a lonely dirigible hovering over the wreckage of another town sailing upon the ever blowing currents above an irradiated collection of best intentions what remains of civilization little more than scattered debris swirling about still he soars a seed of hope on a tempest born of hopelessness searching through the empty land where freedom meant […]

my heart beat sends shockwaves rustling the sheets as i lay staring at the ceiling i fear the vibrations will send the walls crumbling down all around me this insatiable sense of longing pulverizing the cage of ribs into ivory splinters only her embrace can drive those bone fragments deep through the offending organincessantlybeating sleepless […]

tearing pieces off of this loaf of day old bread to leave a trail through the forest ofdessicateddreams all while pretending to ignore the row of hopping sparrows peckpeckpeckingaway any hint of a path to find home once more the sunlit vistas of a larger than life world of possibilities slowly darken as age exposes […]

a silken web clings across the doorway a fat black bundle of mosquitomurder waits ever so patiently for the telltale vibrations of asquirmingsnack asananorexicmoon slices the dark a fool lays still in the same lunar slasher night tugging the threads ofthelonglanguishing indescribablenextnovel where the end seems to be so clear while theroadisevershifting and the act […]

there is a constant vigilance in remaining mostly oblivious when i pay too close of attention to mostly anything i pick apart the pixels unwittingly exposing the glimmering code functioning beneath if it isn’t questioned the minor discrepancies can remain mostly ignored aberrations not rules but once seen nothing can ever truly be unseen empirical […]

writing fiction takes a toll on me as i contort my brain into the scenes and the emotions they need to convey if i cannot feel the weight of the moment how can i ever expect the reader to be swept away writing poetry gives a brief peace as i spill out the knots in […]

can’t tell if it is loud exhaust or thunder or if i am actually awake on the couch as subsonic vibrations rattle another goddamned poem loose it’s become impossible to tell if i am spiraling upwarddownwardinward or simply in place i just know i am dizzy and i have wanted off this fucking ride for […]

distractions increasethefractures while keeping the sheep at oneanother’sthroats it has become another dark comedy of escalating events feeble attempts at rewriting the rules while trying to maintain a lead over the law sacrificial lambs led to the offal pits of public opinion while the bastards pretend to be shocked a ready supply of lone gunmen […]

electrons painstakingly detail the derailment in my train of thoughtlessness a man was murdered by the same means he so vehemently defended and is branded a martyr while a woman was killed three weeks prior and was greetedbyacricketchoir and i just feel numb spent like a shell casing in an empty school hall i don’t […]

so sleepy yet the words decompose odes asthemaggotsfeast i follow broken stares down these fights of fancy bindedbytheblight blindfolded with blandages which distastefullymisplace anytraceofritesgonewrong curtailingcurtaincalls with one more round of intangiblerectangles to reinforce instability i tap the screen tap taptaptap taptaptap yet nothing makes cents just fashions a deeper stateofdebtandregret indivisiblederision in refractory periods as […]

a dash of demure lies before she suddenly dematerealized infrontofmydesensiteyes i could sea right through leavingnothingtobemist but a vague scents oflatesummerloss notes of heat andfadedpromises lingeringlightly on the diseasedbreeze blowing from the vowls of hll the sun is blinding refracted off the ash covering the windshield shaking hands tapping the steering wheel as the city […]

the familiar confines of home feel more confining tonight as i vibrate at the speed of crushing despair in mania minor the sky is overcast with no north star to guide me from the precipice of emotionaldissonance as my thoughts reverberate in rancorousrancidity the no vacancy sign sputters eerily as i hastily hammer plywood over […]

the hotel room seems haunted by more than just a manic fool there is a ticktickticking like a ghostly geiger counter as i lay alone on a too big bed wondering if there is a reactor leak at the dairy queen while the air conditioner gurgles phlegmily like a deep one rising at dunwich harbor […]

someone derisivelycalled me a liberal claiming to understand mypointofview i added the derisively the only thing liberal about me is the amount of disdain i have for career politicians i want the entire establishment to burn and then to stand holding a baseball bat with rusted spikes around the ashes ready to beat whatever hellish […]

i didn’t expect much heading to longview on a sleepy sunday afternoon and still longview left me already longing for home the bearded hotel clerk expounding on the need for a card in case of incidentals explained the costliness of towels and washclothes ad nauseum leading me to question why anyone would have such a […]

