I’m made of dust, dried bones and incomplete,
To be cursed for want of a stolen rib,
Barely alive with the faintest heartbeat,
A grown man like an orphan in his crib.

No room for a soul in my shriveled veins,
No life support for fragile loneliness,
To acquiesce in sadness given reins,
A flawed experiment in holiness.

To be alive gives no consolation,
My helpmate has absconded with my soul,
Turning my devotion to temptation
To fill a void when I should have been whole.

This lesson has been far too hard to learn!
To God-forsaken earth let me return!

I met a man, a gardener,
Who told of an auspicious seed.
He worked the seed, carefully
Its flower never seen.

The villagers would glance at him,
In times when things were looking dim
His ambitious eyes and sallowed skin
Reminded them to not give in.

When his work-struck shoulder stiffened,
strained back outed,
He still worked his seed.
And it never sprouted.

Until one off-beat Thursday morn,
the man did not get out of bed.
He passed away that fateful night,
The patch was left an empty stead.

The village gathered for the mass
A crowd with eyes of glass,
They stood and spoke, with admiration,
Of his hard-laboured inspiration - unforgotten.

Outside the Church, in the man's humble patch,
A seed sprouted, flourished - hatched:

Eden would have paled to see
The tree that came from this mere seed,
Hard work and dedication-
A tribute to his legacy.

Have you found your way
To your Garden of Eden?
Walking on the gravel
Of your self-made path

The stars have emerged above you
As you enter your land of joy
The voices of your future
Begin to grow in laughs

You will soon laugh with them too
Perpetually

And yet, what have you
left behind?
The echo of your past
My voice
missing you,
longing for you,
Fading into black
The tears forming a stream
That you can go across

And I, what was I?
A pause in your journey?
A consideration of your story
That was eventually pushed away?

And so
As you get closer to your Garden
As the cross-hatched landscape
is fading into mist
The colors will get brighter
And more beautiful
And I
Will be already

Gone

Dear nature stutters to a start,
and warmth fills in the cracks.  
The heart no longer seeps with cold.
The core's no longer black.

So on a twirl of leaf and grass,
and other things that grow.
There came to life a living thing,
which melted all the frost and snow.

He rose upon a starlit night
and wandered with a stutter.
As trees gave bloom, and flowers sang.
Water flowed, mountains muttered.

All wilted things, each drew new breath,
and gloried in this sight.
A godly host. Powerful spirit.
And lit all things with natural light.

He fashioned bird, and crafted beast,
and said that it was good.
He hollowed out the very stars,
crafted every glade and wood.

Then in the last, he blew a breath,  
and from the very sand.
A form with legs and arms there grew,
and this he labelled man.

And I know I've been closing myself off, unsure
I know I've been real hard to reach, harder to love
And I know it's tiring, this **** is getting old

But please, just hold on to me
I've slayed these demons, they're old to me
Recurring dreams, this is happening
Tearing my seams; lucid reality

And I just want you to feel love (love!)
Before it disappears (not!)
'Cause we are more than we're not (wrong!)
So never fear to feel (brave!)
Good when everything's wrong (love!)
And find some beauty there (not!)
'Cause all we ever are is brave (brave!)
And your world's not ending, ooh

So I won't go
I'm still living in the middle of a one-way war
I can't fight it but I'm trying to be what you want, yeah
You can't sing but you're singing this anyway
And anyway, so please just hold on to me
This is no end, we're not finished here
Finding our way, we're just changing
Becoming more than I think of me, yeah
These fears in my head, dreams in my bed
They won't get the best of me, yeah
'Cause I chase dreams 'til the end
These nightmares all bend
Silver linings are all I need

So, please, just hold on to me
I've slayed these demons, they're old to me
Recurring dreams, this is happening
Tearing my seams from reality

And I just want you to feel love
Before it disappears
'Cause we are more than we're not
So never fear to feel
Good when everything's wrong (love!)
And find some beauty there (not!)
'Cause all we ever are is brave