna free you
From caves of all the burning that surrounds you
And I  am gonna bleed you,
Oh I am gonna bleed you


Troubled Night
© 2009, Jeffrey Trattner
I am the words, I am the same
The sacred verse, the walls of flame,
Hold me here, unto the tide,
Drowning in the troubled night
 
I am the secret wish you keep
Bundled in the ministry
Almost clear, and almost right
"Almost" is so far tonight
 
If you surfed the peeled back tides
If you found belief tonight
Would you stand up and be free
Or would you follow behind me
 
I am the curse, I am the sea
The sacred words, the halls of thee,
Hold me here, unto the night,
Breathing in the air of light
 
I am the secret, you are weak
I am the burning tapestry
Almost there, and almost right
"Almost" is so far tonight


Unmasked Mortals
© 1999, Jeffrey Trattner
Who amongst us will remove his mask
From his stone cold face
And face the public's ridicule?
Each man must sign his fate!
 
Over thirty million dead men's heads
Have never possessed minds
I've summarized a million years of history
In less than a minute's time.
 
Though hail can beat upon my chest,
Diamonds sparkle in my eyes:
Soon the world will laugh at you
Because you've lived a tragic life of lies.


Venerable
© 2006-2008, Jeffrey Trattner
Are you venerable tonight,
Lying naked on the sand?
Have you made your peace with God,
And bartered your fellow man?
 
Have you crumbled unto the Earth,
Shed your share of tears as planned?
Have you gotten down on your knees,
And let hope wash through your hands?
 
In the beauty of this place,
The Phoenix will ignite
She will burn up all that was,
In an apex of light
 
What if we let it change,
And these doves take flight tonight?
Into the uncharted wind,
Into the uncertainties of life
 
Are you vulnerable tonight,
Lying, broken on the sand?
Have they dragged you over their rocks,
And inducted you into their clans?
 
Unto the uncharted Earth,
Have you given them all that you can?
Have they knocked you out of breath,
And made you a marker of this land?


We Hold These Truths
© 2010, Jeffrey Trattner
You'll never know what happened here,
You'll never know what we've learned to fear,
What have you learned, in your time here?
What have you learned, what have you learned?
 
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, to be self evident, oh-oh
To be self evident, oh-oh, to be self evident
 
We're broken men, with bloodstained hands,
We're all alone, inside our heads,
Where are you from, is this your land?
Where are you from, where are you from?
 
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, to be self evident, oh-oh
To be self evident, oh-oh, to be self evident
 
When in the course of human events,
We take on kings, and governments,
Who rules you now, we don't need rules,
Who rules you now, don't be fooled
 
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, to be self evident, oh-oh
To be self evident, oh-oh, to be self evident
 
We break our bread, they temper steel,
They steal our crops, how does it feel?
How do you live, you must be mad,
How do you live, how do you live?
 
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, to be self evident, oh-oh
To be self evident, oh-oh, to be self evident
 
They call him Despot, they call him King,
When armies fall bells will ring,
Why are you here, don't live in fear,
Why are you here, why are you here?
 
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, we hold these truths
We hold these truths, to be self evident, oh-oh
To be self evident, oh-oh, to be self evident

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