The Songs
 

I know I can't
make you love me
But I wanted you to know
That I appreciate your applause
The most;
Each of them is born
for you.
 
 

Trippy Candy

Plain milk chocolate
Trippy Candy
floating into the only place that I
ever want to be alone
my mind is so intensely
extended
but the blue covers everything
and holds onto everyone
and I don't want to let go
of anything.
Don't make me let go of you.
 

Strawberry Fields High (Inspired By Paul McCartney)

Moving on and looking down at the Mattingly crowd that
Andrew swears will drag you down
oh yeah it's such a drag
with a so there and a thank you
melody from this distance that space doesn't grasp
where ukeleles play
and past present rolling by and by
While I sit alone on a
Strawberry Fields high.

A Sadder Face

I never saw a sadder face than yours.
The lines can be drawn in it,
Those limits,
The ones I say are ageless.
Buried in the rain
and dancing in the rain,
I will only think about myself tonight.
 

Qualities

He has that
man quality
Of getting all things done
Right
But then he sits at the table
and smiles like a boy
At last
near content
because of me.
 

It Would Be Nice

It would be nice
If you could be nice
And not let me down.
It would be nice
If your promises
Didn't make me complain
Like a tarnished lady
In a dime store trashy
novel
(but at least those authors are published).
It would be nice
If you could appreciate me
Now that I'm gone.
(will I stay gone?)
I'm done with saying thank yous.
It is your turn.
...
...
.
 

Everybody

Around here grew up while I was away.
They remind me I should have stayed gone
where they wanted me.
I could romanticize a thousand times
living to fulfill only what you need,
but my mutable nature
has collapsed over a clock
whose hands pierce me calloused
like a guitarist's;
like my own.
All artists have suffered.
 

She Shuts Down

Joann's finished talking.
And where is Billy when I'm gonna jump?
I was here forever holding him back.
Jackie made it to poverty,
her parents said.
I see her finally being happy.
Jonny's walking down the glamour aisle,
A thousand dollars says I'm the last thing
on his mind.
Quadruple that bet,
It'll pay for my school.
School is out then,
and I can escape from everywhere.
 

Erasing Sounds

The pictures are back from the developer
because I'm not a real photographer;
I don't develop my own film.
I wore my tap-like-shoes today
Because they dance on the hardwood floors
In this empty house.
As I flipped through the pictures,
I heard all your voices
And felt your embraces.
You were all there.
Jason teased as he joked about the ghost,
And Sarah saw that I was unhappy.
She always notices.
Most of the pictures contained guitars.
My blue guitar stood out.
I thought some of you were going to cry to me again.
I wanted to feel your tears.
Desire is more burning now
That it has already been fulfilled.
And I will attempt to erase these sounds
from my mind,
So dysfunctional because of its situation.
 

Shakespeare Lied

I think he was some kind of
father figure
or someone I fell in love with
Before I knew what love was.
The way the words sounded
grabbed me into sonnets
And for a time
I spoke that way.
And to see that his tragedies
Are no exaggeration of the truth
Hurts in a bittersweet pain
To know that fiction
Is the truest of all
regret.
 
 

What If?

My father could have gone to Vietnam
Where he would have died,
And I could have been the dead baby
With my name
In the hospital
Born on the same day.
 
 

I Love Your Sound

I am still
To be so solid
And still
Your comfortable chair.
Do you remember when my arms molded around you
No matter what we were sitting on?
We walked by so many unpicked flowers
Even rose petals that collapse around each other
like unborn innocence,
You can hear the moisture escape crisp when you pick one
like celery.
(I picked a daisy alone, he loves me not).
But you never picked one.
This house is empty except for my room which is drenched in your memories
and the scent of the flower
that fell from the tree where we spent a half an hour talking.
I wore a skirt and you wore the white shirt,
with two buttons unbuttoned.
The flowers fell in my hair because I was meant to wear them.
And so I fell on you and into you:
cruciform idolatry before there was twilight.
The best part was simply how we used to listen to each other.
I love your sound and that's the closest I'll let myself come to saying
it anymore.
I love your sound.
 
 

Without Me

I guess you'd be better off without me around.
The line isn't too poetic
But that's not my effort.
I really want the best for you,
So I'm walking down your street
Scribbling I Love Yous on a sheetz receipt
But now it's a poem
That you'll never take the time to read.