I'm a broken record
My song is all ****** up
The chorus and the lines dismembered
The notes and keys all untethered

What a mess.

Words and sounds shred to ribbons
I don't search for meaning anymore
My best work's been fed to demons
Weak and rotten to the core

How pathetic.

It's been getting worse and worse
Death of self, a matter of course

Back when I was overplayed and overbooked
A striking board for your matches
You never saw all the bleeding scratches
No, you never even looked

Time is just
Blurring together

Days aren't distinct
One from another

I am only
Grasping desperately

Days passing dully
One like the other

I wish I could see the sky today
But there’s only endless fog
Filling me with silence
Choking me
All that’s left
A straining heart grinding down to nothing
Gasping in the dark

Now that I’m broken
Set me free

I can’t just expect it
The sun on my face
When I’ve let so many sunny days
Come, and go to waste
Rigid, fragile, and holding back
My tongue has been burned of the taste

It’s been so long so I don’t believe
I don’t believe anymore
Change, hope, love, and warmth
Just words without meaning
Like life without light

When I close my eyes, sometimes I see
Solitary seconds of a forgotten maybe
Fractured pieces of what could be
Lonely fragments framed by fear
But those pieces twist and burn
And my mind begins to stray
And then soon enough
I have to numb it all away

This horrible desire I can’t define
Feels like a stranger but I know it’s all mine

And all the things that I’ve done
And all the things I could do
Set me on fire in my silence
At least the pain is true

Smoke curls and dissipates
Like a ghost into the void
Lungs are black as tar and oil
Putrid sludge suffocates the soil

A frog is croaking far away
The wind is warm tonight
A shimmering sliver of moonlight shines
Broken bones are such an awful white

Branches rattle and a nightbird sings
A song so sad and hollow
There's no clear path that leads to here
This small valley filled with sorrow

Heavy are the first drops that fall
As the storm rolls in above
The scent is clean, and mixes strangely
With the ash piled in the mud

Pouring rain patters on the leaves
Lighting punctuates the dark
Haunted screams ring in the distance
Lost in thunder, blood, and bark