Camouflaged Chaplin, by Amory McKeever

I know you feel ashamed sometimes

Can't help feeling guilty for the dead

I know you're a prisoner of war

Though the cage may be in your head

I know you've grown tired of the march

Like there's weight you just have to shed

But I know

There's not a battle he won't understand

He shares your trauma just look at his hands

When you feel like love is no where to find

I know our brother leaves no man behind

I know you feel panic sometimes

Fighting the monsters creeping inside

I know you sleep in the bottle at night

Far away from the ghosts that you hide

I know it wasn't always your choice

It was for the men that stood by your side

But I know

There's not a battle he won't understand

He shares your trauma just look at his hands

When you feel like love is no where to find

I know our brother leaves no man behind

I know you've seen things

You will never forget

I know you've done things

You might always regret

I know you're burdened by memories

That comes with the life of a Vet

But I know

There's not a battle he won't understand

He shares your trauma just look at his hands

So when you feel like love is no where to find

I know that our brother leaves no man behind

Niddala, by Amory McKeever

We're not friends anymore

I told my enslaved magic Jinn 

Do everything I tell you,

or I swear you'll go back in

Give me everything I ask for,

and all the riches in the vault 

Make sure my lovers smell like jasmine,

and that my crown never faults

Promise my storehouse never famines,

and my powers reach beyond the walls 

Make my legend match my ego,

and pictures of me line every hall 

Never look past my evil grin,

and don't ever question your master 

Don't you see that me finding you,

was such an obvious disaster

The Disenfranchised, by Amory McKeever

There’s no comfort 

In knowing there’s no comfort 

And it’s no wonder 

We’re sowing no wonders 

Just plow it all under 

Our land is so sundered 

Grows only more hunger 

More pain and more suffer 

More fighters but less lovers 

More babies but less mothers 

In a world like no other 

Now I’m no hero 

In pointing out there’s no heroes 

The sky is no safer 

There are no talking snakes 

Lightning has no maker 

A missing rib with no taker 

Playing roulette with no stakes 

In a car with no brakes 

Headlong into the lake 

Shackled to such weight 

Angel’s always too late 

To save us from our fate 

Our heaven has no gates 

The dirt spares no name

Calvary Call, by Amory McKeever

I pray this gospel be your shield

and armor of God forever more
That the Son of Heaven never yields,
for when the enemy is at the door,
if we want peace, prepare for war

Sell your possessions and buy a sword
not just a blade made up of steel,

but the kind that Christ in heaven forged

For your body is a righteous temple

filled with the divine breath of the Lord

A vessel containing the gift of the spirit

prepare for the adversary's attacks

Though not just merely physical hits,

but rather the gnashing of furious teeth

Which burn with jealousy deep in the pit

Down where the liar hates your soul,

his duties are focused on your destruction

To see you drown in a lake of coal,

he will lie, cheat, and steal if he must

in order for you to abandon your goals

Know that the strength of God never leaves us

Be confident in the blessing of the cross

That wretched wraith will never seize us

The call of the grave has been conquered

by the power and the glory in the name of Jesus

No Going Back, by Amory McKeever

No, I don't ever wish I was young again

I don't want to fight with my brother again

Or see my dad cheat on my mother again

Holding a knife to her stomach again

When she confronts him about the others again

watching the times gettting tough again

just to see him in handcuffs again

He promises to change

this time it'll be different

He promises to change

things will never be the same

instead he's just belligerent

Isn't it a shame

No, I don't want my mom to take him back again

I don't want to pack our things and move again

one step ahead of the police again

Using fake names in another state again

Because he went and ripped some people off again

investigators tracking us down again

Making the front page of the paper again

Getting run out of town by the neighbors again

Sleeping in my aunt and uncles attic again

Just to see him back in handcuffs again

He promises to change

this time it'll be different

He promises to change

things will nver be the same

instead he's just belligerent

Isn't it a shame

No, I don't want to go through all this hell again

Watch him bring us to the edge again

He's selling lies to the vulnerable again

Turning people's dreams to nightmares again

Until his house of cards tumbled down again

We go boxing up another house again

getting ready to run if me must again

just to see him back in handcuffs again

He promises to change

this time it'll be different

He promises to change

things will nver be the same

instead he's just belligerent

Isn't it a shame

He promises to change

this time it'll be different

He promises to change

things will nver be the same

instead he's just belligerent

Isn't it a shame

No, I don't ever wish I was young again

To watch my father die in prison again

Might be the only reason it didn't happen again

So I won't ever use his last name again

And when this ever crosses my brain again

I'm reminded to be the father he never was and then

I take my son out for ice cream again

Easy Ink, by Amory McKeever

It could be a butterfly in rain

a famous quote from Mark Twain

trademark sign of the Wu Tang

hearts and stars around their name

or tribal prints it's all the same

to advertise their lack of shame

I've even seen a dragon's fire

two tightrope lover's on a wire

fantastically drawn crystal spires

treasures men die to acquire

words of purity on filthy liars

the rap-sheet of their many priors

Nothing wrong with being easy

when it's so easy to get you hard

then you easily let down your guard

and she walks off easy with your heart

Placed right above their waistline

flowers, unicorns, or zodiac signs

the occasional steam-punk design 

on display like neon signs

for such decorated concubines

will you be the next in line

Murals painted like sacrament

from mundane to the extravagant

they're absolutely adamant

to prove that they're not abstinent

and ready for the next inhabitant

I suggest you use some laminate

Nothing wrong with being easy

when it's so easy to get you hard

then you easily let down your guard

and she walks off easy with your heart

Nothing wrong with being easy

when it's so easy to get you hard

then you easily let down your guard

and she walks off easy with your heart

Where's My Share?, by Amory McKeever

You'll never get to see me

They say what I have doesn't sell

I'm the undigested meal

that got spit out of hell

I've been a gym rat for years

But I haven't got any swell

Pushing all of my chips forward

Without any tells

Now I got some raw talent

They'll give me that

I'm not spittin' my way out

of a life of click-clacks

I may be from a broken home

but passed the background for my gat

I'm half brown and half white

So when I get stopped

for an unbroken tail light

I'm let off with  warning

and a "have a good night"

Now daddy died in prison

And sometimes he pulled a knife

But it wasn't a dirty shiv

it was diabetes took his life

My story isn't hood enough

to relate to the streets

They say I'm just not dirty

I've got an empty rap sheet

I guess they never heard

a vocabulary like mine

So I'll start working on a beat

that will surely blow their mind

I'll lay down a track on their crew

With unbelievable rhymes

Until their brains turn to goo

And they pull a contract to sign