Slow For Crossing (You Talk Too Much)

These candles on my birthday cake
Leave burns only skin deep
And I try to keep things sane
But the task becomes more difficult
When things remain the same.

It's become comfort in habit,
A finger-wagging nun
Shunning my selfish sins
Burning the bastard bins
Because these thoughts don't deserve a breath
So I throw a curse as I breathe your breath.

In,
Out,
Spout another to be past about.
Spawned from narcissism
Spawned from sin
Spawned in the dregs of the bastard bin.

I cross your street with a shopping list,
A succession of thoughts,
A pattern never missed,
But its effectiveness is to be marked
Like shooting bullets in the air,
Like talking like there's no one there.

And it's hard to make peace and restock the shelves
When you've made their lives a living hell,
When your dreams don't live past ringing bells,
When your greatest enemy is only yourself.

An Pog

Here's the situation:
The eyes of our nation
Are on
You.
And my question is:
What do you have to prove?
You point and fire the lead,
Then put your hands
On your perspiring head,
And don't move...
Just what do you think they'll do?

You throw all your friends
In the magnetic tide
As electrical storms
Prick holes in their eyes.
Polarized,
Neutral.
Charged,
Neutral.
Neutral,
Neutral.
Polarized,
Charged.

I charge the gates
Then slowly back away.
I cry innocent are guilty
With nothing else to say.

I hope that maturity will find a way
To process my thoughts
And set things straight,
Because my only control
Is my hope in fate,
And I can't clean up
Every mess that I make.

Supplementeddy Bear

We all have our secrets and dress them with phrases,
Genius but disingenuous
All to get in your good graces.
I keep the prongs grounded
To hold back the shock,
The jaw dropping
Heart stopping
Unlocking of locks.
My talk is my silence
My blanks mostly lies,
And I can relate with all
And none of these guys.

I'm stuffed.
And if you knew what I know,
You'd also think it's enough.
I'm sorry,
I'm sorry,
But I've hit the wall.
These clothes don't quite fit
And I can't stand your call.
These notches aren't worth it.
I'm just an aside.
But a trike needs three wheels
So I'm here for the ride...

The Subconscious Drift Into An Unknown Stage

My jealousy is overwritten easily

And forgotten all too soon

When tucked in the front seat

Staring up at the moon,
When out on the couch
Bodies warmly in tune...

This is 3am with no traffic, both ways
Where the ticks have no value
And thus, the moment stays.

This is being caught between the changing of the days.

Sweet Sing Along, Three Hours Long

You step back one
But march on two more
Slowly but steadily,
We build our levees to bear the load
Of currents heavy though separated,
Those words you said you hated:
I won't be here next year.

So I draw theoretical tears
On the blueprint map,
Preemptive of a future near
And so I say what there is to say,
The unspoken truth
The decay of youth,
Just to get it out of the way,
And let life live until death,
Until our breaths reek with rich past
Aged like wine and fermented in time,
A love supreme
For a long in between.

So when none other does pass
Than the desire for responsive glass,
Pass the word to the grade school suckers,
I wish their reputation and pockets good luck!
We don't need a DJ,
We don't need chaperones.
Because all we need, we've got:
A dance party of our own.

Spectroanalysis

If I've learned something
From counting tallies on weathered walls
And playing catch with tethered balls,
Morning does not dictate the day
And latter shades of blue will do something to you too.

From yearning in your dreams,
Odd and unheld,
To waking up to things
Unfinished.
But departure will shake your core
Until you can't take any more of the sound
And just as it gets worse,
Your feet leave the ground.
Then suddenly the air doesn't seem so dense
And the patchwork farms patch up and make sense
The clouds reveal the daybreak's suspense
While you squint to see life
In a new lens.

Everything falls into place
With a controlled steady pace:
Your heart in my hands,
Your awkward phrases I heard
Like the sound of baby's laughter
While you sing the wrong words

Singing Sticky Love Notes

Peel off the claps that adhere on the walls
One after the other
Like Poprocks in the sky
Borderline boulder-sized

Slip off the symphony of sounds
The boys you spent your nights with
Talking with mouths zipped
And peace pistols gripped

Hold off the hungry-hearted man
Spilling into this medium
Sealing them in a melody
Coated in flavorful trills
Steaming the window sills

Then,
It is just one note.
It is steady
It is rhythmic
It is smooth
It is beautiful
It is love.

Now,
Open your eyes to the rest.
It is loud
It is mysterious
It is connecting
It is colorful
It is life.

They go hand in hand, side by side,
So take a bow and love your life.

Magnet Theory

This moment is a moment
And forever never more...
But preceding the dream
Came much closer things,
The tidal turns that context brings.
But within or without,
The riptide may not hide
What sandy assumptions buried in confidence.

In this once thought of providence,
One can get close, but can never stay,
And this asymptotic function goes both ways.
And I found the problematic solution
Indifferent in resolution
In the wine on his breath
And buzz in his eyes.

And as the old man preached
I mistakened his scent for my own
And it sent me months back
To laughing at the sun
Burning in playful embarrassment
And leaning on its shoulders,
At least ten fold in strength,
On a rooftop overlooking the Mexican border...

And so when it comes to the theory
Of relations and lies,
Things are more or less
Demagnetized.

Without Direction

This compass twirls and curtsies in ballet flats
As question marks prance on arterial maps.
I fire flares for no one there,
A shooting star with an arc of smoke
Upon which I wish,
But then I choke.

Help!
I'm lost and without direction
And there are too many paths to my pictured perfection.

When Mama Thinks You're A Murderer

On atlases, there are lines

On maps, there are crosses
But heading south towards the mouth of the gulf,

The border gets fuzzy
And blends into the horizon,
So I open the glove compartment to put all my lies in.

Indifference is a silent coward
And it devours the soul
Until the point where you don't know what's thinking
And you're blinking your yes's and no's
Just to make this go a bit slower.
But that road is too far and out of sight

And looking back on the unfolding of the night,
There were highways in its creases that we never did know.

I am a parasite,
Sucking the light from your sweet summer glow
From the veins in your body that provide luscious flow.
I clear the shelves with my words
And sprawl it out across the room,
I lay you out nice and neat
And all the while I still assume
There is nothing but wadding crumpled up in this shell
But this wadding may be my punched ticket to hell.

The Primary

It was our world in the purest form

Reds, blues, and yellows

From which our colors were born.

The colors torn through to make

A scar in the aura of this setting sun.

Millennia of advancements

In atmospheric make up

Have made her exit gaudy

And a bit overrated.

This is the picture perfect you paint:

The texture, the shading, the harlot, the saint.

You show me the ceiling,

You show me the man,

But all that's in focus are the artist's fine hands.

Kinesthetic

He is the kid who wants broken toys
For what they once had been:
The glossy picture in the magazine
Swirling up dreams and fanciful things.

And there is no intimidation in a garbage bin
Because he doesn't think he'll ever understand
Until he has the pieces in his hand
Put together with his strongest glues,
The laces on his shoes,
Adorned with sad, sticky bubblegum blues.
And the result will be...
Whatever it was supposed to be.
But his hellbent knees won't take a stand
Until the final product is in his hand.

You're a moonlight surprise
With your lovely dyes
And he shields you with his eyes,
Because he can't with his arms
And he sees how those kids admire your charm...

Even this boy gets tired from staying up nights
And all the while, his growth he stints
His youthful distractions avert his sight
But he can't have this fade until next Christmas print.

My Best Mistake

Don't think I think
That this is a game
Because I don't give a damn
How the cards are played
I don't care about technique.
I don't care about reason.
I don't care about style.
All I know
Is this is the best mistake
I've made in a while...

And these heavy eyes
Just won't hide my lies
So these lips are bent to show a smile,
And all the while my limbs do ache
From a tiring night my dreams do make
Sweat-soaked to the core,
More fatigued than the day before.

But the morning comes
And your song I hum
With a dance of glance symphonies,
Accompanied with a smile.

52 Pick-Up

This room is made of lights
That assault the eyes
That swirl into the center
In which they finally die

This room is made of sounds
That drip out of sync
That are muffled and dank
And too thick to drink

This room is made of cards
That line my four walls
That expand with a breath
But on exhale they fall

This room is made of nothing
This room is my head
This room is too tired
And going to bed.

Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro

It takes two clicks to go home
But four to go far away...
Starting familiar, but making your way
To whatever you want,
There's no need to speak
When phrased just right
And kept in the beat.
Fifteen songs deep
Five hours long
..and we're still going strong.
With sores on our hands
And cramps in our feet.

This is conversation without the tongue
This is the fire without the gun
This is sparking a dream without a light
This is battling life without a fight

This was the day we decided to ditch
This was the best idea we pitched
And when the chorus shook the floor,
We weren't in Kansas anymore.

What I meant to say was...

You are a lot more
And there is an ocean beyond that shoreline.
Infinite depth...
And with an intimate breath,
You let it be known.
And how your flourishing waters have grown
Teeming with beaming rays of light
Riding the ripples from laughing at life.
Your secrets are smiles
And moonlight has shone
Your heart is the sun
Your ocean, its home.

You are all,
And all it contains:
The pretty, dirty bottles
With touching text,
But paper plain,
The shy shells that sink
But peek in the sand,
Hiding but yearning a curious hand.
Unintended perfection
Without direction
A precious phenom
A something to lean on.
You are more than the crests' reach,
More than the roar and sizzle
As they crash on the beach...
You are a lot more.
This, I am sure.

And now I try to make up
For sleepy words I made up,
So go put down your make up
Because you are beautiful the way you are.

Believe Me (Or Don't, Whichever's In My Favor)

I've taken the day off to reevaluate my life
I've taken my shoes off to step back into the night
Backwards,
Box by box in calendars,
My millstone is my clock.

I hum nostalgic tunes
As I rummage through the ruins.
Do you remember when?
Do you remember then?
It was all simple there
The head before the hair.
The voice before the words.
The rise before the fall.
But youth ends,
And split ends tell you
Things aren't quite the same,
Are they?

