Coming of Age

Keep your body turning blue.
Love is something you only lose,
until some change in the night
you don't know how, but it finds
everything you never knew
you wanted and gives you another
chance at making yourself
something greater than the sum
of all the things your mother said
would do you in, again and again.

Now, I'm coming of age.
After a few trips to a place where
no one knows how to be without
pills and therapists, you never know
what you're missing til you do with
everything, I think you'll find.

And, it's better now that I'm alive.
Wanted to take so many pills
I'd wake up in 1955, but I find
there's nothing quite like this place.

Now, I'm coming of age.
And the money makes the world different.
I don't forget where you signed
away a soul I never knew I owned.
It's better this way especially today
singing along with Etta James.
At last, at last.

Stone Half Heart

Half a heart and saving for
the other piece I'm trying to
find to replace the empty places
deep where I don't admit to being
incomplete, you'll know when you
ask me.

I'll never let you know that things are
never as they seem to be when I'm
singing like a sparrow caged amidst
the lilies like some Christ that hasn't
been born or sold for silver, yet.

And all the world you can see has
nothing left for those of us who dream
when there's a heart of stone waiting
for us to offer up some blood.

I know you won't see the ways
I've bent a thousand times like
strong trees in the wind.

Summer Demise

You never said "It's all changing"
love into a nightmare
living every moment afraid.
I wish I'd known before
all the things I'd have to face.

And, someone let me know
your blue-black dreams have
teeth and claws, your last
request to be torn apart.

How about some solace?
Soar like a heart without weights.
Weighting on the baggage
not in the compartments of my heart.

Winter is the only time we'd have,
I used to believe in seasons
but know better in a summer demise.
You were the last of the painful loves,
I've no doubt about that now.

Lotus Eating

I tried to call,
but your phone
wasn't on.
It's all right
at least for tonight.

I tried to write,
but the pigeon
was gone.
It's all wrong,
at least for tonight.

Living on candlelight.
Lotus eating, like
ancient stories.
And your heart,
something to break mine on.

I tried to forget,
but your face
wouldn't go.
It's all right.
I got a light.
Smoking you away
until dawn.

Living on candlelight.
Lotus eating, like
ancient stories.
And your heart,
something to break mine on.

Bad Alchemy

You missed the ting
and could not understand
the gold turned to silver
all in your hand in the space of a night
your voice turned too loud
for the rest of us to comprehend.

I know, I know, I've been there
before, when the wolves were less feral
and the rest of the forest forgave
all your strange movements in the dark.

But, things have changed,
and I can only say I'm sorry
that you've died for the thousandth time.

Lofty, Vaulted Arch

Float upon the water, lover.
Let us enter the temple, slowly.
And, then, we shall see the stars.
The lofty, vaulted arch
will give witness to us.
We shall circle each other,
in patterns like the stars,
but, we shall touch,
we shall know the feel
of each other's skin
(and within, within!).

Black Lung Moonlight

Black lung moonlight
hung around like fog.
A bad moon above
your perfect smile.

I'm not drunk off your spell.
At least not tonight,
when I'm at my best.

Half-heart smiling
see now so clear.
The picture better
only in my mind.

Not dead, maybe immune.
To charms I thought
you'd lost.