Coaster Album

You are the inexplicable draw
of the water pulling feet through sand
at the beach

I sink as you wash over me,
I marvel at the movement of my
toes transferred to the surface

The sun blasts me in the face
the wind seems to come from it

I stand unashamed
but only of my form

You are the bright explosions on the 5th of July
not the 4th

You are more special than that
because I saw you then
and not when everyone else did

You face down on the table
laughing
Is the absolute best thing
I take it in,
what I inadvertently triggered

And still this morning it's all I could think about
nothing happened

and it's all I can think about

Family Portrait

Why do you HAVE
to be so difficult

Are we done?
I asked

Something i'm so opposed to because
it's fake
a setup
We are not actors in our own lives
so why do you want proof of what we
never were

What about the happy times
the candid captures
where nobody combed their hair
or matched
Does anybody dispute the composition of
those photos?

We already live in a family portrait
with cutout houses
and cookie cutter home designers
going door to door selling the same look
the same veil to drape over our eyes

We can still be ourselves
but you wont let me be me
That's why i'm being so difficult

You guys wonder why I'm always so down
but you never really care
as long as i'm still on the rails
who cares which direction I boulder down
the track

When the record doesn't sound right anymore

Smoke free for almost a week
still feel the haze
unfiltered
and the sunlight plays in it
like sprinklers

Watch your eyes
it's almost all i care about
the spark is there

Is it there in mine too,
or just the exoskeleton
of a life already shed

Don't smile at me
i'll just smile back
I'm a mirror now
but of what you don't want to see

A light bulb surrounded in a cage
is never shattered
the dirty concrete floor
is never swept
and so goes Love
unclean and never broken
but that doesn't sound right

I asked her, "doesn't this sound weird to you?"
the song was off
was the night off as well?
she said yes, and gave me a look
but it was too dark to see her eyes

And now i wonder if I'm seeing things
and hearing things
that aren't there

Being interesting is difficult when I'm so far down the list my name is on side b: I'm a B Side

It's a struggle just knowing you
sometimes
ya know
you know everyone

But you don't really know me
I haven't told you
all that much

Does it remotely peak your interest?
I doubt it, I doubt it

The sermon of the couch

Oh,
how unhappy are the lovelorn
for theirs is an empty heart

They seek
and do not find

They knock in vain
for no one is there to answer

They drink and drive
and steal and cheat
and dishonor themselves and fight
for what optimism they hold dear

They are the gnats around coffee grinds
masters of head colds
and losers of decency

Theirs is the couch,
theirs is a computer chair
and lower back pain

Theirs is uncertainty
the same uncertainty we all face
love lorn or not
but they face it alone

The ones without who have so much to give
the child at Easter who cannot find a plastic shell
They are the unloved and beloved

You cry for them
your heart aches for them
and they do the same

for themselves.

Of myth and man

The myth is so much better
than the man
open your eyes
and remove all doubt
don't let this fool speak

Don't mistake the moisture in my eyes
for sympathy
you'll find it's only
contact solution

Let me be
when you find yourself in times of trouble
let me be

So much has been made of the thinness
of my accomplishments
the nature of my being
It's a cop out to say
i'm just a man

Truthfully i'm something less than that sometimes
more of a corpse these days
disgusting flesh
rotted from the inside

Can't you feel the fetid nature
of my words
my actions

I'm not acting
but floundering

Raspberry joints

Little satellite
trajectory true
but lying to yourself
this long elipse will slowly
drop you into the atmosphere

Burn you,
feel the heat
red nosed and runny
don't smile for your end
Like a little boy on a bicycle
running his handlebars
into the grass
while his savior runs a few feet behind

The excitement without training wheels
lead - very shortly - to complete loss of control
like the satellite
sucked by the molasses of gravity
the soup of shame
an angle of anguish

Little boy save yourself
every decision you make now
may only lead you
closer to
the dirt
and scraped knees

Raspberry joints
that sting for days

Burnout

Put the lid on the jar
watch the match burn itself out
oxygen starved
tightly sealed