In retrospect,
I never said it right.
In retrospect,
I never saw the light.

I try to differentiate
Between mirrors and glass
The fun house of present
Blurs future and past
And we strive for conclusions
From distorted confusion

Some wish for too much and fall down the well
When everyone already has someone else.
I'll try not to make the mistake of our youth,
But people like masks more than they like the truth.

Flaccid

The collar is stiff and close to your skin,
Checking your pulse,
Checking your moves,
Finding the wrinkly grooves of your neck
To burrow itself like you'd never expect

It's got you, my friend,
And it softens your sense
Nerve by nerve
From the softest incisions,
Softer than hands made to emphasize visions,
Your visions so grand
Filled with splashes of light
That show in your future.
That show in your eyes.

Just for once, open up!
Unbutton down and be proud,
Because I can't wait to see
How this crease irons out.

Wires and Stilts

We put God in a rocket ship
And sent him up in the air,
Turquoise paper mache
With cotton ball lint,
To keep tabs on the asteroids' flicker and glint
To spend all his nights
Watching planets and satellites...
And anything else to help him get through the night

And so He sits there idly
While we idolize our prize:
The jealousy
The hunger
The lust in our eyes.
Because God's taken care of
And there's no need to lie.

Though my closest absolution
Was the solution to a hectic dawn.
Hours up before the alarm,
I held your limp frame in my arms.
I kept you warm in this metal cage
And cherished the innocence of youthful age

Be good.
And do everything I should've done
Because before you know it
You'll be under the gun
At the end of a path of a life overrun
With leaves
That leave
Yourself with an itch,
Insatiable burning felt under the stitch
Placed on your chest for when you forget
What you've always been wearing that hung on your neck.

A Fitting Career For A Faded Star

It's time to invest in a future
That will mask all my sutures
I'm a young man without plans
Put in permanent ink.
I wrote the right
In pencil-scribed scripts
That lived in my eyes
And read from my lips
But the graphite and friction
Turned my words into fiction
And now all that I carry is gray.

Your hopes left the door open wide
So the clouds in the sky found their way inside.
So now I stare at this haze
Looking for a sentimental way
To say nothing.

And from the cycle of reason to heart,
The haze on the page
Turns to black and white bars
And the rush in my veins
To resuscitate this heart
Has made my face pale
And my sullen stare far.

I am a mime
And I freeze life in mine
To grab the eyes of unconcerned passers by
For a quarter, a nickel, a penny of time
To throw in a hat, presented with tricks
But my final act squanders each second hand quick
In situations that grow until well overripe
While I sit in my cell wearing sad silent stripes.

When An Orphan Looks Up

You spend the new year sitting out in the snow,
Counting the seconds until fireworks blow.
You watch them erupt in colors and sparks
And smoke fills your lungs
As the lights fill your heart.
But never to last as the seconds do pass
And the dark in your heart comes flowing back fast.

You spend your birthday with your head in your knees,
Letting the cardboard box hang in the trees.
Filled with delights meant to sweeten your tongue,
Haunting your dreams in the way that it hung.
Instead you stayed in and counted your years,
Burning in wax
Burning in tears.
A smile flashes quick when their blown out at last,
But the cries in your eyes come flowing back fast.

You spend Christmas day looking back on the days,
Slowing accepting your young hope's decay.
And the nuns who know none,
But the word of their Savior,
Tell you, "Cheer up, God don't like bad behavior!"
So you thicken your skin for another year's blast
And the lies in your mind come flowing back fast.

...But this cycle's no circle
And this year you'll learn.
All the other kids left you
But now it's your turn.

You've got a couple signing papers,
You've got a yearbook in a locket,
There are marbles in your hand,
And even more in your back pocket.

The Vegas Sessions

This is the dance between serpent and man,
And this is when things really get out of hand.

A Noticeable Change

How unfortunate,
That our evening rains and syrup stains
Have turned into frequencies heard in our ears
Whose soft ring fades
Until we can no longer hear it
And I'm playing chicken with the quiet
And your auto-pilot mindset
Is my best bet that I bust
This time,
Though not more,
But in context,
Too much.

I respect your move
And thus I lose
The contact
The connection
The combat
The convection

My cover's blown
And my scarlet stains show
How long I have left
And how much I don't.

And as the numbers dwindle down
Your name becomes more prominent
Intimidating and dominant,
So my hesitating persists
As I resist to speak.
My blood fills my lungs
My tongue tastes of gun
My throat clogs with clots
My chest airs with shots
So my mind fills with screams
Only heard in my dreams
As I slowly lose grip
From what's real
To what seems.

Medic!
Medic!
Will you hold my hand?
Just give me the morphine,
I want to understand.

Like Any Other

Today was the day
That came after the last,
In nothing it lacked
In nothing surpassed.
Just the way I like it.

Reattach the cord
And take back the name
And watch it become
Like all else, the same.
Just the way I like it.

I put up my speakers
Against the calls
And paint my ignorance
Over cliched walls.
Just the way I like it.

Today was a day
Without love, without lovers
And I went through this day
Just like any other...
Just the way I like it.

Don't Mention It

And in that one sentence
It lived and it died
But went to the limbo inside my mind
I didn't bother to ask
You didn't bother to tell
And we all know well
That we don't know at all,
I don't know at all.
Or at least don't know
If it wants to be known
Or how low the bar will actually go

...But we move on,
Digress,
And let it rest with the rest.

"BAM!" went the barrel
When I pulled on the trigger,
A 12-gauge page to make their eyes get bigger.
Put your concerns down in clay,
Then fire away,
This is right now, so tell chance to go figure.

Sudden Changes

I won't see it
Until you throw it at me
But once hatched and dispatched
You create something that cannot be matched.
And you'd swear it was true...
If only you knew, huh?
You thought you did too, huh?

Giggles from their eyes
Squiggles from her pen
Tell me I don't need to do it again
If I find something,
I'll tell you when
You're just getting to know
What I had known then.
It sure is something
It's pure
It's loving

But this was the grin
And here came the smile...
And as spring parted her lips
I drank her in with tiny sips
Oh, how she spoiled me
And uncoiled the tension
So it felt nice
So it felt delightful

...I'll take it!
And I'll leave it at that.
And that is the cycle of life
Seeing colors, hues, and shades light
As we paint our canvas of every day
And soak our skin in sugared rain

Looking Back to See My Future

Right before the city sleeps
The sun peaks in under cumulus sheets
And splashes a little gold in our eyes.
She won't ever go any higher
And will gracefully fall in a fit of gray fire...

But you, my child,
Rise,
Rise,
Rise!
I peer into your eyes
And see my own life.
Forever the same,
Though displaced by time,
Your head
Your heart
Your blood,
In mine.

So I hope you don't plan on leaving too soon,
Because I'm here to break you a deal:
I'll carry your body and hold your hands
Until you've become strong and brave,
And then in good time,
And when it is mine,
You'll tucked me down into my grave.

False Pretenses and The Event Horizon

I winced at your proclamation:
You'll go out cold, rejecting the donors
On matters of their owners.
You are no martyr, just a starter of fires
And your vacant claims put us all on the stake.

This is a travesty of the chemicals I call love.
But the days grapple over one another
And the muscles in my face knot
So these expressions, I've forgotten.

And this deceptive film over my eyes
Has got me counting
Phantom stars in the sky
One, two, then one again
This tearjerking motion will never end.
Throw me the tissues,
We've all got our issues.
Just where are you heading
When you're bedding with sheddings?

Sleep now, or never hold your peace,
Because I'm already in pieces
And there are no sins left
To die for my Jesus.

Terribly Sweet

I go in with the rain down my back
I go out with God's covers thrown back.
He lets out a cool sigh,
Blowing the clouds right on by...
There's snow on the mountain tops, you see
And I've got this moment to spend
With only me,
But I don't mind.
This is a special, yet subtle
Lapse in time.

Even if the cold bites at my fingers
I'll do anything to make this moment linger
Its innocuous stinger has me in silenced amazement
This magnetized majesty
Is holding me back from the rest of my day
(Of no greater importance if I may say...)

Just keep the fires away
This is all I need
Letting her aura plant her seeds.
So bloom in my heart
Take me away
As we make this progression
To skylines from day

This is nature's kiss on the cheek.
This is taking my rights to speak.
This is what live for.
This is what I would die for.
This is dusk.

But now that my hands lose their touch
I fear that I have said too much.
So I'll let the glacier sky
Speak softly for me,
Yes,
Things like these are terribly sweet...

Something New

The rainclouds' sweet crackle and glaze
In the sunset's soft and silver rays
Surely sets me back a few days.
It's the warmth of familiarity,
Old-time hilarity.
An assault of spastic contractions
From unrecognizable actions
Leave me on the main drag,
Post-party promenade mystery bag.

I'm your purebred airhead waiting at the door
Wide-eyed with relief because I needed
Some more,
More of this...
I needed my fix.
So fix me on your nightstand
And give me your hand
And tell me if you don't understand
That so easily,
And so clear to me,
I can picture every one of them I know
Dragging their sacks of unwonted sorrow
And all that I can say is "You're gonna carry that weight."

Music to My Ears

I wake up to the beat,
The pitter-patrer and the breeze,
Synchonized blows
On my windows,
I think I'll sleep in,
Lose myself just for a while.
I think I'll sink in,
Rediscover soul and style.
I think I'll drink in,
Feedback, overdrive, 30-day trial.

Say hey,
This here today,
Some rules were broken anyways
Self-imposed and restrictive,
Sick, mirrored, and vindictive.
And you know,
Soft skin scars easy
And I don't want to spend my days
Telling anachronistic ghost stories,
But this right here
Is music to my ears...

Quieting the Caterwauls

Today came as fast as she left
And with a twist of her wrist
And a glimpse of her palm
She was there and gone.

