more poems
Water Moccasin
These sad melodica streets
Where the only things that burn are cigarette butts
And the bodies of heretics
And wouldn't your mama be so proud?
To know that you lit up and charred with the best of them?
Like the baseball MVP she always knew you were?
And you cover up
Making your true colours bleed to greyscale
Dripping off you like honey
Making you bleak and dulled once again
Faded
And I'm no help
You see, I'm colourblind
And my crayons never stayed inside the lines anyways
So I let your lotus flowers grow in the muck
And I invite you to bite me, you little Water Moccasin
And don't worry
I assure you
I can find somebody
To suck out
The poison
Thunderstorm
When the sky begins to fall I will hide in the cornfields making crop circles
I will remove my shirt
And plaster my chest with tribal tattoos and war paint
I will burn paper money
And bills
Saving all the books and the letters
I will carve my manifesto into the bark of an entire forest
Over the eternal "JS (hearts) ST"s of the world
I will stand in clearings
Throwing raindrops back at the sky
And I will wait for the dirt to turn to mud
So I can roll like a pig
And sundry
Like a statue
Waiting for The Reckoning to come.
Bloom
Stop the planes from flying overhead
Make them glide on backwards
Make take off into a landing
Remove the clouds, the stench of gasoline
Sink these cruise ships
Unscrew the lightbulbs of their discos
Heat a house full of filament
Evaporate the sea into the sky
Derail this railroad cart
Take the tracks and the dynamite out of the mountains
Unbreak these boulders
Do not be awoken by whistles
Deconstruct this car
Unbuild this bus
Untie your sneakers
Deflate the tires of bicycles
Stop this constant motion
Stay where you are for once
And bloom like the most beautiful cherry blossoms
Even if they've been panted, branches deep in the most uninhabitable of moors.
6:25 at Lake Murrey, Irmo, South Carolina on October 19, 2008
With burning wood we sit
Engulfed in flames
Symbolic of health
Love
The irreparable forest by the lake
That we burn down night after night
Streaming white smoke
Into the airplane exhaust and cloudless skies
And we chant by the fire
We sing and we dance
And I swear to god there will be sand in out pockets for weeks to come
Turned to glass by the heat of charred logs
I will wander alone into the endless forests of South Carolina
I will shout and beat my chest
And I will listen as the birds call back
The water is rising now
Tree limbs are drowning
And so will we
THrow my body to the bottom of Lake Murrey
Let me be buried here
With shores full of sand
And a mile and a half of dam
We'll turn the lights off and watch the ashes drift like a drunken meteor shower
With our city burning below it
And Will Sherman running through the streets
Howling at the moon.
In The Morning, Under The Carpet
I lifted up the carpet that we sang on and I journeyed under it
Looking for the bones of last night
While you were asleep in the next room
And again I searched in the morning
Whilst beautiful sounds resonated off your fingers and out of your mouth
Close by
And your cats roamed like lions
And everyone else slept
And ghosts circled overhead like birds coming from your breath
And I say on the carpet that we sang on
And I took inventory of the night before
Violin, ukulele, guitars, notebooks, keys, pillows, shoes
All scattered amongst empty bottles
We coughed clouds
We strummed smoke
We spoke soft
We laughed light
We owned hours
We sang sweet.
Sentimentality
Spend the night erasing the sentimental value of things
Paint over snapshots in a static gray
Burn all the baby blankets
Be a ghost
Smash mix tapes
Set fire to every house you've woken up in
Unbury the dead and tip their stones over
Cut off your jewelry
Drink 'till you forget
Be like me
Buy a bus ticket
Sit in the back
Throw a hood over your head
From the sweatshirt you bought on The Metro
And I swear to god
Never look back.
These sad melodica streets
Where the only things that burn are cigarette butts
And the bodies of heretics
And wouldn't your mama be so proud?
To know that you lit up and charred with the best of them?
Like the baseball MVP she always knew you were?
And you cover up
Making your true colours bleed to greyscale
Dripping off you like honey
Making you bleak and dulled once again
Faded
And I'm no help
You see, I'm colourblind
And my crayons never stayed inside the lines anyways
So I let your lotus flowers grow in the muck
And I invite you to bite me, you little Water Moccasin
And don't worry
I assure you
I can find somebody
To suck out
The poison
Thunderstorm
When the sky begins to fall I will hide in the cornfields making crop circles
I will remove my shirt
And plaster my chest with tribal tattoos and war paint
I will burn paper money
And bills
Saving all the books and the letters
I will carve my manifesto into the bark of an entire forest
Over the eternal "JS (hearts) ST"s of the world
I will stand in clearings
Throwing raindrops back at the sky
And I will wait for the dirt to turn to mud
So I can roll like a pig
And sundry
Like a statue
Waiting for The Reckoning to come.
Bloom
Stop the planes from flying overhead
Make them glide on backwards
Make take off into a landing
Remove the clouds, the stench of gasoline
Sink these cruise ships
Unscrew the lightbulbs of their discos
Heat a house full of filament
Evaporate the sea into the sky
Derail this railroad cart
Take the tracks and the dynamite out of the mountains
Unbreak these boulders
Do not be awoken by whistles
Deconstruct this car
Unbuild this bus
Untie your sneakers
Deflate the tires of bicycles
Stop this constant motion
Stay where you are for once
And bloom like the most beautiful cherry blossoms
Even if they've been panted, branches deep in the most uninhabitable of moors.
6:25 at Lake Murrey, Irmo, South Carolina on October 19, 2008
With burning wood we sit
Engulfed in flames
Symbolic of health
Love
The irreparable forest by the lake
That we burn down night after night
Streaming white smoke
Into the airplane exhaust and cloudless skies
And we chant by the fire
We sing and we dance
And I swear to god there will be sand in out pockets for weeks to come
Turned to glass by the heat of charred logs
I will wander alone into the endless forests of South Carolina
I will shout and beat my chest
And I will listen as the birds call back
The water is rising now
Tree limbs are drowning
And so will we
THrow my body to the bottom of Lake Murrey
Let me be buried here
With shores full of sand
And a mile and a half of dam
We'll turn the lights off and watch the ashes drift like a drunken meteor shower
With our city burning below it
And Will Sherman running through the streets
Howling at the moon.
In The Morning, Under The Carpet
I lifted up the carpet that we sang on and I journeyed under it
Looking for the bones of last night
While you were asleep in the next room
And again I searched in the morning
Whilst beautiful sounds resonated off your fingers and out of your mouth
Close by
And your cats roamed like lions
And everyone else slept
And ghosts circled overhead like birds coming from your breath
And I say on the carpet that we sang on
And I took inventory of the night before
Violin, ukulele, guitars, notebooks, keys, pillows, shoes
All scattered amongst empty bottles
We coughed clouds
We strummed smoke
We spoke soft
We laughed light
We owned hours
We sang sweet.
Sentimentality
Spend the night erasing the sentimental value of things
Paint over snapshots in a static gray
Burn all the baby blankets
Be a ghost
Smash mix tapes
Set fire to every house you've woken up in
Unbury the dead and tip their stones over
Cut off your jewelry
Drink 'till you forget
Be like me
Buy a bus ticket
Sit in the back
Throw a hood over your head
From the sweatshirt you bought on The Metro
And I swear to god
Never look back.