i have had to accept the fact though i somehow managed to spin a cocoon and liquefy myself knowing i never was a model caterpillar always incapable of catering to whims i never quiteiunderstood nor being a pillar ofanycommunity yet unable to becomeanythingmore thaninconsequential this probably wasn’t what my parents imagined i would grow into […]

her smile echoed corpselightdesires inducing a delicious corporeal torpor in sublime sanguination draining me of everylastthought my anemic will tested her lips like heartthistle accentuatingaorticaneurysms sapphire asphyxiation illuminatedinlunacy abloodfeastforabloodmoon luxuratinginlackadaisicallaments as i spasm a marionette entangledininvisiblerazorwires a reduction in rigorous denial stapling missing posters to crooked telephone poles all around this sinkhole rolling in broken […]

someonesomewhere has read my scribbles whichfeelsabsurd and a touch obscene imaginingallthese times spent talkingtomyself has been seen through someone else’s personal filter oscuring already half intelligible thoughts into disparate dreamwhispers hard to fathom willingly plumbing thesedarkdepressingdepths without a guide i trace the scars leftbyherhoarfrostedlips then recite back the reverberations of delectablepainshivers into terse lines wroughtfromtheagonyofknowing […]

i don’t often question my particular poisons just let them enslave me there are enough anxietyinducing incidentalhorrors anauralassaultagainst any hope of easing unwantedexistential crisisescrashing like raindrops in an illinois autumn fuzzy guitars scratches and boom bap beautiful women unapproachablepetiteand whollyuninterested a good solid indica and no clear indicator of where i am headed except headfirst […]

the homeless guy told me jesus was coming as he slipped the dollar into his pant pocket with a fevered stare above an empty smile and i have been on the lookout ever since the last thing i need is an angry aramaic profiteering prophet walking on my freshly manicured waterways telling me to turn […]

i was asked what i would want for my last meal something i had previously never pondered everything i managed to consider was lovingly made by someone long dead how do you choose the last respite to sum up a lifetime of consumption i find i only crave those things i cannot possibly have as […]

i work with this guy who is always unhappy about mostly everyfuckingthing he is decent enough of a tech but in private all he does istrytoagitate he calls slowly working himselfrabid pointing out everyone else’s shortcomings tryingtoprovoke a reaction from whoever answers and it worked for a while at least until he got too comfortable […]

as i crested the winding hill ensconced by the greedy limbs gently swaying i was granted aneolithicvista of swirling fog removing all signs any of us existed no asphalt scars or angry motorists the slow moving semisandsoccermoms just a world ripe with overgrown promise unfortunately it dissipated asiplungeddown a silver streak erasingthemystery and the awful […]

if getting older has taught me anything it’s not to do it eventually all that living comes with a price i follow the roadmap of scars and find the smiles associated seem fuzzy die young then when they painstakingly list off your failures it is over quick enough for everyone to get to bed atasensibletime

the sun shines awfully bright for the overcast mood which has taken over me every taptaptap of the goddamned keysisrainfalling soaking through thepapermachefacade fucking poetry my stomach churns pieces of shattered mirrors into the type of shit you can really see yourself in this pack of dogs seemquiteintenton ripping me to pieces and i only […]

when someone lacks real ability in this modern age of idiocy they can simply create false drama to muddy the waters inciting the mob mentality of those desperate to find their place among other scared sheep the government has perfected this distract with false outrage to tamp down any authentic reactions to their fuckery hack […]

a man in france caught a goldfish which weighed nearly seventy pounds in a scenic lake which he named carrot goldfish are fascinating in how they grow to the size of their environment each little fish swimming around their tiny aquariums dream of growing to the size of a shark yet they do not as […]

i thought this trip to stephenville might be the first without a drop of rain yet as i sit in the historic downtown square the thunderhead has slowly enveloped the sky perhaps it’s me the dark cloud of despair hanging over my aching skull has a certain sort of temporarypermanence as a child i wanted […]

stale burnt coffee haunts the tire shop a lingering spectre of styrofoam cups in the heady musk of petroleum products leaves me in a fit of dissociative nostalgia a group of older men ready to haggle down the disinterested clerk knowing more about the intricacies inset in vehicular maintenance yet apparently unwilling to actually turn […]

