Take Out the Knife

I’m waiting to see what you have left

My hunger has been whet

The envy you show just how it feels

But the means it just kills

Do I have to live like that

 

Just promise you won’t pull that stunt again

You scared us to no end

Your no different, just can’t stop when you start

And it tears you apart

And the ones that hurt with

 

You were climbing out when you fell back in

 In the basement again

It’s okay to not want to display

The quiet pain your in

 

It figures the ones who say most

Can’t see the results, when crowds are listening

You’re in control, don’t have to prove it now

You don’t believe it anyhow

 

An old friend, one that you’ve just met

Won’t ever know your name

But know you just the same

 

 

Cloven inclinations

Sit up act right I see right through you

Rough ride last night, I almost threw you

Tie my hands back, paint my eyes black before you light me

 

You only rhyme when you’re lying

Couplets stinging

I think you made your point

Sharp and shining

 

Your dusty old proverbs you quoted to me

You unwrapped my trust and you fed it to me

Tie my hands back, paint my eyes black, before you burn me

 

Street lights knocked out

Glass in your mouth

Truths up for bidders

Think I’ll lie down

 

Made your own rules, then changed them to suit you

Saw me as your fool

Proved your foresight to you

Tie my hands back, paint my eyes black before you burn me

 

You chew on the ruin

Hope you bite your poison tongue

Your lonely days are beginning

My days of playing fool are done

 

 

 

Union

Falling sky look to the ceiling

Watch words that fly and names lose meaning

Watch the door calls on commitment

Swept the floor of foul resentment

 

It’s living proof feigned moral truth

Dug up reveals its phobic roots

Small-minded ways are no excuse

When fanning hate is your abuse

 

Windows rusted shut and locked down

Drafts now gust unjust will blow down

Curtains long and wide to hide

Are raised to feel the break of daylight

 

Semantic games transparent names

Spur private fears for public gains

A vicious fight for moral stakes

By witless fakes and selfish snakes

 

Where did you misread

your book that sets your creed

to prevent from those who threaten

your close-minded view the same

sanction allowed to you

 

Hold ‘em

Dig your hole deep you can hide it all

Enough to get you through when you hear your call

Gather it up and perch high on your peak

Target the dissent before you allow to speak

 

It’s working all right, just don’t spite

Or displease the might

You’ll be sure to fall

 

You can give the names, or you can risk it all

Disgrace, displaced blame, certain prey to fall

You don’t stand so tall

I want to gratify, standing on heads

Just to see up high

So focused on my prize

Don’t see anything at all

 

Can’t carry much with your fists in a ball

Isolate expect to see through your wall

I’ll write you talk and I’ll wait while you knock

I won’t say anything at all

Hand tint the past to enrich the truth

Handprints that last and still grip with their proof

 

 

Ask For Nothing and…

His dreary routine is ended and brings his demise

His eyes never opened, his face was a disguise

He perished in the waves of his obscurity

He never could read the tides

 

The ledgers still filled with the lists he’d made

Line by line one fiction at a time

Each night he slept in any doorway he found

Wouldn’t get trapped or have to go out

 

Couldn’t keep a promise so a promise he never made

And he expected the same

His foes were windows and his comrades were mirrors

He pitted the unknown with the mundane

 

His mirrors returned his questions as answers

And he knew he could expect the same

He circled the globe with no stories to tell

No treasures no damsels no dragons to fell

 

Waiting around for his timer to go off

He’d been dead for years when his heart finally stopped

He buried himself when his time came

The water did fast work and he didn’t feel a thing

 

He had no debts or favors owed and not a bit of shame

No slights, no condemnation, and no one to blame

 

 

Santiago

The jaws are biting down and the rope is burning your hands

You have nothing to show but bones and fins

On the next turn you’ll surely have him

 

In the dark of night the sharks come

You fight them off one at a time

 

Worked the wells and found nothing

You’d know the score if you had a radio

Use his strength as if it were yours against him

 

You sleep in your newspaper bed

The boy is watching and crying

Same dreams the ships at the moor

You’re watching the day give in

And your shirt is patched like your sail

 

Same dream the lions walk

They walk the shore and wait for you to give in

 

Your hand is cramped like a claw

Warm it open with the sun

Use his strength as if it were yours against him

 

You don’t recall when you

Began to talk aloud when you are alone

You’ve chose to ignore

Your common sense in place of your pride

 

Salting cuts on your hands

You’re too far from shore

The wind will surely blow you back in

 

Tubetalk

Too much rain I’d take a walk,

Broke back cracks in the sidewalk

And the vicious packs run untamed

So I guess I’ll sit and mock

The garbage lines from the tubetalk

But I’m tuning in just the same

 

Self-deprecation is so insincere, just fishing for praise

From the dry docks attempt to drown

And jump in vain, inane

 

Done the work you came here for

Still open ends, open doors

Kicked out of your own game

Maybe it’s a touch unfair

That you don’t know that no one cares

I’ll be the first to blame

I don’t recall a thing that I don’t write down

So I lied again, just pretend

 

Recall the first fall, just a misstep that’s all

Just a presage to recast, not a curtain call

Not at all

 

Scratches, scrapes, and bites

Dirty mouth dirty fights

My fearless view is tanked again

Drink some more hope for a change

I swear I don’t feel a thing

Just one more and I’ll turn in

When the morning comes, try to explain

Why my head just spins, again

 

Penstemon

You think you’ve made up your mind

On the straightest route you find

Eat your idols every meal

Can’t swallow your own polished stone ideals

 

Too late you’ve doused the fire

In the closets of your desire

Fit yourself into the mold

And you’ve filled yourself full of all the fury you can hold

 

All the mud that you’ve thrown to absolve your sins

Collect it all and plant your penstemon

Your arms ache and your faith breaks

But you’ll be, stubborn till the end

 

Never chaste until you’re tried

And you pass on every ride

Scream out now or keep your quiet

If only you could see yourself from the outside