the stars, the sea, and sleep.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Subject and Predicate

Keep on moving,
Just keep going before it doesn't say a word
As it slips out under the talons
Of another predatory bird of silent songs.
There is a suitcase always in the corner of my eye,
But I need the time to try on every coat.
There are strange lumps in the pockets
And cold spots underneath their collars.
But do I stand firmly? Not at all.
I'm going out in the theme of retrograde
And with debts unpaid, I call the bluff.
I'm going far on a cup,
So a gallon is much enough.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Playing With Your Retinae

It seems that water has made the lighthouse go blind,
No light to capture from the rapture of the night.
What woe! There are ghosts in the creaks of the wood
That haunt illuminescent light bulbs,
Childhood dreams that were still fast asleep.
When there is no time to pray
You go straight for the source,
Against the forces of gravity
Grabbing me from going up, up, up!
"That is enough!" the wind blew and we stood our ground,
But soon we had to stand closer, and we had to stand down.
Lest we be forgotten because the best we did was try,
We descended from the hills, writing our names into the sky.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

So Close To Icons

A woman took us in and brought us towards heaven.
She said she'd wait as we tested out fates,
Spending to time to take it in
And weigh ourselves on the greater scale.
Splendid graffiti, pristine and white
Like a well disguised wolf among sheep,
Pressed against the darkening clouds.
Life continues in roundabouts,
Some afraid to get in,
Some too safe to ever want to get out.
This eye contact is the closest,
I wouldn't dare to pretend,
Lost in the rhythm of a circle
That gives our hearts back in the end.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

When Plans Fall Through

Tonight we sit on a moving train,
Enjoying conversation as every station passes by.
There's no point in trying in dim lighting;
We've got stories about drinking and fighting
So we can light up our faces that way.
It's been a while since I've broken like that,
Crack joke, slip a smile under the door.
With that kind of lip, you must be asking for more,
But there isn't a damn thing you couldn't tell me about
That wouldn't sound better when we're just broing out.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Free Parking In Downtown L.A.

This city street sleeps with a little more color
Met with the quiet ghost of rush hour past
As the last cars wander on the symmetric grids
That have more foresight than their own lives.
We've got nowhere to go tonight,
We've got memory cards and youthful hearts
To capture all the industrial light,
The afterglow of man's triumph.
Towers so tall, they arch on the weight in our eyes
And bump against explosions held by gravity.
We overstep with expectations of flight
And pride our lives in iconic stills
That only increase its sense of brevity.
We make own figures and fill it with paper,
Light it up, and breathe in its levity.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Little Champ

The young ones stayed at home tonight
While the adults hunted for their money
Necessary when there are no teeth left to pull,
One too young, the other too old.
In the cold, we paced the streets on which
I had scraped my knees before you twinkled,
First a tear from a tear,
Then a life projected in my parents' eyes.
And now it is safe to say that we're all alright.
The concept design was finally realized,
My faith in your courage
That poured onto this life chasing satellites.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Throwback Composure!

"And after all that I've been
Through to save me,
I can do without you
And now I'm throwing you away
And I can only blame myself for this."
This road goes on and on
Until the ground kisses the sky,
And every time you sing to me
I'll fall in love and drown.
Kid, I know you hate it,
But maybe it's time to settle down.

Foolish Hit

I am the scientist, slurring and slow,
And I already know how it ends.
Your indications are tactless
Your rules always knew how to bend.
How many stitches does it take
Before the skin heals as a jacket,
Because it isn't a redefinition
If the recognition doesn't seem fit.
This is my favorite part,
When the cars don't stop at night
When the drunks are alright pretending.
I may be stupid, but consciously so,
And I already know how it ends.
The implications are merciless,
Even your light knows how to bend.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Real People Now

I've never gone into the southern hemisphere
But it was somehow appreciated,
Exploratory to say the least
With certainly nothing to hide.
There were no treasures, only gems
In the stems of great foundations
Left to grow their own creations
Of beauty and pride kept in flawless hems.
I grew in a clay pot
That was carried in a wandering arm,
But what we had forgotten was never let go
And supported the vines that kept us in the know.
How long can we make this last?
You know, it never hurt to just ask
That this warmth would keep beneath the sheets
For every time you would come back.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

More Than Math And Science

I'm sorry about the sky,
I just know he isn't home.

