Sometimes I wish I could go back to when I was a kid again
And be blind to this messed up world we're living in
But I know this can't be so I do my best to cope
Control my impulses before I start to choke
On all the frustration I feel building on my throat
They got our backs up against the ropes
One more push and it's gonna be the final poke
It is time we all start to sing a different note
We are running out of time it feels like the end is close
I'm just trying to make it long enough to watch some grand kids grow
I ask the world because I just have to know
How long are we gonna hold onto the hate and when can we let it all go
Don't tell me this madness will last forever
Somebody please tell me it isn't so...

I met this girl that claimed she didn't want to live
It made me think back to when I was a kid
I experienced pain like most people do
But I always thought to myself this can't all be true
Something had to be wrong with this picture I'm seeing
I'm yelling so loud but its like no one hears me screaming
I look at her face and see the hurt in her eyes
I pick my words carefully because I know she has already heard too many lies
I want to say something to comfort her pain
I know all to well those feelings of shame
She said the cutting helps her but I could tell that it didn't
She spoke with reassuring words but her eyes read something different
She had no idea of the people I've lost
They thought taking their own lives was the only way to make it all stop
Little does she know the regret they must feel
To be gone from their loved ones because they couldn't deal
With the pressures life brings everyone has to face it
You live and you learn only time can replace it
So when I asked her to give it time I was pleading
To stop craving the pain and the bleeding
Give life a chance because it's passing you by
While you sit and you wallow and ask yourself why
Some things in this life go unexplained
But if you die now it would be in vain
Cause all that would be left is a girl without a name

Warm condensation
drips in time
to some old doo-***
on the stereo.

Casually, I clear off
a small section
of the bathroom mirror.
I notice
the uninterrupted curves of my face—
the unsettled color of my eyes—
& the freckles
that weren't there yesterday.

With my fingers,
I lightly graze my mouth
between those hummed harmonies.

My lips seem
to be a deeper red this morning.

I inspect the top bit
& bite down on its bottom counterpart
if only to keep my coy smile in place.

*No one knows
what I dreamt last night
except me.