cracked nail polish on fingers
i can see my life chipping away at my edges
those melted icecaps in Alaska
have nothing on me now
not compared to those ghosts under my covers
lay beside me and sing me to sleep
breathe in the hot air,
comes back up in hot fumes

like the terrified chill of your own life
all coming back to you

are we too late or
too soon?

oh, i am a cage without a lock
door still swinging wide open
the bodies do not hang from a tree
but weave a bony chord around my neck

big house
bright lights
who could ask for anything more?

i guess it all just goes to show
you’ve finally woken up

crippling
loneliness
better than
knee-buckling
numbness
i suppose

he said,
drive like there’s somewhere to go
but i still don’t know…

what a disappointment
you can’t roll over and wake up for the day
what a horror:
to realize you can’t remember your own life

oh but it’s all coming back to me now

i hate that you were supposed to save me from all of this
pour me back inside my skin
but you didn’t, and now nothing can

oh the wind is blowing
change is just around the corner

cold shoulders
how could i say to the stranger on the sidewalk,
you fascinate me

looking back through the years,
i finally see
behind my own mask
behind those
devil needs,
crossed-eyes and
crooked teeth
i am
a little broken
a little bruised

but i am ready

the stars look like they could

fall right out of the sky
oh, change sure is the easy part

is this the real life?
where has the time gone?
oh, the sun is up

and
the caffeine doesn’t touch at all
these cigarettes don’t touch at all
you don’t touch
at all

from that familiar
sleeping sickness
ache in your back

i braved
hurricanes
broken teeth
and that beer-drenched
bathroom sink
god-damn apartment
pesky voice in my head
same old hand on your chest
i’m not there yet
and the one last ghost that moaned

i saw a sleeping tiger
snap up from a dream
oh, the things i have seen…

to the snow on the road
to the sun behind the moon
to the light on the mountains
i watched the trains belt towards tomorrow and cried,

“i’m coming home”

at long last,
all the candles burned themselves out
the cinders were swept away

i choose the next venture
very carefully

sometimes you have to go very wrong
to find out
when you are doing oh-so right.

i’ve been out of my mind
for some time now

and love is just never enough

you were the only “here and now”
until i found this,
this space behind the mirror
where the light floods out

the rules are simple enough
take what you’re given and never ask for
anything more

fine by me:
i take my coffee black now
with a little less of this and that

let’s go forward
forget the past
and pretend there is no future
because really, the monster in the sea was only a myth
from here, i don’t see much of a difference