| walking out
 i wash the white and black out the red
 its all i keep contained within
 that keeps my visions swerving
 running into you again...
 oops i am sorry,
 my mouth didn''t mean to say those things
 its just that my stomach sometimes pushes out tired of boiling,
 burning acidic pains
 and i can't help but to look at you sideways.
 i'd leave if i could have the keys
 or take the dog on my leash...
 i don't mind walking,
 really.
 i could find a place under the shade
 where it wouldn't look to funny if i sat down and prayed
 with my hat, blocking the sun and keeping the sand
 from kicking me in the face.
 i have always got dirt in my mouth it seems
 spouting out twisted little mind *** themes
 and i wonder if we are living this just like it is my dream,
 but no we aren't i see at the end of another
 sleepy haze,
 mom is still alive, the  is still ...
 | 
    
       | over and over
 there is a man in the cellhis structure compares to movie role models for kids that want to be
 bad asses
 like little timmy who wants to ride a big bike and have tiffany tattoed
 across his chest
 right now he is ten and still playing with he-man and other force-fed
 superheroes
 i wonder if he still wets his bed.
 well the man in the cell doesn't.
 he strokes his phone cord and thinks of longer
 longer days and probably longer nights
 just like these
 lonely and unafraid...
 at least if you ask him.
 he waits and waits and
 wastes 50 cents on the phone call again
 to his girlfriend because he couldn't stop needing to hear
 the sound of her voice ringing his ears.
 everybody is a victim sometimes i guess.
 and baby please the time is growing still
 and i can't hear you thru the interruptions...
 i said mama doesn't like you and
 she is cutting...
 | 
    
       | my mother
 my mother used to paint cutouts, clippings,computer print outs
 scattered all over the living room table and couch
 she'd stare for hours after smoking a bowldeciding which picture to use for inspiration
 to self teach her hand to move like
 monet, picasso or van gogh
 she made herself an artist infusing styles of the masters
 in with her own
 but never realized the beauty of her work
 my mother used to paint. | 
    
       | for u
 today i fall insidethe warmth of your gaze.
 i watch as your fears
 melt into mine
 and i can no longer tell
 who is (more) afraid.
 i call you outto show you places
 where we need to
 bridge the gap
 before we both fall in.
 i close you in,boxed,
 until i think maybe
 you might understand
 we both have feelings.
 tomorrow i am hoping thatyou'll be here,
 cradling the outline
 of my curves
 holding me tightlythrough the night
 until we both
 wake up again.
 i can even sayi like sleeping now
 because i like the way
 you feel pressed snug against my skin.
 whenever you can't seem to figurewhat is going on
 or don't think i am
 strong enough to bring along
 remember i am.i am ready and willing
 and waiting
 for you to take that ch...
 | 
    
       | the first groping
 "nature is opposite of the soul" - emerson i am mutating into truthshuddering
 thinking of how to hide myself
 in the world of my own workings
 will i be able to pass off this chaotic sickness
 and its hard, cold realness
 or will they catch on
 finding me in the struggleof yet another welfare love
 that can't figure out
 if its my feet or his, he should be picking up.
 and i don't knowanymore than
 the mind of the vacuum
 that sucked up all the
 good. | 
    
       | in the yellow
 there are pieces of shadowspasted against the pastels,
 i am yellow and
 overhang the rope for myself.
 my head is still mutteringsilly things
 like "die ... now,"
 and i regret being so nice -
 letting go of suicidewhen it was my time to
 wear the evil grin
 and do myself in.
 | 
    
       | this is my nightmare
 we have subtle lensesattached to complex visions.
 they call it creativity. i call me falling offthe deep-end
 not drowningor swimming in
 but falling. guess its a perception thing. i think at least if i were only drowningi'd only have five more minutes of
 living like this.
 but falling,i am still breathing
 and i can be falling forever.
 at least that's how it seems.my mind made up
 always different than
 the norm or
 the rest of the breathing world.
 and i don't care if they do.leave it to them.
 i can't worry about
 pleasing everybody.
 i have too many damn ledgesto avoid catching,
 to avoid becoming
 just anotheranybody
 like the rest
 of you sheep
 in society.
 my eyes will staywide awake.
 *** you for loving meand wanting me
 
  | 
    
       | living amongst the noise
 the guy in lot 5 likes to give women hickiesthen paint their portraits in the sand.
 he gives them texture,
 because everyone in Venice must have worn grooves,
 even potholes, in their character.
 down the way the waitress who brings beer,wears bells around her waist
 and already knows our order
 before stopping by to say hi.
 we drink the sunset away before goingto bounce around the skate park
 for a picture or three.
 take a ride on the swingsup, down
 ugh, too dizzy today.
 the erdinger in my stomach
 grins at me.
 we kiss with our feet in the sand,the water rushing up -
 you preparing to run,
 me preparing for the cold.
 the rest of the night is softstereo noise
 hummed against the moaning
 and our already rickety bed so close to busting
 takes another pounding
 with me between him and it.
 | 
    
       | just anything
 monday has tentacle armsand swallows deep.
 i take another smoke break
 even though i quit four years and 3 months ago.
 you turn up the volume on the microphone
 in hopes to kill some of the dead noise
 with your voice.
 i keep myself twiddling my thumbs,shaking my feet,
 bouncing my knees...
 anything
 just anything. tomorrow will find me another bedside,another exhaustion pipe and
 green.
 i can bring the Cathedral
 to our dreams
 if only you will pray for me.
 and there you goavoiding my fields of stains and
 broken minds stuck in
 repeat silences
 that have you so wound up around pointless
 that you brought a gun-and i wonder if this is my misery
 or is it yours?
 stop stiffening the breeze and speak -
 say anything
 just anything(so i can get to sleep).
 | 
    
       | no answer
 i used to smile against the weather,now i am just too run over.
 all the shadows take horizons
 and my goals disappear inside them.
 i could collect call from the west coast
 all the way to new hampshire,
 but what good would the ringing do
 for either one of us.
 we both already know
 you aren't picking up the phone.
 |