We want lovers like our knowledge
The mysterious intrigue.
But I can only press the knife
So hard
Until it breaks skin,
And it's scary being friends
With a damn good liar.

It's no longer getting farther
From the beginning,
It's getting closer to the end
Where I'm simultaneously
Letting something go,
But grabbing onto something else.

And you can blame fate for a day like today
Tearing time tables to have it their way
I am guarding the sleep
I am starting the heart
And I point to the skies
To tell them how far.

Covalent Bonds

As the Vorshtein once said
From rivers to deltas to oceans of lead,
The are levees leveled
The dams are down
And I'm drowning in color
And the beautiful sound
In the fragrance that's found
In sweet fields abound.
Merrily, merrily,
Rain falls down.

And every bend in the sky
Wrings out tears to dry her eyes
It's wonderful...
Yes, yes,
It's marvelous...
Less, less,
Light in the sky
The crescent of the moon
Pulling in waters
And making more room.

This is the floor on which we dance.
Why ask for more?
This is your chance.
But hurry,
Please hurry.
My sight's getting blurry
And night's winter flurry
Will be sure to bury ourselves in the waves
And seaweed will dress our waterlogged graves.

But for now you can't tell me that this is a crime,
For all the worlds tears are now mixing with mine...
This soft ticking bomb puts a date on the line
And the lush downpour sloughs the callus of time.

Esoteric

You work by the candle
You work by the night
And every so often...
Sneak glances to the right
And it's a thought of the same
Balding tires in game.
Wear them down,
Round and round,
Until you're gliding on the rims of your car
And your rear view's a show of excitement and sparks
This is assuming you can get this far...
You may lose your rights to your very own life
To the tragic concoction of asphalt and ice.

Our earthly seeds
Nurture our needs
And through autumn leaves
A pattern proceeds:
This heart works on clocks
It's supply and demand
And the bloodiest head rush
Wouldn't help you understand.

∞

Did I ever tell you
What you've already been told?
I think the story never gets old...
You're buried in calculations
Lost in translation
Trapped in a set of infinite rotations.
And this is your home.
This is where you play
Never to reach the speed to escape.
But you devise and devise
The crystallized plans that defract every way
And you never get out what you're trying to say
Words barely slip out from between your lips
And fall in your hands
And are thrown back into orbit again.

Did I ever tell you
What you've already been told?
I think her story never gets old...
She's a recessive temptation,
Retrograde infatuation,
Set in a state of hypnotized undulation.
Your heart is her home.
This is where she preys,
Never to find the need to escape.
But she feeds lies and more lies
That spend their days in the grooves of your brain
And you never get out what you're trying to say
Words barely slip out when you're touching her hips
But then she shifts in your hands
And you're thrown back into orbit again.

Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.
Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.
Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.
Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.
Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.
Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.
Perspective is stepping away from your vanity.
Wake up, my child, won't you stop this calamity?
Repetition is a symptom of cycled insanity.

To Those Who May Not Exist...

I asked the sea to sing for me,
And it did.
And how the soft keys
Went so well with the sea breeze.
How the waves stroked the sand
And each time the shoreline
Would pull back her arms,
The grain opened up in pockets of air
And whispered for more in a cloud of white foam

I asked the city to shine for me,
And it did.
And how the stream of a thousand headlights
Shone brighter in my eyes than the envy of the moon
How it brought me to heaven far too soon.
My God...
Do we rule the skies
Or do the skies rule our lives?
Gasping for air in the middle of the street,
I suddenly lose contact with the ground beneath my feet.

I didn't ask you to love me,
But you did.
And how those nameless faces
Gave me selfless graces
Plucked from the keys of most simplistic trees.
But how rich is the fruit that is the truth,
Picked, polished, and placed in my heart.
You might've stayed from the start
Or just made it to this:
Hello, nice to meet you!
My name is Chris.

Letters from the Forgotten

Knock, knock,
There's a stranger at my door.
At once my mind raced
To catch a familiar face
In the infinite database called memory
And in a moment I clicked,
Search Complete.

In front of me was a man once known
And what beastly colors he had shown...
Always a head above the rest
At the top of every physical test
Sturdy shoulders
Sturdy breast
This man was a machine,
Our very best.
We built him until he could build himself,
Ripping our supplies off of the shelves
He could not be controlled
He cried for oil
He cried for gold
He was deaf to whatever wise words he was told.
But then one fateful day,
The axles in his ankles,
The hydraulics in his hips,
And the bolts in his brain
All of a sudden stopped working the same.
And it wasn't too long
Until he was gone.

And now, here he stood:
A person renewed.
This wasn't the man
I thought I once knew.
He asked about others
He asked what they thought
He asked if they maybe forgave and forgot,
And he told me he's worried
From the systems check sounds
He told me that he really just has to slow down.

And I stood there in shock with nothing to say
And in that moment's time, he had walked away.
I expected a favor with a meaningless "please,"
But instead I was shown the heart of a beast.

One Picture

I put on my gloves
And my mouth guard in
Two thousand and twenty four
That's where I weigh in,
Nothing more...
It's all about perspective:
If you make it small enough
Life will call your bluff
And take your two thousand
And twenty four,
Nothing more.

It's all a different story
When the story's right in front of you,
Seventeen years
Of love, lust, and fears,
From dizzy sips
To counting ships,
From soggy sand
To alt rock bands,
From trips in the car
To shots in the dark,
From dancing all night
To first morning light
From scarves and gloves
To long lost loves
From finish to start
It's all there to score,
My sole two thousand
And twenty four.

You want to see who I am?
Just look up above.
I don't want to talk about love,
Or my lack thereof.
My head hits the ceiling
With my feet on the floor,
Clearance: Two thousand and twenty four,
...Nothing more.

Trudy Merryweather

As long as you're there to take me away
I will never hide you from the light of day
You are my shining cinnabar
So cinnamon sweet, and setting me free
And in an airy display
You show the sunlight on my face
And this is beautiful.
And this is memorable.

We sing our songs
I, tenor
You, bass
...You always new my favorites
And you could always name it

Wear your scars
Let the world know who you are
And I'll paint them to let you know
I'll never let go of you
I'll never let go of this
Pristine and pure
Oh yes, I'm sure
This is something I'll never regret

When I stayed out, you did the same
And you kept quiet when you strained
And I loved you for it.
You were my Mercury
And you were there for me,
The whole two hundred thousand miles.

Small Steady Doses of Lead

It is getting sick of your own songs
It is persistent and seven years long
It is the face, the hands, the hips
It is nature's taste on your lips
It is a soft touch sustained
It is acoustic runs in the rain
It is the silence at 3 .a.m.
It is sleeping in the B.M.
It is the stare shot across the room
It is the melting smile that ensues
It is forgetting all that was said
It is letting it happen again
It is reading in wishful ways
It is a dull aching that stays
It is staring at a blank screen
It is saying meaningless things
It is me digging my own grave
It is telling myself I've been brave
It is the ultimate slowing down
It is something that needs help now.

Wide Turns

I pulled out of the alley
In the seventh year
And at that moment I faced
A parent's greatest fear
When it comes to close calls
There were none alike
As when the grill of his car
Met the frame of my bike.

And then he stopped, open jawed
As the neighbors walked out
Not a scream,
Not a shout,
Just silence,
No sound.

And as I picked myself up
From the hot summer ground,
He asked me if I was okay.
With only scratches and scrapes,
All I managed to say was
"I guess I'm not dying today."

Another One for the Recycle Bin

I don't like the girl,
But she makes a good point
So I salute her with all my creaky joints...
I've done this much too often,
My nine to five heartbeat
Taking the same congested routes
On the same congested streets

We wear our pulses on our wrists
And each time the hand reaches twelve once more
We feel the same way we did one year before

So we find out we're predictable
And sometimes a bit hypocritical,
But we know how it ends
At least on our part
So there's no use to pretend
And go back to the start
Each time,
Each rhyme
The same as before
So wake yourself up
And get off of the floor!

A Feeling Intact vs. Reasoning

The slightest hint of how I live
Is felt from the words that fall
From Johnny Hartman's lips
Carried across on the melodic Trane
That catches in the rain to make
Tearful bliss.
It lets off steam in shades of blue
And leaves you with nothing else to do
But look back on a life
Of memories
Contrived.

You wish you made them
And believe you delayed them
So you neuter and spay them
But still can't help obey them

As low as courting a barren wench
And living with the perpetual stench
Of your self-inflicted trickery
Dressed with your bickering

You're a courageous fighter
But could your flag get any whiter?

As effective as a follower of the dead
Trusting yourself with the thoughts in their heads
You sit on their plots and whisper to the soil,
So softly...
"It's your move."

All blank stares look into the soul
And whether it is your goal or not
When you've thought about it a thousand times
You cry and think of it a thousand more
And that worm keeps eating at the core.
It's the pits, my friend, that filter the blood
And they spread their seeds in a melancholic flood

No matter how many evenings you spend
Writing the words that the intended won't hear
Or blurring your eyes with incessant tears,
And no matter how many lines end up filling the page
Thoughts through the night that are continually strung
Until every note on every scale is eventually sung,
And no matter how long you stare at the stars on the ceiling
You will never get this feeling
Erased.
It will keep its pace until you find true face.
And no decision will be an easy decision
Until there is no decision left to make.

Communicating At Angles

Today marked the start
Of a future not so far
When we'll all leave
By plane,
By car,
And only share the moon, our stories, and stars

But you have the most peculiar case
You take a new path at a different pace
So that the SoCal sun will miss your face
A face that we can never replace

And if I could
You know I would
Row, row, row my boat
Back a couple years,
Everything
Everywhere
Everyone too,
I'd hold a little more near.

And first goes you,
Then goes knowledge,
Then I'm the baby
In a brand new college

So let's pretend each day's our last
Life sentence,
No parole,
And now let's blow this popsicle stand
And let the good times roll!

