I used to play with toys, making boxcars crawl
Now I play with words until footsteps sound from the hall
Come to greet me, see what's there
Seven feet of cold despair
Six pack of soda, six seconds of looking at the birds
Then he goes, and I turn up the noise and turn back to my words
But my thoughts are jumbled and lost
Like French fries at the bottom of the bag
Fingers crossed
That the leafy green atop the grease will prolong my playful days
Not for Bambi or Snow White, but for all the different ways
That I can place my words and save them
Like the lifeguard guards a life
That I may find a voice to raise them
Like the hunter lifts a knife
Because words are cherished playthings
Which fly on paper wings
Until I'm called away and the words must go to sleep
I'l write them here so they may be your very own to keep

You cannot fight a void
Yet I swing at smoke and air
Angry words are stuttering back
The echo is like an attack
But I try and I jump and I fly
I turn false ground into sky
A new world below the things that we know
Scratch the surface with flurries of ink
But I think and I stop and I sink
As the oxygen permeates my skin
And turns so velvety cold
The sky is no longer dry
And I am no longer bold
But I write and I hold and I fight
On and on, the endless night
On and on, the useless song
And the abyss is singing along
The voice of the void is dark with joy
I am the shadow's favorite toy
Cast these words into an empty sea
These words are nothing to me

The look in your eyes
When you knew you had to die
The tears that we cried
When the time came for goodbyes

He tried to burn your bones but he couldn't drop the match
He tried to close your coffin but he couldn't click the latch

Because your name was called
And you didn't fight at all
You stood, scared but tall
And then you let yourself fall

Now he lives with the pain and it burns his heart away
Now he carries the guilt and his mind begins to fray

For if the latch had clicked and the match had dropped
Still your suffering would not have been stopped

The peace you were promised
The rest you were owed
They lurk in the mist
At the end of a long road

We will curse and we will cry and we will hold our breath
While we wait on the angels to raise you from death

I am not ever myself
I live many lives from day to day
Some now rest on a crooked shelf
With nothing else to say

Others exists only in my mind
I pick them up from time to time
Their stories only vaguely outlined
With supporting characters poorly designed

Many live but briefly, between two and three
After waking up, before falling asleep
Some from other worlds, some stronger than me
But all too bright for reality to keep

At the gate of the mind Anxiety stands guard
Heavy boots, heavy gun
Sweating from the sun

Approaching from the darkness is a child called Sleep
Soft eyes, soft skin
Hoping to get in

Sleep smiles meekly but Anxiety shakes his head
Not yet, not tonight
And he locks the gate tight

I see shapes in the clouds
Like angels falling, forsaken
I never thought much of them until you spread your wings wide
You opened my eyes to the skies, though they oft look downward still

I love you with something sick and hollow
Though you’re distant like the clouds
And false like the angels

As we drive the shifting white becomes stretched and sullied
Those angels I lose as they lost me
But I carry you with me in a twisted, lonely embrace
In my arms though you belong in the sky

I prayed for the sole of my new red boots
They're frayed, with strings hanging like ripped up roots

I bought them at a thrift store, God,
And the left sole's simply missin'
I prayed my very hardest
But God just didn't listen

I don't blame him, nor should you
After all, it's just a shoe