Beat me, bruise me, leave me your pain.
Take from me then, the need to use a cane.
Stay close to me, keep me free
I want to walk tall and with pride
Stumbled and fell, is that enough to say I tried.
Let me wander, but please call me home
Beat me, bruise me, leave me your pain.
Let me walk away and I might just leave on the train
Release me although you may be weakened and torn
Please don't be rattled when you find-
a half empty dresser and unfinished bed in the morn

Stain my hands yellow for the unfaltering hope I saw
On the sidewalks slipping into the subways
Stain my sleeves red for the blood in me
Mutt blood, disaster, harmfully pristine to still have any
Coat my collar in silver for the linings I've come across.
Coat my chest maroon for the forests
I've wrenched apart, set on fire to teach you to save that stained piece of paper
Hit me with grey and honey glint-
For the sunsets you watch after the
Roaring thunder and ocean of lightning

Rock me under blue for the whitecaps that
Sunk your ship, drowned your men, swallowed your breath

Stow me away in white for the blazes which
Paralyzed you in the uncertainty and catapulted you to marry her

Paint me a shade
And I'll paint a church steeple in Italy
A wedding cake in the Bahamas
An apple tree flower heavy with fresh rain in Washington State

Paint me black
I will illuminate the souls that form your constellations

Paint me a shade
I paint a snapshot
One brush stroke at a time

I'm sick of feeling stuck
To holding on
And to isolating myself
And to feeling numb, not because of all the pains
But just because it's sitting there.

I want to move on, start over
Breathe a new cloud
But I don't have the energy,
But I lay in bed all day on my laptop
Under the covers, skyping the girl who gives me all her love unconditionally.
I don't want to feel so stuck
And I feel stuck.

Life goes on
And we must separate the wood from the rain
I find myself trapped in clouds of grey
Mourning, grieving, breaking

Life keeps on rolling
And I'm swept under by the rip tides
Crying for a breath of air
To say goodbye.

The orbs are comfortable
To lay within the glow
Rounding up and over the moon lit by
Nightly prayers from the children and the whispering ambitions of the aged

Will we ever fit in
Well, fit out of the confinements we dredge to make it all okay when the family cries
Each of us have all been strapped with Velcro from our Day 1 to fit standards
But does it mean anything..
For if we fall short, it hurts more than falling long
Why must we hurt and bleed and scrape against the bottom when we're trying our hardest

Age holds no value
When the interlacing branches of the forest
All look the same
Because we cannot dare differentiate ourselves
What it is to live "normal" and society's "regular"

Maybe we hide ourselves
under scars and lyrics, between role lists and bus seats
Maybe our orbs are colored neon, or maybe a lingering Oregon grey

So maybe, clicks and groups and minorities
And maybe even the "freaks"
Are all synonyms for "normal" and "regular"

So please, these orbs have become comfortable
Don't hang your head and hide one minute more.

It begins and you can never press rewind
My heart was covered and caged
My fire transformed to mere embers

And can we chant and sing stories
If we don't what it is to breathe
Or can we carry on through the monotone echoes
As we desperately sift through yesterday
Trying to get caught up

It levels with such eloquent and supple scenery
One cannot taste the sweetened breeze
Promised by tomorrows dreams

Are we capable of expressions
Though we have no emotion, for we are abandoned.
All but empty goodbyes and numb sights.

With no more space to contain our absence
We bleed and we break, to soil and stain
Doing so without knowing
What it is to breathe

Burning dove, how is it you shine that bright?
Crashing and wandering to find only my oasis
For these passing days and glowing flames fail to touch me.