Tripp and his wife were sitting outside when Tripp pointed to an injured cat. The cat was almost lifeless as it lay in their yard near the curb of the road. They also noticed another cat passing by, paying no attention to the injured cat.
Tripp turned to his wife and said, “you think that other cat would have stopped to help.”
He makes a maze for runners
To race his world of sorts
Fixes the game against the broken
For he’s not for good sports
And watches them run about
Though few will move ahead
But trample on each other
Living like the living dead
I make you think
I am what
your life’s about
I make you want
the things
you can’t live without
You and me,
your friends
and family we flout
When they say
I’m running you
or raise any doubt…
Welcome to the Rat Race
Sold your soul for a piece of mine
But no one wins the Rat Race
For there is no finish line…
Some leap for laps of luxury
As static clings to status quo
The Jones’s, a moving target
Of power plays, or a fashion show
Not much time to wine and dine
For they’re always on his dime
Cameos to homes and lovers
Standing still in flying time
I make you think
I am what
your life’s about
I make you want
the things
you can’t live without
You and me
your friends
and family we flout
When they say
I’m running you
or raise your doubt
I am the Rat Race
Here’s your Rat Race salary
Give me eighty hours a week
And forty are for free
I’m the amount
that just amounts
to this amount
and nothing more
I make you think
you make it rich
but I just make
you poor
I AM THE RAT RACE!
© 2006 (August 14, 2006 @ 5:45 PM) by James “Xakk” Marshall
Founded upon the foundations of fiends
Sustained by scores of sordid schemes
From pillars of promises hang hollow beams
Layers of nightmares beneath a facade of dreams
Something for nothing
And something for everything
Lining every shelf
Promise power for wealth and for health
And virtually everything else
Always something to save you from something
But never something
To save you from yourself…
What is the Messiah Complex?
It’s a complex issue
A store, of sorts, of ‘saviors’
Taking a fee for your ‘rescue’
Full of it—and solutions
Eschewing a foot in your shoes
Money changers changing hands and skin
Sheep and wolves’ clothing wearing thin
Spinning straw and gold into spin
All go in without and out with nothing within
Secrets to success
Stay secrets none-the-less
When broadcast through your screen
Tips and tidbits and bits of bliss
Feeding the mania machine
Superficially disseminated
Through overrated
Multimedia means
Where’s the Messiah Complex?
Just look around you now!
Where sensation surrounds sound discerning
And chokes it out somehow
Milking you for all it’s worth
To be their next cash cow
© July 31,2006 @ 6:45 PM by “Xakk”
While transferring this site to the new server, I seemed to have lost everyone’s comments. If you can remember what they were, or have anything new to add, PLEASE DO! You will need to register again as the old accounts have been lost as well. I apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to reading your posts!
Sincerely,
“Xakk”
A man was weeding through his garden and happened upon a somewhat familiar-looking plant, though it was not one he recalled planting himself. The plant intrigued him and certainly looked harmless enough so he placed it in a pot and brought it inside his home.
Mistaking the plant for a somewhat similar one, a neighbor told the man that his newly domesticated botanical had excellent nutritional value. Taking the neighbor at his word, the man named the plant “Nutrition” and started sharing it with his family and friends. Almost everyone thought the plant tasted great at first, but some couldn’t help to notice it had a distinct bitter aftertaste. Many had grown weak and even suspected the plant may be poison—perhaps even killing them slowly.
But the man loved his plant Nutrition and was quite proud of his find. He defended it effusively and would not entertain any words uttered against the plant. The man would simply reply to his critics saying, “What was so wrong about me getting nutrition? Why do so many people have a problem with me promoting nutrition?”
Moonwalks casting shadows of doubt
Smoke and Mirrors in a different light
Furled flags ride the wind without air
Devoid of stars and no Earth in sight
Minus support of four-foot thick lead
Van Allen belt whips a spaceman to hash
Micro-meteors rip space suits to shreds
And the film for the camera melts in a flash
Earth to NASA
Astronauts to dust
Do what they can’t
But do it they must
When technology fails
In Hollywood they trust
And all the moon’s a stage
For the conspiracy age
Feel all the rage
And your mind disengage
Rover, Rover, never flipped over
Antarctic prop-rocks stamped with a ‘C’
Lift-off produced a flame in a vacuum
Yet failed to disturb the dust and debris
Weightless indeed when shown at half-speed
Washing our brains in the Sea of Tranquility
Catching the Buzz, strong-Armed to concede
Surfing the wave of cosmic conspiracy
Earth to NASA
Astronauts to dust
Do what they can’t
But do it they must
When technology fails
In Hollywood they trust
And all the moon’s a stage
For the conspiracy age
Feel all the rage
And your mind disengage
Insight might incite but no one’s in sight
Adherents hide as facts chase their fantasy
Multiple sources of ‘light’ think they’re right
Talk is cheap but the books aren’t free
© 2006 James “Xakk” Marshall [January 16, 2006 @ 3:45 AM, T minus 9 seconds]
Walking through the cafe
Stalking you just like prey
Making small talk
“How are you today?”
You give me a friendly “fine”
I’m ready with my next line
“What is your job?”
And I can’t wait to tell you about mine!
I work for myself, it’s true
No doubt that you can too
I’m building my business
And it needs someone just like you!
