Pens, lighters, paperclips
Stacks of important documents
Hold on to your valuables
This life can't be held responsible

Under the
Under the
Under the
Under the desk where the lost items hide
A culture of tribes & divides

Over the
Over the
Over the
Over the moon where the angels nap
Tired of routine and trying to relax

Can't ya see how weak you look on camera
They said the same thing about Joe Montana
I knew a lot of people who didn't see me
The world's ****** up but my life is easy

This could be
Our very strangest dream

This could be
What makes everyone scream

Demolition Men in a pell-mell Gotham
They dyed their hair like Dennis Rodman
We knew some guys who didn't use caution
I know some girls who don't use condoms

This could be
Another failed scheme

This could be
Our greatest love scene

Everyone's tryin' not to flinch at your tight scowl
Everyone's either a Rorschach or a Nite Owl
If authenticity's a misogynist concept
Then nothing's left but the death of context

This could be
The end of the world

This could be
Another poem for a girl

You told me that secretly
You had always hated me
But honey I think everyone could see
It was as clear as the deep blue sea

There were flames and gritted teeth
An impatience you barely leashed
My futility in keeping the peace
A deep, dreadful silent defeat

The real secret that you kept
The one you held unto your breast
That won't escape upon your breath
From now until your fated death

Is that you loved me just as well
With a little smile like a sea shell
That echoed inside me like a bell
But I promise I'll never tell

I got dizzy sick rolling down hills in the mist
In the heart of a city desperate to exist
I understood that longing gaze of the abyss
An endless summer, well, when will it quit?

A stitch in time between two uneven seams
A finger in the socket of Tesla's dead dream
Come dance in the current of electric memes
Talk me out of my money with sweet polysemes

Dawn's hair was a sunbeam, she dyed it fire
It wouldn't fall straight, time is a spire
Out of sync with fate and strung like a lyre
She was an apex of innocence and desire

She left with a preacher all doom and gloom
I came with a stripper in a darkened black room
She said I'm a good kisser, I assume it's true
You can laugh at me if you want to

This dancer's a waterfall, turning all slowly
Trying to show me how intimacy's lonely
Piercings on her back like the ones Anna showed me
Lost time swirling in whirlpools below me

I tried to be gentle but I just turned out weak
Cursed by my angels, Hope and Release
My mediocre mind, my consistent hobgoblin
She said "Don't fall in love," that won't be a problem

Haylee got angry at the skip in each heartbeat
Anxiety burning in every breath of our sleep
She held every moment of the life I never had
Then released them like butterflies in our confab

My tongue tied, un-nimble, into infinity symbols
Swirling in the kiss of strangers so simple
Peeking thru needle's eyes into heaven's riddle
Wound up with Thumbelina living in a thimble

Tumbling down a faucet stream, twisting with ripples
Her hair caught in my mouth, it tickles a little
Her eyes scream with thoughts of playing my fiddle
But I feel the life released from my middle

My heartbeat's compulsive, my shivers convulsive
Her tatoo at an angle, her complexion olive
I called it a nice moment but I hope it lasts
A thousand memories trapped in my gasp

A thousand nows
just
out
of
my
grasp

I slept
thru all of your texts
I doubt
my thoughts would've helped
Maybe they're better repressed

I spent
most my 20s depressed
My teens obsessed
Upset
or trying to rest
Caught up in myself, I guess

Minds split
or in a vice grip
Trying to inflate
some simple experience
Waiting
for each compulsive hum
To turn into an aria
Waiting
for each actor
To have his or her own camera

Now they talk about depression
Like it's the normalest thing
Like paupers who all think
They deserve to be kings

I don't know why I came here
What I'm doing here at all
They take away my identity
The one they gave to me
The one they demanded of me
Like it was never mine at all

Facebooked
the captured looks
Chased down and hooked
Walked the plank
and tossed from the boat
I labored to rock and shook

Nostalgic
for an old emptiness
Like a sepia photo
It's just
some sidewalk I walked
in another life
Some talk we had
That wound
out of our hands
and wound us up here
somehow

I listened for directions
Took half-certain impressions
from your dog whistle call
Your charm
Your steady walk
Your inevitable fall
Wrote them
in marker on your wall
But now I'm pretty certain
You never gave a ****
about me at all

I woke up this morning thinking of you
Like writing this poem is all I can do
I don't smoke or drink but even a buzz
Probably wouldn't lower my defenses enough
You fell asleep thinking of somebody else
I won't get jealous cause that doesn't help
I know myself and I'm still too scared
To love you how you should be loved


Oh but honey you can't be as sweet to me
As the sugar that's in my blood
You were tryin' to tell me you're not an angel
She was saying that she was
I guess we all see just what we want to see
Way outside the bounds of propriety
I can't tell desire from anxiety
That's just a clarity you won't find in me

Rusted armor and suspect honor
The stories we're told are ours
Trust and candor, the way they pander
Thinking they hung the stars
Transparency, fake sincerity
The fear of being caught
Social disparity, vocal clarity
The thrill of being watched

All these forms of focused sensation
Lawsuits, brands and allegations
It's all a lot of information
It's all up before the litigation
Every turret and every tower
Every destiny and every power
For a thousand years and twice again
Fallen and forgotten by the tale's end

Impunity to lunacy
the little cracks in the community
Who remembers where this funeral began
Who ******* told you they understand
The rules they wrote in founding these
Systems, absolutes and boundaries
All were cast in pencil first
All were from men made and dispersed

I can't complain or say I was deceived
My uncertainties can't be relieved
Your confidence was a lie
but it's allright
It was nice for a moment to believe