Wasting away in a hospital bed
hair falling in clumps on the sheets
and veins protruding the skin like
copper ore.

Taking doses of therapy in trickles
down the plastic tube that burrows
in my arm like so many rabbits.
Pressing the button to relieve the
agony.

So when I leave this world
behind, remember
I'll be just fine, I've got my
words all picked out,
I know just what I'll say
to He who makes.

And if He laughs at me,
I'll know what I suspected
was always true. Just a lonely
child playing building blocks
with hearts and souls.

So when I leave this world
behind, remember
I'll be just fine, I've got my
words all picked out,
I know just what I'll say
about you and I.

And I know just why
the willow cries
in the dark, with no one
to comfort him
but the bark and
leaves that cling to
his body like a
leech to swollen skin

So flip a coin
take a chance.
Roll the die.
let me have this dance.

We've only got this night
So cash in your chips
and make a break
You've only got this one chance
to take this kiss.

So flip a coin
take a chance.
Grab by hand
and let's just
run, run, run.

I'll grab a glass
and you can slip
into something a
little
more
comfortable.

Stealing kisses in the
backseat of the
taxi like a burglar
in the night.
Never knowing that
I know just
what your actress
looks like.

Headlights dim and
horns honk like
mice in the walls.
We step on the curb
and throw some cash
at the driver,
my hand placed on
your shoulder and you're
laughing. I smile a smile
that makes your skin crawl
but you're not exactly sure
why.

So, I'll grab a glass
and you can slip
into something a
little
more
comfortable.

So, I'll slip something
into your glass to
make you a
little
more
comfortable
and cold.

So, paint me on canvas
and I'll scribble you
in my little notebook
with references on your character
filling the margins like water
overflowing from a class, Incapable
of being constrained by
such a vessel.

Etch me with a pencil,
draw the side of me
that nobody can glimpse
but the artist.
Shade me intentionally
and pure because you
know just what to
do, turning a piece
of paper into life.

I'll make a crude
caricature of you
with lines drawn into
letters that can do
something so beautiful
no
justice
at
all.

Looking for answers at the
bottom of a bottle like
it's the antidote to the
poison pulsating through
your veins, harsh and burning
like a California forest fire.

Indulging yourself
in people and places
that are so comfortably
unfamiliar. Scrambling
for another hit,
another drink,
another,
another.

Running from your past
with an empty glass
in one hand and a burnt
out cigarette in the other.
Smiling all the time, nobody
knows just what you're hiding,
behind that ****-eating grin.

Take my hand, and we'll
figure this out. Take my
hand and we'll leave this
******* town in a cloud
of dust and smoke.
And I'd do just
about anything to hear
you laugh again.
Anything,
anything,
anything.

it's like a smile
Simple and contagious
spreading from person to person
infecting everything it comes
in contact with
crippling them at the knees
and swelling their stomachs
till they burst.