I've carried hope for far too long
These wounded dreams I can't release
Flowers rot beneath my feet
Gloom's once more encircled me
I loath the things I see each day
This infernal world's made my heart weak
Like a novel that lacks an end,
The narrative has now lost it's luster
In this dark, I seek no more
Suffering is all I've found
Stuck beneath an apathetic sky
Leave me here
No angel wings
The tears in my eyes
Just won't cease
From now until eternity
I breathe the pain that lives within

I still see you
Though your casket's long been closed
You haunt me in my dreams
Your everlasting smile
Those melancholy eyes
Each and every night
Tears stream down my cheeks

You're always here with me
I keep you in my heart
Wishing I could hold you
My words met by the dark

Scanning through the room
I know it to be true
You have left this world
So badly does it hurt

I close my eyes in moonlight
Hoping I do not wake
For in my dreams you're next to me
You're holding me so tight
When I finally pass away
I know we'll reunite

She asked me to hold her.
I was confused at first, and wanted to ask why.
But then I saw the sadness, the sadness in her eye.
We were dealt different cards, but we both got losing hands.
I took her in my arms, and you know I held her tight.
Until the crack of dawn,
through her darkest night.

My heart held captive
A hostage to her smile
Tragically it waits
For a day that may never come
Tragically it waits
For her to feel the same

Her warm smile.
Now lingers somewhere in my memory.
Despite the fact that she is gone.
I know someday we'll meet again.

It's the same from day to day, and every hour spent awake,
just another hour away from anything that makes me happy.

You tried to catch my every tear, only to realize the depth of my sorrow.

That the crystal beads falling  from my eyes probably never would end.

Never could end.

Sure we tried to play pretend.

To put band aids on the scars, but the blood gushed straight through.

Wounds raw.

Infected by a broken world.

Where dreams die long before the people who conceive them, and greed runs rampant because wealth is considered an achievement.

Words like "Hope"
Words like "Happiness"

They were taught to me years ago.

Now they're just the false, ****** up, lies I tell myself to get to sleep at night.

When we first met, you asked me what I saw the future holding.

I really didn't have an answer, so I just told you "longer sighs"

I guess I didn't lie, cause the clouds confine my mind making reasons to smile hard to find.

Ask that same question today, and I'd tell you my new answer, "The same thing as yesterday"

I love you more than life itself
My time's been spent slowly expiring on the shelf
I've found reason to go on again
Reason to be
A place where I belong
Another verse to continue my song
No longer a solo performer
Now a duet, we take the stage
Nothing can match your beauty
Illuminated by a bold, yet setting moon
As I look at you, you look at me
And in your eyes, I see it
The boundless love you feel for me
And in your eyes, I see it
The future I've been lacking
Eternity to be spent by your side
And with you...
With you my heart will always reside

Her skin was pale
Like the moon kissed by a midnight sky
Snake-bite piercings
Blessed her catastrophic smile
Beauty beyond conception
Beauty in it's purest form

Our lips met in the glow of stagnant stars
A moment of serenity
Met by utter shock
Something was amiss
I tasted poison in her kiss
Her eyes locked on mine
Sinister yet so divine
There was no escape
As she bit my lip

Dropping to my knees
She ignored all of my pleas
An angel of the night
Set on sending me below
Tears I need not weep
She consoled my every dream

She took the life from me
Singing lullabies ever sweet
I climbed into my coffin
The minute her gaze met mine

In the darkness
In the silence
Lurks the solace, Lurks the violence
For all begins, so all must end
Today must die for tomorrow to begin
Creation is the dreams we weave
Caught beneath the somber sea
Exist for now, choose to be free
Exist for now, follow your dreams

She went where her heart was
And it wasn't with me
Now all my dreams
Just sink in the sea

I suffocate tonight
In the shadows of you and I
Slowly engulfed by darkness
As I lay alone in bed

I suffocate tonight
In the absence of your love
Alone my soul decays
Burning slowly away

We danced among the tombstones
Verdant ground to kiss our feet
Her hand as cold as winter
My smile from beyond

I didn't know your name
At least... not until that day
That day you passed away
We weren't close in age
You were a freshman at a different high school
I was a rebel, getting my license at 18
I guess that's not important
This is your story, not mine
And it ended too soon
That pick-up just couldn't stop though
I wish there was a miracle
Maybe just a nudge
You'd fall off your bike and scrape your knees at the worst
I didn't know your name, but I tied a rose to that stop sign

When I awoke today
The gray skies had gone away
The orange horizon was kissed by candy-pink clouds
I could feel the change in my veins
My heart letting go of all the pain that's choked it for far too long
I never believed in hope until I saw it in your eyes
Now I don't think that I could ever turn away
Sadness may last forever, but for you it's worth the endeavor
And if the world finds a way
to cast your smile astray
I'll be here forever
To catch you as you fall and keep the dark at bay

I told you I'd follow you until the end, but it looks like we're already there.
So watch me disappear, deep in my despair.

