Come on and dance with me
It’s easy if you try
Come on and dance with me
Follow my lead and glide

Slip in the mud
Racing through your blood
You’re as good as gone
Drifting away with eyes half-shut

Come on and dance with me
It’s easy if you try
Come on and dance with me
You’re stepping out of time

It’s a living Hell
Cold sweats, puke, and pain
Your skin goes blue
When you drink the blackened rain

Do you want to dance with me?
It’s easy if you try
Come on and dance with me
As we fall down from the sky

Oh, come on and dance with me
It’s easy if you try
Come on now, dance with me
And I’ll shiver down your spine

The warmth is gone
The rush is fleeting away
You’ve nodded off
For the last time

You’ve come here to dance with me
So give me your best try
You've tread upon my dancing shoes
It’s now your time to die

Come on and dance with me
It’s easy if you try
Now, tell me 'bout your dance with death
Was it worth the high?

Come on and dance with me--

How do I sleep at night?
When you're losing this fight
Choking on candid emotions
That I can't even eat
Look at me, I'm thinning
Sure you are too
Sure it's a symbol
Of what's going to happen to you
I can't even fathom
You not being here
No more of this chasm
That you've fallen into
I'm sure if you die
I will too.

Little robin redbreast
sings best before the dawn,
sings to me a song of joy
I'm glad that he was born.

ROBIN REDBREAST CAME MY WAY,
HE COCKED HIS HEAD AS THOUGH TO SAY:
'GIVE ME YOUR LIFE, SO LONGER,
I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE LIKE YOU -STRONGER.'

I SAID: 'BUT YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL,
WITH YOUR FLASH OF RED,' SO IT'S SAID
THAT WE ENVY YOU AND THE THINGS YOU DO,
IT WOULDN'T BE THE SAME IF YOUR CHEST WAS BLUE.

PROMISE ME THAT YOU'LL LEAVE ME FOOD,
EVEN IF, EVEN IF YOU'RE IN A BAD MOOD,
YOU'LL NOTICE THAT I SAY SOME THINGS TWICE,
IT'S IMPORTANT FOR ME TO HAVE YOU NICE.

YOU'LL SEE ME TOMORROW THRO' LEAVES AND GREEN,
THEN YOU CAN ASK ME WHERE AND HOW I'VE BEEN.

We walk together, hand in hand, through the dappled light of the forest.

You are my little brother and my best friend. All is right with the world.

We watch rabbits scurry and squirrels jumping from limb to limb.

Birds watch perched upon high tree tops singing their lullabies .

The earth is soft beneath our feet, the dankness of decay filling our noses.

Ahead the light becomes brighter. YES! Let's go and see what is before us!

We find a clearing - a meadow of wild flowers. Colorful and bright. Sweet smelling delight!

Ahead we see a castle. Excitement pulses through our veins. We must run through the meadow.

Crushing little flowers as we go, the sun warm on our faces.

A bridge made of stone and brick rises before us. We slow for a minute to take it all in but in a sudden movement, you rush ahead of me.

I hear a scream and run to catch up.

A mother python waits with her 3 babies curled around her. She is coral in color and a beautiful specimen. You were too curious and did not take caution.

She has bitten you and your hand bleeds. Your skin has turned so white it is nearly translucent. You stumble backward. Before I can catch you, you fall over the bridge's edge and into the river below.  

I scramble down to get to where you lay amongst the rocks and icy water.

With heroic powers, I pick you up and carry you to land. You are dying in my arms. The castle is forgotten and I run as hard as I can to find your salvation.

Your breathing slows. I run through the meadow, into the forest, and my arms are growing tired.

Noooo! Please don't die. I fall to my knees with you in my arms. Your red hair seems even brighter against your ever whitening skin.

Are you breathing? I rest my head to your chest. A light, faint, slowing beat. My face is wet with tears. I am failing. How can I save you when I can no longer carry you?

Sometimes
At night
I relive the memories that we shared

and sometimes
Those same memories

Roll down past my eyes
And climb down my cheeks

These photos are a gateway to my memories;
They're the only remnants of things I no longer see:
The twinkling stars at the peak of twilight;
The terrifying tales around a campfire so bright,
The heart melting gaze of my new born brother,
The crash of waves as I build a sand castle with my mother.
And although they are torn and hard to see,
These photos are a gateway to my memories.

If I look to the star
Will you look to it too?
You know,
The one which shines so brightly
Over both me and you

If I look to the star and
Hold out my hand,
Will you look to it too and
Hold out your hand?

And if we look to the star
And both hold out our hands,
Will they meet
For the first time
Within this distant land?

If we look to the star,
Both hold out our hands and
Meet for the first time
Within this distant land,
Will you feel me
Like I feel you?

I feel you beside me  
When I look to the star  
And hold out my hand

I feel you beside me
Within this distant land

I think it was when I wiped away the 57th tear
That I realized I was no longer as strong as I thought I was.
That somewhere in between the screams and the apologies
I lost myself again to the repetition of apologetic syllables.
But then I try to tell you,
Show you my epiphany of purpose,
And I remember why I cry and scream.
Why the 'sorries' can never be overdone.
I have lost you, brother.
Somewhere before the burn in the throat
And the screech of the breaks.
Sometime before the 1st tear and still after the 608th.

For my brother, it meant everything
to stretch out and press
his face against the pane
of candy stretched crystalline.

To take the path away from father
for me one step away from
step-mother,
baking our dreams into
crumbs we left on the floor.

We’ll trace them back
to the place between
lost and found,
once we’ve fulfilled
our parts,
he’d always tell me.

But he doesn’t understand,
and honestly when does he,
that we’ve been doomed
from the start.

There is no Gretel,
to stoke the logs,
close the grate and latch
no heroine to fit the story’s need
there's only me

So when the witch comes back
she’ll ask
has Hansel truly grown fat?
a little pinch of the skin
an inadvertent test to see
which one of us should win?

It’s always an offering
always a suffering
always a surrender
of what makes me, she
and Hansel truly him

But I don’t mind
filling this role
I know it’s what I was made for
half baked like the crumbs
in a crummy oven
the real Gretel’s long gone
so her understudy will do.
If Mother could bake one daughter
why not try to bake two?

The witch will say it’s time
and ask me to reach back far
to find a warmth she can't see
it’s really not that odd
to hear the words escape me:
"why don't you try,
it's utterly exhausting
always having to hide"
and besides
I always desperately wanted
someone to show me

And I’ll even smile
as the crackle burns for just awhile
Hansel holding my hand
my pigtails askew.

The crumbs, our true
parents,
eaten in the leaves.

.....before you hurt someone else
With the sharpness of. Anger.
Wash your hands clean of
The past we were given
So that you may hold present day,
Not stained by the rust
Of a saddened heart.

My brother, you are my best friend.
You know my dark is the same as yours.
We carry the memories of
A tainted childhood.
My brother..... Let go.

Some things are better not said
We cannot change them now.
Nothing they could ever say
Could take IT away.

If it's validation, here this,
"My brother, we've survived!"
Look at you. So strong,
And this life made you this way...
Not broken, not ruined, unafraid.

This weight that you carry
Must be. So. Very. Heavy.

My brother,
Let go.