Change

Left on the sidewalk
Nothing but a cardboard box
Written on...
saying "please help the homeless"
Asking for nothing more
Than to provide for
A temporary home in a few change
So they can forget about this whole mess
With a cup of coffee and a few change
In circumstances

They can pretend that their life is all set
And sip away as if it's a routine part of their day
To wake up from their daydreams
With an empty cup of coffee at 3 in the morning
Back on the streets to fill the cup again with
Opportunity... to dream

Because the American Dream
Changed,
Evolved to a real dream
Not hypothetical

Empty pockets will always stay empty
Their stomachs, never full

People keep talking about politics and fiscal policies
It's hard to care when food is all you seek
Can't think of anything else but to survive
In a world surrounded by food but
their arms are stuck and their fingers are cramped
In their glass box of poverty

But we don't know such boxes exist
They cleaned it too clean
Leaving them looking like nothing but mimes
Entertaining us with their gestures
So we laugh and clap confused in our minds
Not knowing that their tears are not painted on
Not seeing their hopes are dead and gone...

3 AM

He says Calculus is a philosophy

I'm thinking back as I sit at my desk
With an open textbook and an empty notebook
Struggling to understand the meaning of life
Through numbers and letters and squiggly lines
While tears of frustration are staining my papers
And keeping my neighbors restless because I'm banging my head on the wall time after time

Wishing for the first time that stereotypes were true
Thinking why I wasn't given a calculator brain too
Instead this philosophy of logic has turned into a black hole
with me only realizing that human nature requires us to be a bit...
...Illogical?...
But this light of illogic is devoured by that damn hole

That's when the desperation kicks in
When the night hours don't seem proficient
My blood cells replaced by caffeine
And I'm sitting in a corner
Like a monkey
Swaying back and forth whispering...

...I'm not going to college...