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

Our bodies overrode
Every last reasonable thought
A ring encircled your finger
But our love could never be bought
I backed you up against the wall
Passion surging as lips collided
I poured my soul into that kiss
The beat of my heart could not be silent
I ascended into the stratosphere
As I descended further into madness
The more my lips tasted your every paintbrush
The more residue adorned my canvas
Months went by in a single blink
Like a million lightning crashes
My hands explored your every inch
Until we were blind from all the flashes
Bitemarks and dripping sweat
Lovesick lust burning through a fever
"I love you," was whispered in your ear
"I love you too," made me a believer
Wrapping your legs tightly around
As I ****** myself inside of you
I never once stopped to consider
The repercussions of our love's tattoo
You shattered me, tattered me
And tore me completely to shreds
But the way I ****** you, and loved you
We should have never left the bed

My edges are fraying
My colors are running
My shadows are fading
My dreams are fleeting
Yet, despite all I have lost
I shall still wear my sins
As tattoos carved into
Both flesh and brittle bone
Yes, I shall still wear these sins
Because they are mine
And mine alone

Befriend me until the end
Because I am bound to my fate
We dance on clouds without silver linings
Yet, we wonder
Why only pennies fall from the broken sky

Betray me until I stay
Because I never stay in one place long
We're down to six degrees of separation
Yet, we wonder
Why we're always so **** cold

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

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

It's true
I used to have a softer heart
I used to feel the ***** of the pin
As it etched across the surface
Inscribing the images
Of your storied beauty,
And tattooing the words,
Such magnetic words
That drew me into your divinity

It's true,
I once possessed a sweeter smile
One that packed naivete in its suitcase
In its travels across my face
Vaulting me far beyond
Time and space,
And into a fairytale,
Such a frivolous fairytale
Forever staining my memory

But now,
I am trapped in this hourglass
With a heart made of granite
And for the first time
In this causal loop,
You're on the outside,
Peering in from the shadows
And the soft tissue
Is far from intact

Motionless and stationary
Yesterday haunts the steps of my boots
Over you, or just halfway under you?
Watching daybreak with one eye open
Nearing the point where splinters break

Weather is calm, but I'm a soul of storms
Out of the frying pan, out of reasons why
Rational?  No, but I never claimed to be
Seven hours in this abyss of apathy
Traitor!  Keep your distance and your sympathy

Each their own, but I've disowned myself
Nursing bitterness to spark another war
Everyday is just a spectre of deceit
My reflection stares right back at me
You, my friend, have become my own worst enemy

Effortless
I am a freeform mystery
And I may never come home again

Treacherous
But I can no longer stand the waiting
Because these heavy pages will not turn themselves

Senseless
My rhythm is ridicule
But this world cannot confine me with its atmosphere

Perilous
They call me a dreamless dreamer
For beyond the sunset, I have been driven star-craving mad

Weightless
My burdens float away into deep space
But this is where my yesterdays become a crater

Ravenous
The aesthetics of the universe overtake me
And I have decided, I am never coming home again

I'd go anywhere with you
Anywhere that the sun sets
Anywhere that your mind forgets
Anywhere that my heart still skips

But the best laid plans
Lay stationary
Waiting for their chauffeur
Waiting for their moment to come undone

I would have taken flight with you
Taken you beyond the shimmers
Taken nothing for granted
Taken the glow to the ever-after

But the fairest of the unfair
Stays stationary
Carrying the burden of beauty
And waiting for the words to ricochet

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

My bare feet smack wetly against the rock
Every step resounding louder than the last
Yet it seems that with each revolution
Of this cold, dying earth
Its melody gets harder and harder to hear

Some may argue the weight of the world
Rests upon this very stepstone
Yet it seems that in this crystal stream
Where our blood runs teal
We may, in fact, be erased from existence

My cadence is as stilted as the day of my first steps
Sharp edges saw at calloused heels
Yet my body finds an unknown balance
Beyond comprehension, beyond reproach
As I finally set foot upon death's lonely shore

