Almost three in the afternoon, and I’m barely on my second cigarette
That’s the best I’ve been all year, and it hasn’t been easy
The days feel like a forever, just as the months sift through my fingers
Started reopening old wounds, reliving the post trauma of past disorders
Me and sobriety tag teamed against my addictions is never a fair fight, not for us
So to fight the night, I play the war cries of my past life
But it also triggers a tornado of flashbacks that may prove harder to escape
Just so happens, the storm drops me into the wasteland following High School
This post puberty, postmortem gutter i had trapped myself in
A time of mutual disruption and inspiration, which often go hand in hand
I found myself wandering the wilderness with a rabid wolf pack from the suburbs
This crew was crazy… and not in the “seen too many movies” crazy
We’re talking smoking crack in an Indiana cornfield at three in the afternoon crazy
Leading rebellions in a midnight diner, flipping tables and calling everyone a Communist
Getting beat down and thrown out of a ******* for sticking a finger into a stripper’s -
LISTEN, crazy ****, okay?
They were Lost Boys, Wild Boys, Rockstars, Freedom Fighters
Allow me to set the stage for most nights down this rabbit hole
A run down foreclosure filled with delinquents and refugees
The basement is ten decibels too loud and ten degrees too hot
The entire shell of the home pulses from the energy beneath it
We enter through a side door, and everyone nods us in
Down the stairwell, all you can see is a blood red fog striped by laser beams
It looks alive with its own toxic attitude
It beckons us further down, with an evil laugh and an angry drum
We crowd into a VIP room just off the basement dance floor
Several lines of happy powder cut by a razor peak across a Green Day album
The room stinks of smoke, sweat and stress… but don’t judge us for our lifestyle
If you’ve never altered your state of mind, how the **** do you know you’re in the right one?
As I smile at that rebellious thought, a blue haired temptress catches my eyes, and smiles
She makes room for me on the couch, and we trade names
She was dripping in *** appeal beneath her studded leather jacket, and beneath that… her true beauty
Her mind was a well crafted musical instrument, of which she played only for the Devil
Maybe that’s how she was raised, maybe that’s just how she got attention
Trust that I know what love is, better than most who have claimed the title
But sometimes, it’s the absolute last thing that you need or want
So I countered with my own Satan’s fiddle
It we’re speaking maturity, I was nowhere near the age of consent
She said I had some point of view issues, and I said,
“You mean how my view keeps pointing me in the wrong direction?”
“******* little boy, careless of the crimes to come?”
Sensing a dead end, I looked for my crew, but they were nowhere in sight
Yep, those are my friends, my kin, the ones who abandoned me
We made out for a while before she stopped me with sad eyes and a pearly grin
“Sorry darlin, but there’s just something twisted about you...”
She would die from ****** a week after telling me that, and it hit the tribe hard
I kept that dagger she pierced me with close to my chest long after that
Next time I saw the leader of our pack, he was far from the warrior he once was
Less than a shadow, barely a voice, with a needle in his arm
I left his house after only an hour, and cried for an hour after that
I sat in my car, in a Chicago December, freezing my nuts off
Because I forgot to turn the car on, because I was too busy mourning the loss
of so many visionaries, so many poets
These beautiful individuals who inspired me, they were dead… gone forever.

After that, I pulled the headphones off, and lit another cigarette to ease my mind.

