Why The Greatest Love Songs of All Time Are Also The Greatest Punk Songs of All Time

by J.B. Stone

when hate continues to consume our doctrines
as violence rises like an unwanted tide 

we blast the ballads of Whitney
Houston // John Legend // Elton John //
Sam Cooke // and other artists
with other tracks
that in another life would be raised fires
igniting dormant furnaces
longing to awake the passion inside us all  

combat used in the spirit of vulnerability
and shaking loose the demons
that kept our faith bound and gagged  

don’t preach to me about fighting the system
if compassion isn’t your weapon of choice 

& your soundtrack isn’t a ballad
conjoined to slow-motion hips
& a pair of cathartic hearts

seeking to revive a magic
laid upon its death bed for far too long

yearning to live once again

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J.B. Stone is a neurodivergent writer from Brooklyn, now residing in Buffalo. He is the author of two digital chapbooks, A Place Between Expired Dreams And Renewed Nightmares (Ghost City Press 2018) and forthcoming, Fireflies & Hand Grenades (Stasia Press 2019). His reviews, poetry and fiction have appeared in and/or are forthcoming in BlazeVOX, Occulum, Maudlin House, Peach Mag, Empty Mirror, Crack the Spine, Glass, and elsewhere. You can check out more of his work at jaredbenjaminstone.com and more of his tweets @JB_StoneTruth.