Sing me a dream set to music
Light the kerosene lamps and sit next to me
Tell me tales and yarns of your choosing
Especially the ones that are make-believe

Hand me the rest of the wine
Set your feet on the stepstool of my heart
I don't care if you cry or laugh here
Sometimes, I can't tell the two apart

Watch the fireflies blink from the open field
Close the heavy book of your expectations
I'll never fall asleep if you never leave
And we can sketch our own constellations

Tell me that I just mean something
And I will mean it for the rest of my days
Maybe once tonight I can make you smile
So I'll finally learn what it is to be amazed

Having fallen into trances before
I am no stranger to the spectacle
I am just a thimble
And you, my love
You are the needle

Together, we sew the regal robes of this affair
With silver heartstrings tout and bare
I am perched on electric fences
And it's true, my love
You are the current

Leaving steps behind heavy feet
These stitches are losing their strength
I am neither a bridge nor water
But I drown in blue, my love
You are the anchor

This loft reeks of expired sunlight
While eastbound clouds obstruct my view
I am no stranger to my senses
But it's no use, my love
You are the senselessness

There is no longer a tomorrow
Because the cradles have all been emptied
Our guardians have abandoned their posts
Rock-solid patience, now chiseled down to envy

Distractions are now our consciousness
Sense once was endangered, yet now extinct
The young and innocent are now buried
Just because a father didn't stop to think

Please put the world on notice
Appeal to their stubborn sense of humanity
Because some things will never change
When it comes down to all this pride and vanity

- *Some Things Never Change (STNC)

Stop me if you have heard this one before.
"Boy meets girl."

Stop. Erase.

"Boy meets girl in a trivial pursuit."

Stop. Erase.

No, there is no meeting at all.
Meeting implies brevity.
A meeting is held in a conference room.
A meeting is not felt to the very core.
A meeting is no flower on the brink of bloom.

The reality is, the world ceases to spin on its axis.
The sun flares at the sight of her.
The moon implodes at the sound of her.
Mars and Venus collide at the touch of her.
All while constellations dance like moths,
Hovering far too close to a flame.

There is no pulse, only rhythm.
There is no break, only bend.
There is no rescue, only flailing.
There is no beginning, only end.

Now boy stands at the center of a great divide.
And girl disappears, abruptly as the tide.

Stop me if you have...

Stop.  Erase.

Stop me if you have heard this one before.
"Boy meets girl."

Stop. Erase.

"Boy meets girl in a trivial pursuit."

Stop. Erase.

No, there is no meeting at all.
Boy never meets girl, as meeting implies brevity.
A meeting is held in a conference room.
A meeting is not felt to the very core.
A meeting is no flower on the brink of bloom.

The reality is, the world ceases to spin on its axis.
The sun flares at the sight of her.
The moon implodes at the sound of her.
Mars and Venus collide at the touch of her.
All while constellations dance like moths,
Hovering far too close to a flame.

There is no pulse, only rhythm.
There is no break, only bend.
There is no rescue, only flailing.
There is no beginning, only end.

Now boy is standing at the center of a great divide.
And girl disappears, abruptly as the tide.

Stop me if you have...

Stop.  Erase.

I trip over another word
Yet I'm suddenly speechless
At the realization that we have no dialogue
My hands begin to quiver at the sounds
Of your voice, and of your name
But suddenly, all is calm here in the dark

I take another drink
Yet I'm suddenly sober
At the realization that there is no going home
My mind starts to swim beyond doubts
Beyond streams, and beyond oceans
But suddenly, there's nowhere left to swim

It unsettles me that no one
Not my golden-haired mother
Nor piteous father
Not my third grade teacher
Nor any of my flights of fancy
Ever took the time to explain

That when you paint yourself into a corner

All the colors you carry with you
Along the way
From sunburned pink
To sympathetic yellow
To the grayest of blue skies
Aren't the only things that bleed

Where the sun goes, I shall follow
I'll grab hold as it rises in the east
And I'll jump off as it sets in the west
With burned hands and scorched feet

