alive or something like it
among the empty houses
i sit upon their mental furniture
they won the war
for war
so we can have it all the time
it’s just another gathering
A social noose
this jacket and tie
judge and jury
the sweat and the tape
the give of the hollow hardwood
we’re round from all angles
we’re broken answers and crooked smiles
your latest
florescent
counter top
philosophy
like arithmetic
and other forgotten rituals
i see the future
processed, ironic and dead
you’re just one in a murder
swaying directionless in mid flight
i laugh and welcome myself to
the old western front
everyone’s got
their own barrel
to scrape
three reasons to walk home
Monday, November 10, 2008
Monday, November 03, 2008
age has an honest stride:
don't question anything
it's the surest thing
you'll go to sleep
and wake up as yourself
the you that you know
a layer thinner
a little more grey
safe and dead
dumber all the same
404 point 2:
i'll
stop
giving
my
opinion
about
people
when
i
start
being
wrong
about
them
10 East to the 60:
everyday
you take
you tire
insulted
like
gunfire
overhauled
don't question anything
it's the surest thing
you'll go to sleep
and wake up as yourself
the you that you know
a layer thinner
a little more grey
safe and dead
dumber all the same
404 point 2:
i'll
stop
giving
my
opinion
about
people
when
i
start
being
wrong
about
them
10 East to the 60:
everyday
you take
you tire
insulted
like
gunfire
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
You had me there for a minute
and every other minute after that
they are weak and trapped
those minutes
romantic and sick
sixty ticks
It’s so easy to to manipulate the line
between want and need
when you’re bored
when you’re hateful
you move
it’s pencil shavings on a blank page
one eye closed staring at a telephone pole
open the other eye
and watch the wires move
perspective,
it’s a war.
Your words explosive,
and I’ve fell
on every grenade
you’ve ever mouthed.
I left myself out on the limb of humanity
thought I was hungry
for love and the fruit of life
and now I’ve noticed that your reach
yields a saw
not a hand
perspective,
it’s a drawing
a line
between
your reality
and mine...
brian wilson isn't crazy, we are.
and every other minute after that
they are weak and trapped
those minutes
romantic and sick
sixty ticks
It’s so easy to to manipulate the line
between want and need
when you’re bored
when you’re hateful
you move
it’s pencil shavings on a blank page
one eye closed staring at a telephone pole
open the other eye
and watch the wires move
perspective,
it’s a war.
Your words explosive,
and I’ve fell
on every grenade
you’ve ever mouthed.
I left myself out on the limb of humanity
thought I was hungry
for love and the fruit of life
and now I’ve noticed that your reach
yields a saw
not a hand
perspective,
it’s a drawing
a line
between
your reality
and mine...
Monday, October 20, 2008
lockstep into oblivion
beauty in this country
isn’t beauty at all
views of hills
now clogged with views of houses
who want views of hills
with houses on them
the pedestal isn’t for teachers
or thinkers
or artists
and god forbid it was for pacifists
or anarchists
or dissenters
it’s for corrupt athletes
for corporate logos
speeding in circles
musicians who don’t
write
what they sing
all of them
peeking around the cross
fooling you
turn your head
watch the affordable big, flat screen
while we
murder
everything that moves
and a few things that don’t
your hands are filthy
until we wipe the slate clean
and there is
war
in the streets
will we
ever
recognize beauty
a moment of nostalgic nihilism
beauty in this country
isn’t beauty at all
views of hills
now clogged with views of houses
who want views of hills
with houses on them
the pedestal isn’t for teachers
or thinkers
or artists
and god forbid it was for pacifists
or anarchists
or dissenters
it’s for corrupt athletes
for corporate logos
speeding in circles
musicians who don’t
write
what they sing
all of them
peeking around the cross
fooling you
turn your head
watch the affordable big, flat screen
while we
murder
everything that moves
and a few things that don’t
your hands are filthy
until we wipe the slate clean
and there is
war
in the streets
will we
ever
recognize beauty
Monday, October 13, 2008
i want my 1995 back
my highland park
my hollywood
my glendale
and pasadena nothingness
to see the scared look on my high school friends' faces
for the last time
i was bleached blond,
dyed red
suddenly loud,
mean
and
alien
i want angry band fights
to play el arco iris
i want to scream along to falling sickness
"it's too easy to get all tangled up in life's big bed of nothing"
i want the controlled disarray
the school to drop out of
the jobs i would take
and definitely would leave
driving along
in my band-aid-on-cancer mustang
i was invincible
and the world owed me
goddammit
and it knew it did
women were scary
but beautiful
and new
i want those things
you first whispered to me
in the dark of your room
i was crazy and manic
depressed
and i said i hated 1995
but secretly,
deep
deep
deep down
inside
i was having
the time of my life.
wanting these things
brings me
closer to death
than i've ever been
because he promised
i could live
in 1995 one more time.
what dirt tasted like
my highland park
my hollywood
my glendale
and pasadena nothingness
to see the scared look on my high school friends' faces
for the last time
i was bleached blond,
dyed red
suddenly loud,
mean
and
alien
i want angry band fights
to play el arco iris
i want to scream along to falling sickness
"it's too easy to get all tangled up in life's big bed of nothing"
i want the controlled disarray
the school to drop out of
the jobs i would take
and definitely would leave
driving along
in my band-aid-on-cancer mustang
i was invincible
and the world owed me
goddammit
and it knew it did
women were scary
but beautiful
and new
i want those things
you first whispered to me
in the dark of your room
i was crazy and manic
depressed
and i said i hated 1995
but secretly,
deep
deep
deep down
inside
i was having
the time of my life.
wanting these things
brings me
closer to death
than i've ever been
because he promised
i could live
in 1995 one more time.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
somewhere between
baseball scores
and pancake desserts
lies a seething hatred
for my life
whether it be slathered in paint
or between the strings of a bass
in you, the scorned woman
and
easily found with the best laid plans
of record labels
or book publication vehicles
everything's done the hard way
and so pardon my indulgence
just for a moment
while i dream
of a great
black
final
violent
sleep.
the grey train slides slowly, howling deeply, taking me into the black
baseball scores
and pancake desserts
lies a seething hatred
for my life
whether it be slathered in paint
or between the strings of a bass
in you, the scorned woman
and
easily found with the best laid plans
of record labels
or book publication vehicles
everything's done the hard way
and so pardon my indulgence
just for a moment
while i dream
of a great
black
final
violent
sleep.
Monday, December 03, 2007
this is the last one
you've read it before anyway
the last one
about
the nights spent burning
for you
for this city
for something
to feel
just about anything
even if it
is always
whatever
you
think
it
always
is
the last one
that became swallowed bricks
of broken ego
shattered faith
shunned acceptance
and laughable narcissism
this is the last one you'll ever read
and it just so happens
that
this is
the last one
i'll ever write
you've read it before anyway
the last one
about
the nights spent burning
for you
for this city
for something
to feel
just about anything
even if it
is always
whatever
you
think
it
always
is
the last one
that became swallowed bricks
of broken ego
shattered faith
shunned acceptance
and laughable narcissism
this is the last one you'll ever read
and it just so happens
that
this is
the last one
i'll ever write