The dancing whisp of smoke is what I remembered

Sometimes these things have a way of ending
all their own

The one bold bird late at night ruffled his feathers and cut the darkness

Cylindrical mirror
cobalt tint
Sunday morning and the slats
of blinds with too much dust
and fingerprint marks
as if some one were trying to escape at night
while I slept

Birds chirp
all day
but I like the loud ones at night
because they wait until the stage is silent
They're too smart
to become part of the rush hour white noise

That's why I do my best work
at night
when almost everyone else has gone to bed

That's when you should listen to me
if you can keep your eyes open
or at least your ears

I saw her in my dream last night
she smiled

You know the only disappointing thing about dreams
is not that they never happened
but that
they ultimately mean so very little

And maybe i'd be better off as a dream
because at least you'd have a vague
fond memory
and in that
you will find something to smile about me
during your long day
of waking

Vacant

I'm in the endless cloud
light years from one end to the other
careening forever it seems
never reading
never writing

not feeling much of anything
anymore

If I may gain anything back
I would give away what little I still have
the stars burn away cosmic dust
and like that
the brightness of a few
have eroded
so much of what i'd built up for myself

The space between is expanding like the universe
ever faster
ever greater
And nobody ever beats the current,

Sometimes going with the flow
is a defeat
worse than drowning

You may think you see my humanity
joy, anger, sadness
but it is so vacant

Right now, I'm not here
I'm not anywhere
right now

Piss

The door slams shut
in my face
he can't stand the sight of me
I've pissed him off

Let me out
please let me out
I don't have much money

I don't know why i bugged you
to be frank
I'm angry at the lack of light
of transparency

For holding my home hostage
for ignoring me
for belittling me
and acting like your moods
are as unchangeable as the laws of physics

So don't give me your stress
I know things are tough
for you
But
Life isn't roses
because I have time to watch them grow

So as you spend a whole 7 bucks
on a book you suddenly need on a maslow's top tier level
I want to leave
you don't need to push me
off the edge

I'll jump

Have your books
but don't be surprised
that the water you stir
causes sickness for the rest of us

Day's vs. nights: everybody needs a win in the spring

It's spring again
I'll be 24 soon
i've been sick since I got back
but i'm better now

The sun, the breeze
the orange poppies
nothing is better than California
on a day like this

Depression gets the best of me at night
but 1:44 on a Monday
make 24 years seem like
a warm afternoon

I don't know why I obsessed over you
sometimes
the best times really

maybe it's because the nights are never depressing around you
but is it worth my afternoons?

We can only do what we want
on days like this

The dog of Texas

I hope the desert will cure me
it's sage brush
wishing me well with wise words

The road will extend into pure white bliss
and on them
we travel into the place the sun rises

I haven't been where i'll be going for six years
six long years I never thought i'd see
go by
not unlike the six long months
I left in the lone star state

Flat lands and blue skies
that's what I remember
boredom
that's what I remember

Not this time
I go as part of a group this time
when I was 18
I was truly alone
in a way few people ever get to experience at that age

And sometimes being alone has it's advantages
May Austin be an old bloodhound
which is why i'll choose
to let a sleeping dog lie.

Not sad, just dissapointed so far

Spectacular 60watt bulb
and i'm trying to avoid you now
trying like the fish in the river
stick close to rocks
and depths
in between reeds

They know where it's safe

My life is full of needs
of desires
it hurts
or it can

Walking in the moonlight
passive glance at empty
meander

Just thinking of her
is enough sometimes
and isn't it incredible how
powerful our need for that connection is

and just how mismatched the wind and dirt
can sometimes be
I feel like the dirt
trampled and set in
moved only on the surface
pitted and pockmarked

and she is the wind
brushing my thoughts
as we elude each other
for different reasons
unrevealed

Too long with nothing to show
Am I so unlucky?

