The flood and the fire are true:
The bone and the gristle are true
The snake and the bite are true
The corpse and the stench are true
The homeless and the poverty are true
The knife and the meat are true
The flawed and forgotten are true
The lover and the baby are true
The street and the exhaust are true
The smoke and the sewers are true
The sunset and the night are true
The moon and the lovers are true
The blood and the blade are true
The planes and the ground are true
The thunder and the lightning are true
The pawnshops and the hunger are true
The addictions and alcohol are true
The need and bills are true
The struggle and hope are true
The family and the love were true
But I lost my way
And in turn
Lost them
And now I struggle through it all
To find my way back
To a beginning without them
At the end of the day
It’s not how you died
But how you lived
And what you have left behind
For the ones
You loved.
The crow is at my lips:
The snake is in my bones
The worms dig inside of me
The eyes were the first to go
Live with her a few months
You’ll know the longest days of your life
I loved her though
Enough to have three kids
Car payments, rent, bills, and the noise
Something was wrong inside her
It was like being in a drunken boat
Never knowing which way it was going
How long it would last this time
Before the next break up
Towards the end there she got good
Knives would unfurl from her tongue
Blades would sing by my head
She said I was just like my mother
She really knew how to hurt a guy
I ran for the door
The crow was at my lips
The snake inside my bones
I thought of our children
But knew I had to escape
Even for just a little while
Until she cooled off
Until she made sense
But that didn’t happen
Another guy happened
But that’s okay now
She’s his problem now
And I just want to see our kids
There’s no going back
She’ll probably end up knocked up again
I know her routines
She is so lost
And has no family
It is painful to watch her
I know her addictions
I don’t know her plans
Just as long as she doesn’t drag
The kids through hell
The crow is at my lips
The snake inside my skull
I am a lonely night
Full of people wanting to die
Wanting to live
Wanting a way out
But not willing to work for it
I am the curse on her lips
The drag of her cigarette
The glimmer in her eyes
As he mounts her from behind
And slowly slips it inside her.
This is as real as it gets:
The cold sea wind on my face
The water crashing against the shore
The dark sky above
The tattered sails as we push towards land
The thunder booming loud and hungry
The beer and wine were green and lousy
I think back to shore leave and
The young deck hand
With some whore in his arms (strangely, she looked like my ex)
As he worked it in and out
And she moaned and her red hair tossed
And flowed
That smile on his face
That malice in his eyes
Feral and hungry
I couldn’t take it
I smashed everything
Took a box of memories to mail back
The boat heaves
The hull groans
The captain is down
And its just me and the deck hand
And I’ll make sure only one of us
Makes it to shore.