i see the stats jump as stalkers strive to steal the embers of my poetry the sudden deluge of familiar prose lacking any of the real meat just facsimiles losing depth each time they try to paint in the ashes of art they don’t understand they only mimic lacking the instincts to see the real […]

the sunlight filters through the blinds illuminating this prison cell into an illusion of emulsification i need to run to the store yet i have already figured out six solutions which allow me to stay safely hidden i know it will be uneventful but tell my anxiety getting out is good and listen to the […]

i saw two hawks circling the fields hazy and indistinct in the sweltering malaise of the first in a series of allnightheatadvisories as summer does her wretched best to melt the lonestarstate into a puddle of all its varied inadequacies was forced to hitchup my big boy pants learn the subtle dance of maneuvering through […]

the walking dead walking their dogs under the oppression of texas summer vacant expressions as they are pulled from each new scent a look of discontent and abject regret etched in exhaustion while a fool pens another ode to indifference with a scenic view of the muddy lake trying to cool off before reentering the […]

one day we all wake up to see the hells we so readily created and faced with the consequences of our own actions some will still do everything possible to shift the blame unwilling to accept the part they played doomed to repeat the cyclical destruction somehow shocked when every relationship ends the same way […]

when i consider where i was eight years ago when i started down the road of poeticruin i never imagined i would have a dozen or so books sixty some odd anthology spots or still be breathing the books are confounding channeling dreams into the aether tearing off the best parts of myself to leave […]

ihavefoundi am quite decent at dissent havingbeen descended fromalong line of dissenters conscripted frombirthto constantly bedazzle with dramaticdisdain these despoticdemons derailing and curtailing all theirpatheticplots logicallyleaving longlinesoflethargy astheylieinlogistics toplacatetheherd ifeellikeamolotovcocktail and it is most assuredly five o’clock somewhere

does anyone know anything as intimately as a servant knows their master? i know every deceptive curve of my madness ran my tongue along the razored edge of sorrow channeled effortlessly manic gigawatts yet still remain enslaved to it. i just get so goddamned lost and it takes longerandlonger to remember i have a face. […]

a heat dome is settled snugly over texas i long to watch the manufactured bits marring an otherwise scenic view melt slowly rivers of molten asphalt slowly swallowing each remnant of our indecent follies as the ice caps retreat in reticence the ragged remains of the last ice age clinging capriciously to gradually warming global […]

freedom is an invisible cage while hope is a squatter’s prison the delusion of life is running headfirst into the walls and blaming others for our concussions yet here we are repeating the cycles ignorant to the abject futility it is almost as if we cannot see the cemetery for the tombstones

my mind finds patterns in the chaotic fugue slowly picking at the outline eventually unveiling hidden truths in the false smiles and empty gestures i dislike having choices decided for me without the common courtesy of pretending to take my opinions into consideration their need to try to explain decisions in which i was not […]

the darkness appears velvety as i lay ensconced head to toe in this turgid river constipated with dreamthistle remembrances wishing the onyx tide would sweep me along the track marked sleeve of sleeps cold embrace everything is too transactional for my borderline brain i weave gossamer threads into a strong rope thirteen knots wound wearily […]

the sun rose feeling petty as it unleashed a torrent of hell a pulsating wave incinerating all unfortunate enough to meet its gaze sitting in a holding pattern my soot suit feeling tighter around my midsection watching a timer tick the seconds away into another inevitable alarm if the petulant burning orb ups the heat […]

the problem with everything crumbling around us is how long we ignore all of the cracks as they began to splinter across the placid sea of teeming indifference like needing to go pee for hours with no issue until the front door is within sight and you suddenly cannot move quickly enough in desperation we […]

every time i come to stephenville it seems to rain i have come to appreciate the dour little town with its constant construction and purple accoutrements because of the college the downtown square houses a rustic facade around the historic yellowed brick town hall only the business names have changed throughout the century and a […]