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Ones That Came After The War

The storm isn't letting up, I can feel it.
Pandora is still sealed,
Half-assed in cheap Christmas cheer.
I should stop throwing these guns
Just because I don't know how to use them.
You gave the crown back,
You gave it all backwards
And watched them march into the trenches.
I would give anything
For it to come as well as I passed.
I will swim in metal on concrete
And greet it with a graceful smile
For a clip to hold your hair back
And to fight the extra mile.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Mass Flow Conservation

There is a box smudged on glass
With an X fingered through it.
It's done. Take it off the list.
If I had only knew how to save my day,
I would put another record on.
But this list will still play me
And we will suspend ourselves in steam,
Raindrops and metal
That my heart hopes will never rust.
I want to see the downpour make a stream
That would hit the floor before it ever beads.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Party Law

I have my own in a cereal box,
The feet I walk on call out the prize,
Anachronistic fatalistic.
God, just tell me something new,
No, just something refreshing.
Divine world, small intervention,
And a rainbow LCD display
From distracting electronics and rain.
This is when it changed everything.
Have mercy on my vulnerability.

So Everyone Can't Read Every Text

I don't need the other me to tell me about my fantasies
As dark and twisted as it is to sleep on a misty highway
With both hands on the wheel,
And then to awake with a ghost limb.
This is the haunting of magician versus scientist,
Never learned how to make it disappear
Never missed a method to say it isn't here.
As recursive is without a vex a stop to turgid flow,
You should know this isn't something
You should think I'd never know.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Looking At Stars From Planes

This world is a powder puff.
At least the baker took the time to let it breathe
And he outlined rivers, mountains and trees,
A sprinkle for every street corner.
I feel warmer with the thought,
Some softer bells couldn't tell me
That I'm coming home.
Let's be thankful that no one is shooting,
I've got enough that you can wish on me if you want.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Suitcases Out!

What number am I on? I almost won't
Speak a sentence without a solution,
Unless I'm going for partial credit.
So don't believe everything I say,
This life is better left less of a gamble,
But, ladies and gentleman,
It's time to place your final bets.
These workhorses are coming in,
They're reaching down the final stretch.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Hold the Line

Words, where have you been?
The numbers came by the other night;
I think they're here to stay
And they've got others coming single-file.
Continuous flow with no conservation,
Now everything is some kind of observation
Of science. This is my compliance
To the terms of agreement: L.H.S. & R.H.S.
...Give me a hand to shake,
It's hard to say goodnight
When your brains have gone to sleep.
It's getting late, just close your eyes,
Tell consciousness to leave.

Stapled Paper Monster

There's no time to be a veteran
When you have to fight another war.
We are just square pictures and numbers
Who fight with ourselves and with the other.
Eat the atoms in the foil,
Break and bend them as you find fit
As long as you hold them together in the end.
They'll be pulling and pushing,
Your muscles contract.
You are moving forwards
And don't want to think back,
Because this is the fight.
There are no white flags that will fly in the night.
If there's a bullet, you won't dodge it.
In the thick of it all,
There is no magic, just logic.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Ominous Precipitious

Absent days come in a wave
As the ocean reaches the beach
With nowhere else to reach.
Now it comes down on itself
In hopes of holding its own weight,
Just wait for me on the other side.
We will fly or fall like the rain
Before it has always meant something,
So just make something good
Or stop me in my tracks dead.
Here is the runway, but there is the sky...
Go forth, full speed ahead.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

That Isn't Your Name

There is nothing more to that life
Than television and kinesthesia,
You wait for a train on the wrong platform,
How long has it been since you’ve gotten off track?
I've got my pencil mustache
To draw out all of these words
That I hid under a top hat.
But what is it that you say
That you don't know what it means?
Wear me out on your incessant treading,
The screeching of rail and flashing lights.
Don't cross me, you have lost me
More than what I think would ever be right.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Welcome to the City

This reminds of the time spent
By the buckeye tree of quiet family;
I could trace long fingers in the dirt
And my mother told me what it was worth
As my father watched on quietly.
This is how time wound us down,
Now we spin in private circles
And scuff our shoes and streak the floor.
I never meant to dance around the door,
But absent bells ring in my ears as a symphony.
It's cold enough to snow here,
But we're all waiting for that somebody.

