It's these wintry nights
That hit me the hardest,
Frozen under blankets
With love at its farthest.

I sleep in the day,
Ignore the fact that
I'm wasting away
Any chance I had.

Even in summer heat,
Even in autumnal glow,
Even in spring sheets,
It's winter's willful woes.

It's the way you act,
It's the way you are,
The way you cheapen
Even the deepest scars,

The way you demand,
And the way you deplore
That has me drifting
Away evermore.

Don't you flummox me
I'm no lummox
No lame ox
You tell me right now
What you decided
Before you even met me.

This was no three second conspiracy
This was you taking breaths just to breathe
No thought of tsunami or the worst that's upon me
Just silver gilded lilies and cream.

Crack my ribs, *******
Just crack them
I don't need ties to shape
To order
To feeling fine
When they're gone, I might open up.
Funny how we grow in a cage for our own protection.
Funny how that seems heartless.
Funny how ******* I'm fine.
If they pierce my heart
I'll know what I was really made of.

All I could do
Was stare at my shoes
And spend the spoken word
On petty pithy plights
Undressed in moonlight
Whilst you wielded a sword

Tradition would have me win
Though speech is a hollow thing
This I knew before
Slashes, feints and rips
From my eyes to my hips
My legs safe to carry your war

Lost, though the lake at my side
Could not be any more familiar
It's this vantage
New shipments of sunlight
Swim to me
Cars rocking along, they haven't seen
My screams
I'm lost, I'm lost
Someone bring me home
I'll never return to Germantown

In the winter
If I see a butterfly
I might shiver
And think of you all night

If it lands on the snow
Brilliance on white
I might decide to go
And think of you all night

I might box a smile up
And send it far away
In the morning my coffee cup
Can't banish your memory

Will you stay, stay, stay
Or leave, go, gone?
You don't say, say, say
You're through with the sun

If it ***** its fragile wings
Directly into flight
I might cast into a cringe
And think of you all night

When it cuts through the freeze
Harbinger of light
I will fall to my knees
And think of you all night

Jackie has yet to learn
Quite as much as he believes
And I thought I could burn
Until the leaves matched with me