Where the fire burns, I shall simmer
I'm better off dying slowly than in a heartbeat
Cold hard sweat beads across the face of apathy
And it's clear I'm in over my head

Where the pavement cracks, I shall fall between
I'm a step closer to redefining destiny
And a step further from where we left our misery
Sitting on the bedside table

Where the world turns, I shall be waiting
I'll tear the bandage off and embrace the scars
And wave goodbye to the passersby
They don't even know how finite they really are

Stained glass,
It hides the loathing
But nothing can hide the avarice
A southbound train rips rain from clouds
And he frowns as heaven spills her cup

He sips at tea,
Oversteeped
Swimming in thoughts bereft of color
The seat makes him feel claustrophobic
But less so than he felt yesterday

The grinding of gears,
That ****** grinding plays her melodies
Guilt shimmers off mountain waters
While subtle delusions of grandeur thrive
Deep within his heart's lifeless abyss

The train finally stops,
And he buttons his overcoat
As broken words rattle around his mind
The next stop, sweet's revenge upon bitter
The next town, failure's judgment day

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

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

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

Shadows falling
I scale back the grip on the reigns
Her smile possesses me,
It forsakes me, then retakes me

Careless caregiving
I cannot fathom my own peril
For her slender fingers entice me,
They chase me, then erase me

Stave off regret
For another hour, two at most
Her voice is beautiful slander,
It directs me, then infects me

Tempestuous
Building shelter is my priority
For her storm consumes me,
It supplants me, then replants me

If you only knew,
Of the weight that attached itself
To my heart
If you only knew,
Of the grief that I feel
Knowing I brought tears to your eyes
And if you only understood,
That you were my weightlessness all along
My respite
My home
My shoreline
Then maybe I wouldn't be tethered to this anchor
Still drifting in the current of my dreams

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

Step 1: fall, and fall hard
Step 2: give up a piece of yourself that you won't get back
Step 3: take a piece of someone else that they won't get back
Step 4: rinse
Step 5: repeat steps 1-4

It used to be better to run with the devil I knew, but the devil I knew ran from me

And siphoned any remaining trace of faith in my soul

The devil I knew made me question the echoes born from my own voice

And delved into abysses that spanned eternity and beyond

The devil I knew held my sanity at knifepoint

And vilified the things that comprised the best of me

So now, instead of being the devil I know, it is far better to think of you as...

the devil I never met

Tender helpless hands
Outstretched from the colossal abyss
That is love, loss, and lethargic lullabies

Digging deeper
The dirt is caking underneath my fingernails
Desperately clawing to find a God within his children

Yet finding nothing of the sort
Weary arms become numb and listless
Letting shadows consume the brief pale sunrise

Grappling with faith
Bleeding like horizons over porcelain eyes
Heaven, Hell, or am I straddling fences again?

Bravery before brevity  
Sanity has no sovereign, no direction, no pulse
And honor is a last breath escaping from dying lungs

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

Send me in a new direction
Where your footsteps tell me that I belong
Rain-drenched hair, dirt under my nails
And desperate futures locked tightly in a box

My dreams are all in foreign language
And my compass spins around aimlessly
The way back under your peaceful sky
Is accompanied by storms and bittersweet memories

I can't erase the past, so I will paint anew
This trail has been mired with ambivalence
For through the games we've won, and the stakes we've lost
My love for you has never failed

Tethered to an illusion
He'd rather sink than swim
Abandon all six senses
Rather than feel desolation again

Tis' no crime to trace one's edges
But falling off is a different matter
Shame is a seaworthy vessel
Sailing on oceans of greed and clatter

He rappels from throne on high
Storms heed no man's command
An avalanche of fears behind him
Ahead, a bleak and lifeless wasteland

But seams don't tear unless they fray
Utopia costs more than infinite gold
Ambition built this city of avaritia
But he watches it crumble beneath the soul he sold

So I'm a fool
What does that entail?
Is it because I walk this endless road?
Faceless and alone
Never stopping to settle myself
In all the crevices of life

Or is it because I revel in the mystery?
Stealing stars from the sky
Lapping at dew that tastes like poison
As the sun beats me down
I am just a carnivore
With an empty stomach

I think I'll hatch a harebrained scheme
One to form and mold my self-worth
Is this wonderland all out of wonder?
Or after all this debating
Am I just a politician
With an empty stomach?

