Sweet Dreams, Momentarily

Your body needs a rest,
but your mind will get the best
of any lie you dole out
until you shake and shout.
Prolificacy
is a sin, you see,
but what matters most
is that meddling ghost
behind your eyes,
muted and paralyzed.
Measured words - like incantations - shoo
away the demons haunting you.
A proverb, a poem, a lullaby,
lingering tales, then a sweet goodbye:
a sentence with resolve
and your specters dissolve.
Sweet dreams, momentarily.
'Til you wake warily.
Razor blade daydreams:
your muse, it seems
and now you can't stand
the blood on your hands.
It's a story untold
or too folded to unfold:
tuck it tightly twixt your teeth:
hide the secrets underneath.
Hold your breath and just pretend
that you control the way this ends.

**********************************************

This is about all the things you try to do when you're feeling your weakest, but sometimes it gets the best of you anyway.








"'Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free -"
P.B. Shelley The Mask Of Anarchy (Seriously, read this poem and ponder upon it.)

"He has a halo, for dreams return to dust. Words dissolve on the page like tears in blood." Sunny Day Real Estate Rodeo Jones

"When your mother sends back all your invitations and your father to your sister he explains that you're tired of yourself and all of your creations: won't you come see me, Queen Jane? Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?" Bob Dylan Queen Jane, Approximately

Road Maps And Mixtapes

Ghost towns and highways,
from ocean to ocean:
it's the life we live
and the places we've been.
An artist's tribute
in headphones and hearts
reminds me of how
we're not so far apart.
Kindred spirits
can always find
their way back to each other
in due time.
Road maps and mix tapes
eclipse the gap
and parallel for now
travel our paths.
In the span of space
from rhythm to rhyme,
cacti to pine,
and the hours that
without regard
pass us by,
I lay awake
and hum a tune
that was written by you
and - to me - rings true.

A lullaby
and we'll be fine:
sleep peacefully
all through the night.

*************************************

While I'm revealed I don't have a "tour" this summer (because I'm poor and also just got a job from which I can't just take three weeks off), I miss the road. This is about driving to weird places and it's about why it's worth it. It's also about finding something to help you sleep at night.







"You'll taste it in time. You'll taste it...it time." Sunny Day Real Estate Seven

"Sleep peacefully. Like the way you look this morning. With faith in your eyes and me in your hands: a whispered promise in your heart. Lullaby for a snow-faced girl is what I'll sing watching you, the whole time. It's three-o-five on Monday morning...or is it night? I don't know. Is it night? I don't know. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. We'll be fine." Kevin Devine Lullaby For A Snow-Faced Girl

Taut We Remain

If we're all in this together
then I'm no more dead than you.

I loved as best I could
from so many miles away.
And the distance between us, dear,
well that's just the price we pay
for honor
and sin
(and look at the mess we're in)
and the solutions discovered wherein
dissolve
like our bonds.
But taut we remain
still
despite the heavy rain
and the awkward pain.
Sunshine seeps through panes
and reminds us how clear
vision can be
in hindsight.
This might
be the eye of the storm
or the eyes staring at me
from that table across the bar.
You leave me guessing:
forever haunted,
forever hunted,
a forever of only one.
Life and death
equate in sleep
and sleepless nights
scare me to death.
Windows and doors
and wiley floorboards
sing cautious lullabies
of how my heart defies
reason.
Is there something to believe in?
Are my lung still breathing?
What's wrong with me, then?


************************************

I know is should say "Is there something in which to believe?," but "believe" doesn't rhyme as nicely with "reason," so deal with it.

"Ugh...liiiiiike, I don't know." Exactly. I don't know. This plagued me for a couple of weeks and I don't know if the outcome matters at all, if it was worth all the trouble. This is about things that won't die; it about resilience. But it's also about the strain of that resilience. Lots of things feel unstable and messy right now yet everything seems to be staying in place, for better or for worse.

I found this interesting:
Taut -
[–adjective, -er, -est.]
1. tightly drawn; tense; not slack.
2. emotionally or mentally strained or tense: taut nerves.
3. in good order or condition; tidy; neat.
[Courtesy of http://www.dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/taut]

...those seems like sort of an ironic mesh of meanings for this little word.






"The people you've been before that you don't want around anymore. They push and shove and won't bend to your will. I'll keep them still." Elliott Smith Between The Bars

"Peace, be still." Pedro The Lion Secret Of The Easy Yoke

"What's a bond if it dissolves in water?" Saves The Day My Sweet Fracture