Of Saints and Shadows

We would like to leave this place Keep moving until something fits Leave behind everything The familiar And wait for the morning When everything is revealed Known We will still be here Holding on by our fingertips Swinging back with indecision We will still be here And I will tell you, here can be Anywhere you want it to be

You don’t even seem to have a plan You might see the cracks How broken some of us can be The weakness of a foundation we hold together by strings But I don’t believe you see the haunting beauty Lyrical phrases and rhythmic revelations to be Read between the lines It would be closer to a step in the right direction

Is it over yet A child hiding in bed, covers pulled high Protected from the monsters That would live in the closet Too high a price we pay But consumerism has taught us well Overlook our needs A greater picture All for the unfulfilling desires of the present Relent, and wish for more Turn on the lights Monsters will disappear Faster than you think Chased under the bed The nightmares, not so easily Only to come out tomorrow Oh, but I forgot to mention So too, would the dreams

Morally ambiguous My decisions are fully formed But they leave you guessing You ask, today How much longer must this go on Tired and beaten down You pray to salvation A god who can’t be bothered, trivial you say While selling your soul to the highest bidder The price of a better tomorrow For the chance to change what can’t be broken Servitude is life Fully dealt and unrelenting Sell more than just your soul This is the cost to live Your capitalist empires grow A sandstone city Muddied by torrential downpour And I say globalize this.

His beautiful eyes Glowing with sharp intelligence A cutting blade on flesh The evidence of lines Never quite disappearing Look beyond your narrow vision Shield irises from blinding illumination You leave these marks Forever changing the landscape Of human fabric Destiny we call it Name it what you will Devastation we say

This is quite the dilemma I’ve found myself in Back and forth simultaneously Is it really possible This, I can see, will rip me in two I dreamed of you Last night Often dreamt in color Beautiful words in action But they aren’t beautiful dreams There won’t be anymore dreams A dangerous game we played Fire—gives life/passion I came so close to getting warm Never burned—I live in flame But I still feel nothing No guilt, sadness Just numb and my erratic flying thoughts

What were you thinking this morning How much damage do you want to inflict It would’ve been better for us Had you taken the time Meaning is lost You only hear the words Lyrical And beautiful But between the lines meaning is monstrous And truth a hard mistress to bear What I wasn’t prepared for was finality, was honesty I know you will never tell me you’re sorry We both just accept

Needs must, when the devil drives, wait Desire has always lived on the edge Hoping for a little dream of me And prayer is wasted, get down on your knees darling The universe knows someone is missing And slowly, it attempts to replace them See the sun set in the hand of man Where are the twins? Where are agony and ecstasy? Why do they fear the sunless lands of my father?

I’m telling myself the words Rehearsing the play in my mind Everything as it should be I’m just missing the other characters A one-man show The curtain calls Lines stick in my throat And nothing Goes according to plan Everything as it should be Not exactly as I need it to be

Hear the things that I am saying Purposely give your view While ignoring diplomatic missions A skirmish in the works Try negotiating the peace between us Treacherous waters Patience, waiting for what lies below the dark waters Barricade yourself against the tidal Insignificant Resolve splinters before me And you’ll flee only with your regrets Troubled arguments

What we are as children is rarely what we become as adults. - And what are children, that we are not? Courageous.Straight-forward.Observant. - Ah, so simple. So true. Adults only hold to the most useless and damaging emotions they can muster.