Thank you
You might not realize it
But you mean so much to me
I only go because I know you're smiling face will greet me
Even though no one else likes me
Or talks to me
(Those people don't know my name after a year)
You never fail to be there for me
It might just be your small act of kindness
But it means the world to me

Decaying body
We all see her ribs.
Size small,
she reads extra large.
She wants to read small.
She refuses to eat.

Scraping off
The smiling Santa Claus faces
Dim hope fading
With each metallic fleck
Flicked onto the kitchen floor

Yet, she will buy more
Always more
And always the same numbers
On the gas station tickets
She buys with a bag of chips

And gas-station humus
With gas-station pop,
In a gas-station cup -
Too large to hold in one hand -
That she fills to the brim

With hope
She never lets herself
Get to empty
She fills her soul with
Perpetual certainty
That one day, she’s gotta win
She’s just gotta

So she plays the game
Plays the odds
Fills her cup
Fills up her tank

Drives to two, three, four
Thankless jobs
And never lets her soul
Get to empty

She’s just gotta win
Fate has gotta give in
To her sheer ambition,

She knows it in her bones
Maybe not this time,
or next time
…or the time after

But soon
…definitely soon

Rooted to this place I am
Stuck in my own head space
Drifting on a thought
But I never settle
On just one
It is far to vast in here
The voices sing
Me songs and
Tell me my fears
Lay them out on the table
They tell me to get the ****
Over it and face them

Circus Who Cares
arrives by night, places
fliers in torchlight.

Circus Some ****
riding train. Look
where graffiti is facing.

It's true, tracks can divide.
John Hughes marketed lies.
It's true, it's difficult --

But in this cult, none of us
wants to be you.
F < |< 666

I grew up in a town with a church on every block,
I grew up in a town with a bar on every block,
On the streets, the same homeless man would walk
Riding a bike or walking on his feet
But everyone knew each other,
So they would wave a hand to greet.
The *** holes were planted like flowers
And those flowers seemed to grow
The adults complain for hours
About a lot of things I'd come to know.

I grew up in a town, it looked a lot like yours
It had a park, it had my friends,
So many nights heading home at dark.
I'd bet you know it just as I
You can even hear the squeaky swings,
If you gave it a try.
We built a bridge to cross the streams,
At day's end talking about our dreams,
Listening to songs that made us alive.

I grew up in a town, I left some years ago.
The streets look mostly the same
Now filled with people I don't know.
Friends will stay in touch, we'll stay in touch,
Friends I now don't talk to much.
Growing up in a small town in such a rush.