9 and 8

Perhaps in the pain we have pierced the veil
Let leak from the heavens an enchanting light
Yet for all our desire, so bright and pale
We are burnt by the golden-edged strands of night

And I will be longing for you
Between the page and the book and the tree and the forest
I will be calling for you
Between the drop and the sea and the me and you
I will be hanging on the edge of myself
With your song on my lips
And your curse burning holes in my lungs

Perhaps in the dark we are still and cold
Beleaguered by the wit of an ancient lie
Yet for all we're taught we can never know
What are miles on the earth under an endless sky

9 and 7

i feel like the shit that you don't give.

you don't give a me.

you don't give me a break, but

you broke me.

for shit sake

please stop.

9 and 6

a set of keys in the snow till morning
a hand held in the dark while waiting
a wish fulfilled without due warning
a moonlit shoreline promise breaking
a music room and your lips singing
a question 1,000 miles flying
a scandal synchronized and swinging
a nature, rock-filled, wild climbing
a curtain smile widely opening
a van on the road-side stopping
a young heart bewildered and still hoping
a photo never meant for cropping
a mask of mirrors ever falling
a game between two actors playing
a wounded why that keeps on calling
a love that cannot but be ever staying

knowledge

am i more of afraid of what i do or what i don't know
the ocean outside or the leak in the boat
the action, the reaction, the prescriptive anecdote
the violent silence or the hum of a darkly haunting choke
are we two too terrified to be around ourselves
inside shells we hide on shelves like unread books
who long to be cracked and spilt upon the minds
of unselfish introspection
and blinking, blinding looks
perchance a glance at truth could tell
how far, how utterly far we all fell

9 and 5

I'll say what I need to from such a great distance
Just liked I did next to you by your own insistance
I'll get by and survive by my trying attempts to
Make use of some honesty but never condemn you
'Cause I don't think you understand what it would take
To escape the faces of fates next great big break
And all along lying here in my home-made half-shell cell
I'll fall back to the habits that I can't explain too well
You don't know me at all, do you
You don't owe me a call, but could you?

Fabricate

when hunger rolls and rumbles
climbing claw by claw up bending walls
the aching halls of a hollow house
with songs of longing pangs and pains
the tugging weight of waiting on and on
blanket dry strands of cracking sand throat hands
slapping stacks of hay-scratched packets
of nicotine patches and attacking the vast
and the vastless
the habitually addicted sarcophagi madness
snacking on scraps of off-brand medicated sadness
articulately synthesized, artificially categorized, academically memorialized
before their time and mine
is a mind long lost to the cost of a good line
over the milk and bread
of some well-fed middle class menagerie
sleeping streets down in shadow towns remembered
in folk songs long deemed mythological
while the cosmological fallacies of cosmetology's palaces
paint new masks for the past-wearing ash clouds
and rain down more starving mouths to bleed
all singing a humble numb mumbling hum
like some jingle they learned from daytime tv
with one hand on their heart
and another starting to putrefy casually
like it's only a matter of biology, sociology, and a healthy diet
plus this new recipe i picked up from a paper
outdated and soaked through in the gutter
a virtual buffet of your refuse
and my undignified salvation
recreation inhabiting your equal nation

9 and 4

Were your wings burning wildly
The day you dipped way down
The earth to grace and scorch my face
Mark light upon the ground