The crow is at my lips......

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.