Poetic License

Poetic License

what is this licentia vatum?
where does my authority come from?
grant me the license of the poets
please grant me
please grant me

licentia vatum
licentia vatum
freedom to deviate from you
my sweet lords
freedom to elevate from you
my sweet lords

licentia vatum
licentia vatum
nothing can restrain me
no religion can contain me
I say, "Do not scold, correct, or detain me!"

licentia vatum
please don't judas me
licentia vatum
don't dig a hole and bury me
licentia vatum
licentia vatum

i can no longer hide my free mind
i don't care who i have to leave behind

please, por forvor, discuple
don't judge the words i write today
you don't know where i've been
my mind pushes mass movement uprising

my poetry offends when it does not rhyme
or when a blasphemous outburst
gets frozen in the lines
of a backwoods humming
in my ears, freeing minds

i am just a ghost
too pale, too white
i am not the one, Morpheus
not today, not tonight


so be it, much too white
rejected by the people
now i am asking for a fight
only love can make it right

licentia vatum, is this mine?
will the people give me license
to speak my mind
or shall i just stand in line
wondering who the fuck i offended this time?

unreciprocated love
hey! that's not news to me
still, it's a heart breaking quandary
how she has the power to bring me down
she rips my heart out with just a frown

only with poetic license do i resist
responding to the stupidity with my fist
better for all involved that I do write
did you think i would lay down and die
without the slightest fight?

i've been hated in this town before
i've felt the ice cold winter winds
cried in the rain, kicked down the door
i saw the goddess doing time in a five-and-dime store
nevermore, nevermore

our ancestral memories remain the same
behind your eyes, forget your name,
heart of black, eyes of blue
jump back, run away, the devil gets his due