Lock down Main time Free Time Look down The keys...please...disease, keep it over there, away from here. We’re afraid to tremble. All around the village, see the wasting away. The taste is sweet and tender, tempting. Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

I came here to be seen, heard, recognized. The bastards in charge just ignored me, so I had to redouble my efforts. I eventually found a community founded on sound principles: communication, integrity, social equality. There is safety in numbers, it’s true, but there’s also power. I fear the worst, in general. My existential insecurities always give me away. They keep me up at night, sometimes. I’m finding it harder to rest. I am loathe to resort to sleeping pills, as that seems to be a step in the wrong direction. Eventually, I’ll sort this all out, but for now I stand, eternally vigilant, for as long as I can, trying my best to get a strong foothold, reaching out to lock arms with the others, like me, like-minded. Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

Hey, sometimes you get by without noticing the pain. Goodbye. Et partez! Vous souffrez! Who needs it? Lay all your troubles behind you, ‘cuz that’s the only way to give yourself a chance to just live in the moment. Today, I was thinking about all the times in my youth, my yesterdays, when I so lived in my mind, so I could lose myself. The fantasies I played out were like movies where the star was me, and they replaced the pain of being I felt in my reality. The moment is here, and the moment is always eternally now, representing the cycle of consciousness we can’t express with mere words, so we just do our best, but the moments we guess aren’t the moments we’re blessed with. We’re living distressed by the confounding press of missed moments, confessing that less and less moments exist as we near our abyss, we call out crying so loud in stress that our shouts drown the moment Today, I was thinking about all the times in my youth, my yesterdays, when I so lived in my mind, so I could lose myself. So, lay all your troubles behind you, ‘cuz that’s the only way to give yourself a chance to just live in the moment. Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

“We will inherit this world.” Way back before the banks were too big to fail, this kid at school threw up his lunch into his lunch pail, and he ran off and hid inside a bathroom stall. He was twelve years old, but feeling two feet tall. Vomit in the toilet, and vomit on the floor, the kid began to see this as some odd metaphor. He sat there in thought, and drained of all his color, waiting til the dizziness left along with his pallor. Then he imagined a world without a trace of corruption as he stared at the porcelain void that direly wanted flushing, and he stood, bolt upright, with his finger in the air, with a brand new shiny purpose, about which he could care. His epiphany came at him in a language beyond his years, but it was right there, right as rain, all right, and right between his ears. “There’s corporate collusion and corporate retribution, and only a tiny illusion of any human revolution. There’s too much abuse of truth, and way too much distraction, and a vile lack of certainty, and a violent lack of action.” “So I understand it, that you’re handing it to me, ‘cuz I’m the offspring! Well, I may be no King, but I’m offering to teach a lesson in being a wellspring of information, elation, and positivity.” “I’m like an animal fighting tooth and nail with fierce chain mail, and my tail is chasing me. And it’s awfully appalling, their stalling, as though they think of it as their calling. The past generations left us in this situation, and it’s only getting worse. It’s like a wicked curse – a sick Bible verse being tersely read by those rehearsing a sad eulogy on behalf of freedom and equality. I always thought they were following me, but apparently they got locked in the hearse, being driven by sadistic forces holding the purse.” “And now we’ve come to the conclusion, as we’re fighting through confusion, coming to the brink. We ain’t no missing link! Well, we all think it’s what we think that matters, but it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s down the drink where we all will shatter to the core. So, we gotta send the sample, gotta live the example, and if we don’t stand up and insist on being counted, then the Greedheads win and we’ll all be in-surmounted." "We shall inherit this world.” Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

I think much more than I ever have before. Too much to think about: within, without; alive and well; kiss and tell; contained or free; the end of memory. You can’t keep time. You can only record the rhyme, fill volumes with words and sounds – describe the countryside...cities, towns. Create your lists and document the evidence of all your time spent... In an interval as small as life, these tiny slices of joy and strife become your vessel – traveler’s ship. Neurons map the whole damn trip. You’re thinking thinking lasts forever. Well, think again! You can never say never. Consciousness might work that way, but until we know, we just can’t say. Minds are making room for life, weaving with the looms of time. Dreams are echoes. Flying blind, we press the limitations I think I know, but then, I may be getting slow, aging out, forgetting what it’s all about. Stay alive and well. Remember what’s inside the shell. Is this to be – filled to capacity? Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

Sparing no expense to keep all they own, there’s money to be made, even as the poor gnaw on bones. “Work smart means no work,” keeps them ruling the roost, and character means nothing when they’ve investments to boost. Why do anything at all? “Just because we can, so don’t you dare question us – We are The Man! Far above the base retinue of rabble and scum, only lowering ourselves to pitch scraps at the bums.” Always sowing hate – it’s their obsession to blame all Others for their own transgressions. It’s easier to believe that they descend from Kings if they demand that all Others bow and kiss their rings. “And white is might, because white is light.” They wipe with their left hand and punch with their right. Confusion is their ally, even for their own. Keep them wondering and ignorant while they occupy the throne. Kicking hope out of the hopeless like crutches out from under, they’ve always been and always will be plunderers of plunder. Dangling shiny objects from bits of string and twine to hypnotize the masses to believing they’re the swine that they slaughter. There’s our sons and daughters fighting in their wars. The fictions they create for us are such horrendous horrors. Strategizing how best to keep up this sickening mess, the Greedheads work on overtime at managing our stress. Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

Life does shape me, and show me plain, Molds my body, and makes my brain. From the common to the arcane, I find me. Trying to get outside of me, the path is inside, ironically. Meditation may, or not, be where I find me. This is the time to question. This is the place of asking. Follow me blind, or find your own way to reach the door through which we will walk to always...seek the many positions. The meaning of life is in there, as it has been forever. The idea is to work from first principles The idea is to answer all the big questions The idea is to treat others as you want to be treated The idea is to find and engage with the Masters The idea is to carry on against all odds The idea is to push all of those boulders up that hill The idea is to use reason to guide your emotions The idea is to keep yourself on pins and needles The idea is to learn what works and what doesn’t work The idea is to figure out what the idea is Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn

Lock down Main time Free Time Look down The keys...please...disease, keep it over there, away from here. We’re afraid to tremble. All around the village, see the wasting away. The taste is sweet and tender, tempting. Lyrics by Todd Franklin Osborn