On the Verge

Waiting on an epiphany

It’s on its way like a speeding train

Fading high strung symphony

The maestro’s last refrain

 

Trading secondhand sympathy

For a space out of the rain

Braiding the harshness with the harmony

Dodge the inkwell’s purple stain

 

On the verge is the place to be

When dayspring is nigh

Hazy veil of irony

From a top-heavy sky

 

‘Graving the imprint on the effigy

Mute the glaze to make it plain

Lading the gentle with the certainty

That only patience palls the strain

 

On the verge is the place to be

When dayspring is nigh

Hazy vail of irony

From a top-heavy sky

 

 

A Fool’s Remedy

Moved into the darkness

For my own patch of sky

Every constellation captured

Each star is memorized

 

Plato casts his shadows

His puppets swagger by

The cave was never opened

And no one wonders why

 

I need you to confuse me

With a fool’s remedy

Tell me true, true

Do you really see?

How we spin this tragedy?

 

Phaedo feeds the fortune

That we will never die

We’ll plagiarize the funeral

Just so we can cry

 

Draco drowns his debtors

His apostles hypnotized

On the seabed of derision

And no one wonders why

 

I need you to confuse me

With your prized parody

Tell me true, true

Do you really see?

How we bend this melody?

 

 

Silver Dish

Placed our words in a silver dish

Struck a match and begged the smoke to stay

A daily fix on permanence

The precious stone gets smaller everyday

 

An honest, flawed design

Dreamed it right the first time

Finally feel again

 

Letters etched in bold disguise

Shining sketch laid out for all to see

Stubborn fate hates a surprise

Cork the glass and toss it in the sea

 

An honest, flawed design

Dreamed it right the first time

Finally feel again

 

Falter and flow from the beginning

Who’s gonna stay to miss the end

Halter and bow can’t stop the spinning

Last golden rays start to bend

Finally feel again

 

 

Possibilities

w/ LMK

The Glands

I don't mind imagining you love

As you may be, as you might be now

In a word, half the words are wrong

Sing into your phone and surrender to the blue light

 

Idle minds, let's go to the zoo love

Idle minds, as you might be now

In a word, half the words are wrong

Sing into your phone and surrender to the blue light

 

Never mind, half the words are wrong

Sing like cats and dogs and surrender to the blue light

 

Idle minds, I'm thinking of you love

Any time to suffer a fool love

Missing a song, half the words are wrong

Fight like cats and dogs and surrender to the blue light

 

I'm thinking of you love

 

 

Fictions

I fall asleep again

Mid-phrase conviction ends

The tales you weave

They’re all the warmth I need

 

I talk and listen in

Confidant born of the muse and pen

The tales you weave

They’re all the warmth I need

 

Your lips shake when you lend an ear

Don’t strain yourself to hear

I’ll keep it myself

 

I realize through foggy eyes

These fictions

Are not really mine

 

The tales you weave

They’re all the warmth I need

 

Your lips shake when you lend an ear

Don’t strain yourself to hear

I’ll keep it to myself

 

And all that I need

Is for you to concede

That you’ll wait

For me to revive

 

 

Lament

There’s no reason to watch

For the ones who dictate your thoughts

So easy and clear

To control you with fear

 

Fear that you’re not wise enough

To entrust your heart within

So you narrow your mind

Broaden your view of sin

 

You hand me your weekly flyer

Ask me to read of the fire

And how my evil entreats

The six-headed beast

 

You’re waiting each week to read

Your directions on how to believe

Straight from the source

Factory for liturgy

 

The scribes in their towers

They’re wielding their power

Over you my friend, confused compassion

 

You steal your children away

Find evil in tender play

You censor their minds

With excoriate fines

 

It must be so simple for you

To take what you’re given as truth

So safe and secure

So mechanically sure

 

Was there a point in time

Or did you slowly unwind

The strings of control

In your marionette mind

 

How sincere can you be

Only aim is converting me

Another notch in your belt of

Sanctificity

 

The pious in their tower

They’re wielding their powers

Over you my friend

Confused compassion

 

 

Paper rules

You line all the words that you write

With velvet and silk

To soften the truth when it bites

The fingers that yield

 

A knot that’s worked its way loose

Without strain or appeal

Leaving ends that abandon the pull

The beholden, the constraint, and the will

 

Paper rules and consequence that you’ve penned

Framed and hung in every room that you’ve been

The songs that you’ll disguise and pretend

Concealed, half-sung lest the expose their ends.

 

Line up your hopes, command they march in

The seasons will grow to suit your skin

The warmth and the glow, you’ll capture again

 

Expectations they flow downhill

No reason to count them till

You’ve packed them all in

 

Give up the parched brown ground

With a tear and a grin

Set out for the gaudy green glow

Emerald groves to begin

 

Still your tongue when the showers you summon

Have flooded you in

And carry your burdens low

And defy them to swim

 

Paper rules and consequence that you’ve penned

Framed and hung in every room that you’ve been

The songs that you will disguise and pretend

Concealed, half-sung lest the expose their ends.

 

Line up your hopes, command they march in

The seasons will grow to suit your skin

The warmth and the glow, you’ll capture again

 

 

 

Drive

Ric Ocasek

Who's gonna tell you when it's too late?

Who's gonna tell you things aren't so great?

 

You can't go on thinking nothing's wrong

Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

 

Who's gonna pick you up when you fall?

Who's gonna hang it up when you call?

Who's gonna pay attention to your dreams?

Who's gonna plug their ears when you scream?

 

You can't go on thinking nothing's wrong

Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

 

Who's gonna hold you down when you shake?

Who's gonna come around when you break?

 

You can't go on thinking nothing's wrong

Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

You can't go on thinking nothing's wrong

Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

 

 

 

Waid Woods

Recall the sound for all my time

And the engine’s wind on the last hill

Boxwood, asphalt, and pine

The somnolent rhyme of the wheels

 

Mornings were filled with intention

The window-view tempered our zeal

 

Lie on your bed, making up

You showed us the metal they pulled from your body

And not the ones they pinned on