I bite down on a sliver of silver
That connects your lip to outer space
I cleanse the stars of all diseases
But find my heart cannot keep pace

I bite down on a sliver of turquoise
A talisman fit for an everyman king
But like the rings around Saturn
Escape velocity is hindered upon your string
                                                          ­                     
Poach me of my skin
And coat me instead with rust
I awake to a lute playing out of tune
Causing my dormant senses to all combust

Teach me to be a vulture
To sink my talons far beyond the surface
So many sharp facets, so many blunt edges
And my one and only distorted purpose

Darting in and out of atmosphere
A slave to bloodstained convictions
You own all the lands between life and death
And all the roads between fact and fiction

When push comes to shove
And hate turns to love
We clamp down until fingernails break the skin

He curses his dastardly shadow
And looses his cowardly arrow
All without aiming for the heart deep within

We break molds with our sadness
Make bold statements in madness
Knowing there are more wishes than wells to grant them

Set in motion by dying cultures
We leave bait for the vultures
Exasperated children, we have no men left to defend them

Darting to and fro
This early spring has set me on a path
That I may or may not remember
I keep growing older
Yet not necessarily wiser
Because winter lingers on in my daydreams

Shadows are cast
On jagged rocks and sorely lacking hearts
For I am all but shattered now
I keep veiling my eyes
Yet I am blinded by the glare
Of diamonds that shimmer from within

Emptying all its glory
The sky bleeds drops of fear and sympathy
Blooming weeds that have no business here
I keep sleeping on cold, hard, ground
Yet falling out of bed
For my attention is divided among better days

We were the exception to the rule
We were the silence in the wind
We were the weapons of mass destruction
We were the end in every friend

We were the moonlight in the daytime
We were the covenant of emptiness
We were the broken raft on the beach
We were the clumsy in clumsiness

We were the railroad headed nowhere
We were the meteors in the atmosphere
We were the liars in the candlelight
We were the dry eyes behind the tears

We were the serpents in the underbrush
We were the venom in the veins
We were once the pillars, yet now the pillaged
We were once the sun, yet now the rains

I am, in ways, a disappointment to my father
Who never once failed to disappoint me
But, my heart was revived once I realized
That I am greater than the sum of disappointing parts

There's but a fortnight now
Until the shadows run off with what's left of me
You should know that there are only scant remains
Of the man you once knew

They say to just be still
And wait as a bystander to my own life
But waiting has never come easily to a man with thorns in his hands
So I fly instead, like a fool with his eyes closed

There's a moonlit ocean in the distance
A place to sink, or learn to swim
For a moment, the shadows have diminished from my sight
And her radiance erases the vile inside my heart

Sitting still upon the brink
Of a lady dressed in black
Shadows fall in metered rhythm
Blanketing a broken heart's last attack

Broad daylight shatters
These ominous September skies
While her radiance tears at the fabric
Of my kaleidoscopic disguise

I press my lips upon her
A pursing to purge our woven fate
Tatters of her torn dress billow outward
But the tatters of my heart can't yet relate

She stares at skeletons on the highway
And I'm not sure if I'll ever make it back
I drift off to dream, still sitting on the brink
Of a lady, dressed all in black

Striving for greatness is never easy
It's so much simpler to lay down
Wilting and waiting to die

Until the crust of the earth
Crumbles, splits, rips open at the seams
And swallows me whole

Reforge me with tremors
Recreate my senses with aftershock
Decimate me, then build me again

May flowers
Under broken raindrops, pale love devours
Nary a bucket to collect them in
Drowsy mornings
A trembling within, and solemn warnings
Nary a violin to soothe a sinking mind
Every awakening begins with a kiss goodnight

Beyond the stairs
Past the strands of raven hair and wind-worn curtains
The delicate war between love and hate
Is waged on battlefields scented with cordial

Borders change by day
As her succulent skin is caressed, and scratched
She grabs pillows against the soldier's soft attacks
And returns volleys of similar weaponry

Her eyes are fortified by a dream
As she walks through beauty and comes back again
Hands and teeth clenched, her beleaguered body gives way
To the serenity of a cease-fire love affair

I am currently failing to feel a pulse
And I am shriveling into nothing
The thought of waking up to this cold world
Concerns me,
     About as much as the icy breeze

I grasp at straws that all turn to ashes
I drown deeper within all the madness
I have closed all the windows in my heart
But instead,
      Blood seeps through cracks in the floor

