An old cassette,
Your name perfectly printed,
Faded now
Old and thin

Still plays the same old sounds,
Only now,
Garbled and strange
Not really the same songs from yesterday

Write me a song with your hate
Scream out at my indifference upon your first, second, third date
Ask yourself many a time,
"Why do I deserve such a fate!?"

For, I have the answer for you
It was you that chose the path of ease
The lowest in which you let cheating breed
Swallowed by the maw that allowed you to go too deep

My heart learned of hell
My eyes knew the water well
Now I only smile at the poor old me
Because I have met a woman that truly loves me

Was back at home that snowy day,
Oh, but you didn't know
'Cause we didn't talk anymore
Not since the last time
'you broke my naive heart
Was thinkin' bout you
Now that I'm back from where I once was gone
Couldn't help but remember all we've lost
So wondrous and renown
Oh, when I smile it's real again
'Many months since I could say
I'm happy to be the better man
Overjoyed to have escaped your game
I'm not vacant anymore
Left and closed the front door
My heart isn't naked anymore

Baby, I saw you the other day,
In the mall,
'Workin your old job again
All hollowed and afraid to win
You crawled back to from whence you came
Fed on the memories of your better man
You didn't smile when you noticed I was back again
Just closed your eyes and refused to let me in

Happy little leap,
'great faith
Delicious resolve
Water seeping in,
Should you run, where would you hide?
Against the light will you find trouble?

Can you keep your head above the waves,
'evaluate each breath,
Kiss my cheek, don't bother
Against the light, why, you are but rubble
Your head is sinking deep
The water is claiming you

Oh, my sweet memories
Make your heart double,
the smiles above the deep
while you sink below the waves,
'shallowly

Little Dear, I fear I may
Lost all affection for that blackened husk  I once called beauty
Held it small and well,
Loved it for the faults,
For that you could tell
Told you they made you, you,
Bright and pulchritudinous our imaginary future swelled
I now call that little heart Hell

Like cathedral bells,
I can ring as well
Oh, beauty,
Oh, hell,

What has this heart done to me?
Every song unfold
White smiles, pictures told
Green to brown, Ocular, tall
So many hands I have yet to hold
When it hits me, I have yet to live at all


I wanted far away
Never would I mourn,
Never did I

Do you feel it?
The call in the heart of the storm
The shouting silence
The gaping hole in the bed
Do you feel it?

Start again
Home is a long night
Missing things that are gone
What was the flavour of the memories we made?
An echo even then
Start again

When you break
The first thing to go is hope
Like a lost child
Shaking and unhappy
Raise the barriers to your heart
When you break

Forever has come
Forever has gone
Love has come
Love has gone

Now, you are the lovely one

Slowly now,
Rise from your traveling mechanism
With the old world gone
Do you realize you miss where you once began
This new habitat
It will age just like the rest
But your old eyes will seek out the best
Without forgetting you are still young
Young and tethered to reality

From Nigeria you rose,
Met her under the warmth of a Freetown afternoon
With opportunity in your hearts
Fire in your eyes
You both bid your homes goodbye

Family was something to miss
Here in this new house you realize you have been blessed
With children and love you resettle your lives
Never forgetting the love of home
For it shall never die

What's the price to pay,
An eye for an eye?
This question, it ruminates
Echoing off the sound in this quiet isle
Nothing quite like the enemy
Just like you want to be,
Clearly

Soul too shallow
I was your remedy,
Now I'm just another enemy

Snow upon the land
Skies ashen gray
Cold and unperturbed
Every bit of nothing stays the same

Who is one to know the time of day
No sun, no moon
Only moral decay

Lights adorn the suburbs
Green and red
Children dreaming recklessly of days ahead

In windows and mirrors, I see my name
An idea, an entity
Someone to blame
The only season yet to change

No sound, reasons without solid ground
Love is eternally,
Circled around
Built from the same cloth,
Once, twice, how many times must cut,
Both know it's not too late,
Made for this life
'and the next

Come on down to Conscience Falls, where the lights are always dimmed by the remorse of humanity. Where all of the scenery looks like the immaculate image of lonely country roads after midnight, and quiet lakes embalmed by the comfort of night.

