We've got an old way
of working things out
and an old life
(we are young, sister)
though you say we're young
(I never lie)
but how could we be
since that old dusty memory
is clear…. clear… clear
(ah, yes, you see we're young)

And I didn't say I didn't care
I just want to forget...
and would heaven
be at our door
if it never had happened
(Is that a question?)
well why did it happen?
just to us
(just to us, both of us)

When I am home
I get shivers
and cold feet
as they touch
where he had fallen
and you are out drinking
(I am always here)
as I am sinking
and the fat ugly droplets won't fall
they're weak things tugging at my scalp
if they fall, I can rest
(you sleep better than me)
I want them gone
but my skin is a cage is a desert
(darling, face it.  You have dry eyes and a messed-up conscience-)
and whatever tries to seep out
evaporates into nothingness
why had this happened to me?
(you mean us, you silly girl)

What can come from tragedy-
this is no blessing in disguise
(it was bound to happen)
and your eyes are that of an old man's
(our eyes.  Looked into the mirror recently?  I think not)
yes we are older than him now
headhunters gather strength in their victims
we gather age
(we are young, don't lie to us)
chained together by skin
(bound together is a better word)
invisible to the eyes of others
you sit, ghostlike in the bar
(I haven't had a drink in years!)
Sometimes coming back to the skin we share
you are my sister
my blind spot
(the intelligent side, come to think of it)
the dirt on my tongue
which I haven't found a way to spit out yet
you crunch under my teeth
(you are the dirt, the whiner, the pessimist
the man was a worthless criminal.
I saw him dreaming of us.
and I cannot digest his foul thoughts,
I knew him better than you
I saved our life.)

Mother birds at home,
Their babies are too young to die
Why did their children fly away?
Away in metal shells,
Forgetting feathers to cushion their fall

Cold blooded snakes bearing symbols
Stole their baby birds,
Ate their innocence,
And threw them at their enemies
To win ashes left from beauty,
beauty slithering beasts cannot obtain

The snakes are poisoned
Their leader: dead
His skin and all that mattered: shed.
And now the little birds must be slain
By enemies they'd not wished to gain

And fly away, they must
In their hulking metal shells
Carrying as many others
Underneath their arms

But whom do they choose to carry off?
Few they can help,
Thousands more; forced to stay,
Thousands they wouldn’t have to cry for,
Thousands they wouldn’t have to remember in sharp obsidian dreams,
Thousands they wouldn’t have to gun their engines
And run over, to save they few they could
If snakes hadn’t stolen them away

Cry no more;
Create feathers from metal,
Though they may at first cut your fingers
Take,
If nothing else,
Hope from endings,

And the strength to fly
after falling

Mother birds wish for their chicks to live beyond them
To a new horizon they born to see
They coo in their nests,
Shocked and unable to cry out in pain
Tithing new mothers and their newborns a wish,
To live lives that are long
For all are young
Who see hope slain
And purpose undone

Dew 'neath the eyes
become teasing images that lack substance
but I am sightless
my home is black, colored only for those who bring their lanterns,
never shifting, but drifting
turning accidentally back,
and I, not the right degree drift,
find a face I'd thought I lost-

don't wind the clock
or leave the key
where I may see it

if you insist,
if I am your guest,
give me rooms covered in seaweed from the oceans coffin
where I may drift unharmed, untouched

your rooms,
scorched by the warm ice,
giving views to the otherlands,
where motionless green beasts ponder their actions,
filled with water,
yet never willing to give,
spiking those that dare,
those, desperate and dehydrated enough to dare..
those are for the wild,
who need pain to quench their need for adventure,
mules in a constantly shifting land

no, I want cool floors of laminaria,
they'll squelch beneath these pale feet of mine,
and, as I gather dew,
calm my feverish scalp

Come again into the sea
let the salt sting your eyes
and cry your tears of joy
and seaweed tangle your feet
and sand, wash away with the tide
until you are as clean as a newborn
for you are born again

let the water soften your skin
and give you little wrinkles

Dive into the depths and peer at the mysteries below
come with me, for this I know
we belong in the waters wide
and swimming far, down low
push fault and fear aside
and with the days you’ll grow

Oh, come with me to laugh and blow bubbles to the surface where they’ll pop
like little orbs of mirth all innocent and sweet
for these are the sweets of the sea

and splash in the waves and sing melodies and laugh ‘till you can’t stop
like pure sunshine in our ears, immortal in our memories
and we can pretend to be immortal until we die

and breath in the clean air
and stare at fishes fair
and the unknown creatures rare

Come again into the sea
and dive deep down,
until all you can imagine is the water
surrounding you
becoming you
cleansing you
keeping you

Come again, for I am lonely,
and the water can be cold
I need another person
a warm body to love and hold  

and stay, for I know you’ll want to go
but don’t, please don’t
many did, so long ago