Dark but I can smile
Fists but I can wink
Mint but I can vile
Dry but I could drink

Tired but I can talk a-while
Drunk but I can think
Live but I can decompose
Quick but I could blink

But

The paper kept the story short
Nothing certain to report
Gave no name, but too young an age
Sad, but get on with your day

White shirt, dark tie
the nicest shoes that I could find
behave, before
Look down at the floor

Cross the street, the church is full
selfish grief and ritual
The family speak and the people cry
I have my own, I cry for mine

Drive up, hard rain
We light cheap candles, say a name
the best of us
I have not lived up
I have not lived up

Ashes
ashes
we all fall down
when that name is mine
I'm sure I will not mind

Bonfire just outside of town
stories grow as they go around
In tragedy, in war, in love
Innocence is not enough

Line up young men
One less, a friend
As if we needed an excuse
We drink down our *****

Ashes
ashes
We all fall down
I hope I'm good and through
When it's the parting glass for you

You’ve been waiting to long for a knock at the door.
A prince with a pretty glass slipper for you.
Well I’m not your prince, you’re not my stupid Cinderella

You’re not my:

Beacon in the fog,
the kiss upon my frog,
My shoe left at the ball,
the summer before the fall.
You’re not my sunshine after rain,
my kiss confused with pain
You’re not the lyric in my mind,
I couldn’t write you if I tried.

But I have still got
I have still got drinking bourbon whiskey.
I have still got time on my side.
And I have still got you.
But you…

You’re not my…

Chilly winter storm,
the only arms that could keep my warm,
You’re not the only stars at night,
you’re not my lightning in the sky.
You’re not the only love story I know,
the only one I could call my own.
You’re not the last line of my song…

We know boy
we know what you've
You thought you could hide it
But no such luck
scars maybe fade boy
But ink don't run boy
we got your name
We got your number

Too late to go to sea
No fate escapes the memory
No gold in san francisco
No count of monte cristo
I'd never forget you
As love as I live
no gunslung name
no club portrait
no test for this
no blood could hold

Your sins
Your sins
your sins

Lonely down the lane
A buzz a ball and chain
Down the interstate
We move for motion's sake

A curse under my breath
One worse upon my head
The worst of fears for us
We are our father's sons

Drinking in the dark
Begging for a spark
Your eyes would leave a mark
Your lips would leave a scar

Just take what you get this time
Even dog years aren't what they used to be.

Paint your eyes and jacket black
lose the face that's looking back
love your neighbour, but lock the door
If I know you, you will be
better than before

Strings of lights lead down the street
incandescent life's a dream
Cold, but only for an arm to keep you warm
If I know you, you're gonna
Take the world by storm

After all you're back in bed
I'm just a song stuck in your head
I'm just a name now,
And nothing to remind.
If I know you you're gonna
Leave that boy behind

I woke up and the world was white again
I wake up and I find my mind with you in boston
I woke up and the shortest day was done
I wake up I don't owe my heart to anyone

I woke up and that ******* year was dead
You're too young to be jaded was the first thing you said
I woke up and the world was wide again
I'll be looking for your face, if I ever get to boston.

i watched the moon pass through the windows
and it came up close to me
and it told me of the echoes
and what would come to be
and it told about the minnows
and pets that wouldn't see
the light of day tomorrow
but don't worry about me
it told me of the future
and the past it seemed to scream
and it knew about my mother
and the secret i dont speak
it knew about my pockets
and what my pockets do not keep
it knew about the whispers
that i say before I sleep
it knows about the black dog
and how close it follows me
it knew that it was only hope
and never lunacy
and the sun knew that the moon would never speak to me

Bittersweet as a burning tree
As the second name of belladonna
Keep your voice below the bagpipes
Keep your chin above your phone

I guess the rink was never icy
Now that the grief is not as thick as water
I never was the hard-heart type
Back when I never slept alone

He said he was a veteran of the war
not this last one, but the one before
Operation euphamism conflict desert storm
he said they brought him here straight from the floor

He said they brought the bodies to a rink
And that the ice did not quite help the stink
He could not hold his hand still, he could not hold his drink
He threw up thirty xanax in the sink

There was Rickie, he was twice my age
Hoped it's not too late to turn a page
he told me 'make the best of it', he tought me to play spades
He said meals are the way to split the day

Aerosol computer duster hose
As far as he could get it up his nose
Something about oblivion, ethyl and the cold
Wednesday lunchtime traffic had to slow.

I'm not crazy, I'm just low
I've got nowhere else to go
I'm not sick I'm just upset
As all these thoughts race through my head
I'm so tired of telling lies
Smooth as corbon dioxide.

Victoria had seen and lost her day
She had the makeup tatooed on her face
She just seemed grateful for a place to stay
And wondered of they'd take her kids away.