She said "Pick your poison"
and I must admit
Her selection was quite impressive
Bottle after bottle
Each unique in it's figure
No single one containing a liquid of the same shade.
Some older than me
Others predating my father

When my eyes finished scanning
as if they even had to
My words came out softly
Possibly to lull her troubled mind
"The only thing in this room I pick, is to have you in my life. Forever til the end."

Those maple branches never were the strongest.
I remember the sound as your foot finally snapped one, and you came crashing down ten feet.
Leaving you with your first scar of many to come.

It's engraved inside my mind.
Your parents rushing to your side, as the blood trickled
down your arm.
All I could do was stare in disbelief.

It seems like things went downhill from there.
Your father just couldn't quit the bottle.
All the arguments and fights must have taken their toll.
Cop cars constantly visiting your house.
Yet, you still somehow managed to smile every time
we'd hang out.

Back in high school, we'd always chill together.
You'd always complain about the loser you were dating.
Losers like "Chad" or "Aaron".
It ****** me off how poorly they treated you.
If I wasn't so sheltered, I probably would have asked you out
back then.

I'll never forget the day you pulled up in your car.
That barely-running Plymouth with the busted bumper.
I remember you yelling at your parents.
Tears streaming from your eyes, as you ran across the street.
You threw your arms around me, announcing your grand
escape to the open road.
Your voice was cracking with sorrow as you spoke.
I did my best to comfort you, but I guess I doubted you back then.
****, that day was six years ago though...

I haven't felt much of anything since then.
I really hope you're doing well.
You'd love all the tattoos I've collected, So come back
and see them someday.
In the meantime, I think I'll stick around this dead-end town.

I can feel it every now and again
The depth of my heart
Or where it used to be

It used to sing so frequently
Now it's lost it's melody
Now it's hard to remember the beat
Because there isn't one

When you chuck a stone into a cave
You wait to hear the echo
But if you throw one into my heart
It'd never hit a solid
For the space is empty
Where it used to sing

A mind unbound
The soul is free
A heart alive
Though it's fought through grief
Mountains to climb
Things to see
Live with intent
Dare to dream

There was a story

Written in her eyes

One that wasn't finished

So I kissed her slowly

And I whispered in her ear

"From now on we write together"

"And we will until the end"

I used to have a bleeding heart, but I'm afraid it's now bled out.
It's cold and empty, far too broken to restart.
It's a cruel world we live in and I'm afraid I have nothing left...
Nothing left but agony and remorse.
They bring the tears to my lifeless eyes.
When they planned my life, they forgot the fire-escape.
So now I'm stuck here burning.
Slowly, and painfully each day.

My life was a tragedy.
Like a train wreck with mounting causalities.

I was on a Ferris-wheel of suffering.
As soon as I hit the top, I simply found my way back to the bottom.

I was the actor, all hopes lost.
Sitting, waiting for help to save the day.
Only my help never came.

My life was a joke, just no one was laughing.
The audience wore mortified expressions, rather than those of joy.

Agony spread like cancer through my veins.
It calcified around my heart and left me broken inside.

No matter how hard I tried to swim, the cinder-blocks were chained tightly to my ankles.

But then...

Then I met you.

This emptiness inside
So many feelings that I hide
Even with all these pills I take
A smile I could never fake
Like a computer that's bugged
I hit restart, but froze

Do you think of me when you're alone?
Your sad, gray, eyes so less alive
The hollowness inside your chest
You once told me you were "hopeless at best"

These lives we live like broken dreams
The sidewalk anthems that we sing
Sorrow spreads it's grateful wing
Enveloping all who fall beneath

Last December, do you remember?
You dragged me from the hell I made
You saved me from my bitter self
It'd be impossible to count
Every tear I left behind on your sweater

So if you ever think of me
Think of who I used to be
The boy with the monstrous smile
Instead of the monsters in his head

Even as I turn a new page,
the embers are biting at my feet.
As far as I walk away, this sorrow I will carry until my dying day.
An empty vessel, I still feel.
The show must go on, even as I fall apart.
My scars are clear to see.
I wear them in my eyes, and hide them on my heart.
I've come so far and nothing will stop me now.
I've fought so hard sending hell to it's retreat.
Hear me as I say, I'll never walk away.