A Convenient Haze

Tonight as the rain comes down
I've got this music in my head
I need the power in these tears
to help me find what I have left

And in the morning when it's gone
But still rattling these bones
in the sunshine all alone
I'll wish that I could write a song

Bleeding out all the pain
life hits you like a train
the words are all the same
and there's nothing left to gain

Teary skies... starry eyes
like a lifetime in disguise
there's no bars in the cage
so what held in all this rage

Mirror what have I become
Let me put my glasses on
Clear makes a friend of shame
I like blurry... all the same

If poems were rock stars maybe I’d wear shades

The crackle of a rain drop sings
Makes me wish that I had wings
Reminding me all that I’ve lost
Weighing gains against the cost

I’ll make my pillow from the sand
Wait for a need to take a stand
Mixed feelings wait in the breeze
And my spirit’s in these trees

I’ll wear this crown that I bought
I never gave it much thought
King of all I cannot see
It took the best right out of me

Stay in the center with your greed
Keep this world away from me
I’ll take this path out of town
You be king and I’ll be clown

Out of Affliction

I'm going home again
they say you always can
I'm gonna raise my head
and find the power in this song

I like this dust in the sun
flickering like stars and spit
I'm ashamed of how I hate
all the music you played for me

I need not to care
whether you still dance
or hurt from the solicitude
I fed the world when I sang

I'll make the choice
to live and sing again
before my sentence comes
so control is in this hand

And whether life or death
the melody is mine
stumbling back to the front
my heart will beat the drum

July 5, 2009

Circadian Crash

Put on my black shirt to play
A Sunday morning concert
Coming down after orange juice
Walk into the bright light
Fantasy fantastic circadian crash
Biscuits and kettle drums
Blankets and boredom
Tranquilizing dreaming screams
And a note from the ever after
Telling me to close my eyes
I respectfully abstain
From breathing on queue
Don’t tell me where to do
Just lay down and let me
Stand on the ends of your hairs
Until the sky spins around
Like the shine
In a fly’s eyes
Take this time to thank you
For all the things I’ve done
Disintegrating to the beat
Of a song that never played
Longing for the chorus
Of waving grass
In a wind
That cannot see the ground

November 29, 2009

I’ve Been Judged

I’ve walked a mile on a railroad rail
smelled the sea all green and pale
Ran away from hopes and fears
and cried my share of happy tears

I’ve said things I should have kept
Laughed when I should have wept
Never had on a suit and tie
And I’ve got this mote in my eye

I’ve slept at night on stars and clouds
Tasted rain and hid from crowds
Expected less than I’ve been let down
played the hero and the clown

I’ve made mistakes and let them go
Walked fresh tracks in virgin snow
I’ve been judged if anything else
Guilty of this weight upon myself

May 28, 2009

Hold the Door

I want the world in black and white
I need snowflakes in contrast
Against this colorless climb
Ask me to do the impossible
And when I do you complain
About how I got it done
I used to know that I could make it
Almost every time I did
But now all the confidence I had
Got sucked into this blurring
Of smallness and oblivion
I never got to sing with the crowd
I still hold the door
For the world that ignores
Anything I’ve ever done
Swept away with a viciousness
I’ve got one more left
Run until I bleed
Try until I burst into the next
And for one moment
Someone somewhere will say
That I’m the best

November 29, 2009

Bleach

I dream of things you cannot see
and see things of which I'll only dream
a list of everything I'll be
was not as long as it seemed

Don't have to hesitate to try
just to remember to let go
first a child and then we die
life like a pyroclastic flow

All these memories in my head
won’t define what I've lost
yet to envy all the dead
clinging to the path at any cost

Death wipes pain like a bleach
color won't escape this white tar
reach for the light we cannot reach
and fall among forgotten stars

I wrote a song about this life
painted it with sounds of joy
though the dull edge of this knife
didn’t cut the heart out of a boy