I am poorly designed, not just broken
Made prisoner by a mind that's outspoken
I am famished but I feast on nothing
Besides the pain,
     Pain that my heart's been serving

I am an octave below the sound of silence
I am a victim of my own violence
And the straight line I've been walking
Is finally curving,
     Curving into a circle that is far from perfect

The air has taken a chill
Not from Autumn, but from you
And my smile is fading quickly
I drink to keep from shuddering
Not from Autumn, but from you
And suddenly, I have erased my memory

Cast aside all your fears
Simply take my hand
And swim with me in this notion
That daydreams can be as real
As the taste of salt upon your lips
As the touch of sand upon your toes
I will tread water for us both
For I will never let you drown

Failure
        is not a collision,
               It's only the yellow lines.

We spend existence digging graves
And calling it a new way of life
Slipping on marble stairways
Cutting paper hearts with paper knives

We stand on both sides of the fence
In the court of public opinion
Pleading no contest to the charges
Begging for just a drop of dominion

Instead of the ones that matter
We chase the ones chasing the zeroes
We only applaud when there's a crowd
Gathered around synthetic heroes

The demons in my head are trembling
From the madness that's overcoming me
There's only one step left to the bottom
But my feet only delay the inevitable

Your silence has kept me climbing
Your tripwires have kept me falling
Your many faces have blurred my vision
Our beautiful failures have erased my canvas

I need a new scar, so I dangle from the ledge
If only to glimpse at the love we once knew
No matter if love or hate laces our words
Treacherous, is our only state of mind

Maybe I'm a fraud, or just a demon myself
But I gave until my heart became an empty canteen
And though the end looms closer every hour
You drank 'til nary a drop was left

She smokes her last cigarette
While waiting on the light to change her mind
Because at the corner of bent and broken
Green means stop, and red means go

Her world is just a snowglobe
In the hands of an innocent child
Here at the corner of bent and broken
The snowflakes fall but they never melt

She stares at the lights in the town square
Neon signs flicker, then burn completely out
Here at the corner of bent and broken
The blackout burns brighter than the sun

She is fully conscious of all the subtle things
That turn her rusted wheels and brake her speeding heart
Because at the corner of bent and broken
The collision is the truth behind a forgotten smile

As I button up this plain shirt
On a mild Tuesday morning
It's good to know
That I can still smile without you

As I pour myself a glass of juice
And think of my children laughing
It's good to know
That I can still daydream without you

And as the days pass by swiftly
The pain you brought me bleeds away
And it's good to know
That life goes on without you

If I took a walk around
In your unconscious, what would I find?
Would I see myself bouncing around
Like a pinball
Or soaring through the air
Like a phoenix rising?

Would I collide with your dreams
And be annihilated?
Would I see you naked
And cowering in your shame?
Or clothed in all your splendor
Like the day our eyes first met

If I took a walk around
In your unconscious, would I see how to love you?
Would I witness your favorite movie?
And be splashed by your favorite colors
Would I see the pain that you stowaway
Or the smiles you've yet to discover?

Would I want to run from your demons
Or take up sword and shield?
Would I see the same man you see
Everytime you look at me?
Or would I stare at myself, thoughtfully, and wonder
Who is this person I pretend to be?

I am no peaceful son of man
I am a crown of thorns
I am no hero, saint, or king
I'm just the weary worn
Bathed in evil, I trade love for war
Dreaming of evergreens
I am no peaceful son of man
I am a submarine

I am no peaceful son of man
I am chaos reborn
I am no martyr, prince, or god
I'm just a man forlorn
Shamed in silence, I whisper lies
Long since I knew the taste of truth
I am no peaceful son of man
I am abandoned youth

Dried sorrow on a ***** cheek
What a waste of discretion
Rappel down to the depths of my forgiveness
Twisted ankles, a sorry first impression

Paranoia's alive in paradise
What a waste of such beautiful static
Silence the voices and you'll have your silence
But isn't the screaming just as tragic?

Sandpaper sharpens the arrow
My mind grows duller with each new moon
I feel vindicated
But is that meant to change my destiny?

I hum carefully crafted melodies
While dodging the traffic of unending static
I love unconditionally
But does that mean I am loved the same?

Lavender wine enthralls scavengers
They forage for another bridge to burn
I watch it blacken and dissipate
But does apathy mean I no longer care?

My arrow is now sharper
Voices whisper, "weakling, loose the final blow"
A single tear slips from my eye
But is one arrow supposed to end this hell?