April emerges with little ambition
And it will fade as swiftly with similar intentions
So I am proud to be its fool
Careless and divided
Never aiming for the spoils
Just watching out for the watchers

"Don't fret," he says,
As feet singe along the highway
As callouses form
And perdition looms ever closer

"We do not count missteps here," he says,
As our eyelids flutter
As colors bleed
And the horizon becomes our last best hope

"Perchance one day I tame this gravity," he says,
"I may yet label these perils as the cruces of my life,"
As mirages dance
And tomorrow's spies step out of shadow

"Ensure, my child, you settle your debts," he says,
As the fog dissipates
As pockets jingle
And the road eschews its weary travelers

From a narrow perspective
Empires collapse
Not because of breached walls, but far, far within

In the aftermath of a gavel's echo
The moon shifts
Leaving us in a constant effervescent imbalance

There are soldiers pacing
Left, right, left, right
Halting our progress in the arc we're set upon

This red sky is draining our blood
Like fleas upon our flesh
Drab and scattered visions, unyielding to good intentions

Brave soul slithers away
A python with no fangs
He flees and fades into swollen glands of fallen visionaries

Leashed curses wrench loose
Boulders fall on empty heads
We are more near to barbarism than we first guessed

Fire, spreading, unfurling
Left, right, left, right
Untie these bonds, and we will watch them all burn

This lore we have created
Taken for granted and back again
The steps we have taken
Where scuttlebutt scrapes and scratches skin

Seething in their brilliance
These broken days echo throughout my soul
I'm lost between where winter rises and summer sets
Tearing at mind and flesh, a costly toll

Weakened eyes reap what they've sown
I slumber deep within this encumbrance
The roads we have forsaken
Shimmer like gold in their extravagance

This war we have been waging
Straddling fences and bleeding sorrow
This was the greatest of my yesteryears
Starving our hearts just to save tomorrow

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 only difference between you and me
is everything

Yet, the symmetry
Where I stop, you stop again
Where I will go, you've already been
We straddle both sides of this broken fence

The only difference between you and me
is everything

Yet, the chemistry
A bond unbroken by salt and ocean
A reaction unchanged by speed and motion
Valleys flood from our melting point

The only difference between you and me
is everything

Yet, the electricity
Thunder rolls, bumps rise from skin
Hearts hum, our axis spins
Drowned in static, we remain harmonious

Because the only difference
Between you and me, is everything

.

Without a vestige of sanity left
Seems I have succumbed to the space between
The space between what is warm, and what is frigid
The space between what is fixed, and what is broken
The space between what is real, and what is figment

Without a vestige of brown in my eyes
Seems I have succumbed to the space between
The space between what is white, and what is black
The space between what is subtle, and what is manifest
The space between what is merely past, and what is prologue

Without a vestige of love left in my heart
Seems I have succumbed to the space between
The space between what causes a smile, and what causes a tear
The space between what floats, and what sinks
The space between what is found, and what is lost

My shirttail is undone
And your lips aren't painted
Except with the soft shades of surrender

My dreams are tattooed with kudzu
Your scent catches sweetly against the air
Spilling my heart as you close the door

Your eyes have been watering
But I'm hundreds of miles away
Thousands, if you include the pillow

I flick the hourglass on the nightstand
Witnessing myself slipping down the glass
As the last of the grains slowly trickle down

You fix your hair in the mirror
And I know my days are numbered
As years disappear from the calendar

I catch a glimpse of our first kiss
Soft and sudden like rolling thunder
Hands tugging at the threads of infinity

But the stairwell whispered its certain destiny
And watched, as my heart took the flight up
Yours took the flight down