I Wrote This to Impress You

I wrote this to impress you… 

But lately I'm struggling to know how much I actually want to write 

I mean should I really be up here doing all this talking, right? 

It might be worth a few more words but maybe this isn't my birth rite 

I mean, whether it ends in contract or contrite 

The ultimate goal is not to show my story but to lift up your own 

It's to be a platform 

Not to perform 

Cause my poetry is fun 

But it’s not reform 

Until we reach more 

People deformed 

By the capitalistic glow that they know 

This place is like living next to uranium and calling that soft green light home 

But with poetry 

Some days it's been an end but in my life I know it means 

More when it's a means to more 

And yes I know that line is sore but 

We plant the little seeds of hope that we sow 

these lines plowed so hard and fine 

No-till until we feel more still indoors 

in our hearts and minds 

Adrift and slipping apart 

Further from the other aisle 

But not much further from the start 

Further from realizing denial 

Further from style 

And still no closer to art 

So while it feels nice up here 

I don't want you to listen to me 

I want you to listen 

I have to write well to tell a story that stories are worth telling  

This idea I'm selling 

Shilling some willful hope in this sinking ship of humanities boat 

I remind you that insightfully  

we find more time to be scrolling than sitting mindfully 

Amidst a crowd of those in which we find...finally 

Finally something reminding me that this world has something to say 

So this needs to be good enough that you'll hear it  

but bad enough that you'll forget it was me that wrote the mirror 

Because the last poet standing is no poet at all 

They'll call that one a prophet and they will proselytize the fall 

Listen once more this is still a sorcerer's accord 

It's not selfish it's pure self preservation with my cell mates 

Convincing our neighbors to un-hoard 

Once we start sharing those crumbs we'll have all learned our lesson 

We shouldn't be striving for the pie 

We should be heating the ovens 

So that we can all eat the message 

But you know what, still I'm human too 

And at the end of the day I wrote this to impress YOU 

I'd like to be a hero 

Call me Batman 

Cause I know that you’re wearing all black and 

I want to be covered like the caped crusader 

I’m asking you out later 

Not to promise a future or 5 flavors 

But just because you're a fun person 

And I savor 

With no roller coasters, no short boasters just two people feeling more alive because the conversation is a poster 

Like for a movie 

Entertaining enough that even a short attention span would sit through me 

Open and vulnerable, conniving and coy 

This up here isn’t my art it’s just a product of my choice 

My art, that would be 

Me 

This me that I wrote 

I am as you know my own and only greatest work of prose see 

The poetry on stage is a nice page in the chapter of every after that I write everyday but the person you play is the only legacy you leave 

I wrote me 

To impress you 

I wrote this to impress y'all 

Now I hope YOU write your own shit, but with me on the call 

And I hope that y'all 

Well I hope that y'all never stop writing at all 

And that as you do, you remember when it comes to all of these stages 

It's not about what's on the pages 

but how much you change the places