Usually, There's The Music To Cue You...

And it went a little something like:
"Everything will be alright,
The pilot light just needs a little gas."
I asked if you could see the lighthouse from here,
You waited for it to come back around again
Like it was always getting sick
Whenever it went on the water
And then under.
But we'll just sing irony in our rusted voices,
Desperate screaming into warm bubbles
That explode when it reaches the surface.
They are fireworks of sugar and salt,
Delicate earthquakes that look for a fault.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Transformation

You've been talking about death for hours on end,
You're making a mistake
You think to yourself, rubbing alcohol tears.
Will you tuck this one under your bed
With the rest of your color book monsters,
Who conspire in the heat of the moment
And light the fire right beneath you?
Lately I've been having these feverish dreams,
Where these cheap curtains keep the desert outside
And a turbine pumps blood only let out at night.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Nearsighted Excuse

I don’t think I could listen to anything softer,
Softer than silence. Listen to your stability,
Love the sweet danger foreboding, refreshing,
A dirty smirk as you shiver.
We’re just a couple lonely people
Trying out the breaths of one another.
If this skin could only keep the blood in,
These nerves could work up enough
To tell my chest it doesn't need to be
Against this door with unfinished numbers,
A black, charcoal-etched evening shore.
It seems you grew into yourself well;
I will take the dive and hold the rest.
It's time to put my best away,
This time the night gets one more day.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Too Much Consolidation

If you put it all in one place just to count it,
Has it really counted if you realize
That those faces won't ever seen you again?
I sure hope I haven't loss the touch,
Because I really do miss the contact
Upon the tarmac burnt from friction
To the TV-through-blanket addiction.
By then I will have stopped paying attention,
But my nerves will bend for it
And I'll lie in your lap like a board
For you to wash away your worries.
Sweetness, you're a sugary winter
That won't need a grain of salt
To give me the traction to react.
Speak me a soft coat of words,
I need their warmth holding my back.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Blinky Eyes

Choose your fate:
Dark into the woods or deep under the waves,
You can find me in the green room,
Lecturing myself on how to bury my dead.
How much can we keep in folded paper
Before it crumples under the weight of our words?
The world just dropped from under us all
And we are suspended in pretenses and grief.
It's time tome to terms with your reality,
It's time you learned how well you can breathe.

Settle, Settle...

We can make our home here
A dying brother on a frosted-over rocking chair
Who can barely feel the weight on his legs
He feels like he is flying
He feels like he is free
The colors black in and out
A thousand winks from a Christmas tree
There's a slippery descent into innocent snow
It'll be safer in the morning,
This is where we'll make our home.

Friday, December 3, 2010

The Knots In Sick Arbors

Someone left their love in a lemon tree
That turned as bright as warning;
It was so warming and dissolved free.
Fading pictures for ghosts on telephones poles,
Pinned up with rusty stables and old ambitions.
Every tassel was torn off, but still no response.
You tell yourself to call your older echoes when you can,
Before that creaking sound is too foreign,
Before the door won't fit your hand anymore.
It seems to me like those locks still fit in place,
So I wouldn’t quit it unless you’re ready to quit it
It won’t matter who did it if you’ve always hid it.

Refractory

A push comes to shove and you run your mouth,
Lips and brows had made a vow seven sunrises before:
Never again, not now and never more.
But we returned just as we came
With a list of names on a pink backdrop.
We fall back into the assembly lines
With hopes in our coats we put on one last time.
The refractory is an act that we need to shut down
The factories are after me; they’re calling me out.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Hands to Landing, Tuck to Rolling

Put some days in between,
Down feathers in your favorite pillow.
Tossing and turning wouldn't turn it over,
So you got over the blankets and sighed
Because it takes too much to lie in sleep.
"I'm coming," were the words whispered,
But there was no time to wait.
You wake up to the final descent
Tray tables up, fastened to your seat,
Looking calm, Looking cool,
Look at yourself with honesty.