An Obituary for the Newsfeed

Today the sun sets in an unpleasant hue
The blades of the turbine cut right on through
They leave puffy scars in your winter sky
And a gnat finds its death in your watery eye
Some couple makes out under your favorite pine
And an ugly bird shits on your favorite sign:
"Welcome to Maine, the Vacation State,
Where the landscapes are good,
And the lobster is great!"

So you purse your lips for the frozen kiss
And form a fist as the pain persists.

Then a bit of cold air seeps in through your hem
And that couples wants you to take a picture of them.
And you pray those rustic colors will soon fade away
With all the bad memories you'll leave there in Maine...

My Favourite Colour of Flavoured Armour

Now I know I'm not the one
To normally jump the gun, but:

One day I'll meet a British girl
While living on the east coast
And of course I'll love the way she talks
And of course we'll get real close

We'll take our transatlantic flights
And buy a flat in the heart of town
I'll be her boy from back in The States
Loyal to the Capitol and loyal to the Crown

But for now I'll take my burger
With a soda and some fries
And this kind of life will always be
The sparkle in my eyes

Gravity and Your Dress

So I begin the night

Slamming my head against a couch

Tuned too tight.

In this contortion show,

I play my part and you play yours.

And as the fumes from your projects

Come in through the door,

I close my eyes,

A sad excuse for what I've realized:

I'm back at square one,

Still dizzy from the hit 

Of the butt of your gun

Because you knew that pulling the trigger

Would make me see things 

A little 

Clearer.

...But instead I retreat,

Typing notes on my phone

So get out the tiller

Because I'm coming home.

An Inconspicuous Word for Embarrassment

It started with the color
It started with the curl
...And you told your boss that it was the girl.

Your man on the inside had gave him a hear
And from there, this ordeal was shaping to be
One for the books, for all history:
This had become his greatest fear.
And it came from the whisper that tickled his ear
Nuzzling her head between his neck and his shoulder
Movements more frequent as the air got colder

But never as cold as the interrogation room
A box of omniscient and rhetorical doom

He knew and you knew,
That he knew that you knew,
When your man didn't know
But instead just assumed
That after all of these years
He was finally immune.

But no, he's not.
And now he's sick.
Just from the thought.
That this won't be it.

And you'll keep him paranoid,
Until the guillotine's at his neck
Tied with a bow of your very best,
And until the point that he's having sex
Wearing plastic gloves and cheap hairnets...

And now you've got him sweating in his bed
With your voice in his head,
Dictating without end,
"Just before you give it everything you've got,
Remember that you'll never run away from your thoughts."

Come In: A Pacifist's and A Warlord's Post-War Economic Rebuilding

I'll be your Gandhi
You'll be my soldier
And together
We'll make each other
That much bolder
And act that much older...
So if secrets make us weaker,
We'll talk and we'll talk
Until truth's bread tastes sweeter.

Because you, my dear, don't carry guns
My youthful, smiling, and radiant one.
You draw rainbows on the clip
You tie the barrel in a knot
And put flowers in the nozzle
That were placed on your plot.
Because they thought you'd die!
With domestic dreams gunned down
And you'd slit your own throat
With the sharpest of frowns.

But you carry masks
And you carry smarts,
You carry strength
And you carry heart

And as long as you make me feel like
I'm doing this job right,
I'll keep the doors unlocked
And together we'll run this shop,
Because we've both got our tongues
But we've both got our ears
And we've both got our hopes and
Right now we're open.

Hey, Tell Me If You Get This One

The scariest thing that has happened to me
Was with someone standing next to me
Towards the mirror we faced
And there I saw a face I didn't recognize.
I don't know these eyes
I don't know these lips
Fuck, who the hell is this?

He had dropped those two words,
Like how stars drop from the sky
And fall into the eerily calm sea,
So they fell from his lips so casually
And my back doors were replaced with black holes
And there was no running now.
As if I even knew how.
So I withdrew from The Bank of What's and How So's
And he stepped on the gas knowing how it would go
And I was the deer in the headlights who knew
But still played it off like I didn't have a clue.

If I had the chance,
I'd tell her I really wish she wouldn't
But what can I expect from an actress with respect?
I'm the hit.
You're the mob.
But it's okay, it's only your job.
Just unscrew your halo burnt out in its socket
And recite those Hail Mary's on the script in your pocket
Tearing at the creases from habitual use
Guilty of murder and substance abuse
The substance is guile and it's been a while
Since you've showed me through touch,
through words, or through looks,
Something that could pass as a glimmer of truth

But now the dogs are barking with their noses erect
So I throw my pennies in the hole to make my wish direct
Enough with the twirls and hypnotic swirls,
I'm calling you out.

This soundtrack won't work
If the crowd goes berserk
When my lullabies bring out their painful cries.
Only werewolves sing to the moon.
Tell that to Claude and Clair de Lune.
So keep the master copy in the basement
This was a result of poor product placement

But I can look in the mirror,
See myself and get pissed,
And say:
The world is too beautiful to look like this.

F&M Radio

You,
Giving the oceans and skies their blue,
My bones are growing old
And the angels tell me, "No!"
But I've gone deaf
And I've gone blind
As a product of malnutrition
And the corrosive properties of time...

All I've got left is static and ghosts
So tell me something you know I need to know.

The Altitude of Influence

I remembered a little too late
And now I've got my date
With some chemistry
I shouldn't really know about.
If you could, tell me how
I got to where I am right now.

I wish I could say more
But fate never walked through the door
She took me out to a beautiful view
Where we did some things
I wouldn't normally do.
If only you knew.
If only I knew!
Just tell me
And I'll forget those things you said
That I wish to forget.
Just let me know
And I'll take you
Where I've always wanted to go

But for now I'm grounded.
The sky's too gray
And I've lost my way.
So just radio in when you've got something to say,
Please.

Repetition (Repetition)

Play it once: dissatisfied.
Play it again until it feels right.
Play it again until it feels right.
Play it again until it feels right.

Build the calluses on your skin
And play the second verse again.
And play the second verse again.
And play the second verse again.

Keep it clean, don't fall behind
Can't hurt to do it one more time.
Can't hurt to do it one more time.
Can't hurt to do it one more time.

Work up a sweat, but keep the beat
Another set, then rest your feet.
Another set, then rest your feet.
Another set, then rest your feet.

Get in the zone and close your eyes
Then kill 'em at the curtain's rise.
Then kill 'em at the curtain's rise.
Then kill 'em at the curtain's rise.

...May I have a drum roll, please?
It's time to bring the crowd to its knees.

...And The Rise

It was a curtsy to the king
It was a duck to dodge the bullet
And no matter how you put it,
This is now.
That was then.
And now I've gotten up again.

I took a few steps back
To patch up any holes and cracks,
Cramming them with numbers and facts
And now as sandy sleep draws near
I pray this knowledge won't leak out my ears.

You had enough
And you made it known
By the bags your eyes reluctantly owned
So I took your things
And you dropped the rest
And wouldn't let it get the best
Of you...
How I love the things you do!
We love the same people,
We love the same songs,
And I still get your smile with my ugly face on...

The Fall

It was only so long
Before I'd have to sing my farewell song
This faulty truce has left me bruised
In body, in soul, in mind.
The wolf now resides in my backyard
Two-faced, too late, I tried.
I look back to the ruin
Now turned into dust...

So this is the descent.
This is the burning up.

I've been screaming into deaf ears
Dying to know what fate brings near
But you're incapable of love
And you're only moved when shoved
So just rip off the bandage
And let it all seep through
Let it gush out your skin,
Let it drip down your shin,
Unless you've planned something better to do.

Because as I walk out of this garden
Undoing God's great work,
I cling to the thought like the lint on your shirt.

Run

As I rose and rose on my straight line
My deoxygenated thoughts drifted left and right
Trying to justify my self-inflicted sentence,
Punishment before the pleasurable crime:

"Mr. J. J. Executioner,
Look into my eyes
Wire me up and see if I lie.
I did it for the looks
I did it for the fame
I did it for the girls
I did it for the pain
I did it for me.
So bind me down
And sponge my head,
Pull the lever
And fry me dead."

But then there I was
On the forbidden hill
Walled from the innocence
That I had left long ago...

I held my hands up to the sky
To drink in all the city lights
The cataracts of jealousy
In god's own eyes.
And there I stood out of breath
My cold shirt stuck to my chest,
When I began my descent
Into my idol's arms,

A drunkard on a tightrope.

This One Is for You (Yeah, You!)

It is the balance of certainty and hope:

If you have too much certainty,
Then life is boring and just unenjoyable.
If you have too much hope,
Then life is risky and just dangerous.

But it is when you've found enough certainty
To catch you if you fall from hope
When life is truly good.

Rush/No Rush

Go, go, go, go pedal to the floor!
We could've robbed the place
The way we ran out that door
Pressed for time,
Holding the second hands back
You start up the car...
Do they know who we are?
So we get done and get out
With the east in our eyes
And I stopped by the house
To say my goodbyes...

But then came the tipping
The great slowing down
God brought out his scales
Omnipotence renowned

And then it was found
Retracing our tracks...
I was making good friends
With all the red lights
Easy on the breaks
While you rested your eyes
We kept it silent
We kept it pure
Because every moment after this
Would be another spent in reminisce
And when I get old, if fate lets it be
All I'll have left will be stubs and receipts

So I hope that you know
We both breathe the same air
Even if it's not seen,
Just know that it's there.

Tales of an Inexperienced Craftsman

At perpetual high noon,
The shadows hide under the soles of our shoes
And the bed sheets of the lucky sing rhythm and blues
Rhythm and clues to the secret of life:

Go to college
Get a job
Get a house
Get a wife
Get some friends
Get in shape
Get some rest
Get a life

Rinse and repeat once you've planted your seed
Tuck yourself in the soil and provide a good feed
Because the roses remain hungry
With eternal sun and sky blue
But the civil disputes have hushed
And gone pleasantly mute

They call me a craftsman of ladders unique
But the ad is my bluff and my selection is bleak
I've built just one ladder and on it I stoop
It is a glorious one, but I need something new
And there in my mind it stands shy and sublime
My thought: Out of my reach, But I'll give it a try.
And on the highest rung I stand on my seat,
Count to five, close my eyes, hold my breath,
And leap.

