This.

1. Loving Life-Crippling Debt

I can see you asleep in a set of sheets made for two
Twists and turns carve very apparent holes
In your sleeping patterns
And no one’s disturbed by your shakes
Because no one is there to wake you up
And check your pulse

These hills are asleep with the miraculous help of drugs
Sleeping pills keep the day asleep
Breathing pills to help the day breathe
You couldn’t stay
Awake for anyone even if you wanted to and you will never stop
Feeling the bitter end of bitter weather
Manmade

So unique, the dream of dreamer’s insomnia
You are fully aware of how much you should wake up
A friend of a friend of a friend’s friend
Knew exactly how to fix you

I’m sorry the repercussions won’t come for a damn long time
We own this place
And sky above it
This is ours
Take sweet, sweet advantage
What else is it good for?

This is the first time
The wealthy
This is the first time
The wealthy
And I keep our lips sealed
They’ve been screaming their hideous words
And I’ve been waiting to calm beasts
With symptoms similar to this

2. The Great Paper Escape

Furnaces burn, fingertips learn
Sandprints created, water erased it
And across the beach buried boulders
Come shivering shoulders
Single phrase simple names exchanged

“How are you today?”

Furnaces burn, fingertips learn
Ideals shaped formed and breached
To fit holes too deep to reach
Charming smiles and intimacy prayed
Beach buried boulder walk ways

“I am good today.”

Conversation buried for future reference sake
Paper wilts, metal rusts, and wood breaks
But this will be here until we deteriorate
This is not the end
Not just yet

Furnaces burn, fingertips learn

3. Running Faster Than I Can

Feeling golden
Boldly staring down the snowy road
And I know
And I know this is only temporary
Carry the wounded through and through
I’ll hold my tongue if you hold the phone

Stop the car!
Turn up the radio!
And listen!

Closely noting, the emergency broadcast is coming in loud and clear
Fall asleep at the wheel, give your time to feel golden

GOLDEN

Time to have and to give
And to have and forgive
And holding hands and closing lids
This will be a holy temple with plenty of patrons
And not a soul will be spared from the redemption of man
Here lies the unspoken text of want and lust
Start fires, civil unrest to hunt the just
Follow me out of here

Follow me
This way we stay
Golden

And he’ll say

Follow me
This way we stay
Golden

Everything is exactly as it should be
Goal finished and wish resigned
Thank you

4. Let’s Get Buried

As the tree’s leaves
Turn to birds
The night sings
The day to sleep

Aerial illuminated pinpricks
Too many to count
Said to be made by maybe Gods
Too many to count

Someday the children will speak of these things
As if they were old wives tales
So let us be the old wives who speak first

Maybe you’re right
Maybe you’re wrong
It’s not worth starting wars
Just sit back and watch

As the tree’s leaves
Turn to birds
The night sings
The day to sleep

5. Daddy Loves Daisy

X your eyes
And stitch your lips together
You’re beautiful
Successful
Rich and famous
But you’re dead
That’s how it always ends up I guess

HELP YOURSELF

Sleeping in your bathroom
You were still tossing and turning
While I was fast asleep
You dry heaved your soul
Into a sink
It’s nights like tonight where you wish you were dead because you feel so alive

Heavily medicated by reason
The damned nonbelievers are praying for you
It’s not hypocrisy
It’s a last resort
They are empty but they are human
They will do everything to save you

Help yourself and make yourself at home
Sleep tonight
The meds will carry you home
There will be something better tomorrow
I promise
The meds will carry you home

6. Yellow Tape Serenade

Carefully
Watch your step.
Caution, attention
Warning, don’t move
Carefully

PROCEED

When you’ve lost too much
It’s just good business
This spot marks the place
The man is buried
Who hung himself with a pill
The pill used to
Just get through
The day

Carpe diem
Carpe dead

Malice
Indifference
Fury
Apathy
Depression
Melancholy
Empathy
Sympathy
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
NOTHING

This road is one that goes nowhere
No way, no how

CAREFULLY

7. Oregon

Skeletal homes
Ruined rings
Pure as snow
Now sinning
And you’re smiling

Cut your hair
Cut your palms
Cut your eyelids so you can see when you blink
Cut your lips
Cut your arms
Cut your flesh from your body, your flesh from your body
Cut your hands from your wrists
So you can stop all these choking fits

Hello
My shallow waters
Hello

Hello
Shores, beaches, and cliffs
Hello

I walked the dirt path
Until the dirt turned to ash
And I came to the bridge that used to be
And I knew it was all a dream
When I saw on the other side
You had never left

HELLO

8. Little Italy, Little Vatican

Studio apartment housing
Keeps you hidden from the streets below
Told to be alienable staples
Kept to keep the pages turning

Well if the reader’s got the interest,
The reader’s got the fingers

If this is God, then we should stop
If this is God, then we shouldn’t be like this again

When we die there will only be we, naked
Every scar won’t be left untold
Overlooked
Forgotten
Simmered in experience
This will hold the day down
This will hold the day down

There will be no higher power
In this life but in case there is
Let’s hope we get another chance
From ash robes to night clothes
Nothing would’ve changed
Let’s just agree hell isn’t real and call it fair?

Daily
Nightly
Stability plays quarters
With the bartenders
To the point after hours
Becomes days
Lapses of time and judgment
Leave sense deemed incorrect

Is it crazy to believe the higher power can be human power?

Omniscient through technology
Remember when images spoke a thousand words?

Apparently nothing’s changed indeed
Same walls inside and out
Maybe, I can make the big wigs and shakers
TREMBLE

Make yourself at home now before it’s too late
At least, you can still hear the rain here

9. The Summer

This one is for you so pay attention, please.

To all those who’ve ever experienced
Monsters and nicotine firecrackers
Had peach cake with popcorn
Black berries and wine cake and dinosaurs
Realized everything worth fighting for is not material
Left an hour too soon but laid under the stars instead
Missed the exit just for a few more minutes of not feeling alone
Had greedy needy impulses
But knew the debt wasn’t important in the long run
To ever feel like heaven despite what’s growling in your face.
Knows heartache and headaches
Despite the chemicals that failed as solutions
Gone to the mall
Gone to the store
Gotten stoned
Been alone
Wanted holly hung in every doorway
As the kids danced to the eighties greatest hits\
Discovered Zen
Discovered center
Stayed home with the superhero who wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you
Ever emptied an ashtray into the wind
Or let the window take care of the ash for you?
It’s all going to the same place anyway
And we’ll be there
Take your time
We’ll be there

If you’ve ever burnt a candle, stared at the wax, and thought of life
Realizing we are only brick
And circumstance is the mortar
Don’t you think it should be the great wall of the world
Instead of separate houses?
And they will be united under the sole purpose of what’s beautiful
And what’s peaceful

We are all heading that way
From everywhere with love
We’ll be there

10. The English Are From England

Make a note, write it twice
Spell a word, make it rhyme

And just like that, the page was blank
Never to be read from again
As quickly as it came,
The story was erased
And just like that, the page was blank

Thoughts to remain unprovoked
Stories to be left untold
But that’s just fine
Honestly, I think I’ll leave it that way

The best stories are those that are not written down
Or spoken aloud
Or seen in pictures
Stuck forever in the writer’s memories
But that’s just fine
Honestly, I think I’ll leave it that way

And just like that, the canvas was white
And just like that, the children didn’t read
And just like that, the book wasn’t written
And just like that, the author went to sleep
And just like that.
And just like that.