Ink in my veins like a sink full of razors,  
Think tanks tank while I’m tank-top thin in the basement.  
Basement mentality — federal penalty energy,  
Medically sedated by headlines selling me serenity.

Serotonin owned by a phone with a cracked screen,  
Backed-up dreams in a tax-funded vaccine.  
Fact-check? I fact-checked my fact-checker’s bias,  
Then spiraled in silence like Wi-Fi inside us.

Binary diary — zeros and heroes,  
Stereo fear sold aerial, sterile.  
Merit’s hysterical, barely numerical,  
Sharing my burial plot with a clerical miracle narrative.

They said “be patient,” I patented panic,  
Manic mechanics of planet-sized damage.  
Banquet of bankrupt CEOs eating the planet,  
While I eat canned hope with a spoon made of ceramic.

Ceramic veneer over fear I inherit,  
Genetic apologetic aesthetic for merit.  
Said I’d rebel but I budgeted rage,  
Put revolution on layaway — minimum wage.

Minimum cage — invisible prison,  
Division revised into visionary vision.  
Listen — I’m in it, complicit, addicted,  
Convicted by cookies I willingly clicked on.

Click-bait fate at the algorithm altar,  
Sacrificial thought caught digital slaughter.  
Waterboard boredom with scrolling disorder,  
Pouring more dopamine straight through the border.

Borderline headline-fed dread in my head,  
Said I’d be better — instead I just bled  
On a thread in a feed that’s designed to mislead,  
While I plead with a screen for a sign I’m ahead.

Ahead of what? Debt in a tux with a grin,  
Interest whispering, “Enter within.”  
Within reason — treason’s a seasonal fashion,  
Cash in compassion, then ration the rations.

Ration reaction — I lash in attraction  
To traction from captions that fracture attention.  
Mention redemption, extension of tension,  
Pension suspension — one late dimension.

Dimensionally bent, existentially rented,  
Sentimental credentials laminated, dented.  
I vent but I meant to dismantle the mantle,  
Instead I just candle the scandal and sample.

Sample the scandal — I gamble on grammar,  
Hammer the stammer, enamored with glamour.  
Glamour’s a grammar of cameras that pan  
Across famine and hand it to brands with a banner.

Banner ads tan our demands into trends,  
Bend our amends into ends that depend  
On a friend-of-a-friend with a pen in a den  
Who lend you a lens just to edit your sins.

Sin-tax syntax intact in a flash,  
Cash-app cashback on backlash and ash.  
Ashes to assets — I gaslight the casket,  
Ask if I’m drastic — fantastic, I mask it.

Mask off? Nah — I auction the oxygen,  
Toxic and boxed in a Doc Marten moccasin.  
Rocking a doctrine of profit and providence,  
Confident confidence sponsored by providence.

Provident fund of redundant abundance,  
Plunder the thunder then wonder who done this.  
Done with the pundits who funded the funnel,  
Tunnel-vision villain with minimal tunnel.

I mumble the rubble of public discussion,  
Shuffle the subtle corruption obstruction.  
Production of outrage is outrageously budgeted,  
Fudge it and judge it — we love it, we publish it.

Publish and punish and push it to trending,  
Bending the ending to suit who’s pretending.  
I’m trending? Tremendous — tremendous at trembling,  
Embezzling adrenaline just to feel relevant.

Relevant? Relative negative narrative,  
Comparative charity barely comparative.  
Caricature curvature of currency worshippers,  
Certainly surgical, verbally merciless.

Merciless verses disperse in dispersal,  
Commercial reversal — rehearsal of rehearsal.  
I circle the herds with infernal internal  
Eternal return from the journal to funeral.

Funeral humor — I eulogize youth,  
Truth is a booth with a bulletproof roof.  
Proof? I’m aloof — I consume what I hate,  
Debate my own takes just to boost my own takes.

Take that. Snap that. Backtrack rap math.  
Half-cocked mascot for late-stage backlash.  
Mad at the machine but I feed it my data,  
Then tweet that I hate it and rate it five stars later.

Later I claim I was framed by the frame,  
Blame the whole game while I play it for fame.  
Name on a playlist, faceless and nameless,  
Aimless but famous for flaming the flameless.

Flamethrower rhetoric, petrol and metrics,  
Electric eclectic dyslexic aesthetics.  
I wreck it, correct it, then deck it in credit,  
Indebted to Reddit for letting me vent it.

Ventilation nation of pent-up potential,  
Credentialed rebels with rental credentials.  
Pencil in “rebel” between work and my dental,  
Schedule my mental collapse as “essential.”

Essentially gentle but mentally rental,  
Centrally censored and accidentally central.  
Meant to dismantle the mantle of power,  
Instead I devoured a cowardly hour.

Hour by hour I scroll like a coward,  
Power devours every flower I flowered.  
Powdered resolve in a line of applause,  
Pause for effect — defect from the cause.

Cause I’m the flaw in the system I’m dissing,  
Missing the mission while fishing for listens.  
Listen — I spit it acidic and vivid,  
But live it? I pivot to comfort and critics.

Critics say “genius,” I grin at the gimmick,  
Cynical clinical miracle mimic.  
Mimicking villains I villainize daily,  
Failing at scaling the jail I call “maybe.”

Maybe the marble will crack when it’s pressed,  
Maybe the rest of us rest when we’re stressed.  
Maybe the best revolution’s a breath  
We take back from debt collectors’ chest.

Chest tight. Left swipe. Next crisis.  
Priceless vices sold as devices.  
Devices divisive, incisive and righteous,  
I write this in spite of the virus of niceness.

Nicely done? No — nicely undone.  
Sun don’t rise for the likes I’ve won.  
Run from the throne — I’ve seen what it does,  
Buzz turns to fuzz when the crown fits none.

None of us own it — the moment’s a loan,  
Loaned to the zone where the tone’s monotone.  
Stone-faced kings in a ring of chrome,  
Chrome still corrodes when the truth gets thrown.

Throw it. Know it. Grow it.  
Pressure below it? Show it.  
Marble don’t crack from a hashtag chant —  
It cracks when the hands that built it won’t.

And if I don’t —  
Then this is just art in a market of martyrs,  
Smarter-than-thou but part of the barter.  
Sharper than scalpels, duller than habit,  
Rabbit in traffic insisting I’m savage.

Savage? Average with better alliteration,  
Federation of frustration and fascination.  
Nation of patients impatient for payment —  
Statement adjacent to actual change.

No metaphor.

Rent due.

And I’m past due too.

*Mrnightqc - Past Due (2026)*

Mrnightqc - Past Due (2026)