Off of the Ten

There is a place
Where space and time tango once more
And as he dips for the kiss with his hands on her hips
They lock their lips, but open future's door
And the result is the birth of new sort of world
Where your face is known by all the boys and girls
And not by self-portrait, but illustration through words

There is a place
That puts you to sleep
By soft lullabies, angelic and sweet
It tucks you into the car
Puts your seatbelt on tight
And sends yourself driving into the dead of night
And with your sufficed hunger pains
You swagger between lanes
And pray to the god that you curse in vain.

There was a place
Where I was no longer alone, but already known
Where I felt more alive and the good light had shone

High 5.0, Mother Nature!

What a pleasant surprise!
Nature stands by my side
With my creativity low
She shook the ground below
And now I've got something to write!

With my one-liner friends
The talk never ends
Of the magnitude recorded today
This fresh 5.0
Has put on a show
But the main event's coming our way.

But dear Mr. Richter,
Your scale must be broken!
Or seismologists just treat them like toys,
Because the vibrations felt
From what I could tell
Were only good ones sung by The Boys.

Silly old Rick,
Your clock still ticks
And San Gabriel Valley watches and waits...
We build sturdy foundations,
And make rough estimations,
Of when you'll finally open Hell's gates.

Tugboats

A salty morning meets my eyes
And laps up water by my sides
Starboard, port, bow, and stern
The ocean waves and the sun burns

The seaweed's fingers stretch to dawn
And the seagulls sing their feeding song
With their feather fits and pesky shits
A good morning meal of brine and grits

But do you ever wonder what truly calls
Beyond the man-made jagged rock walls?
The omniscient breakers have kept us in
And I'm jumping out of my rusted skin

Just untie the ropes from this adamant dock
And tug me along with our fingers locked
Pull me past the lighthouse, our forbidden tree
Then we'll sink our teeth in and drift out to sea...

Fitting Into Outgrown Shoes

I told you today,
I told you two months ago...
Don't flatter yourself
But now you know.

"Silence isn't hatred."
That's a lesson you must learn
Or else you'll singe your skin
Against matches unburned.

Have you ever heard of continental drift?
It's the sad gift of solitude in marginal shifts,
But it does prevail...
And I know that I'm dropping this on you like hail
But keep your limbs in the car and hold onto the rail.

This is a natural occurrence
And you have to have the endurance
To stay strong and... endure!
And I'll stick with you until I can finally make sure
That you've really grown out of those childish shoes
Because they're useless and foolish and leaving a bruise.

Vehemence of Love

If I had a jazz band,
That'd be our best song
Smooth keys and fresh beats
With a brass part so strong.
We'd sit in the bars and smoke our cigars,
Then practice again and sleep in our cars.

And if that didn't work I'd go into fights
Not the back alley brawls,
But the ones with the lights...
Thousands of them!
With cameras galore,
I'd throw a hard punch
And make them scream,
"More!"

But I must be fair
Back on my first day
And you've gotten some blows on me anyways...
But this is my ring
And my lion's den
So if you give me one second, I'll give your career ten!

The bob and the weave
And all that you've got,
You practice your moves
To give me your best shot,

So hit me.

Knowing My Limits

I test her wind and I test her waters
And as the engine room gets a bit hotter,
I release.
I only travel as far as we please
And let the grinding gears come to ease
Only after burning to the third degree...

But as things cool and simmer down
The damage has already been done:
The water has been tread and its waves overrun,
The anchors have left scars in your skin
That catch a little sand every now and then.
It irritates the wound and reminds you of me,
Already moved on to another virgin sea.

I was once homeward bound and still maintain my quest
But I'll abandon the stars at my heart's request
And I've drifted so far from that "x" on my map
And now I'm trapped in my fresh-resin vessel,
Dancing with icebergs and swinging on the poles
And the stars turn their backs to reveal black holes.

So I hold out my bait in front of the radio transmitter
To maybe catch static hope in the dead of winter
And if I radioed you, would your love guide me home?
Because this is my S.O.S.
And I think I've finally grown.

Epiphany

My hands are soaked with sweat
My forehead becomes a little wet
All in the embarrassment to say
That I've been loved every single day

I've spent many days in self-obsession
From confusing boredom with depression
Because I wasn't used to the noise
Of nothing but only my voice

I am spoiled
I am rotten
My good fortune I've forgotten
But now I've remembered again
Every time you hold my hand
I'm not alone
I'm in love with you all
You've carried my heart
Through the rise and the fall

So now I ask for forgiveness
I've got hope at a high
And I've got my love and my time
To help me surely get by...

Undocumented Progress

In a fraction of a second a star is born
And in the same amount of time it dies
So I test your nerve endings to find what you hide:
A charge, a spark, and you jump start my heart
And the levees break for anticipation's sake
But then the alarm goes off and I open my eyes,
And the conscious mind watches
While the unconscious dies...
Damn it!

Firsts

Dear mama,
I'm back and I've seen it all!
And now I'm grown, standing ten feet tall...
I've seen the sea and the ships that it holds
I've played all their games and won all their gold
But what I've kept you won't find in the pocket by my hip,
It lies hidden in my thoughts behind my love locked lips.

Dear mama,
I'm back after being apart
But now I've lost all control of my heart.
It tosses and turns in undecided hands
While I watch in terror to see where it lands.
If you see her please tell her I'll leave her to sit!
...As long as she lets me know what she finds fit.

Dear mama,
I'm back with a new pair of wings
And I've found the trust and love that it brings.
They've protected my people from liquid potentates strong
They've brought me to places I've wished to belong
They've helped me reach the knobs of heaven's doors,
But most importantly helped me pick myself off the floor.

Dear mama,
I'm back and now I know you were right,
And it will be nice to sleep in my own bed tonight.

At Your Service

Throw your shrapnel into the offering
And pray to god that you'll make
Something out of the last few moments
Of your guarder railed life.

Make the final marks on your test
And cross your fingers for the rest
Because it's all a gamble...
So roll the dice and close your eyes
Put your blind trust on the table
And keep your mind on the prize.

This is the new year,
This is your new cheer.

Seasoned Lungs

Throwing my shells into the sand
I go.
Basking in the sun's final glow
Mindful of rocks
Without shoes or socks
I go.
My eyes on the breakers
The green sailor takers
Breaking the waves
And calling to knaves,
"Come home!"

What a welcoming shore
Though the pace has got my ankles sore.
Its foreign salt forms above me lips
And salt and sweat fall to my hips

My burning lungs
Compliment a setting sun
That hides from my eyes
As I try to keep up my stride...

Buoyant Constellations

For once I can attest
From sight of my eyes
That hour oceans reflect
To make stars in the sky
The lights that we see
On Orion's great hip
Are mirrored from oil rigs,
Light houses and ships...

But the lights from my hopes
That burn ever bright
Reflect in the seas
That reflect in the skies
It is on hope alone
That we all do feed
It's sometimes what you want
But what you always need

It's the rush in your head
And the fear in your heart
Like kissing the lips
Of crashing waves in the dark.

My Green House

In my green house,
I'm the greenest of green
My phone books are blank
So I can save ink
That would drip from the pages
And into the sink
That would flow to the sea
And kill manatees
Which would sadden sea things
And make them all cry
And in turn would make
Our sea level rise...
So I guess without contacts
I'm saving us all,
But how could I tell you
Without making a call?

Well in my green house
We never do speak
Noise pollution is dirty
And greeness we seek
So I'll shut myself up
And give you this post
So I can fulfill my role
As the greenest of ghosts.

The Unequal Distribution of the Yellow Prison Solstice

The sun projects bars with the blinds in my room
Waking me, trapped in silence consumed.
I ask the sun, "What does the day have in store?"
He says, "Un-oiled doors and creaky wood floors."
And by that moment, I knew he had won
But let me tell you how it all had begun:

I challenged the sky and its selfish views
I told them to untie the knots in my shoes
"No you're not so blue and you haven't a clue
So let me tell you what you never knew:
Give me sentinels that man my doors
That squeak in the hinges and cold hallway floors,
Give me shadows that will darken my walls
Of black and relentless wrought iron bars,
Give me all this, if there's truth in your call
That I'll only find balance once I've taken the fall."

But Soleil's slow set was one I would regret
When it spread to the skies and blinded my eyes,
My irises melted by him, the great sun,
The heliocentric and cancerous one.

Doughboy

The bakers kneads my stomach into knotted dough
His demons walk my footsteps wherever I go
Biting at my heels
Restricting me to sight
Of what I really want to feel
So close it almost feels real

Instead he throws me into the oven
And the fires he fans
Patty cake, patty cake,
Baker's man,
Bake me to death as fast as you can.

But no,
You keep it slow...
Until the welts start to melt
And the boils begin to blow.
I'll only crumble in your hand, cold as the snow
And you'll throw me into the kiln's orange glow.

A Christian Ghost Town

It was one of those days I couldn't sleep in
I was rudely awoken by the drop of a pin
A mom tells her child, "Inside you must stay.
It's kind to give time for the tumbleweed's play."
All stores are closed
And a great silence falls
Everything has been bought
From the markets and malls

Cars sleep in their cells
And single Jingle Bells
Honking the seasonal tune
With bows on their hoods
And trunks filled with goods
With fashions as hot as mid-June
The housewives will squeal
And their cheating will yield
Until husbands foresee the gloom:
Tomorrow is near
And the water's not clear
The pool boy will be coming soon...

There's a sickness outside!
It's called Christmas cheer
And it fell down your chimneys
And got in your beers
It got in the cookies
You left for Saint Nick
And now whole the world
Is all Christmas-sick.

