Mattress

She flipped the mattress
and I averted my eyes
The blood on the fabric just poured fear into my lies
She muttered its over
I knew she meant us
I flew into a rage and I hopped the next bus
Now I’m down in Houston
Where the sun cracks my skin
And each night I dream of washing the sheets and wake up shaking again

There’s nights I still fall
And I track down the gray
And I walk past the windows that show me my life is passing away
If it’s a trick of the light
Or a sign of my age
If we passed on the street I pray you wouldn’t know my face
But I still see yours
In that early morning light
With the dust from the mattress surrounding you like angels in flight 

The restlessness of youth has faded

Into nights I can't recall. I waited for your footsteps rocked the cradle against the wall

I drank from flowing springs of my own mortality and watched the silver plated trumpets blow away my Sovereignty 

In memory I find you now where I lost you in my sleep a far more dangerous conclusion that I reached, but did not keep. 

Where does time go? 

Time is right here. 

Time is only right now. 

Where did you go? 

It's a shadow through my days.
Stranger standing in the rain
soaked alleyway.
Pistol smoke rising with the steam
like an early morning dream;
Sun caked and mean.

This highway is a lie
your rearview a fools perspective
the tires make the sound of nothing
the engine brings you nowhere
your home is a backpack
suitcased and slapdashed
crashed out on the interstate
free to go your way

when i boarded the plane
didn't know if you'd last through the flight
if you had i'd conceded
to put up one hell of a fight
so when i saw you standing there i threw up my hands
and lord i swear i tried
i'm all for lost causes and heartache
just not this time

theres something in mountains
and something in praries
makes em not quite what they seem
there's something in loneliness
seeps itself into
everything i believe
the dark side of moonlight
that loosens the leaves from the trees
deposits of ashes, misrepresented dreams

So when I was out past davisville

the last time i missed that right
landed back by the little church
where we turned around one time
and the essence of everything
you said burned in my mind
You gave up the ghost, but persisted
to prove you were right.

vagabond bag-a-bones

Last night I heard you died
With a needle in your hide
Never did quite get it right, did ya kid?

And your mom she had that car
Parked out in the barn
Covered in a tarp
Slowly rusting

And we talked a lot of times
About getting out alive
and then one night
you took it to the wire
and you didn't

Now you're just a bag of bones
Just a ghost without a home
Another one who died alone
Looking for an answer

And if I had been there
to pull that plunger clear
whisper life back into the air
Set you to breathing

last night I heard you died
With a needle in your hide
Never did quite get it right
did ya kid?

RNC

not the republican national convention, or
royal canadian.  Just cold deep dish pizza
and a beer in the fridge.