Kicking Angels in the Teeth

What you want, 
What your heart desires,

It's all in front of you,

But you look right past it.

All those things you think you need

Aren't the things you really need.

All the love you feel you've

Missed out on,

Is the love you've willfully withheld. 

We will give advice

That we would never take.

We say things publicly 

That we don't really believe. 

We just want to fit in.

To be seen and to be unseen.

To be pitied for being unwanted

While giving empty platitudes

Should unwanted want be shown.

Every glance

Could be a ravening wolf,

Or so our egos sometimes believe.

Every kindness 

Has some stranger's expectation

Tied on it with a pretty bow.

We say we want peace

While carefully planting mines

Strategically across our psyches.

We say we want love

While chasing it away.

It could be anywhere.

A hundred dollar bill

Blowing across a salt dusty parking lot.

Will you ignore it

Because it doesn't shine like gold?

Will you put it down

And forget it

Because it doesn't look like

A movie star?

Has it stopped massaging your ego?

Is the honeymoon over?

Is no one fawning

Over what you think you are?

We struggle with our emptiness

Telling ourselves we deserve to be full.

We gently coddle our demons

While kicking angels in the teeth.

How dare they presume 

That we need their touch?

How dare they assume

That they deserve ours?

Isn't this how it goes?

Every time a bell rings,

An angel gets it's wings.

At least, that's what they say.

Bell's are ringing...

All the time...

But wings are being torn off

One feather at a time

As the clock keeps ticking...