Cross My Heart, Hope To Die

I've got my envy.
Cut me and I'll bleed green
Saying things I never mean
These bloodied hands will never clean
Tainting waters once pristine

I've got my hate.
Raising guns to set things straight
Always saying it's too late
Exit wounds decide your fate
A bullet for the magistrate

I've got my greed.
Wanting things I never need
To my decry you must take heed
Sit yourself down, I'll take the lead
Until my sweat begins to bead

I've got my lust.
The smoothest brush
The softest touch
The lightest hush
A situation clutch

This is far too much.

I've got my wood and nails
And I sleep inside of this machine.

Dropping Babies On Their Heads

There's a stranger in my car.
He looked in my side view mirror
And called me his friend,
So drive.

I drove on the tracks
And put my seat back
And let out a heavy sigh,
I stared into the night
Adorned with red lights
Ready to speak if I must die:

You're lost in your addiction
And frankly,
You're not making this transition
Any better.
Now there's the door
So please excuse me
While I sweep my heart off the floor.

Twelve Days of Christmakwanzukkah

On the Monday of winter break
My true friends gave to me:

Twelve pounds of latkes
Eleven doubled people
Ten fingers freezing
Nine presents wanted
Eight presents not
Seven kinds of apples
Six eventful hours
Five blocks of singing
Four pitches sung
Three different songs
Two barreled shotguns
And a night very well spent.

White & Red

The last gas is burnt
And the engines stall
I, the captain, announce
Our state of free fall.
Please fasten all seat belts
And return all trays
To their upright positions.
Once burning ambitions
Are now exhausted
Tired
From feeding insatiable fire
Triggered by the tripwire
On which I stumbled.
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down.

Below they turn to channel five
Weather forecast for those still alive:
"Stay indoors for unheard of sleet;
Propellers and luggage and empty seats."

I just wanted to paint the town red
But what once was encased in my ribs
Is now dead.

3,2,1, impact.
...I'm a heartless son of a bitch.

Cold Hands

Moving faster than ever before

Meters, miles, light-years in...

Divide the second by infinity,

Times two.

Now where are you?

Lost in the rush,

The potential to kinetic

A feeling synthetic?

Well the rotational has my head spinning

So let's get close,

Closer,

Closer,

There.

I feel your hair on my cheek:

Fragrant shampoo apple sweet,

Here are yours and here are mine

On our fingers we balance

This moment in time.

Fragile, fragile,

Handle with care!

Get to know me as well as you dare.

Endothermic

If the world ever does kneel over and die
I'll have your bright faces to help me get by
Shining smiles that glisten with enamel pure
That shines light back towards the deep azure
Pitting star against star to catch human eye
Comparing their brightness and coloring dye

Because here in our realm lives a different race
That respects the value of human embrace
Two hands that wander, but given good time
Will soon find themselves with fingers entwined
I'm told, "Here, take this smile
And take this warm hug!
Silly boy,
Don't you see that you are so loved?"

The Anti-Polka-Dot Party

We roast you on your boasts
Like fresh swine caught by the coast
Gagged with an apple
Heaped on a platter
With a sign on its neck reading:
Innocent.

But the language is strange
And we're far too deranged
To keep you from the burning flames.
And all we could do was jeer and jest
As the tears erupted from your hot head
That we put on a spit,
And on it we spat.

So I must admit
That I sang along
With the people who thought
That they knew your song.
We clapped our hands,
And stomped our feet,
And sang out the words
In three different beats.
...But then the music stopped
And the audience stared.

We were wrong all along,
I was wrong all along.

Try to focus...

Coils turn orange and bright
As the hot air softens the night
My collar once frozen stiff
Has melted onto my shoulders:
100% cotton hands
Undo knotted strands
Of tensile muscle and nerve
Until the skeletal locks unlatch,
The calcium creeps,
And the marrow meanders
From the matrices of my bones.

I can never fear heights
For my thoughts fall deep
As I sink into my chair
And slowly fall asleep...

New Years in December

Red blood cells rush
From the heart to the head
"Buh-bump!" goes the thump
As my eyes turn red.

But outside of the lens
The light starts to bend
In a shower of smoke and light
The pyrotechnician
Lit the fuse early...
But frankly, I don't mind.
Rockets burst in the sky
As tears burst from her eyes
That she shyly wipes with her hand.
She inhales the smoke
Her one last drag
Holding on to what's left to have...

My childhood.
Don't let it kill you, I'm going to make you proud.

Glove

Accepting new vessels for bloodstreams forlorn,
I hope that the name can keep my fingers warm.

Subways, Stabs, and Bright Yellow Cabs

While I'm planning my life
With dream catchers and sieves,
You're living the life
That I've always wanted to live:
The fumes,
The streets,
The lights and the sleet,
Oh how I'd die for... and from,
A breath of that bitter sweet air
And what a bonus if you were there!
Winter coat and heels,
Trying to hail a cab
And your red nose would wrinkle
As you got a little mad.
You'd twiddle your hair,
Making knots in your locks
In the same way that subway cars pretzel
In a symphony of gnashing iron.
And you'd say,
"Hush, this is my favorite song!"
As I ask you to tell me if this is where I belong...

But now I know your fate is somewhere far away,
So go ahead and say "Good morning!" to your brand New York day.

Moonlight Boomerang

The skies are so clear
You can see nature's skin,
Covered in goosebumps
And mapping out all of her intentions:
The storms and the floods and other cruel inventions.
And tonight, I sneak glances at the stars in the sky.
On the ethereal dance floor
A soft touch brushing by.
Tempt me to coldness
Yearning for that heat.
Head getting hot from the pump and the beat.

Damn you, Father of the Night,
Bedding down with Luna,
Conceiving your wicked child, Lust:
The contact, the friction, the sweat, and the must...
A bastard of bastards,
Oh, your child called "Lust"...
Breath upon breath
Hers upon his,
Following him back to his car
Just so he knows that she isn't so far.
Sensory overload...
But never release.
That insatiable hunger is never put to ease.

This one goes out to everyone who knows
This one goes out to wherever it goes
To those who want lust,
To those who want love,
Hell, this one goes out to all of the above!

And when the tree branches tease,
Their shadows cast by the moon,
Just remember:
It will all come back to you soon,
Very soon.

Slap, Pinky, Smooth, Kiss, Spank.

I'd put on a show for all the ladies and gents
Eat hot chili peppers for only twenty five cents.
I'd walk any distance with tarps on our heads
In torrential downpour, for some Mexican bread.
I'd get stopped by the cops two times in one night
To get tacos in Burbank, always tasting just right.
I'd wreck on my bike thinking, "Heaven or Hell?"
Just to have one more life-changing story to tell...

I'd even taste the blood in my mouth if I could
To relive my youth growing up in the 'hood.
I still know the handshake like we all still should,
D.B.S. for life! Yeah, we know what's good.

I Hope It's Golden...

Down from your hook, you hung your prize
A butcher shop to hungry eyes...
Shining meats of size and shape
From Puget Sound out to the Cape.
You dropped the line and I bit down hard
Bleeding mouth and disregard.
Yet deadly silence held your throat tight
From clicking heart in numbers, so the only light
Came from the clouds soaked in city light glow
And the fresh layer of this Hollywood snow.

In L.A., it only snows on your TV.

A box of a thousand voices that Pandora left behind
Whispers possibilities that pass through ears right to the mind
And on their breaths I feel the chill of deaf winds and blinded snow
That freeze your sockets in fixed position
And never let you go.
So now I stare into the TV screen,
Teary eyed from static sun,
To see if what I've waited for is finally coming on.

Wanted

Tripping on my laces
Falling through time and space,
Chalk lines dictate a change in state.
Eighteenth out of fifty and then back again
I pucker up my parched lips,
Deflate my lungs and let go:
"I really wish I did... but I just don't know."
The gavel drops and the prosecution stops...
Case closed,
Court dismissed.

Arrhythmia pt. 2

Rush, rush,
It's all a rush!
I can't take oxygen in liquid form
and the air in my veins
Is causing the swelling pains
Inflating my brain and making me lightheaded.
In a mess of blinkers and ran lights,
I'm living life by thirty-second's
12341234123412341234123412341234
DONE. Yeah, there you go!
Sum your life into a series of yes' and no's
Die and take your receipt to Peter's gates.
Wait in the cue,
A sales representative will be with you
Shortly.
And there on your receipt are digits lined in gold
Variations of numbers in a binary code:
Zero, one, zero, zero, one, zero,
One second,
I need some time to think.

Contact

Tomorrow is now today
And for you I must make this one exception:
For you the sun will rise a little earlier.
Stripping my Sunday's best off of my back,
Doomed for the day work nonetheless,
But all in all, for you
Yes, my dear,
For you.

We were runaways, vagabonds,
Looking for sanctuary...
Head West!
It was the gold rush
And you were my precious metal
Ever so precious,
Panned and polished,
Put in my eyes as
Perfection.

So Cal,
So could!
So far,
So good...

It started as a light in my pocket
Keeping my hands warm
But my thoughts even warmer.
And the flashing lights of camera bulbs
Burn spots into my eyes,
Branding lights into the ground,
Branding lights into the sky.
So now the stars dance with sirens
Dance with my retinas
Dance with the thought
Dances with you.
The warmth of your touch...
Yes, keep in touch.

Sanctuary

There is such tragedy in disagreement
And its multitude of degrees.
Here in Louisiana,
In this very state,
You can find ropes dangling
From the topmost balconies
Flags to a confederate history.
They beat our windows at night
Stirring the fright my ancestors once felt
The panes cry as the condensation thickens
And the fresh wounds heat and swell.

But here in this dark ocean
The waves roar, but do not crash.
They soar in unison
The uplifting feathers
Of a caged eagle, painted black.
This is my pride.
This is my place.

Yet we are an error
You find you must white out
O, sweet southern belle
How I love you so dearly,
But this place is not meant for me.

A Dime Short

It's been a long day.

Fifteen long hours

All yearning for showers

This is power through separation.

The social spiders weave their webs

The heated discussion singes the silk

Sun-bathed and curdled,

Once sweet flowing milk.