(a person who loves their country and, if necessary, will fight for it) over the last nine, or so, years the term patriot has garnered a foul taste with the orange stain permeating what was a noble ideal into a perversion of it’s true meaning it doesn’t mean licking boots who enrich themselves while lying […]

this fourth of july felt more like a birthday party in a hospice as we smear frosting on the sedated soon to be corpse putrefying before our horrified faces i have hit that age where death looms watching for any sort of slip up in which to swoop in and snatch my blackened soultatters everyday […]

sirens followed by crashing thunder the rain hammering the windows as lightning arcs inside my skull i have entirely too much to do to be sitting watching the storms yet here i am in another parking garage so similar to all the other tombs hastily erected to accrue oil stains and aching fools confounded by […]

i can feel panic welling up suffocating on shallow breaths as i struggle to figure out where i am these roads so similar to the many miles spent in solitary definement driving through little towns which all blend together seeking out license plates to determine which state i am currently cruising through scared of what […]

everyday the fractures widen as anxietal carcinogens waft turgidly upon the eerie early morning breeze when i say i need space it doesn’t mean a few hours between chats it means i need to scatter the pieces across the cosmos until my broken glimmers into constellations with which to rebuild the mythos where everything is […]

i lay heremanicpulsating aninverted rainbowacross thebedroom ceilingthrumming withan insatiabledesire fora peace of mindin the piecesof mine layingscattered acrossthe mattress incomplete distress a lifetime spentrunning away froma home i neverfully realized waspart and parcel nodestination butan encapsulation ofthe haunting behindshifting hazel dismayas seen in infrequentaccidental glancesin the bathroom mirror we are our own helleach and every […]

occasionally i wonder what i could have accomplished with a normally functioning brain exploring the world unbound by bipolarity contentedly living always sure of my surroundings and able to trust my own mind in the worst times it sounds like paradise if not a bit mundane savoring the simplicity in random existence able to cast […]

i explore the ragged rim of this smoking crater opened up by internal forces crashing into one another with tectonic fury the edges of another bipolar induced frenzy as the world quivers in barely disguised indiscriminate agonies swaying in line electrified cilia pulsating in time to the metronomic sensation of simply disconnecting from war ravaged […]

a melon melancholy as the strands of sunlight are strangled by gray lending a sickly glow to an unsightly monday spent lamenting how short two days seems in comparison to the two and a half times spent in the pursuit of someone else’s fucking dream the chains of everyone’s expectations grow rusted in the perpetual […]

i do not advocate the use of psychedelics as a coping mechanism for a world on fire i do wish the electrified bats haunting my entirely too nervous system would ease back on the hellspresso a moment to admire the revolution we all seem to be waiting for someone anyone fucking some random goddamn idiot […]

the sun glared an angry orange as it illuminated the rolling hills down south of mineral wells as a sleepy fool felt the fullness of the missing hour where we managed to save daylight once again an ill omen calling forth summer’s fury as the polar vortex constantly collapses the shifted seasons littering the land […]

a sudden shift at my job has left a fool feeling exposed and fragile wracked with anxiety in a terrible state a new story released and too many eyeballs incites insanities and i just need sleep to hibernate in my cocoon until the acid liquefies me into a new form of madness with wicker wings […]

twenty one posthumous birthdays so now your ghost is officially legal to drink as it haunts me every year goes by a little faster but still i find evidence of how you shaped me into whatever it is i have become it feels so weird knowing i am older now than you ever reached and […]

some days i feel like i am a hastily scrawled sandwich board sign away from pacing down the sidewalk screaming about the end of the world. or in a coma playing out these worst case scenarios shuffling a deck of inclement disasters sitting cross legged in the eye of a pulsating shitnado as it reduces […]

you don’t realize when you go from young punk with a molotov in a (horribly misguided) che guevara shirt into an old man in a fuck reagan shirt stretched across a distended gut from all of the processed foods you once raged against a bipolar disaster borderline and always fucking surviving i was a byproduct […]

the truest expression begins with sur|render|ing a tearful acceptance every electrical impulse pushing your entropic meat suit /is/ simply(that) falling into these pools skinless abandoned by godhopemother a voracious slug squirming consumingendlessly giving nothing art is shitsmearedby toddlers on god’s pant legs a negative sum the faded tattoo of a butterfly sunbaked into a mannequin […]

the clouds dip so low as i drift across overpasses i could swirl them around my fingers a delicate snack in ozone flavored cotton candy as it tinges the air with promised storms as of yet unfallen

it’s eerie the silence when solid gray ensconces the city no traffic on the rain slicked streets nor high above as the planes remain grounded by the accumulated cumulus covering all of north texas i am a bundle of anxious electricity burning up from the inside out as ice crystals form across my scalp drowning […]