So the morning comes with its make-believers
We are just sketches from an artist's daydream
Every action comes with a reaction
Every stitch in time saves nine lives
And tomorrow will break like the ocean

She stares out the window of a taxi
Knowing where she's going isn't where she's been
Every voyage starts with a footfall
Every storm begins with a raindrop
And tomorrow will break like a tender grey sky

The illusion of my folklore is captivating
And it tethers me to this concrete lullaby
Every avalanche begins with a ripple
Every expedition begins with a tripwire
And tomorrow will break like hearts of porcelain

If I was a daydreamer,
When did the sun set on this day?
Was it when my calloused hand trembled
As I painted my dreary soul across the canvas?
Or was it when the sour taste upon my tongue
Merged with the bitterness of her forgotten fruit?

If I was a daydreamer,
When did the dream finally fade?
Was it when my eyelids relished the hours
They once needed to weigh enough to subdue me?
Or was it when happenstance strengthened its resolve
And set me on paths I was never meant to walk?

If I was a daydreamer,
When does the magic swell in my throat again?
Is it when I sever the ties that bind
My desert heart from the tundra of my mind?
Or is it when the tides finally erase me
Like a grain of sand swept out to sea?

I am frozen in constant motion
I am the fog rolling into the valley
Absorbing a pale, forgotten horizon
For my eyes are now useless and folly

Grant me my daily consequences
Salvation's boulevard blisters my feet
My hands caress these rolling hills
Veiling them in blankets of ice and sleet

As the sun rises, I am stationary
As though I'm tethered to my shadow
The depth of my plight has grown ever deeper
While my list of reasons has grown ever shallow

They label me 'forever falling'
They pull the tourniquet far too tout
I am frozen in constant motion
With no hope of getting out

She waltzes through his mind
While he trips over her melody
And eyes finally lay down their silent guns
He's a shameless drifter
A bedraggled amnesiac in disrepair
Yet he'll never forget the way she moves
The clouds burst of bronze as she rises
Rivers run of silver as she falls
But he remains a frozen epiphany
Her brilliant eyes like a morning star
Her lips flushed in crimson repose
As she sways her way into guarded memories
She waltzes through his mind
While he trips over her melody
And eyes finally lay down their silent guns

The dust has settled,
Minds rest on the brink of disaster
The gravel has crumbled,
Fleeting footsteps have erased ever-after
I'm halfway through the endgame
Yet only quarter of the man I thought I'd be

The winds have circled,
Tearing asunder the bliss of yesterday
The sky has shattered,
Dropping pieces of every blue and grey
I'm halfway to my sanctuary
Yet only quarter of the man I thought I'd be

The patience has dwindled,
Chaos reigns upon the prince's throne
The lies have multiplied,
Thievery designed to draw soul from bone
I'm halfway to a day of reckoning
Yet only quarter of the man I thought I'd be

Borrowed time.
It's easier to digest when it chokes you before you swallow.
Faceless and undefined.
That's all I am.
That's all I'll ever be.

No.
I will not.
I will not waver.
I will not waver from my purpose.

Circumstances.
They prevent me from patronizing the man in the mirror.
The mirror insults back.
Far better than I do.
Because he's far better than I've come to be.

No.
I will not.
I will not destroy.
I will not destroy the foundation of all I've become.

Petty.
It's so very petty of me to begrudge a man his prize.
I should walk away.
I should have bolted the door years ago.
Tossed the key into the deepest abyss.

No.
I will not.
I will not retrace.
I will not retrace the steps that led me to you.

Sometimes,
It's just hard to see it
But as time creeps on
It becomes clearer to me
That you, my dear,
Are just a fair-weather
Endeavor

Because,
In times of grey and disarray
You are nowhere
To be lost or found
And you, my dear,
Are the slowest form of
Quicksand

My dreams are juxtaposed with failures
My motion is akin to driftwood in the empty sea
Passions that once slumbered within my soul
Now rage like desperate refugees
There are listless clouds on the horizon
Drops of morning dew rest upon my brow
I scream without sound or the hint of emotion
Clinging to anchors I've long tried to disavow

I ache with reasons and indiscretion
I scale the ladders of patience with no remorse
Weapons drawn, she still slays me with a smile
Wearing armor I care not to reinforce
Shame and her sisters 
Poison me with their lilac, honey, and wine
While blame and its blisters
Lie in wait for our stars to realign

Sometimes, my words end up lost in translation  
I feel as though I'm speaking
To a room full of bystanders
None of whom care what spills forth
From this cotton mouth

It's like there are two of me
One to speak the words
And another to think the thoughts
Neither are in communication
Neither know who the hell I am

Scatter-brained is a loose term
Loosely held together by patience
And carelessly painted grey mornings
My head collects the words
And the same head rejects the connotations

I can't open my lips for all this trembling
I've never been one to placate nerves
Or to weave brilliance out of inhibitions
I just ransack the audience's hopes
And sprinkle them with pessimistic hail

Some might believe I may be hamstrung
By a heel only Achilles might covet
And a frailty in how I read between the lines
If I fail to impress, will I just forget?
Or scar myself with phantoms of things unsaid?