Missed Connections

Dear girl who comes into my cafe
wearing small square rimmed glasses
and has a short smart
hair cut

You're very tall
I don't usually like that

You sound very smart
like you choose your words carefully

Like you have a higher degree
or just a better one than me
and most of the people who come in
and buy latte's from me

You tend to be serious
I can't remember if I crack jokes
with you
you're too smart to laugh

I think I saw you smile once
and when you tell me thank you
and I say your welcome
and to have a nice evening
or good night
or sometimes the more confused
have a good da-night (because I've been
saying good day on automatic but the sun is down now and I don't want to get it wrong or sound like a total idiot even though i feel like one in the messy outfit I wear and wash only occasionally but in the end still sound like an idiot)
I really mean it with you

I imagine that you really are grateful
that I made your drink
But I think we both know
that isn't the case.

I just wanted to say, i'm not though
an idiot that is
and of all the people
who come in
I think I like you the most.

Playground politics

Why is it
that everyone
is well versed on every subject?

"Killer Whales are hyper intelligent
pack animals

That's why they killed the trainer"

says an anonymous commenter
who I can only assume
enjoyed high school Biology more than Chemistry

I wonder if the now deceased
diver
knew their instinctual habits
and if she could have prevented her own death
with this information.

Everything is over reported
and everything is blown out of proportion

We are all just products
of too much positive reinforcement
from our parents who had too much
of the negative

See saw, see saw
Playground politics

A cycle like the seasons

A name become paralysis
both chokehold
and savior

Too far gone

This is it, you know
The sad ending to another pointless feeling

The sudden sunset to a tumultuous day
spurred by the fumbling idiocy
of my own mouth
and warped mind

There are a lot of good reasons to pay no attention to me
but the best one is if
I pay too much attention to you.

Never be too kind to an awkward person
I'll just end up confusing it
and abusing you.

It's only February

Tonight I took a step out
the front door
to a world
shrouded in fog

The air was a dream
and nearly silent
nearly
because the freeway is never silent

Up the near street to a tiny park
the moisture turning
3 foot light posts
into bright monoliths of hope

I could not see the sky
but it was there
and that's like so many things
these days

But not being able to see down a street
is secondary to knowing it already
and I'm already familiar
with the path
i'm on now

Fog used to be so depressing
now it's
just an accent
to
a
beautiful cold night

When I sit alone
I find that I only comprehend the possibilities
through a cloudy mire
of uncertainty

And under a gazebo
well lit and dry
above my neighborhood
just out of sight
from my house

I think again of all the things
I cannot see
but am still confident
they are there

This Valentine's day post will not be depressing

This Valentine's Day poem will not be depressing
because I'm just not right now
Because I have hope
if not in a girl
in something else
I'll pop in the same films
I watch every Valentine's Day
Remember we talked about them that one night?
I said I loved that part where
it's snowing and he smiles
you said you loved the part where he's crying
I guess that's what I find so fascinating about you
Even sitting on a couch half asleep
you contradict me
with a smile

Tomorrow I'll watch that film and now
when I'm watching him smile
and cry
I'll only think of us talking about it
and not what it's supposed to make me feel.
Remember you said you couldn't watch films like that anymore
because you didn't like having your emotions manipulated?
I bet you had your heart broken
I don't know your past
but I bet there was a time you felt differently.

I wanted to argue that point
but you were right.
I'd much rather feel something while watching a film
because something happened to me
and not because I'm a puppet.

We aren't puppets and that's what makes love and real life so exciting
we aren't puppets and that's why-

That's why
Even though I'm going to be alone
I won't be lonely
this Valentine's Day.

Two blankets

The night before it's going to rain
is unique
it's beautiful, wind wisp brown hair
gorgeous dark, clear
tumultuous and un predictable

but always unique
I live my life on the margin of day before rain
and the storm

The storm is great but it's all over so fast
the day before a storm is the infatuation
the build up
the sizing up
just watching you lying there, shuttering eyes
content
with our without me it turns out

But that's the rainstorm
I think about the day before
not the calm before the storm
because I was not surprised

The day before a storm wraps herself up
and is not cold
and if you really love the day before a storm
like i do
you wait with it until time runs out
You'll endure because
you can't be outside when it's raining

Oh my feet were so cold
but inside I was burning up

Time is our most uncaring enemy