Jesse Ellsbury

I'm a musician and author of thousands of poems that examine the human condition with compassion and wit. I write a poem a day and play music often.

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

Hard to reconcile rank and file
as they roll down the street.

Every one’s a clone of a soldier thrown
at an enemy we beat.

What’s worth the fight if we’re right
and rightness is a lie?

We look majestic and demand all respect it
but we never learned to fly.
#neverlearnedtofly

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I witnessed the world’s resistance
to every idea that’s pure,
I perceived how everyone needs
to think they’ve evened the score

in every debate where they spit hate
I was there to say “stop,”
But nobody listened and now we’re conditioned
to pretend we are what we’re not.

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

Life is purgatory,
we all suffer,
it seems like I’m made of glue,
not rubber.
#weallsuffer

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I wonder if you feel it too,
is it true
and should I be nervous today
what should I say?
Comment on the weather?
They say as they laugh and go on,
is this the spark of a new dawn
or the sun as it settles?
No one knows, it’s doubt
we’re just water in the kettle
hoping to get out

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

It’s clear the world runs on fear;
the only law is trial and error,
those who lie and deny
it are grabbed by terror.

I try to realize they want me to die
as I long to scream out “take me!”
But I might be dumber and stuck in slumber
as I ask them to wake me.
#wakeme

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

You can’t bribe the voters,
there are too many;
but you can bribe the electors,
for you only need 270.
#voterfraud

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I’m a new arrangement of old matter,
a shape of pancake batter,
poured into a mold,
a shy child acting old
in a disaster,
my mother thinks I’m a bastard:
I don’t fit in,
I speak of sin
more than I speak of virtue,
because it’s the former that hurts you.
#virtueusuallyhurtsyou

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I leaned into the storm when I was born
and continued my whole life,
whenever things are less than perfect,
I strive to make them right.

From that bend in the road to the end
of the highway, you should beware,
few of the people you meet
will care.
#VeryFewofthePeopleYouMeet

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

Mother, I can scarcely remember
The lilt of your laughter,
you were such an upender
of tradition,
a rebel to the last,
when we saw you go downhill
it was so slowly and so fast,
but I won’t choose
to remember you like that.
#upender

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I keep hoping that by coping
I may learn to thrive,
I’m not sure but I think I’ll endure
at least until I die.
#untilidie

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

When I look at America and the problems that it has,
I try to look at the origin and why we’re on this path.
Maybe we were doomed from the start, destined to fracture and careen,
all because the Colonies just had to number thirteen.
#unluckythirteen

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

Two wrongs make a right:
wrong them once then wrong them twice.
#twowrongs

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

Two ways to die:
fade away like a rainbow in the sky
and atrophy like a muscle in one’s thigh,
or evaporate like a tear one might cry.

The other way is to explode
like a sneeze from someone’s nose,
like a landmine on the road,
or like dynamite set to blow.
#twowaystodie

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

This is just a trial run,
when the real race begins you'll wish you were young
so you could make the right decisions,
avoid the ones that keep you imprisoned
in blind ignorance,
there's no shame in not knowing
but that's a far cry from having no common sense.
#trialrun

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

My emotions hang like a cigarette
from my lower lip,
my feelings rest on my shoulder
like some wooden chip
that I dare people to knock off,
I dare people to look at me wrong
and then cry when they do.
#toughguy

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I am remembered every place I leave,
I stain other people’s lives
with shades of sorrow, streaks of joy,
torture devices and other toys
abandoned
like a thousand yesterdays.
I’m the drop of mud
you wipe away.
#torturedevicesandothertoys

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

I tried to find your heart, my dear,
but it wasn’t in your chest;
or, at least, if it was,
it was too small to detect.
#toosmalltodetect

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

The thing that produces a return
when invested in a child is time.
Children convert hours into accomplishments,
meager at first, a melody
grows into a symphony.
The sentence composed in a game
blooms into a novel,
and doodles planted in a competition
grow to fill a gallery.

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

Tiny little panther, with your paws made of lace,
I took you from the wild, made you join the human race.
Now you are a prisoner, you stay inside every day,
and now you wouldn’t have it any other way.
#tinylittlepanther

[Jesse Ellsbury @jesse_ellsbury]

They don’t think of the ripples,
they think only of the splash;
they just think of the fire,
they don’t think of the ash.

They think they’ll leave this moment behind,
but this moment will leave them,
it'll take a life to learn
that time is not their friend.
#timeisnottheirfriend