As I sit in my car I realize
I have no more alibis
I've run outa lies to tell myself
The relationship I've built was a compromise
to make myself feel alive
But it's not working anymore

...Nothing's working anymore

As a bird
I knocked at that door-
The one at the end
Of the hall.
Now all I do
Is make noise outside,
Hoping she won't
Hear me at all.
Lest I fall off my bike
And hurt myself-
I know she will come
If I call.
(Gerry Aldridge © 2016)

I forgot the things that I know, the stories surrounding what’s been told, my lover’s heart is frosted cold cause I can’t live without you baby.

The water-wheel of that old mill,
the wildflowers growing on that hill,
the small town life, it moved so slow,
gave us time to get to know,
each other's hearts and let love grow...

…so fruitful all the time we had,
through thick and thin, good and bad,
but eventually you had to go-oh.

I forgot the things that I know, the stories surrounding what’s been told, my lover’s heart is frosted cold but I can’t live without you baby.

I cast your ashes in the stream,
beneath the water-wheel that made you beam,
that smile I will not forget and all the happiness that came with it,
and here I sit alone and sad, reflecting on the times we had,
coastal waves to pink sunset, on that first day that we met,
some later rainy but not to wet, -still I couldn’t live without you baby.

And I forgot the things that I know, the stories surrounding what’s been told, my lover’s heart now frosted cold, forced to live without you baby,

I forgot the things that I know, the stories surrounding what’s been told, my lover’s heart is frosted cold cause I can’t live without you baby.

I can’t live without you baby,
I can’t live without you baby,
Here I am without you baby,
I can’t live without you baby…

Forget the things that come and go, those stories surrounding times of old, your lover’s heart will not grow cold when you can think about your baby,

I can’t live without you baby,
I can’t live without you baby,
Here I am without you baby,
I can’t live without you baby…

...here I am without you baby...

Balloons without strings to hold them will always fly away

Here I am, stumbling down the street
The rain's pouring down
I'm staring at my feet

But splashing on my feet it is
my tears and not the rain
They're are salty and bloodstained
From my agonizing pain

Nobody could be more
mad at me than me
Why was I so stupid?
Never again will she trust me

She's asking me too many questions
Ones I want so much to ignore
But I've brought this on myself
What else could I have been asking for?

When I think about the way things are
The tears roll down my face
If only I could turn back time
I would've never ended up in this place.

Without knowing, my heart beseeched my eyes.
I'd fallen in love; My heart leaving my chest to find a home
against the throb of hers.
The many pieces vibrant in hue,
The jitters of learning how to walk, to bask in the same air
someone you care about breathes in.
My heart had left me behind to indulge in the lips of hers. Big stupid grin imprinted under huge eyes.
Contents, poured out of the package into open hands.
It stumbled as it walked; My heart made of jelly like substance.
Upon where her heart would be there was nothing there,
An cliff with an note attached.
Upon reading her heart shortly appeared.
Grinning with much delight.
Before my heart could spew its affection, her heart pushed mine off the cliff.
Note fluttering in the wind.
Sweet, then bitterly sour.
The throb of her heart

I gave you my Body
I told you Don't play Me
cause my Heart is full of Scars.

There is an ancient woman
In the market near my home
Who walks the timeless amble
Of a battered soul alone.
Her pasted orange tresses
A marmalade cascade
Fall so stiffly down to where
Her hand is always laid
Clutching her treasure bag
She goes her way careless
Ignoring chiding glances
At her faded evening dress.

Her story hides in rumors
Whispered by those who work
In the shops and restaurants
Here near McArthur Park.
They say she was a movie queen
Or an extra in the silent days
And an accident at the studio
Made her bald unto this day.
She refused to remove the wig
She ran out crying, in costume
And now she is still wearing it
Hoping he will find her soon.

The woman at the pharmacy
Said her hair caught on fire
At a movie in the twenties
Her boss calls her a liar;
Says the leading man did it
In a fit of rage and jealousy
When she wouldn't marry him
He set fire to the scenery.
Others heard that she was fired,
But she wouldn't leave the set
So deep inside her mind
She really hasn't left it yet.

Some have tried to talk to her
But she never speaks that much
Except inquiring prices and colors
Of the goods she chances to touch.
To direct questions and advances
She turns sadly away and leaves.
You can tell she is sensitive
You can tell by her face she grieves.
It is easy to see she is living
In some world that is not ours
Her world seems a place of gloom
Of thunderstorms and showers.

She caresses with her fingertips
Along the banisters she passes
And she seldom lets her gaze linger
Behind her smoked sunglasses.
Her satin dress has faded,
Like the color of her hair.
She still lingers in each moment
When she walks down the stair.
She never seems to notice those
Who stop and goggle at her
And they are many, these gawkers
But they just don’t' seem to matter.

She seems to have accepted
What her life has now become.
She has been coming to the park
For decades more than some.
This may be a playground
For popeyed urban gnomes.
But this is where she shops
This decaying place her home.
This park is very much like her
Many ages past its prime.
The vestiges of past glory
Have not been erased by time.