Lay siege to my mind;
Pull strands of old thought
Through old soot, through old knots
Force the draw bridge to lower,
Archaic mosaic of my brain’s walls
A palisade to invade
A great brawl

Raise the caskets,
A layer of dust, and sediment
A lock of resentment, a fear of resettlement
A mockery of my pottery
My walls fall into crumble,
How long until dismemberment
How long until my deepest thoughts
Are your white elephant

The staggering hiss and crackle of the ice beneath your feet
Is the same sputtering strain I feel in my chest;
The beat of the muscle contracting,
The beat of the muscle recedes, taking comfort in it’s nest

A phantom, masked,
The apparition of my past, taken aghast without reason taken into scrutiny, without heed
Inexcusably
Without the feud, or the fight
Or the chance at a bait cast

I stare stained glass in the face,
Unclear, tainted of a better day,
Unsure where the path lays
My spectacles unmovable,
I should take on eyes of the blind, but I can’t look away

What is a lonely cricket's life even worth
if no one hears it chirp?
Are we to determine it's worth,
Between it's time of death and birth?

A true adventurer as I ever did see,
A warrior who leads,
A lone survivor I admire
One of grass and trees

The cricket never lost or stopping to wonder
One step after another,
His compass: his heart,
The path is his brother

Takes the world as is for what it sees
The small ground it defeats
in it's tiny, naked life
But only tiny to me

Even when no ear to vindicate the sound
Musical leaps and bounds
A song in every step
A composer unowned

A melody just to entertain the sky
A beautiful chirping cry,
Even when no one's to listen
Even when no one's nearby

Far away like a planet
I see you appear
My memory jogs, latching to a slot
like a view-master
You're finally here
I click through
It's rickety with static,
I'm stricken with fear
I know what nostalgia can do
Raising feelings of the past like the undead
Dropping thoughts like morning dew

But I start to breathe,
I see our souls come out to play,
and I lost myself today
As I watched our spirits dance
Mine flowing like a blue dress
and yours like wild fires
And everything's okay
It's like we never stopped the music
all this time it played
I knew that we'd cross paths again
and dance our dance
I just took the longer way
We had to take the scenic route
to learn about ourselves
I got to know a few people on the way
they were all the wrong ones
who taught me all the right things
the past, half-assed relationship trash
and those who led us both astray
all part of the plan, you could say
the one where I walk past you in a grocery store isle
simple glance and then I take your hand
before you pay
feelings ablaze like it was yesterday

But that was not when we saw each other last
(it was a decade perhaps)
and souls barely attached
hands and heart weak from the past
but warm now
in your grasp
because through all time and space
through you and I
this love exists
at last

The tide of my mind flows in and out,
breathing out then in,
Dryness in my mouth
There's ripples in my heart and bubbles in my belly
I thought I was drowning, but
I'm sorry dear earth,
I must have drank the ocean

My hands reach out like branches to you,
dead parts of my past
fall off me like an autumn day
you've built your nest upon me and I hear your song
I thought I was falling, but
I'm sorry dear earth,
I must have ate a tree

I hit rock bottom at the base of an obstacle
I started the climb,
You latched your rope to mine
Pulled when I was slipping and relaxed my heavy breaths
I thought I wasn't budging, but
I'm sorry dear earth,
I must have stole a mountain


But I am no robber.
Then is this what it is to feel love?

Your tongue of no's
licks me dry

I have a brain of water
taking the shape of whatever it's in
and when it is in you
you manipulate it

and I say the words you want
and I think the thoughts you got
and I walk the steps you walk

but I don't let go of my balloon
I play with it in my room
and I fly when you leave
I go back to me
and there's all the yes's I want there to be