I cant seem to get the words right
or find meaning on a moonless night
or impart wisdom from an endless fight
I mean to but cannot, try as I might.

It's all inconsistent meter
and rhyme schemes which teeter
on the edge of verse but too eager
I wonder am I even the speaker?

God, give me a second try at youth
I swear I could do a better job
I know the pits and traps and
I know how it feels on the other side
of wasting it.
I know I could be me better.

I heard a song on the radio
from when we were young
and I thought of all the promise
when we'd just begun
and I've loved you like crazy
even though I know it's not
been enough.
I want you to know that I fought
too late to be greater
perhaps too late to be good
hopefully not too late
to be loved
or too late to be understood.

I can't seem to get the words right
You've got vision and I've only got sight
You've got power and I've only got might
You grew up yesterday and I haven't quite

I can hear you breathing
beside me at night, curled in your blanket
eyes shut but not tight
and you look like twenty years
of versions of you I've known
you smell of warm comfort
and feel just like home.

I've been avoiding the mirror lately.
For reasons of my own.
I want you to be happy
You risked much to get here
and taken hit after hit
gritted your teeth and swore
to love and commit.
I'm in constant awe of your grit
your charm, grace and whit
but I wish I'd been a better fit
as your prize for fighting in the pit
I'm hardly a get. Not even worth it.

I can't seem to get the words right
or the structure, and what's worse
the language is halted and terse
not remotely poetic.
Just formless verse.
Language cannot frame my regret
or my mortality, or hue.
And if it fails to frame me
it could never capture you.