The part of me
Chasing the road home
Our tragedy in melodies
Sanctity of volume
In which we need love
The day we wake up
A day it's over, the sky falling down
Lone down, London Town
Singing to the river,
While the daylight lets us know where it has to go
The story in a blink of your pretty green eyes
Started while the sound was queer,
Now you roam the night
Royality, we tried
'Though our kids are growing up

Outside my own Heart
Lingers a beating, throbbing part
Large and small all at once
Mistified by shape and tone of what once was
Better Loves come about more than once

Beauty had a face
Reminded me of you
Soft and warm
Bright and true

Before I came to love it
It came to love me
Yet, for all I have learned
You still think you are above me

Mornings she'll never know
The feeling of sun on skin, the soft brush of a lovers hand, the passionate love of her dreamt of man
All swept away, thanks to the cruelty of our social age
Broken images and cracked screens, our generation failed to heed the call
A thousand likes and shares too late, she is too far gone to see our aversion to their hate
Tell me, who has won?
The victim, the perpetrators, or all of us,
Guilty as one

Y'know, we say a lot of ****
Day to day, person to person
It's surprisingly consistent
In fact, I'm rather impressed

There're the small lies
The "You look good in that dress!"
"They just left!"
"Tastes great!"
"I think the Leafs have a real chance this year!"

And the ones that matter
"I love you"
"You have nothing to worry about"
"I swear, I didn't do it!"
"I'm sorry, ***. I was out with the girls"
"I'm okay"

It's the people that can switch between the two at will,
They really impress me
For, as the web grows
So does the willingness to let go
And all those who love you
Will try and aid you
And then, they too will begin to spin the web
Because of course they know the truth
"I believe you"
"It doesn't upset me, promise"

And suddenly it's too late

You're left adrift, confused and full of hate
Wondering what you've done
Where you went wrong
Or perhaps you're unswayed
Fine and ready to start anew once again
Potentially not even realizing what you've done

When it's all over
The curtains down, the cast and crew separated
Turn off the lights and crawl into bed
Whisper to the walls
And set your alarm
Tomorrow comes void and early

She's not here for the status quo
Started the journey early in life,
Worried, lonely, sick too
Oh, my baby is payed by the hour
Used to see her all the time,
Baby, once was mine
Now anyone can buy her love
Only costs a dime

Dear City of Dreams,
Would you remember me well?
In you I waited to leave
Bright horizons a little blonde told to me
Couldn't wait to be home and free
Rushed our time in the warm city,
Raced towards the sea

Now, I look back
Ponder such a coincidence that two would wish to win
Though I made my decision,
I have nobody else to blame
I chose one, and one chose you
Ha, what a way to "win"

Figured a head or two
Bought a barrel of laughs and sold a few
Looked to the horizon for a foreign God
When nothing answered back
I found that odd

Went to the market in search of rare breads
When in fact all I found was a hole in my head
How did it get there I wondered
Loud and clear
It took a moments delay to hear what I feared
A shot from a gun
Loud and clear

That foreign God had come
To take all that I held dear

My life has become this nostalgic reverie
Self-referentially bound to memory
Seeking the brightest moments
Tainting them with pain from late August days
June was the true end I suppose
From those loving memories, I derive joy and hope
Silly of me, I know

So it's been awhile since we shared a car ride
You've been with me in dreams, the waking world darker than before
These things guide me through the night
Serving to help me live in the town of memory

Watched the worst, heart drawn and quartered
Little creatures drawing images of what we knew
And all those golden times that I still love so
In dreams and memory

I suppose it's really done
Over and gone, just like that
I haven't really been me in a while
Maybe I never had been to begin with
But I like to think I was starting to figure it out

Look, whatever it is that you do now
The genuine you that few truly know
I hope it makes you happy
I hope you wake up with a smile every day
I hope it keeps you warm and fulfilled
Becuase I really miss you
And I think it would be a waste for us to both feel this way
If life is going to keep on like this

Emotions are complicated
Being young is hard and confusing
None of this is easy
None of this is supposed to be
It's what we make of it
What we do with it

Call me

Tavern songs in my old sweet city
Playing in and out of open windows
I spent my days that year in good company
All the hearts I broke were akin to mine
For want of will and wish
So, with filtered innocence
I killed my own mast
A black flag,
'sorry for my sweethearts
Reminiscent of my better past
With her once triumphant songs, I do recall
I miss my old love,
Regardless of heart fall

Lift me up
Hold conscience above
Send signals crafted with love
A reminder; never give up
Fear not, the reaper

Crisp autumn leaves fall on your car
Wine sits undisturbed by the front door
The sun is low and the tide is high
The mat at the entrance,
It reads, "Goodbye"

What would you say if you came back?
What would you see?
What would you feel?
What would you do?