Three days for tears and slices on her arm
Nine days, my fault for showing them my card
They'd love to do the right thing, and treat us as we are
But good insurance is as rare as heart

I'm not crazy, I'm just low
I've got nowhere else to go
I'm not sick I'm just upset
As all these thoughts race through my head
I'm so tired of telling lies
Smooth as corbon dioxide.

Everybody is dying in Haiti.
The girl has just come by.
I have not slept. In fact,
I’ve done some drinking.
She comes and asks me how
I am. I am okay I tell her.
She has a boyfriend now,
After she leaves, she tells me
this,
It’s not the first time she kept that close until sometime else.

We were talking for a while.
I wonder just when the earth
Decided to quake
Decided to ****,
To shake, to tremble, to rock
And somewhere I’m sure
We were being selfish,
And I was wanting her,
And she was telling me not to,
and not to
Look so close in her eyes, she knows well how I can see it all.

And somewhere still there
Was a little boy dying,
He will never kiss a girl,
Never wonder why eyes are
the color of skies: and dirt
and grass blades, I don’t know,
At least I get to venture
a Guess,
I bet it’s the same reason
I love the girl, I carry a torch, maybe it’s just for now, I hope so.

The End of the Line

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m going to the end of the line.
The postcards are all pretty, but they’ve got nothing on tonight.
It’s been a long time I’ve been waiting for you to say:
Why don’t you just take me away?

I hope you miss me, ’cause I’m going to end of the line.
The morning windy so the trees could wave goodbye.
I procrastinated, I waited ‘til today
To ask you
Why don’t I just take you away?

Past the roads, over the sea,
If the tracks run out that’s where we’ll meet
If you don’t go, I don’t care,
you are with me anywhere
I don’t need you, I don’t want you,
But It’s not human flesh that haunts you
It’s ghost of eyes, ghosts of thighs,
Ghosts of all our broken:
All I know is, I am going
Far.

I’ll miss the bullfrogs, but I’m going to the end of the line.
I’ll miss your fingers frozen to mine.
I’ll miss the snow still falling down at the end of May.
Still I want to take you away.

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m going to the end of the line.
If we get a second act, it’s high time I had mine.
You won‘t see me waving, when I‘m fading into grey,
I’m just gonna take me away.

Past the road, over the sea,
When the tracks run out that’s where we’ll meet
If you don’t go, I don’t care,
you are with me anywhere
I don’t need you, I don’t want you,
But It’s not human flesh that haunts you
It’s ghost of eyes, ghosts of thighs,
Ghosts of all our long lost:
All I know is, I am going
Far.

Will you take me to the ocean?
Will you hold my hand?
And will you just cut me open?
And I'll bleed out in the sand.

With a far away expression.
In a foreign land.
What a pleasure to be homesick,
Beside the wanderlust of man

Whose secrets are you keeping?
And who is keeping yours?
What demon dogs are sleeping?
In the place beneath the floors.
Whose long dead heart is beating?
With a pulse that is no more.

Change all the tenses on the verbs.
Strange all the senses goodbyelittlebird

I bet it’s been a long day
It’s too dark at five o’clock.
You did some things the wrong way
The snow. You’re cold. It’s hard to talk

But it’s only the deep.
It’s only the trees.
It’s only the rustles
Of animal feet.

If your demon is here,
would you want to know?
Just look in the places
you go that you don’t want to go.

But they look you in the eye
Tell you there’s nothing to fear.
But they don’t know what lingers
When you look in the mirror.

One curse under your breath
One curse, one worse upon your head
One curse that mangles the silence
When you lay down in your bed.

They don’t know what you are
Some crooked silhouette
They’ve seen your face, and they’ve heard your voice,
But you have never met.

Soul is never more certain,
Than bare skin in the rain,
But you know something darker still,
There is no doubt in pain.

A mile to blush and please
A smile, for once, you could mean
If only we had never filled our lungs with Halloween.

Tell him to fade the scars
Tell him to ash and feed the cigarette s in bars
Tell him that guilt and stone will last long after we draw ours.

Even those stars tell lies
A fool for dead and far off light
Even lost love seems to shine but it's only time

Bears go to sleep.
Birds go south.
We put whiskey
in our mouth.

Four A.M. is just for me.
A brand new chill, though not so deep.
And we can talk until it’s light
And we can feel it still, tonight.

A kiss of gravel on my knees.
Summers die on nights like these.
A little moisture in the grass.
A little life, it will not last.

A touch of rigor in the breeze.
Makes a claim on mortal trees.
And chorus crickets sing their song.
I feel it now, it won’t be long.

And when the snow melts on my skin.
Or when my bones warm up again.
I'll be here and you'll be gone.
I'll be darkest, you'll be dawn.