A Life in Pictures

A life in pictures
Still and silent
Frozen smiles
Never fade

There we are, hand-in-hand
Although you didn't understand
I tried so hard to make you see
Just how much you meant to me

The fun we had
A perfect past
How did the time
Go by so fast?

Did you love me?
Did you know
That all the while I loved you so
But never dared to tell you

A life in pictures
Vibrant hues
Greens and reds
And brilliant blues

Almost real enough to feel
Your skin, your hair
Your warm embrace
The sunlight shining on my face

Do you think inside the frame
The past lives on
Even though out here it's gone?
I'll spread these photos on the floor
And maybe they will form a door
A portal I can fall into
To be with you a little more
The way things used to be

Then once again I'd feel alive
Maybe...
I'll just close my eyes
And dive, dive, dive

Another Day

Lost my reason, lost my rhyme
And everything's a waste of time
Every day's about the same
Living on the welfare dime

Sleep til two or maybe four
Roll downstairs and out the door
Have a smoke and check the mail
Another less-than-epic fail

Lie in bed and watch the walls
Check the phone but no one calls
Every day I'm getting older
Feel my heart: it's getting colder

Do you love me? Do you not?
Wondering is all I've got
If I look will you be there
Or vanish ghost-like in the air?

Come on by, I'll be around
Lying face-down on the ground
Pick me up, shake off the dust
But please don't feel as if you must

A troubled mind I can't explain
Trapped inside a broken brain
If I can sleep I'll be okay
Tomorrow is another day

Epitaph

Here lies a strange man, a curious man
Who never really knew how he fit in the plan
He dabbled and dallied and fiddled a bit
Made his own language but had nothing to say in it
Lingered and languished along for a while
For shits and giggles and amassed a whole pile
Sent his heart out to a maiden or three
On the wings of a dove, sent his heart out did he
But each time she returned him his heart unreceived
Because it was ugly, or so he believed
His heart couldn't bring him a girl to adore
So at last he decided he'd send it no more
His beard became long, his hair became white
His day in the Sun was now coming night
And when in the end the Reaper appeared
He stood up and brushed all the crumbs from his beard
What took you so long? the dying man said
The Reaper said nothing. Here lies the man, dead

Fetch

Fetch me, let me see your face
Then bring me to that other place
Fetch, you've always been my wife
Since that night you lost your life
Alone amidst the falling snow
And saw my warm and living glow
Your soul cried out, I heard your plea
I called to you, you came with me
I took you in, your tears I dried
You didn't know that you had died
It's twenty years that you've been dead
Twenty years we've shared a bed
We've been each other's warmth and light
For twenty years now, every night
Fetch, my love, there's only you
And only one thing left to do
Leave this world and and all its sorrows
I have seen enough tomorrows
You're the only warmth I know
And how my spirit longs to go
So Fetch, my only ever bride
Take me to the other side

It Makes So Little Sense

here he lies
tossing away
the desires that arise
time flies
as the writing on the wall dries
and another day dies

why care?
you might as well stay
no one goes anywhere
says the tortoise to the hare
we're only running on a treadmill
while we use up all the air

so clever
yet it makes so little sense
all of us can live forever
says the preacher to the congregants
keep buying armor made of stupid
and we'll hammer out the evi-dents

tough shit
said the viper in the pit
i made this hole all by myself
by putting nothing into it
now you got bit and you owe rent
for falling in by accident

Jellyfish

i remember when the night was hot
and echoing with voices
millipedes were marching
in their shiny riot helmets
sirens wailing out in horror
distantly explosions booming
and the flames
the flames—!
they lit up the horizon
"it's really burning now" you said
i nodded in agreement
and the jellyfish were congregating
all around the streetlamps

O Man!

o man!
how long the blood
of every martyr
ever spilled
upon the thirsty earth
and still
but never stilled
keeps sighing
that it’s better
to be killed than kill
and better to be dead
than dying

The Lighthouse Keeper

Words well up
inside my chest
they break and ebb away.
Bitter sea
sounding sea
what have you to say?
Do you bring a message here
from half a world away?
Pounding surf and crashing waves
are all that I can hear.
Closer, do you beckon me?
I'll drown if I come near.

A semaphore from ship to shore
as nightfall is approaching
sends that crazy, foolish optimism
once again encroaching.
In your eyes I see my wings
I want to taste the sky
but I must never cross the sea
I must never even try.
Even if I gave to you
my torn and wretched heart
you could never stop it
from tearing me apart.

My thirst is kindled, I'm on fire
I could drink the sea
to bring you to my desert isle
and strand you here with me.
I'd crown you on a throne of sand
before that jealous sea
until its turning tides decide
our love can never be.
Then on the day you wash away
I'll slip beneath the waves
and pray the darkness fathoms deep
will soothe my restless soul to sleep.

The Picture

i try with clumsy fingers
and a brush too big to hold
to paint the only truth i know
and let that truth be told
the lines all blur, the colors clash
you say it's in poor taste
whatever wall i hang it on
you'll say it looks misplaced
it's not the kind of picture
anybody wants to see
(the painter is a kind of man
nobody wants to be)
but maybe in the dusty rooms
and endless halls of time
an empty space somewhere awaits
a picture just like mine
so i'll finish it as best i can
(although you shake your head)
and hope someone will find a place
to hang it when i'm dead