Black and White

In the dead of night,
are you just like me?

Curled up in the depths of dusty shadows
feigning sleep
enough to carry on
the hope to last
one more day
scars dance
upon the edges of
four walls
carved like a message
on a fallen tree

are you just like me?

dreaming in black and white
watching old tv shows
and staying homesick
take my temperature
because it's cold outside

are you just like me?

pretend you know me dear
so I can sleep once again
change the channel for me
and put out the light

In the dead of night,
you're just like me.

Gold Dust Dysfunctional

Come down those ivory stairs,

traipsing along swollen clouds,

upon silver heartstrings,

dying with every step,

raining down on the holiday parade

like a gold dust dysfunctional



Just go away flies,

fear not the simmering cauldron,

when wild animals crowded around you,

retreat back into the wood,

into the shining meadows,

where flesh melts into a new day



Leave behind your possessions,

the ancient groves will take you,

unto the hearth of the earth,

should emptiness strike your glass

I will fill your mind,

like a benediction in the moonlight



Painstakingly sugar-sweet kisses,

decorate the hallways of love,

drawn and quartered by whispers on the wind,

the steeple will fall once more,

replaced again by your lips,

reddened by a stranger's blood


as dawn breaks upon the northern star
we're on our own,
ripping down the tapestry of lies,
clenched fists and empty bellies,
belie the end of innocence

Lilly in the Field

She stands alone in a crowd
Where the lights strobe like fireflies
Resolute assurance, in a burning gaze
Crashing fallow souls, piercing into the night
like a lilly in the field
No gold stars, for her mind is set upon
silver linings
The pounding of many hearts at once
Like drums beating away at cherished fear
Fear of feeling once again
Trembling to the touch, dark Irish eyes
Noting silken cracks in the wall
And the light pours through a
Mirage of lust
Like the wind she exposes time and space,
malevolence rendered
Caught in a web, words shrivel and die
Amidst the sultry dance
She feasts on lies
Spurning water for wine
Holding all regret in the
Back of her mind
Like an avenger
Set upon the world to set us
Free.

Wringing out the Colors

Don't tell me its real
Still you feel it
It's there
Don't tell me you feel it
Just because it's there
Always there

Trapped in glass
A fly on the wall
Just because it's there

We're nowhere
A sunbeam on the table
Like a tangle in your hair

It's something stolen
Don't tell me it's real

It's always the silence
Stirring in the pain
It's all the silence
Feeding you instead
Always in your head

I'm on the shore
Sitting in a chair
A shipwreck
In your eyes
Fallen
In your stead.

Feel it in the rhythm of
Religion's stare
Use it like a nightlight
When your cupboard's bare

In the din of voices around you
Found in the moonlight glare
My hand will melt away
And then you feel it
Just because I'm there.

Innocent

Alone, relection in the mirror, sticken
Back in the depths of time, lost
On the bottom of a lake, frozen

Through the haze of tears I remember
Your name, the one I forgot
Held me through long nights
When did I forget?

Like infinite horizons
Memories flood inwards
Foggy notions, faded laughter
If only there was a way to get back
Home, stolen years of fear
Forgiven in the end
A restless soul, just
Like me
Why leave me here?

Still here, a crumbling
Rock in an old stream
Facing the world
Like some golden fireworks
Dying slowly in the summer sky
Drifting across my young eyes
Unable to sleep again

Alone in a room full of
Friends and lovers
With no counsel
Faith in the past
When the dawn was
New
Imprisoned now
By the beauty of what was
And will never return
Again
Sweet respite like innocence
Wake me in the morn'
As the clock strikes
Last.

One-way Streets

Night stars streaming
In a view from the
Bottom of a glass
Words melting into
Lips stained
And the music
Plays on the
Tip of a tongue
Outside red lights
Dangle on her
Shoulders
Like that other
Man
Swaying to the
lurid beat
Smiling eyes
And empty mouths
Swirling in
An amber embrace
Spinning at once
The world
Released in
Fiery fists
Beating on the
Bathroom stall
While she stalks
Away in the
Early morn'
Just carry me
Home again
After one more
Drink
Tears on the
Golden sun.

Thousand-yard stare

Don't look at me again
That milky skin
And rose of red lips
Cigarette between
Spindly fingers a
Cold collection of
nights gone past
Stills in my mind
It's always the same
Smoke wreathed about
Black eyes stained
Doll arms spread about
Porcelain love
My glasses steamed
By the faucet's time and
last last night's cheap
wine
your body draped about
the old clawfoot tub
rusted away just at the
edges of
imagination
Of you in my arms
While the alarm rings
In a shiny new day
And the bed runs cold
Like blood
And you're still there
That look on your face
And the curve in your back
When I try to wake you
Against the currrent
Her face remains the same
Made a sillouhete by
God's hands
And the sirens's call
Shaken into consciousness
Bleary eyed
Stone
I awoke to death
Just like every mourning
But this was a
Dream.