So here we are,

This day is done.

Gasp for the sneeze

That never comes.

Cathode rays

To quiet the day

And Bourbon's street lights fade away...

Twenty-Five Francs

Touchdown to the sound of the jazz and good times!
Mardi Gras beads and tequila and lime,
Louisiana friend chicken with an order of fries
Old men make their catcalls with lust in their eyes.

And now we all dance to the swung city beat
Under the bright neon signs of Bourbon street
This city is Atlantis in the right shade of light,
This is way too much right for just the first night...

Heathens in the Sky

Challenging our God is the jet engines' roar
Cinnabon and tarmac as I open the door.
Challenging our sun is the cabin and fins
Their blasphemous wings lack in beauty of skin...
Hell's angels.
Or Satan himself, searching for the corruptible,
The weak,
Or the seductive and sleek:
LAX is our Eden
Our tower of Babel
We bask in the glory
Of our inventions in travel.

An automated smile in a knit sweater vest
Regurgitates her greetings all over her desk:
Follow these instructions if you're confronted by Death
Calmly grab the hand of the person to your left
And if that may be you, put your hand in the air
Open palms for the god who may not be there!

But you see, I've got this pill...
And I'll be able to close my eyes,
Though losing consciousness, justified.
So New Orleans,
Here I come.

Write Triangles

This
State is
What I aim
To achieve. I'll
Give it a shot, you
Have just got to believe
In me, so self-pitying who
Jumped straight to plan B, But
Proposed by my Jacksonville Gem
A sound middle ground called plan C.
So united we are, in this library we stand
My Floridian friend gave me a helping hand
Taking words off the walls to make reprimand:
I am (no longer) one boy in the dark garden of man.

( ! ) - Due Maintenance

Open up my glory box:
Beeps and boops and ticks and tocks,
Soldered seams and metallic blood streams,
Half-animal and half-machine.

This month it ends and I get release
I'll let my proud tongue rest in peace.
I'll grease the gears and clean my ears,
Shine light on my darkest fears...

It's stuck in fifth and I'm going fast
Future becomes present,
Just as quickly to past.
Roaring engine
Pumping pistons
Prowling the desert
Turning sand into glass.

And now I haven't shaved in days
Growing out my lion's mane
And if curiosity killed the cat,
Then I'll gladly take death
As a matter of fact.

Elastic Time Spent

Time to get back on track,
Bag of books on my back
Snap!
Welcome back, kid.
Try not to crack.

Catch of the Day

All our wreaths and Christmas trees
Give off their warming glow
Our icicles are made of lights
Because our sky never snows
The dog sleeps at your feet tonight
After barking at the crows
And if you can hear me, calling you
Just somehow let me know.

So now I sit on the angels' peak
Tracing back to where it had begun
And I cast my wish on a fishing rod
Into a sea of infinite suns...

Brother

Today must be his
One of the rowdiest kids
His voice knows nothing but loud
Baby laughs with baby farts
Would melt your warm heart
He makes his dear parents proud
Apple juice traces
And Velcro for laces
On the smallest pair of shoes
It's November 28th
My brother's birthday
Here come the terrible twos...

No, Thanksgiving

Dammit just give me a few more minutes
I know what's going to happen today
Like any other holiday...
I want out.
I really want out.
I'd sink into the sheets and fade away
Comatose just for the day.

Dammit why is it so hot outside?
It's hell on earth...
We had it coming.
I don't want to stand in line
With people I don't know
Or ever want to know.
Their kids with their clothes
And fancy new phones,
It all just makes me sick.

Four thousand five hundred calories tonight,
Glutton yourselves until you lose your sight.

This day would not be complete
If what's tradition was not said:
Well I'm thankful for family
And I'm thankful for friends
But I'll be more thankful for when this day finally ends.

Dear Mr. Threadholm,

The sun peeks through all of the cracks in the sky
As the dead leaves take flight with cherubim passing by
If this is our Savior, let the storm clouds roll in
The city of angels must wash off its sins

My Life as a Captain of a Maersk Sealand Freighter

Her anchors have been ripped from starboard and port
By fickle-faced freighters who promised a consort
From bow to stern, she's been ravished by cliffs
Left in the Arctic to aimlessly drift
Her radio calls are only heard by ghosts
Who haunt the ribs of broken beasts on the coast

Alert the Captain!
Sound the alarm!
They've looted our hull and stolen our arms.
Abandon ship!
Fire the flares!
The lifeboats are missing, no hope is found there.

This vessel is rusted and moaning with age,
Singing her story of desolation and rage.
And with her I'll stay as she slowly goes down,
Holding her steady as we slowly drown.

Naming Songs After Songs

Show up to the party late
But they say you've been there
Hello, Mr. Trendsetter
With your cool hipster clothes
And your trendy bed hair

But nothing can rival
the styles and the grooves
Of queer Mr. Sparkles
with his sparkling moves...
His gyrating hips
Could make a salty sea dog sick
And as land-leggers go queasy,
We felt quite uneasy.

But I could never truly tell
The excitement I felt
Meeting someone I've never bet before,
With his mic in his hand
Leading this Oregon band
We'll stand until we can't stand it anymore!

And I've never had so much fun
On a late Monday night
But now we've got homework
And inexorable sleep to fight...

Play Street Lights: Becoming What I Tried to Avoid

The jingle of your keys
Signals the end of the night.
Be sure to hold her tight
Pressing her heart against your chest.
I'll keep my hands in the pockets of my vest...
Look away,
Look away,
I've got nothing to say.
I have nothing to do
But let life take its course.
I just miss someone else's warmth.

Say!

Claude, start it off...
Soft keys stroke a chord
Soft light fills the room
Shining on the soft pillow
Soft words spoke the willow
Weeping for her dear son
Not dead in war
But dead in heart
Signing away his soul
To go somewhere far
No matter where, it isn't home
And so she weeps,
As her son awakes from sleep.

A day early in my Sunday's best
But I make it for the curtain's rest
Deja vu, table for two!

I'm your modern day Gatsby
Living the dream
Living in the dream
Living the dream in the dream
Do you know what I mean?

Spill your heart out on a plate
And serve it up with delight
While the living dead wander
In the fog of the night.
They're coming for me, dear!
They'll be here real soon
And I'll be living (in) the dream
Falling asleep to Clair de Lune.
Why do you take me so soon?
Say!
...Good night.
Yes, it has been a good night.
Good bye, it's all over now.

21st Century Vagabond

Like trying to settle on hot coals
Like trying to root impregnable rock
I rush with a wind to cause a chill,
Unable to be that city upon a hill.
The pillars are built up
To be swiftly disassembled,
An organized theory that chaos resembles...

But if there is one thing never faulting
I must say it's the view
The breaking of legs
The colors show true.
So when the curtains close
Just keep on the light
Because were going to Roscoe's
And it's opening night!

Though paradise was never lost.

I'm really sorry you lost your wings!
Golden halo and silken things...
And you fell from higher than the tallest tree
Down to this earth to help poor old me!

Can you read me a story?
You'd really be the best!
And maybe hold the wheel
While I try to rest?

If you stay by my side
And you never recoil
You'll be packing my lunch
In brown bags and foil...
But as strange as it sounds
You are a mother at times
With a soft, caring voice
And an aura that shines!
For years it does seem
There's a recurring theme
You are truly heaven-sent
And what a friend really means...

Sorry, ladies...

Ladies, please!
You're in such distress!
This calendar lapse is just a big mess...
You've waited and waited,
For this perfect time
When God would hear prayers
And stars would align
And I, in my luster, as suave as can be
Would tell you that you were worthy of me.
You'd swoon and you'd faint
Into my burly arms
Conquered by lust
And my unmatched charm

Oh boys, silly boys
You're nothing but pawns
I am Enrico
And you are my lawn
Challenge me and I'll cut you
And put you into a bag
And I'll take your girl
So you can go stag.
And how can I say
Such an aggressive attack?
Because once they go black
They'll never go back.

But I guess for this once
You'll barely slip by
But without looks like mine
They'll accept with a sigh
So just keep them warm
But don't touch my girls
While I'm in New Orleans,
Just saving the world...

Mrs. James, you are a devil!

At last,
The sight from my rear view mirror
Shakes and fades away
Blending in with the break of day.

I hold my breath
Until my eyes roll back,
Trying hard to look onto the past:
The VHS cassette
The 93' Corvette
The snow angels on towers
The golden Youngstown flowers
Yes, these were a few of my favorite things...

But they call misfortune
The great magician
And life: A game of craps
You shake, you blow,
And seven's your call,
But you've got no dice,
No dice at all...

So now my head rings from the siren's scream,
As my childhood drips from the L.E.D. screen.

Literal Schizophrenia: Ignorance is Bliss

He wakes in the familiar bed
To the world he has never known
He picks his greens himself
From the plants he has never grown
He stamps all the envelopes
For letters he would never send
He blows to cool his tea
Though she says it's just pretend
He tells the girl he loves her
But she doesn't know his name
He ruffles all her hair
Without a sense of shame
He reminds old friends of pastimes
Retelling stories they've never heard
But then I stop mid-sentence--

I've been living in my words,
Always talking in the third.

Despair & Happiness

Oh, the sky has turned to gold!
The fires have burned our wealth into the sky
So now the clouds are worth more than the cars that drive by
Sit with me and we'll think of what could
As the sweet smoke stings our eyes
And our nostrils fill with the smell of wet wood
Will you share this daylong sunset with me?
And if we die, right here, right now
I think I might just hold your hand
So you won't get lost,
In the fields of Elysium.

Here the rain falls, but the sun doth shine!
And I am forever yours,
As long as you're forever mine.
Spectrum in the sky!
Spectrum in the sky!
Put your raincoat on
And wear those rubber boots high!
Because you'd never ever think
We'd be the stars shining above
To guide ships to safe harbor
To remind the ones you love
That you're still well looked over
Though you are no longer alive
Because here, in the absence of time
You lay your hand,
Forever in mine...

