lyrics and poems for songs unsung
It has been a while, measured
in breaths, in, out, like tick
and talk about the weather
Time marked and dismissed
with the taking of pills
and meals and chilled tea
I haven’t thought of you
in days, maybe weeks
Thyme cures all, they say
Rambles and brambles
would etch patterns
more entrancing than
the creases of these sheets
imprinted on my skin
Artists, like prisoners,
make much of so little,
dying to be remembered
Stay sharp, stay strong
stand
keep walking, keep walking
tall face out
keep walking, keep looking, straight ahead
keep typing, keep flinching,
inching towards a better place
towards comfort talking
In here, all is silence
No one talks, they look
out windows, they look
past floors, they look
to their next step
All is invested
in that next step
And I want to save
that poem
and that other one
Fold it into my
pastry cortex here, now,
to find it whenever
I gnaw mindless this way
to remember
that time,
that is
now, when
I was laid out splayed
head ringing with spring breeze
ease leaking thoughts
of fucking awe at all that is
and words’ power to
sow/seed/warp/tear/lift/free
I want to hit SAVE, UPLOAD and
NOTIFY, should I slipslink back
into my place
in the stifling ought display
to await my shelving
SAVE it all to record and remember I was fucking here, I saw
it all, I heard the birds singing
literally for fuck’s sake
for which we do all, after all
Until we are free of fucks,
free to fuck without
sake or stake
n.d. it’s the music and the light
and the vacuum induced murmurs
buzzing secrets to raise me
in a thousand flutters of a heart
from prostrate to panicked
disbelief in reprieve or
something for nothing
Good luck is riding loss
to its end with full lungs
Some know,
though they stay quiet
They meet your eyes
steadily, knowing you know,
they would change it
if they could
let the comfort slip off
and stand flayed and flawed
as they see you,
past the layers of nuance
you worked a lifetime
to layer into a thick bark
now peeling away
under their gaze
leaving you breadth
to forgive and
breathe again
I tire of strategies and ways
to cope with oncoming days
relentlessly repenting my weakfisted displays
of resistence
Should I walk you through
the maze of forays I’ve made
to breach your frame of reference and make you see me
Or should I don those gifted feathers and the walk
that make me talk in ways
that appease and rename me
South, North, West, East,
Worst, Best, Most, Least
these things matter
to you it seems
And just like that
I’m calculating freedom
Considering extractions
and subtractions
against the cost of inaction
And alone glows like a full moon
This ill-fitting life
spreads a feast before me
While I, measuring my worth inversely to your silence,
starve for the stars above
Vestiges shorn from my dreams
rise like phantom limbs
unveiling their legacies
Slightly more bent over,
one leg shorter,
I eventually circle round
to make the same mistakes
only with more weight
to my now uneven gait
But wait, I’m not done
choking back that song
I should have sung as
out of tune as your face
hung below the new moon
that drew my attention
More than you ever would
How easy to fall for
the nibbling of a cuticle
under a brow furrowed in consternation relaxing
into a whisper
“it’s okay, you’re alright”
breaking into a smile
mocking all propriety
On the other side
I sit with you–watching other lives–waiting
for confirmation
I should rise up–flee dancing–to my doom
A few steps on
and details will blur
The errors and slurs
looking back will concur
It was just life
making itself heard
above the din of clinking
glasses raised to chins
under eyes glancing
to catch sight of daggers
advancing to nail them
to a whim for the night
Some are flung,
some take flight
from the orbits of ones
skillful at hunting
for fillers and props
to their cheap thrills
While others watch
the slaughter of hearts,
uttering remarks behind
napkins drawn to lips,
hungering to be part
of the scene
Let us live our best lie
sipping sour wine
under stars straining behind
our bluffing smiles
Denying how or why
We’re just beasts in heat
thin slices of meat
parting to greet
the next hint of kindness
with gritted teeth
They say I’m wound tight
taught and unwilling,
but I’m just stuck between pendulums swinging
looking up at the clock
waiting for the tic
and the toc to knock me
to the top with a view
of the other side of you
Disappointment sits
in the ruts on my face
along with last night’s liner
Though there was a moment
finer than the hairs on our necks
raised by our breaths
counting the waves
I wish my life could be
this seemly fantasy
dancing on the edge
of the sea, of a dream
riding on the steam of oloong tea
rising from the froth
of the tide like a goddess
to hear you confess
your utter distress
at your failure to impress me
Instead I fall into the past
and land crashing at
the feet of my failures
raised at half mast
to ward off such
futile endeavours
Come listen to the city wake
hear the dog’s nails
scraping the cobble stones
as its master yanks the leash
Hear the garbage trucks
groan heavy without apology
And headless mannequins call out
to smokers huddled under eaves
sucking back their first hit in shame
What’s so good about you?
It’s 8 am and I am
awake in this wake
taking the long way
back to sleep
In between
I hope I will not cede
to that voice singing
Is that all there is?
jotNrot 
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