“To be 21 and wild again
To be hopeful, and feral
And bright and wild eyed again…
To feel the passion of youth, the spring of energy,
To feel untouchable, to feel in front of the line
With the whole world in front of you again
Oh, to be 21 and alive again, to be free again…”
Except, we weren’t
Remember those days, and the games we’d play?
Life was so simple, we felt so brave
How quickly it passed us by, how cute when we tried to hold on tight
Then you proposed the crime of the ages
“Let’s just not grow up?”
Her bold rebellious attitude was just the tip of the iceberg that sunk me
Her curly brown hair made her look much younger, like me
It bounced around her face, made her look innocent
She had a button nose, with a dimple on either side
Her blue eyes radiant with life
Her girlish charm held back a monster worse than mine
She’s pretty ****** up, and there’s a lot of reasons why
Of course I saw that as a bonus, to find someone as dangerous as me
The fact that you liked my music steadily turned me on
But it quickly got dangerous
Soon I was in over my head
Oh you evil taunting cupid and your poisonous arrows…
If a full moon and an Indian Summer had a baby,
They would name it YOU
And I fell hard, head first and almost broke my arms
Just a drop of happiness, and I’d fight the world for you
We wanted it, not for them, but for us, for the rest of our lives
Every time we got back together, we thought it was forever, so we never asked why
We were both lonely, I took refuge inside of you
We were both very broken
It wasn’t that we mended each other,
It was more like our broken pieces fit really well together
But we never got better, we loved the broken versions too much
We cherished our tragedies, relished in our dramedies
I just wasn’t ready to handle such a fight
You just weren’t mature enough to understand the message

She’s already a distant memory, already too far gone
Only trophies and bruises remain
Her lipstick still stains the glass
I keep it as a trophy in the back of the cupboard
Less as a memory, more like a hunting trophy
Lesson learned, now I know better
I write that line to make you think I’m not into you
But really I couldn’t stop thinking about every bit of you
And how I know it’s not fate or misguided
I wanted to run away with you, pleaded with you
“All I know is somewhere beyond those tracks is where you and I live on,
The music is our train ride the hell out of here…”
I’m clear headed now
And the next time you feel the need to call me after 3, don’t
And don’t you call me “honey”, “dear”, or “darling” again
They’ve all been retired and overplayed
They leave me with a sour after break deep inside
Tell me again how this is best for both of us
How you did this for my sake, not just yours
And that I’m better off without you
Now the darkness has become my friend,
And you want me to keep you safe?
Fear not, for I would never let them hurt you
But we will never share the moonlight again
Now, you’re too weak for me, and I got plans to be
I’ve got a world to meet, now it’s you’re turn to watch
You did a bang up job making me feel welcome
Now I’ve got dibs on the good bye
I’ll wear the scars for you, they look better on me any way
We may have outgrown the lyrics, but not the meaning
The songs still haunt me, still mean so much to me
I fear they’ll follow me to my grave
Bury me beneath the tree where we first met,
At least my bones will rest young and happy
Love can really ******* up, you know
Here’s to hoping your arms are open, when I finally fall

I once believed you to be royalty, oh, the irony
Oh best believe,
That queen of mine? An Icy queen
Embracing calamity religiously
She kept a diary of bad ideas, most of them involving me
Love was never your problem
No, it was the trail of severed organs that followed you the **** around
I use to laugh whenever her hair got caught in her horns
Until one day she got mad and tore at my wings
I was far from Heaven Born
But compared to her, I was an angel
Possessed, from her head to her thighs
In my experience girls from that part of town
Didn’t have much back bone
Held too close as little ones
“It’s wise to stay away”, they would say
But she had these eyes
To blink was to do them injustice
They were on fire
They had back lighting
And a sound system
Her smile screamed evil
But those eyes looked like a roller coaster
They made my mouth water at the possibilities
Made my face red, made my knees week
At first her crazy was welcomed
A new challenge, a new adventure
Her insanity turned me the Hell on
But it didn’t take long to see it was but a taste
The more I welcomed, the crazier she became
The rabbit hole was deep, dark, and filled with thorns
Soon her childlike attitude revealed her serial killer nature
“I swear, I just wanna cuddle,”
You said as you wrapped your hands around my neck
Burned my arms with cigarettes
Id wake up deep within the night
And find you glowing, naked in the Marlboro light
Just before you plunged it into my thigh
It wasn’t love, it was an obstacle course
A bad trip, a worse come down
A pain that lasted for days
That drove me to the break
If I had a dime for every time
You held a razor to my eyes
and whispered “This won’t hurt a bit…”
Every so often I’d come to my senses
And hit the ejection button
A quick escape
To remind me what normal felt like
Pardon our abrupt, and violent ending
I needed an excuse to wake the **** up
Run the **** away,
And never see you again
You gave me everyone I never wanted to meet
A dozen different sides to your coin
And every time I saw the light and ran
You’d punish me still
Every time I left, the kissing booth reopened
Above it read, “Help Me Make Him Miserable,
Help Me Break His Heart,”
I’d ask her why
And she’d slap the **** out of me
As if my broken heart was an insult to her
My insulting humanity an attack on her insanity
How dare I find offense in her abuse
How dare I fight her assault
To see myself as a human worthy of freedom
What insult to want to be loved without fear
She never really let me go
For too long after she held my number hostage
Leaving horror movie voice mails
Kidnapped an innocent part of me
Torturing it whenever she got bored
And calling me so I could listen to it
She would sing songs in her messages
******* acapellas that celebrated her madness
The soundtrack to a horror film
The little girl in white
Jumping rope in you’re nightmares
“You’ll never get rid of me…”
You’re right, I won’t
You’ll forever be a lesson in how never to be
“Imagine me and you…”
I do,
I hate you for it every time,
And every night,
I think about the girl you were
Out of her mind
So happy without you…
“Baby, we could’ve been something”
Yeah I know
It scares the living **** out of me
I gave up everything that hurts, including you
Never again will I let you hold my breath
You’re nothing to me but another dead relationship
That stinks no matter how much concrete I pour on it