Praising you (who I don’t know)
Putting on a one man show
Now you are flattered
And you’ll go where I want you to go!
I look like your friend
I act like your brother
You were love at first sight
Just like the others
I met here tonight…
Selfish ambitions they hide in disguise
But honey and feces still draw the same flies
The difference between them all lies in the lies
And he don’t see the people
Through dollar signs in his eyes
Come to our meeting place
Meet the heads face to face
To bask in the hype
And our dogma embrace
Zeal for your cult grows
Turn your friends to foes
“They don’t want to be rich?”
Like someone who someone
who some-one in here knows
Feeling the loneliness
Steeling away your bliss
You curse the day (we met)
As you reminisce about
the times you miss
We wined and we dined
You never thought me unkind
“You don’t want to be rich?”
Well, if your not on my downline
you’re no friend of mine!
I am not your friend!
I am not your brother!
Though it may have looked that way
But for you and yours
I will still prey…
Selfish ambitions they hide in disguise
But honey and feces still draw the same flies
The difference between them all lies in the lies
And he don’t see the people
Through dollar signs in his eyes
© 2006 J. “Xakk” Marshall (January 14, 2006 @12:55 AM)
Should’ve done this or
He should’ve known that
Should’ve thought about
It more before he
Got to where he’s at
Eschewing insight
When all seems ‘old hat’
But this Critical
Eye’s blind as a bat
Hindsight‘s a forest
Trees of yesterday
And no one can see
The foresight for the
Trees are in the way
The heart as a rock
Mind made out of clay
Bowels set on fire
Conscience will betray
Strangers fight like foes in a cold internal war
Making mental trenches filled with dirt to the core
When those things of hate are too easy to explore
Still all can live like friends when we stop keeping score
And we don’t need to be their judges anymore
No, I won’t be the judge—anymore!
Head to head combat
Neither side’s aware
Of fists of Rights and
Lefts, slanderous blows that
Time will not repair
Judge between Two and
One thinks it unfair
Or for neither nor,
Looks like you don’t care
It may never be
The way it all seems
All partly blinded
By nightmares that crawl
All inside these dreams
Whispers in the dark
Sometimes sound like screams
Seemly shades of gray
May be one’s extremes
Strangers fight like foes in a cold internal war
Making mental trenches filled with dirt to the core
When those things of hate are too easy to explore
Still all can live like friends when we stop keeping score
And we don’t need to be their judges anymore
No, I won’t be the judge—anymore!
© November 25, 2005 @ 2:00 AM by James “Xakk” Marshall
Man looks upon another man
Who walks and talks with can in hand
And of his can becomes a fan
And is off to buy his own can
Although not really his own can
But the can of the other man
Copied and carried in his hand
And now he thinks he’s better than—
So he greets others can to can
Those who partake in his canned plan
That is, the ones of their own clan
Who all display the same canned brand
Cans don’t work well with other cans
And some cans, the other cans ban
Get out and join some other clan!
Those cans will say from can to can
And always have—from span to span
As only cans know other cans
Or at least as much as cans can
But behind those cans there stands man
Something the cans can’t understand
Nor does man when he talks through cans
And all of man talks can to can
But few have talked from man to man
In an automobile, there is DRIVE and there is PARK. In between these gears, there are many levels of speed. No one will say, “you are either in PARK or you are in DRIVE and that’s all there is to it,” because everyone knows there is much more than that. Neither does one settle and say, “everyone is going at some speed” as PARK truly is a reality and does not produce any measurable speed. There is also NUETRAL, but this is not necessarily a middle ground as NUETRAL serves specific purposes that tramscend a wholly inadequate “somewhere between PARK and DRIVE” definition. In addition, the low gears, although rarely used, are similar to DRIVE but serve other functions that are not best suited for DRIVE itself.
Many live out their lives as if DRIVE and PARK are the only options, one of them being good and the other bad. One may isolate all the benefits of DRIVE and share their ideaology of how everyone needs to be in DRIVE all of the time–as people need to move! But another will isolate all of the horrors of DRIVE and contend that DRIVE is the culpable gear since while people are in it, they often hit things and cause much harm to others and property. This one will bring to light all the benefits of remaining in PARK and encourage others to not be like those evil DRIVERS!
Some who are wary of making such commitments to either PARK or DRIVE may choose to go with NUETRAL. This is a safe bet for those wishing to avoid the extremism associated with the DRIVERS and the PARKERS. Neverthless, should the NUETRAL ones need to remain stationary while situated on a steep incline, they themselves will witness the ramifications of avoiding DRIVE or PARK at all costs.
Others, recognizing the consequences of blind adherance to the aforementioned three, may experiment with some of the LOWER GEARS and do so with moderate success. After a time, they find that these too have their shortfalls.
Does a skilled driver succesfully operate in any one extreme (or alternative to an extreme) on every ocassion? Can a wise driver ultimately find balance by somehow blending all of the options; DRIVE, PARK, NUETRAL, Etc. simultaneously as he goes about his journey? No! A truly skilled driver makes good use of all the gears, but knows how to use them at the appropriate times so that he may safely and effectively reach his destination–and without causing unecessary harm to his fellow travelers.
And those most in control don’t even rely on automatic transmissions.