a son's farewell

moonlight and grief
tears on his sleeve
just needs a friend to walk along
and understand that heroes die
and force a boy to be a man

dress up shoes
a son's farewell
one last ride and only so far
cause he can't go to Heaven or to
hell or return a father from his war

simple words describe a life
they're spinning stories now
of all he's left,  memories out loud
shovels a pit,  proud in green
sky in pieces 
who stole the light from it

marking time with places
memorizing faces
and the night wind whispers 
outside his window
like an old friend

disappearing in dark spaces
in the middle of daylight
no one can save him from that
there's a picture and a box
all these years have passed
no one can change this

his fathers slips away a hero
no one knew
cause he did it his way
and the rain will hide his son's tears
twenty years of service never made
him weaker

there's a garden and a flag
silence to swallow all he 
can't say
another see off
another goodbye today

a son's farewell
one shovel of dirt 
at a time

myth

no more crimson night shows for us 
the night is a dark yawn and my eyes 
don't know how to shut
the sweetness of their closing,  denied
all those honeysuckle summers haunt me
all those drunken summer dreams were a
passionate seige
we were a little piece of Heaven in a hurricane
our revival of romance was a myth

now all our friends whisper 
they think they know what killed
our heartbeat
put the perpetual pause on you and me
we thought we were building love
but we can't go back to April violets 
and sleeping by the hotel window
with the ocean for our backdrop lullaby
or holding onto one another in a special
midnight embrace
whispering
is this us ?
 
there's no escape
so when glorious sleep does arrive
we will smile as the moon twists
her knife of memory
we must be satisfied we were a poem 
in another's hand for a little while
 
 

like silver

the streets were ribbons,  we had nowhere to go
they were shining like the lights of a broadway show
I was loving the way light was liking you,  on page tomorrow before today was through
someone had to be first to break my heart, it seemed so easy for your elegant hands
but you smelled like rain beneath that twilight sun
those memories are ashes now they're never gonna burn
let them blow away on this summer wind
all these cracked mirrors with a cutting edge,  rewinding
reminding me again
bold confessions of your fickle love
but we're never gonna dance in the rain
the moon will rock the sky to sleep and that's no shame 
but my love for you dissolved
I never found a way to make you feel a thing...

now I'm a stranger in a cracked up mirror
and moonlight spills on my hair like silver

rebel in me

going against the grain
gonna change my family name
too far gone I won't look back
there's wine in the water
of that hand made shack

now you're in every church
I'll ever pray
cruel November brutal May
sleep on my loves sleep on
you won't hear me anyway

he was army green
she was model thin
he was a dark and handsome
poetic man
I feel them all beneath my skin

now it's hard to breathe 
and I rarely sleep
my body misses its bed
my dreams miss their sleep
this will never change 
the rebel in me

it all belongs to me
my pain
stored are all things lost
in castles of rain
but the rebel in me
is more than a name

earth is weary heaven is blue
when I stop breathing
I'll stop missing you
when I stop breathing 
I'll stop missing you

rib

the radiance of the night sky flared like a symphony of light and grew like a painting from a child's marker
one destroyed rib to create more of a perfected dream
eyes closed and fingers gestured North into the receipt of days spent in the month of May
lovers lay dreaming beneath magnolia scented sheets
the navel of his goddess was a goblet and their love was a feast on a fast track of desire