I built a house for all our memories
I fashioned a basket for all my attempted remedies
I tried to sell a few of my emotions
I tried, but I still only think of you
I know that I'm in love with you

A trumpet plays
A sax wails
A guitar inquiries upon the night sky
A thousand things happen when I think of you

Look at these eyes
Look at my lips
Look at our hearts
Look at what you did to me

To hang out again
To admit we miss it
To maybe say sorry
To listen to the rain together
To try and go out in poor weather
To drink another coffee with you
To let loose and share all we knew and know

I felt life for the very first time
It broke me from patterns I was stuck following
Taught me to stop being afraid

Yeah, I get that I could be too much
I let my love be the number one priority
Before careers or hobbies
That's what I did for the girl that helped me feel life for the very first time
I jumped in, all in
I apologize if I was too much over the course of the years
It was something I could have worked on
If only you had told me so

Unfurled my sails, set off into regions unknown
Yet, somehow found home
Familiar towns under new blackened shrouds
Hardly recognized the beating of her heart
Though I could feel her go down
Poignant tears in my baby's voice and sound
I could barely stand to put her down

Down from the belfry
A gaze and a smile
Poignancy trailing its way to my chin
Everybody seems so far away
Oh, the ground seems so friendly
Yet, I can't look away from the sky
I'm just a boy
'and it's too soon to say goodbye

Long gone,
We refuse to make friends
You found a port in a storm
Shallow and meek
If the sun came back you know you would not stew
My Baby, chase relentlessly

How sweet it was, letting go
Does not matter to me
Now that I too flow
Ever the flicker while I recall, let go
Silence for a moment
Then we begin again
A new cycle, set free from the yesterday I did see
Another dreamer, set free
Hold tight, you have let go
Oh, let go
Oh, free to go

It was harder than we thought
So now they call and text me at home
Left it in a park, left it in a lot
Walked around a while
The two of us talked
The burial ground of our winter spark
One which gleamed for near two years and a day

Today, we only feel the gap
Abstract and ethereal
The songs were written for you
So it became a fact,
Dark places, common spaces
The one buried in my head

Leaving a light on
Somewhere between now and forever
Cool drops, rainfall from your eyes
Happy accidents ring out
Only to die
The jungle echoes
Silently
The panther searches
The python, ever sly

Running with the photo
Bleeding from the base
The light that was left on
Burnt up home

Dawn is coming,
Light blue, the colour of a robin's egg
The trees have no leaves
The girl walks beneath them in a white flowing dress
Hair bright and dark, equivalently

Her eyes are cold and curious
The city lies behind her, illuminated in the early morning
The grass feels warm between her toes,
The river that runs beside her beckons
As she descends beneath the placid murkiness
Her eyes rise to the sky
A single sentence she utters,
"I wonder why?"

Colloquial breathing under the waves
Floating down the river
Eyes firmly shut
Mind is full of dreams
Each moment stripping away the decay of this vessel
Marvelling toward times gone by
Further, the river

Twisting and turning
The heart heals
New and resolute
The eyes open
Stark and pulchritudinous

Little pieces of time
Processes of the mind
Portraiture for which to be framed
At the point in which innocence
Turns to fear

Dark corners
Of the mind and scene
With which rewinding
Does nothing

Force of will
Desire of the heart
Blue hair with which life does part
One way or another
Time has its way
Personified by what you had to do today

You may look out at all you can see
Trying desperately to be a somebody
Lost in the minutia
Drawn to things that you are not

As the butterfly descends
Hold onto your heart
Cherish your friends
Love is gone
Only to rewind again

Sweet baby,
Innocent and warm
Simple to hold
Easy to love
Ethereal eyes
Seamless and green
Hair shining effortlessly
Ready to gleam
Whisper from red lips
A gift to behold