because
a lifetime of bad decisions
A. Razor is a writer that makes art, photography and music based on his experience growing up in the streets of the world, living outside the common margin and off the grid most of his life. He tries to celebrate and memorialize this experience and the many people, places and things that have been like living signposts along the way. "Come, take a journey. Come, find some shelter with me." For a moment, maybe, even if for just a moment.

Bear
this is the elixir in the forbidden chalice
made in the kitchen with love and intent
letters written on papers with pictures
numbers remembered would one day
be forgotten like formulas for open
open would cause forward
forward began furthur
it went so far for so long
it went where none had gone before
it was shared by many more as it traveled
furthur and furthur
on hoffman's bicycle you rode
dancing on the pedals as they spun
dancing on the petals of the rose crystal of a potent love
dancing like the bear of all colors that knew all
about all things there was to know
even the unknown
that knew and knew and knew and knew me better
than I knew myself in the mirrored orb of truth ever present
the wheels came off because they were never necessary
magic carpets were never known to need them
celebrations were your anonymous namesake
you bejeweled the world with opportunity
you blazed a golden bolt across the sky
I flew your flag well above the rest
your were my post office Fagan
sent me to scurry among the throngs
the walls seethed and bellowed
the sky curled at the edges
like postcards drenched in inquisition blood
cartoons came to life inside foil wrapping
goonie birds flew aloft again
flapping mother of pearl wings against agate skies
droppings of sugar cubed dollops descending from
their Mandelbrot orifices opened like third eyes as spigots
dropping dropping dropping dropping
magic upon tongues painted across dismembered eyeballs
staircase crystals captured in vials of hopeful release
let go let go let go let go hold on closely
I worked into meticulous nights until glorious sunrise
the sunshine is liquid brightness awash in love today
I traveled with the unpacked suitcases as per your instructions
like a wizard's apprentice with quicksilver messenger veins
that flowed with your love and a mindful of stories you told
of laboratories in hiding and swiss bank accounts lost forever
as you beckoned the world to leave itself one last time
so it might have one last chance to make a commune with you
and the magic you spun out of your blessed fingertips
as I sat in cross legged amazement trying to learn something new
that you told me I was born with inside of me
farewell to you, craftsman of the freedom to be
all the freedom that I have known
all the freedom I would ever
really want or need
naked and free for all to see
this is the gift you left us
like you never left at all
like you were never going
anywhere but here now
anywhere
but, furthur
Oshima Island
there is a beach under the pressure
of overwhelming lifelessness
humanity spawned frail
like unfortunate jellyfish
like too much happened
this world is like that
pressure coming down
nuclear poison seeping out
hearts broken in grief and loss
some drifting away like cherry blossoms
blown askance by errant breeze like it was
almost spring on the shore where the land
and the sea took out the time for a world
that was built on the edges so fragile as
this while all that was known to some
was lost in heaps of debris lost in
the smallest tears of a child in the
shouts of emotion left out in the open
on the beach under pressure on the island
under pressure on the minds of the world
under pressure this is our modern time
of relinquished sorrows for those that fall
against the interchanging narratives of loss
weeping out their broken hearts burst with
pain overflowing as we see a world that is
so temporary where we saw it as permanent
so lasting is the stampede of shocking sorrows
this shall be a springtime with a faint whimper
of grateful joy for life as it all dangles on this precipice
as we all dangle on this precipice above this beach together
searching for survivors and pieces of lost lives for memorial
If You Make It To The Sally Port
notches made in haste not waste not fashion
a weapon fashioned out of odds and ends
keep the angle close to the chest
keep the arc close to the neck
flurry after flurry
fight for your life
all eyes upon everyone here
scratches on the walls mark the days
segregated by the administration of healing
some say it will heal you if you live through it
most do live, but what dies? when and where does it give in?
what flies away in well lit moments of hopelessness among the lost?
what comes home to roost in the darkened corners of every turn here?
its not what you think, its not that it wasn't made to sound like a form
of redemption you might have missed along the way to the forum as
chariots sidetracked down blind alleyways paved with broken bones
penance required for time sentenced, served, paroled out and away
as long as it was meant to be endured like a burning pain under raw skin
that fits too tight in every dark corner where someone is always watching
even when you look in the mirror there is someone checking up on you
better make sure you have the proper front in place like your own
personal sociopathic loin cloth that makes you king shit of no man's land
just cells of life joined to dying cells that meant no harm as children
as they once laughed and played in inner recesses of broken brain daydreams
skipping away over sunlit hilltops for two into the echoing distance
as the reality of these echoing walls filled with conversations that mask
murderous fears forming into gangs of swarming violence at the ready
one false move is all it takes as you think of love with the sounds of toilets
flushing you think of welcome home days with screaming fits of delusion
bouncing around your head like crowns of thorns you think of lovers you
know in truth you will never hold again as the ancient sounds of misguided
lust intruding as power given or power taken away drift through the stinging
air of the sharpened night as terror places its wreath at your feet as people who
feel the most righteous of any in the land (as most seem to do) tell their children
about the healing place they sent all the men that deserved it to to make up for what
they did so long ago to make this place a safer place to get them out of they way that
seems to not care enough to join the ranks of what was given as order as they break inside
only to share the break with you or you or you when we meet outside the moment that
all was lost in the losing of the human feeling of the connection of the bargain as it all went
south and the chips feel where they may as ten days straight in leg irons will make you
abide by the rifles held over head and all the walls point in the same direction here
and all the iron sings like wild banshees loosed from hells grasp singing with metallic
throats that deride all the moments that tear the thoughts of what peace used to mean
in the twisting of time in the bending of mind that folds in on the heart and has so little
to do with the soul on ice as it is said about this life in the cooler in the warehouse of
humanity lost for all the things they did now that they wonder little about all they
have done that they were never caught for never cared for never loved for
it’s a never never land if you never make it out of here you have to move on it
like it’s the only chance you will ever get if you do make it out of here, somehow
As The Grip Finally Loosens A Bit (Goodbye)
you are never toothless, even if you are missing all your teeth
you can still bite back, bite the wrong thing, bite the right thing
you can never use your mouth for anything better than to just
give the simplest words of support, loud as they may be
digging in like tempered spades of heavy excavation
unearthing the hidden truth as they cower a bit, shaking
trembling at the raspy harsh love loud with spittle
and curse and intention to erode the coverage of false fearful pasts
you are always present in the bellowing throat laughter that will
never stop echoing around the rooms of the heart or
the card tables where death is cheated by your toothless grin
holding cards so perfect like fake teeth that bring every round home
every round you make all night pacing the floors of uncertain outcomes
no time for bullshit or gallantry among the broken down souls that require
focus now words now action now meaning now clear cut convictions now
it all spills out onto worn down heels that kick back and watch as it all
unfolds like bills on the table as you ante up for the call and death, well,
death just smiles back at you with your own teeth and you know for sure
he is really getting tired of being cheated by you now
your last hand was not so spectacular at all
but the bluff was always amazing until the end
as the bony hands of your nemesis scraped all the winnings to his side of the table
you smile back at him, the last laugh is yours
blowing smoke in his face, your mouth smiles defiant
because you knew along
you never needed teeth to bite back, anyway
because
even without teeth,
that mouth made noise that will never be forgotten