The lobes of my brain
Scrape together anxiously
Loud enough for you to hear
Two floors up and six doors down

I keep you awake with pacing footsteps
Tracing orbits around splintered guitar necks
And ***** socks

I look out the window and see...
Nothing

Maybe the window's broken
Or isn't loading properly

Where are the mountains?
I could have sworn they were just here
Quietly watching us waste away

Maybe I didn't give them enough attention
So they left.

Or maybe I grew too big for the usual scenery
And left to fill my head with nonsense

This mess
Needs to be
                     sorted out
Before I get stuck in this rut

I always think of you this time of the night
When the moon glares down on my linen tomb
And a part of me feels hollow

I demummify myself and slog to the sink
Then gaze to the mirror and stare death in the face
Sunken peepers and tallow skin
So is the front of a hopeless romantic

I think about galumphing to your window
And my body longs for fulfillment
I limp silently in the moonlight
Along barren, windswept streets
To gaze upon your somnolent being

With my silhouette etched behind the curtain
I see you wake and quake with fear
My knees tremble as I nervously moan
To let me in and eat your brain

What forces a man to assume his role?
To take the long walk off a short pier
And enter into infamy?
A man needs a milieu
And a muse to share it

But most of all a man needs a reason
To send him careening into villainous games
Every man will promise her the world
But only I can deliver her reprieve
From a realm so horribly nice
Pure evil will always prevail
Over the corrupt good

Hand in iron fist we walk
We tiptoe between trip mines
And waltz amid mortar shells

After the smoke clears
I pull the trick candle stick
And together we mix chemicals
While the night's children clamor unseen

Two parts lust and a dash of charm
And hint of the dreams that keep you awake
Then I'll pull you up the staircase
That endlessly spirals upward
And while we overlook the crumbled city below
Maybe we'll have a conversation

The one who pulls the plugs from the dam
Never thinks about being swept off their feet
By the ensuing flood

Waltzing beneath the waves
I gawk and marvel at the creatures among my feet
Sadly, all the undersea festivities hardly
   distract from the importance of atmosphere

As my body exclaims for a reprieve
I think of how you told me not to hold my breath
And how you'd give me your heart if I gave you a reason

The blood rushes to my head
Turning my already blue face a deep purple
But there's no smoke on this water
Only smoldering debris from the bridge I burned
Before taking the plunge

These memories are much clearer through murky eyes
And everything floods back when surrounded by sea
Eyes as blue as the ocean capable of
Exuding tears just as briny

I use the last of my air to let out a sigh
Which is replied to by cold indifference
As my lungs provide a new home for the water seeping in
I contently sink to the bottom
And your apologetic plea is lost in the roar of the waves

You can't spell enemy without me
Born with a rogue tongue
That speaks vendettas to sabotage the smile it hides behind
I tried to bite it but the lies shine between the cracks in my crooked teeth
So now I sit home alone where I can only lie to myself

Once in a while I send distress signals
Mainly to prove I still exist
But I dare not open the door
For fear my tongue will escape
And slither toward a kind ear
To tickle its fancy; whispering sweet nothings
Then choking it with white noise
I strike again

I thrash around in the undertow
Conveyored out to sea, fully aware I can save myself
By simply standing up
Instead, I stay in the ocean of lies and fuckyous
Struggling to keep my head above water

I like to think of myself as a strong swimmer
Captain of rhyme and reason
But here the waves deliver blows to my head
And the further from shore, the bleaker my future becomes

The safety line is broken, no going back
To the warm beach where we sat, jobless
And you wore my bracelets while the sun gave us life

The sun, who now taunts me from above
This disorienting, fluid prision
Never again will I watch those educated hands
Immerse themselves in the grains of sand overlooking calm water
All I have left is endless blue
And these spongelike lungs soaking it up

My weary muscles relax and I disappear over the horizon
Toward the red sunset