a week of summer in the heart of winter a war betwixt the armies of the sovereign fae playing out with no regard to the fragility of us mere mortals the sparrows and i watch the subtle currents in invisible warfare as the temperature yo-yos forty degrees while the northeast is buried in snow and […]

i often take things at face value a personality foible where i expect honesty which honestly is on me for ignoring empirical evidence freedom should mean being free yet we are taxed on every freedom or explicitly told by oligarchs the definition only applies when they deem it beneficial freedom isn’t free it accrues interest […]

the sky insists on fingerpainting in shades of gray a blurring mess of incomprehensible tonal dissonance sending doomshivers along irradiated ossicles suspended in this eerie ear canal of wax laden indistinctmurmurings as i hide buried beneath concrete dyed the same gray making a slurry out of my disbeliefs

tectonic distress as a rabid would be dictator deems tarrifs to be the only possible way forward despite the citizens bearing the brunt of his idiocy uncaring about the plight of the degradation leaving the corpse of the muddled middle class as a sediment line in the strata pushing him and his fellow oligarchs higher […]

the clouds caress the spires of concrete no separation between the sky and ground as a fool navigates his submergible deeper into the currents flowing between barriers in a sodden sea of brake light bioluminescence hydroplaning across four lanes of uneven highway darting like a remora in the wake of great white rumbling diesel beasts […]

anxiety exacerbated by an unset alarm the swirl of coffee on an already acidic stomach as the sun rises leaving me beset by this plague of fire dipping clouds in solvent as i seek silver linings to combat this habitual misery drawn in capsaicin along undulating innards as sparrows scream of an onset of warmer […]

they discovered a third form of magnetism which theoretically will change the way that humanity stores and accesses our data groundbreaking new scientific advances which should be far more exciting than watching the last dissolution of democracy in these trying fucking times a regression of human rights setting up the oligarchy while the peasants cheer […]

it was less sleep more a state of half consciousness which gripped me throughout the long and restless night a fugue state dipping in and out of dream only to spin a perpetual emotion machine powered by mania while being stalked by a mysterious visitor in a too tight striped polo who was always just […]

lavender sparks dance in a recurrent ode to consistent nagging agonies a daring respite betwixt polar vertices ensuring inclement pressure systems slamming together to form dissidence in frozen hellscapes a seasonal intention perpetuating the pain in sinus infection little more than adding a whiny inflection to circumspect analysis fluttering in agonized retention

watching artists i respect chase after money over the art leaves me sickened becoming empty trend chasers in the pursuit of fleeting fame when they could be leaving timeless classics choosing the dollar shows me everything i need to see and frees up admiration for those who try to create something new in a world […]

when i was a kid the only thing more prevalent than the red threat during the cold war was the larger than life wrestlers who fought for the rights of every man in the squared circle on saturday mornings reagan talked of satellites orbiting to shoot down any rogue cccp nukes as the hulkster used […]

the gray pisses a slushy consistency over a sluggish city lurching through the motions crystalline showers a confusion in half frozen particulates sirens howl eerily as the sparrows huddle silently a fool murmurs chattering refrains in collusion with the swirling mist two of my neighbors chatter in espanol i listen without any closed captions to […]

the constant dip in pressure forms a diamond from the gray matter arcing anxieties in an endless loop possible approaching winter madness as a rush for milk leaves shelves empty even though it will only last for days the sparrows remain nonplussed by it all chirping happily of seeds and sunshine as humanity wrestles with […]

he dangled an uvula over a hellish pit of gastric dissent the acid burning a slow ascent to dissolve him down to the atomic level a human shaped scar etched into eternity as an oddity a suspension of dour disbelief

the wibbly wobbly little blue orb has managed to circle the flaming ball of ever expanding avarice yet again as the termites idiotically continue ruining the only inhabitable rock we have found in reachable universe to trade ease for longevity i am as much microplastics as failing meat neatly preserved in a downward spiralling act […]

forks of lightning illuminating this heavy darkness in blinding arcs of pure plasma a natural accompaniment to the lavender which crashes inside my skull reaffirming the dichotomous surreality of absurdist dreams i harness the storm screaming crackling dissent across the brooding sky a schismatic display in borderline dismay painting individual pixels various pigments of impossible […]