Undoubtedly, there are places for people
Like me, of my ilk, of my stature
Not that I've ever stumbled into such a place
Or climbed the ladders that they set
In front of feet that prefer the ground

I am off...
Slightly to the left.
No.  Slightly to the right.

Never straight, never
perfect.

I am disarray...
Out of order.
Out of sorts.

Never aligned, never pristine.

I am inharmonious...
Causing a cringe.
Causing a sigh.

Never melody, never beautiful.

But, I am content...
On my island.
In my sanctuary.

Always me, always in dream.

.

The inkpen on the table
Bleeds far less than its owner
Maybe that's the reason why
She never smiles anymore

The inkpen on the table
Has been shaken far less than its owner
Maybe that's the reason why
There's nothing left to salvage from this wreck

The inkpen on the table
Is not as black as the soul of its owner
Maybe that's the reason why
He has to be rewritten all the time

From the broken words
That spill across the pages in my head
To the paintings that adorn
The very walls of my heart
We still have time to rectify this calamity

From the rivulets that run
Throughout my depleted sandy soul
To the shadows that fall
Upon eyes that settle on the horizon
There rests hope on the eve of hopelessness

From the quicksand of mistakes
That have mired my steps for too long
To the whistles of locomotives
Across salty oceans of destiny
There I stand, changing colors like the sky

My mind sends reinforcements
To the crater where my heart once beat
I am sleepless when at peace
And I am exhausted when at war
I'm humbled by this new expanse

I just closed the door
While she's standing on the other side
I am numb and staring off into space
There are no feelings that once thrived
Instead, new pain fills the voids

It's obvious when she jumps, she misses
Leaving behind a footprint that tries too hard
To tell a happy story

She loses her confidence, and in turn, loses me
Because running is so much simpler
Than running in place

She scrawls all her feelings with invisible ink
And stores all the dreams she's saved
In a false bottom box

Beyond the layers and beyond the mask
There's a shimmer of something more
Something, I once adored

In the corner of her mind, I drift
Floating like detritus along the open sea
And waiting for an outstretched hand

Despite the gloss of morning bliss
And the hypothermia behind winter's kiss
I'm finally ready to say....stay

I've tripped through all your circumstances
And reveled in these everlasting glances
So, I'm finally ready to say....stay

Grant me a wish and I'll surrender
Tell me a secret and I'll remember
Because, I'm finally ready to say....stay

We are leery of promises, so we never make them
Hearts are sleeping, so why wake them?
But, I'm finally ready to say....stay

Our hill shimmers with angelic luster
Questions creep in, can I finally trust her?
Honestly, I'm finally ready to say....stay

She grabs her coat and slips on her boots
This passion has started taking its roots
And I finally say with all that I am....
Stay

I've never given much thought
To an afterlife
If it's as empty as life itself
I'm not sure there's even a point
If it's as painful as the loneliness
I've endured for you
I don't think I care to see it
I'm better off slowly killing myself
I've never given much thought
To the dreams we dream
As the air escapes our lungs
And as our heartbeat finally stops
But if I dream of us together
The way I always wanted us to be
Then maybe it's time to close my eyes
And never lift their weights again

I keep a faded picture
Thirty-two cents
And some lint in my pockets

The picture is who I was
The thirty-two cents is who I am
And the lint is what I will become

Under layers,
A word lies dormant in the dark
Under pressure,
A quiet rage swells in the deep
Soft earth,
Hardened where good men fell
Eve of eradication,
Waiting on division and the end
Under clouds,
We tear the fabric of blue skies
Under bombs,
We shed the skin of our apathy
Beleaguered body,
Sleep now, so I can dream
Surreptitious knives,
Withdrawn from the back of belief
Wander off now,
Til' tripwires change your mind, child
Come home again,
Death begins at the first uttered word
Come home again,
Life ends at the sound of silence