I wrote a mess of letters
That I spoke and crumpled up
The words fell off my tongue
Like a baby born in a canyon
It wasn’t grand
Now I can hardly stand
Thinking about what I just gave up
There’s a bit of me
Frozen in your sheets
Another missed opportunity
But what are ya gonna do?
I think it was Artemis
Who spoke of war
Or was ir love?
I have trouble separating the two
Because juxtaposed
They’ll both steal your soul
And leave you Like a thief in the night.
You see a field full of guns
Getting red in the heat
The barrels start to bend
Until you move your feet
But you’re just playing coyote
You aren’t smart enough to retreat.
War cries fill the air
They fill our bottles too
Selling service for secrets
The blood runs red, white and blue.
Maybe if you hold your arms out long enough
They’ll give you a handout
And you’ll say “thank you brother”
But what does brotherhood have to do
With the way you speak
When your blood just won’t run clean
I think you’ve got some cracks in the moving parts
Better take her in for labor.
Can you spit-shine up
Some kind of peace
One that lets me get up off my knees
Cus I’m tired of praying
That it’s not just make believe.
I call an armistice
Where my money’s spent
Because I wrote bad checks
I can’t fulfill my rent
Or so many obligations
I’m drying up like a fountain
Fucking the sun’s rays.
There’s a cold river flowing
Pressing steam up the cracks
And it’s powering a train car
Staying true to its tracks
I’m trying to make up for the things I have lacked
But the future’s here now
There’s no turning back!
If you take that grain
And put it in your pocket
Would it grow roots around your shoes?
A plant that never planned to be planted
But if you listen to the breeze
You can hear the honest truth.
We would get naked And stare off for days
And in a glimpse
In an instant
You had changed
I can’t say that it was for the better Y
our roar, it got loud
But eventually
I learned to shut you out.
We traveled east for breakfast
My hand clenching your bent knee
Sometimes I think those runny eggs
Were but a metaphor
For the shit you’d say to me.
I think I’ll take all my belongings
And throw them in the stream
So the hands that work the harbor
Will know of my meaning
Around a campfire
They’ll make me a story
And at my undue ending
They’ll share a drink for me.
A sailor’s song
At the drop of a coin
The glasses meet
And now that we’re all familiar
The pillar
Begins to mend.