the air is heavy with dreary droplets a city ensconced by a think bank of fog hovering supernovas a distraction in shimmering refractions as sodium bulbs cast illusionary suns set at regular intervals marking the long road in eerie ghost light as the dreamers wake to a condemnation of frantic particulates a sodden swarm soaking […]

the solstice reverberates into a sudden discourse on imaginary babies being carted in utero to a manger by a star unseen in that quadrant for four months the only wise men are still sleeping as commerce is celebrated in a fit of pure avarice by cranky parents assembling factory made plastics while an entire family […]

been channeling my rage into fiction an attempt at diction to incite the masses i find my words are ignored less when i use my poisoned pen outside of the poetic even if there is no separation betwixt the two as no matter what i do the flow becomes infectious so now the molotovs i […]

i find i prefer the longest night over any extended solar exuberance this day wobbling at the farthest point on an egg spinning around an avaricious star draped in shadows as the sparrows sing sleepily in the cold keep your halcyon daze spent burnt beneath summer’s vicious glare give me a fireplace softly popping as […]

i worry i have infected the weather with my bipolarity the constant shifting has the entire city reeling as it goes hot to cold rubberbanding in a raucous refusal to stay the same momentarily lavender flashes embers flaring in excruciating hymnals to surrender as the dreary gray infuses a refusal to silence the inclement agonies […]

i think in poetry all day long constantly falling into metaphors as a way to navigate life. i feel myself growing stranger less connected to the harsh light of reality as a defense mechanism by bleeding out a shell of words in which to hide a hermit crab growing too big for the constrictive nature […]

in times of great unrest the artists led the call of rebellion theoughout our history through words and use of art they spoke to overturning the foulest of status quos yet we sit now at the precipice of a granular level shaking of power where the abused underclass is seething at all the injustices perpetrated […]

the fact everyone isn’t just fucking furious all the time is a product of the apathy in people who have just enough to remain distracted docile little sheep unaffected by the suffering and perfectly content to just ignore it all i stay up late sipping molotovs while waiting as the revolution is incentivized as the […]

in science fiction when speeds reach that of light the stars stretch out into long lines of forever when manic the rest of the world seems stuck in a translucent jello mold wobbling as i speed fasterandfaster into the static resting just outside reality a supercharged engine running on jet fuel a heat seeking missile […]

i bought a watch because i wanted a separation between me and the screen too easy to check the phone for the time see a notification and lose hours i bought a watch to be in the moment to experience the world wobbling around me to admire the art hanging the people barely hanging on […]

the mania has settled a cloak of electrified insanity in frantic thoughts as a fool barely holds tight to the wheel the words scream and i try to funnel them down toward new stories while newer tales yell to be told seven open documents overflowing with scenic vistas of personal hells a junkie and she […]

a dilution of light through an effusion of mercurial silver hangs heavily over a sleepy fool adrift on these recycled scenes half asleep in an ethereal expanse of unbridled desire contained within her soaked divinity phantasmal writhing in an eruption of poetic meandering a symphonic discourse in her moaning crescendo to wake frozen in a […]

the bastards the upper management have no qualms watching someone drown their selective hearing filters out anything except the stockholders but effect the precious bottom line and suddenly their absence is over compensated by micromanaging with zero understanding of anything except stamping out little fires as the inferno rages all around them screaming from a […]

they shot the ceo of an insurance company left him to bleed out on the cold concrete with the same remorse he showed over thirty percent of those who so desperately needed the service they paid for under the misconception it would help in their dire need as he chose profit over human life i […]

how devoid of meaning must life be working in a scam call center spending dayafterdayhouruponhour trying to steal money from the elderly how do you feel anything but regret at a life wasted creating nothing but misery living with the guilt of doing nothing whatsoever to brighten the world a walking void sucking joy out […]

a consistency in gray malaise the other cars simply blurs indistinct obstructions frightened of the elements driving as if the world was ending because of unpalatable precipitation this sisyphusean monotony of increasingly heavier boulders breaks the spirit then the body until the shattered pieces of self are ground to souldust glittering in the overflowing gutters

they fill the echo chambers with minions just as shitty as they are and wonder why the rabid twats bite the hands which breed them a perpetual ego stroking machine rife with all the machinations of ill tempered children of spite incessant drama and shakespearian as penned by the illiterate betrayals they feel obligated to […]