It's always the calm before the storm
But never after.
Restoring a home
Made from dampened wood
And bayonets
That look a lot like
Things you'd say.

Sitting passenger side
While your coworkers crack jokes
And for a second,
Nothing.
Just a chuckle,
A brief indulgence
Followed by a wave of anguish.
Call and response.
And you realize
That this is what moving on feels like.

Small town life is simple.
The downtown has no neon.
The streets are long and open.
Begging for the smell of thrashed rubber
And cigarette smoke.

Your mechanic knows your blood type
Your doctor knows your license plate.
Secrecy sounds more like something from a Bond film
Than a genuine principle.

A playground lies across from a cemetery
As though to say no one ever really dies,
Or that it was fun while it lasted.

I get mad behind the wheel sometimes.
I see ghosts instead of stop signs.
I see tombstones instead of churches.
But once in a blue moon
God sends me a voicemail,
And lets me know
That he's already tucked in the sheets.
That he's already fluffed the pillows.

I am a knight.

Not the dark from an evening sky.
Not a warrior wrapped in steel.
More like the chess piece.

My movements? Impractical.
My purpose? Undetermined.
And I'll probably die early.

How comforting.

My accomplice.
My comrade.
My kryptonite.

Make sure to bury me with my horse.
And contort our lifeless bodies into an L
So we can finally embrace what held us back.

She packs a parachute on every flight.
She keeps my number in her phone.

Just in case.

She knows theyre both there.
She prays she'll never need to use them.

some serial killers return to the scenes of their crimes;
i just buy train tickets
and fall asleep on the shoulders of strangers.
as though we were in love,
as though it were ordinary.

and when we wake up
we'll laugh it off
and she'll say sorry,
and that train rides just make her sleepy.
ill say that's okay,
i didn't really mind.

Asylum white walls
Bear a single feather.
A work of art.

I am left all alone again.
Peace and tranquility.

Spoon feeding ******
That tastes more like maple syrup
And relief
Than anything I've ever known.