Quietly loving you, quietly holding my heart in your hands
Sitting under this leaking roof, gripping each others hands
Running my fingers through your short, black, hair
You wrap your arms around me, sweat, breath
Eyes telling me something words cannot, never will
Your breath has a voice of its own, drowning my mind
Spinning my body down to ground level, bottoming out
Resting shoulder blades on these old floor boards
Hearing the groaning of this dusty house
But this stillness overwhelms me, compounding my reflections
Wasting notepad upon notepad, trying to describe these nights with you
Balling up countless verses, throwing them in a pile
Waiting for this roof to cave in one day, so we can watch the sunrise
From the warmth of our blankets on the floor

Young man, just a shell, with a sigh of 'oh well'
Ripping up roots with worn hands, wiping sweat from beaten brow
Scratching lines in the field with his fathers plow
Praying for the rain, living for the sun,
only to rot in the ground
But the grass still grows, drying & dying as it always has,
like we all will
Scattering itself among a forest of rusting iron
& oily puddles
You were young once too, before you knew what it meant
to die
You were young once too, before you had to pay your life
away in toil
Now we're old, you & me, the years have run their course
Now we're old and it all makes sense,
and it never meant a thing

You're a quiet thought in the middle of the night,
when I'm so tired I can't sleep
My saving grace when I can't catch my breath,
or take that next step
I'm doing this for you, even though I'll never have you,
my love
Trying to tell myself I'm used to being alone,
the old lie
Telling it to myself for so long I almost believe it
But I can't fool these sleepless nights,
methodically destroying my illusion
These sleepless nights which run me into the ground
And when I finally fall asleep, I dream of nothing

I live in my red brick house on the sea
Forgetting my days as days run past
Forgetting the past like words on the wind
Forever floating away on the tides of though
My eyes have ceased seeing, my hands lack feeling
Everything is monotone darkness, nothing but absence
I grasp the sand blindly, crying out in frustration
Is this how you saw yourself so long ago?
Such ambitions you had, such dreams and aspirations
Hold back the tears, hold back the bitter thoughts,
Yesterday I could see, today my eyes betray me.

The burden of silence, punctuated by the rain
Lonely days, happily interrupted by your smile
Charms off your necklace, sitting behind collected stones
From my days of wandering, forgotten days of youth
playing you a song I've never heard before
Chords at random, eyes closed, fret by fret
Your hands flutter through photographs, discolored by age
Snapshots of faces gone or going, only a fuzzy memory
Like crossed out letters, names on a list, slowly piling up
Yellowed pages crumbling, swept away by grasping wind
Sending fragments of thought wherever they chance to land
In the form of drifting lines of verse, carried on breezes
Stomped into mud puddles, flattened by rain
Spilling ink into saturated soil, a stain among stains
Reincarnated in curling blades of grass

I am here and here I will stay
Find me and keep me if I chance to run astray
Tender hands, lead me to cool waters
Wash the sweat and dirt away
Sitting in tall grass, the wind stirs it rhythmically
Whispering her secrets to curling brown blades
Strong backs till the soil, lines in the field
Calloused hands, tossing stones aside, endlessly
Hands rubbed raw, spilling seed down rows
Old eyes watch clouds rush by, denying their heavy burden
Promising themselves it will be just another day
Where do we go from here, the question resonates
I've asked myself for many years, no answer yet
Another road to walk down, winding its way out of sight
Nothing to do but walk

My back is stiff, my eyes are heavy
Sitting under live oak branches, waiting for the rain
Pecans litter the ground, their shells hard & matte
Yet the core is rotten, the shells deception
I watch your calloused hands, blistered & raw
A face drawn tight with every rasping breath
Telling stories through wine-stained lips
Of open country, trails that lead to nowhere
My heartache disguised behind a smile
Sounds of wet wood catching in the open fire
Add another log, to see us through this hour
Tell me another story, father..