Your first mistake was assuming you were crazier than me
My mistake was hoping her crazy was my crazy
Her smile reminded me of someone, should’ve scared me, but it didn’t
And why did she keep throwing it my way?
I was two years younger, nothing special, and she was married…
She’d wear these broken eyes of cracked amber that reflected the Sun
Pull you inside to cold, moonless nights
She gave just enough to miss it, just enough to want more
A simple drop, a tease on the tongue
She was small, but far from delicate
Young, but far from innocent
A stolen kiss is the sweetest thing
A secret show is even more exciting when he’s not home
I watched at first, too drunk to move, as she danced with her dog,
Surrounding her was this aura, this bubble of innocence
A little girl playing with her fur child
Until she caught me spying on her, and a devilish smile gave me chills
I always fall for the forbidden ones, don’t I?
She was on top of me faster than I could say adultery
But she waited until we were both naked before threatening my silence
That night in itself was an adventure, but it was just beginning
One night in drunken lust turned to weekly bedroom confessions
An unhappy marriage, an unhappy home
I’ll show you my scars if you stop parading yours
“Darling, I’m too broken for you to mend.”
So we started spilling war stories
And you offered me the job of being your secret boy toy
Well weren’t you full of broken promises
She was my perfect type of crazy, I just wasn’t hers
You know the truth deep down. You and me?
We were over due for a catastrophe
******* wasn’t the danger, feeling was the danger
Our fist kiss was soaked in tears, it was one of the happier nights then
All I felt was separated from everyone else, and you made me feel less alone
But it was just something you said out loud to feel less like a criminal
“You know sometimes I don’t think you really care about me.”
Why should I? When I needed you, you weren’t
I was your convenient escape, you were the one that always ran away
You were never happy with your life, but you were too afraid to live any way else
“She’s putting on that make up for somebody, and it isn’t you.”
Two people knew of our rendezvous, and they called me so stupid
And they were right, as I was always wrong
Oh, you really care about me? Want me to be happy?
“He’s posting songs about suicide again…
should one of us go check on our ‘friend’?”
your late night charity work only made my situation worse
“If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m always here”
STOP THE PRESSES! SHE HAS FEELINGS!
*******.
I think she got enough mistakes out of me
She’d already had her fill before she met me
Then I realized, it was always gonna end badly
Your spewed venom’s incredibly undesired,
But Hell knows its nothing short of reasonable
For the second time, I was at your mercy for my mistakes
The one thing I swore I wouldn’t do again
Turn around and run to you
How about something for the effort?
A little consolation prize for all we’ve been through?
Your lopsided thoughts keep me up at night
Your hypocrisy blows my mind, I’ve known some shady nymphos
But you, sweetie baby? You take the cake
Oh faithless, furious fortune, what did I do to deserve this?
Now you see why I have trust issues
I’m so glad it didn’t work, for once I didn’t have to learn the hard way
Life just pulled me aside and said, “Nope, not her.”
I realized, she doesn’t deserve that many pages in my story
She’ll always be there, no matter how much I hide it
The ink will always run deep.
Feel free to blame me for the rest of your life, you already do,
And I’ll be your excuse, it was all my fault all along
But you and I will know the truth, I will take it to my grave
Now you’re one of my good memories, which is all kinds of ****** up
But she’s gone, and I’m better for it
She only belongs in those early chapters
The epilogue is for me, and the next book after that
Sometimes, holding on does more damage than letting go