Six to the left!

I had said yes, and didn't know why!
But now god couldn't take it back,
No matter how hard he tried.

I practice my 15 step as I parallel park,
The violent motion has my eyes going dark...
Neon signs
Waiting lines
And a pleasant surprise!
I take a deep breath
And close my eyes...
Be it divine intervention
or intelligent design
Fate has never woven
Such a fabric so fine.

But set that aside
And watch the stars collide
As we sip on our coffee
Just to pass the time
On benches, on curbs
Whatever you find absurd.
You can call us eccentric,
But we're called artsy nerds.

So the flashes will fly
And catch strangers' eyes
Who envy what we'll never lose:
The laughs, the grooves,
The big city blues,
Your options are there,
You just have to choose.
Besides, I'm just a boy
Boy,
Crazy boy...
Stay cool, boy.

So I'll hang from the street lights
So I can click my heels
And wish to the stars
For how it all really feels.

Our Prayers at Evening

Bow to the wall,
Sing to the door,
Take off your shoes
And rise from the floor...
Only to hit the ceiling,
And fall down again.

Any more words
Would mean my uncertain death,
So when the stones start to speak,
I'll mutter under my breath.

"Hats off, take a knee."

Goodbye...
It was a good ride!
Our teeth have been worn down,
Tearing for victory.
We've only the embers left
From the fire once burning
In our hearts
In our eyes
Four years it never died.
But now,
The scent of wet ash is all around us.
Silence,
The fire dies quietly...

Though the callus has been built
Out of pride and out of guilt,
Even real men cry
When every day we live or die,
Fight or go home.

...So now our chapter is finished,
Our sorrowful song has been sung.
Our men are sick.
Our captain is down.
Now I wait
For Stockholm Syndrome to come around.

Yet at this paradoxical pivot point,
With our broken bones and creaky joints,
The sunset salutes us!
Nature's beauty galore
To say goodbye to a pastime,
There is football no more...

Good game,
Good game,
Good game.

What are you doing with your life?

O, the pains of maturity
And the imminent insecurity
In each gasp of cold air
In each strand of white hair
One less beat my heart will make
One less day I'll ever wake.
The body becomes a ticking clock
The organs wait for the relieving shock
And so the work whistle blows,
And your body lets go.

This is the time
When dreams and reality collide
And after the gray matter and dust subside
The product is truth
The absence of innocence
The slow decay of youth
And self-image tries its best
To crawl out of the carnage.

Well I've met my match:
Mundane mediocrity
A statistic in society...
I'm aspiring to be average.
I'm striving to be standard.

I am but a flaw in the system,
This is existentialism.

Blink and a day goes by...

You open your eyes,
Today might be the day.
You go through the routine
Making yourself look pretty and clean
With nothing to say
And no one to say it to, anyways.
You feel a little sick, so you let out a cough
Vitamins, orange juice, and then you're off.

You come back with a weight on your chin
Your limbs seem heavier
You've lost that grin
You feel a little off, so you let out a sneeze
Irritated, hushing the rustling leaves
You slave at your desk
And then let out a sigh...
Today wasn't the day,
You close your eyes.

Scenarios

No matter how this all plays out
The sky is getting darker...
The air is getting colder...
My muscles are getting tired and sore
I don't think my head can take anymore.
It's been a good long fight
But we've reached the nets
And it's a safe bet
That our time comes to lay our arms down.

But we won't go out with a whimper
We'll go out with a bang
More ferocious than the great creation itself
Tearing ticks off of clocks
Leaving nothing but the shock
Oh, we aren't done yet!
We've got a little fight left
And we're going to take what we can get.

So keep those damn soccer nets out of our way.
Because we're not finished yet,
And we're still going to play.

Sunsets are forgotten to see the sunrise again.

We all say our goodbyes,
Hoping we can say hello again.
The sun sets in the sea,
To rise again on the tops of trees.
It's all circular, can you see it?

We hate the bitter endings,
To love the new beginnings...
But if we never let go
And dwell on the dead,
Our own wounds will never heal
And we can never move ahead.

So I've realized if you dream it
It almost never comes true...
But if you forget it all
It might just come to you
So I'll forget all my loves,
All my hopes,
All my dreams,
And I'll redefine what life really means.

Is Tamara Home?

There's a knock at the door.
Single strokes
Drowning notes
Of the phonograph in the den.
For every horrific pulse
Counting out this death waltz
Your heart beats five,
Pumping to provide blood,
Struggling to keep you alive.

Wakey, wakey, rise and shine!
You're going to die!
Admire the blade's tip so fine...
Are they sinners?
Yes, sometimes.

So save your breath
You did what you could,
You locked the doors
Like you knew you should.
Begging's no good...
They aren't there anymore,
Just let the blood pool on the floor.

This morning seems colder,
And now you're alone.
But why did they do it?
Because you were home.

Well that's a step up!

So you've found your way in again...
Although I covered my ears,
And kept my mouth shut,
With screws and bolts and nuts,
You've found your way in.
Blurring my vision
Damming transmission
Irrational remainders
In this long division.

I raise you up
You do the same
We share the focus
Still frame.
Freckled faces.
This smile is contagious!
Let's give it another try
You had a bit of sky in your eye
The sun needs time to shine too,
You know?

24

I am the one that at times you may see
Carefully pealing the rings off of trees
Trying to spin the earth west
Three hundred and sixty degrees
Putting back the carbon
Into fossilized bees
Holding restless hands
From hitting half past three...

I pass it,
I kill it,
I keep it,
But most of all
I need it,
Time.

Controlled R.E.M.

It is the smell of late December
Sweet ginger, scarves, and sweaters
Drawing a circle in my right hand
Trying hard understand

It is the Siren song that fills the skies
Which God himself placed in your eyes
Bringing seasoned sailors to their end
Taking his ships and all of his men

It is 5a.m. with no direction
It is failure in recollection
It is losing all perception
It is the art of self-deception.

Yes. We. Can.

The entire world is awake!
Look at what we've done
The liberty bells have rung
We've made history here today...

O, speak our great hero,
Our citizen of the world!
Let your voice sing
And shake the dust from this nation
Tell her,
"It's time to move forward!
It's time to progress!
Stretch those weary legs
Bearing such heavy burdens
For I will lift you myself!"
We cry tears of joy
You've always had our faith
We trust in your hands
Our nation so great

To our dear runner-up
Sporting coats of red
We respect you so much
Though your campaign is dead
You concede with great honor
You concede with your dignity
Try to sleep well tonight!
Although this nation rumbles with excitement
Shaking its borders with the roars of proud lions
Jostling the Pacific and the Atlantic
Challenging their waves with our own,
The nation is in safe hands,
So do not worry,
Our nation's seasoned servant.

But tonight we won't sleep
But celebrate with dear friends
As we sit back in awe
In this nation born again...

...And their pumping fists pushed the heavens back to make way for change!

Nothing can hush this roaring crowd
Radio waves rupture the skies
TV screens shine with pride
All shouting one name:
Obama

Loyal flags trample front lawns
Showing a brighter dawn
A dawn of new hope
A dawn of due change
All shouting one name:
Obama

You say Obama
I say hope
You say McCain
I say nope

Barack the boat
Barack the house
You make the vote
He'll take the House

Obama says to knock you out.
Change is what I'm all about.

Go ahead,
Pump your fists in the sky
Letting out our cry in unison:
Freedom!
Oh let it ring...
Our stars, our stripes,
The pride they bring
Our nation's been waiting for a moment like this
So don't you dare wait until November 5th!
Let the world know what you've got to say
Because he who rejects change
Is the architect of decay.

A Father Watches His Own Son Die

Hector, my hero, I mourn for you dearly
The dark mist will never let your eyes see clearly
Oh son, how I raised you, so proud and so valiant
But soon you'll be tied to the frame of a chariot
Covered in blood of your brothers in arms
Driven by the monster who caused us such harm

How how I wish that my tears could protect us
And give back the wife of wicked Menelaus
But they just fall to the ground and fade away
As will the sun, shielding its eyes from the fray
When all of Troy is pillaged and burned down to the ground
And your mother and I are killed in our silken nightgowns
Son, do you pity our deaths in our sleep?
Or what damage your death will inflict on me?
A father cannot bury another one of his sons
As I have already buried Polydorus and Lycaon
How can I wash as you are eaten by birds?
Achilles will laugh and ignore every single word
Or cry, for that fact, as your mother beats her breast
Or scream from my voice as I pull from my crest

So now you run for your life around our great city's walls
As Apollo cowers from your side by great Zeus' call
But now you stop, foolish son, it's not your brother, it's a god
It seems you don't care, charging death against all odds
I pray you got to know Sleep, because his cousin Death awaits
The scales have been tipped and there's no turning your fate
Your soul will escape and your limbs will go slack
And once in the House of Death, you can't ever come back.

11:11 and nothing to wish for...

Today the sun did not rise
The sleep and saline crusted over my eyes
I could still taste the courageous words on my tongue
That took the fatal breath right out of my lungs
That shattered glass towers
And brought November showers
My is body still tired and weak
As if that sleep meant nothing to me
Good morning cold ketchup and eggs
Good morning filtered tap
God damn it I fought it off for five years,
But my friends, my hopes, your ghost, have disappeared
And now it's the only thing left to keep me company at night
It's the only thing I can ever really hold tight
But you're not to blame, my dear.
It is long past my due time.
This is truly my fall.
This is my
Decline.

Closure.

I made a vow to myself
To write and clutter my shelves
But my thoughts have been lost in the deep
And are slowly conquered by sleep

My eyes are too heavy to see
My brain is too burdened to think
My throat is too weathered to speak
My heart is too broken to be

They say ask and you shall receive
But I just don't want to believe
That this chapter has come to an end
There's no sunlight around the bend

But although you were on and off
Just know that I never stopped
And time has shown and will show
My stubborn heart just won't let go