One time, Monopoly got ******
Of all the board games, not the one you’d expect to get x rated
Hungry Hippos seems more ******
Or holdem, or Don’t Wake Daddy
Although that one would be pretty ****** up
But anything’s ****** when you have a woman like that as admin
She’ll turn morning cartoons into a pornhub episode
She hass a vendetta against the boring normal
The color of her hair matched the fire in her eyes
The curves of her hips matched the fury that moved them
As ruthless as she was beautiful
Yet her armor was breaking, I could see many dents and cracks
But she brushed it off, and just looked at me with a sinister face
Her fingers danced across the board
Her body moved to the music in the background
She’d lick her fingers before grabbing a card
Everything she did was planned
She knew I was watching
I knew she was in control
She’d lean over the table to expose beneath her shirt
And if her piece, ended up near my end of the board?
The torture began
And she started dancing around my mind
Her *** was center stage
Her body filled with my fantasies
I was her leftover toy
And she loved treating me like a board game
Something to toss around for fun
Her sinister intentions made my face red
I was an experiment that she treated like pre funding
I was not a person, I was a subject
Her target, her new trophie
She was clearly into abuse
I don’t judge fantasies, but dayum
I melted in her hand
She turned it up to eleven
I stopped paying attention to the game
And she started winning
“I own that property, now you owe me something…”
I look at her dumbfounded
Her leg brushes mine, and she reveals a ***** little secret
Something she’s not wearing underneath
I hear her mom doing dishes in the kitchen
I look at her with doubt
She smiles like a movie villain
And bites her tongue with evil excitement
She dances on my tongue like champagne bubbles
Her fingers dance like a spider across my leg
And it doesn’t even creep me out
She uses her tongue like a toothbrush
She grabs me so hard I lose my breath
Forces my hands onto her
I hear her mother’s footsteps
“You can’t be serious…” I whisper
“It’s more fun this way” she giggles gleefully
She pulls away just as her mother enters the room
She tells her mom we have to leave for a study group
We leave the game unfinished
She grabs the stick shift with her hand, and my ear with her teeth
She whispers, “Let’s get crazy tonight…”

Poverty is the heroine to addiction
If you can’t afford to distract yourself
From the bad habits that normally keep you distracted?
Good luck finding something better than nothing to do
Sooner or later, the voice that “knows better”
Will tell you how to take your pain away
A few easy steps, a few steps back,
And all your troubles will disappear
And so will all your cares, and memories,
Kiss your friends and family good bye
There’s a good ******* reason this **** is addicting,
It’s because it’s AWESOME
It feels like the best friend that was there at every best memory
The helping hand through every break up,
The confidence behind every bold decision
Life is just more comfortable when you don’t have to face it alone
But it blinds you from more than just the nightmares
And the pain it hides doesn’t stay hidden for long
It only gets worse with time
As for time, I hope you have plenty of it to lose
Nothing escapes the black hole,
Not even your light
And you learn too late, this life is too short as it is
Even your closest loved ones learn it’s impossible to love a ghost
You start to mutate in front of the mirror
Your fingers start to forget everything
Your body becomes too heavy to care
A wild fire rages across your mind
Turning pain and memory to ash
The armor you cling so faithfully to
Is poisoning you from the inside out
Pierces your soul with the needle, ***** it out with the pipe
Traps it in the bottle, never again to be yours until you break it out,
Which gets harder with every surrender
As the armor becomes your only skin
Until all that’s left is the pain you tried to run away from, so many years ago
So please, stay with it, stay strong for tomorrow
Sober up, soldier up, and figure this the **** out,
The future is so much better when you see it coming
So much brighter when it doesn’t blind you.