You were born to this world naked, Appraised and adored You were made a blank canvas To impress and record And I completed that proverbial "we," So inexplicably bound And we'll share this flesh detail As long as "we're" around Oh, how we use this vessel, Your hands like anvils Compounding words of wisdom To smith our tools And you came home to a warm household Stocked with fair amenities And you approached each scholastic endeavor With savant-esque ease And after graduating with your papers, You stoked a flame of your own And with your one and only you scaffolded Equally shared bones And oh, all the seasons push over Like bumbling brothers Eagerly awaiting To take their turn And the cycle continues to spin Each day a passing glint I must say I'm most impressed By all this time you collect They found your body naked On the bathroom floor Now, I'll spare the grotesque details, But it was a scene to abhor And you spent hours evaporating, Too weak to stand Until your scarce visitor had entered with An outstretched hand And now you sink slower than ever Next to a pane of passing weather With only its filtered sunlight To grace your bed I am grateful for all I have learned But before this bridge is burned There's one last question I must arrest Have you had time to reflect? In your old age On your vain mistakes And regrets you made All the things you've lost Your void memory box All the opportunities you had left unaddressed Have you had time to reflect? Have you had time to expect Any company In your fleeting weeks Between bouts of sleep Any caring hearts That know what you are And can stand to see you at less than your best Have you had time to expect Which exact steps come next As you ration every breath? Your movement feels so uncandid As the fractals form under your eyelids You take a look around the room At these faces you swear you must knew Compelled to speak some advice You say, "You've got to live your longest life."

I've lived a long time, Longer than you would know It's the dark behind my eyelids that Hush this starving throat So as I dive deep into The abyss below, My uncanny fantasies Take form and begin to show In this invented realm I have the chance to rehearse all of my lines And as time never bends I can remain here beyond my life I emerge from the ink To nearer geometry And light cascades on this Deplored version of "me" Now with timid feet And a script behind my teeth My proposal falls apart once you Respond to my speech You said, "Your vain repetitions will Never convince me to turn around." To strengthen your prose You need to soak in all of the new sounds Well, someone said life's not a race And if you need to slow down that is okay But it seems like every minute I saved From every cigarette I never smoked is dwindling anyway But if you think you can capture the world, Be my guest

Onto a meadow overgrown, I stepped foot My body felt lighter than the air I was just breathing And over a translucent shoulder, I saw nothing but the weeds And they signaled for my instincts to start fleeing This calmness was cut by an overwhelming flood Of questions demanding where I'll be Who will I be? Oh, Sister Sequoia! Have you heard what our bishop said About the lightbulb's luminescence And it's eagerness to spread? I'd feel my own filaments Recoil at the awe Of that beastly orb of glory That just hangs above us all But I remember you'd said something That still reverberates Of how we all eclipse the sun In our own little ways If you build a looming tower Or simply walk outside If you see your cast companion That's your win against the light Sister Sequoia! Have you heard what our bishop said About the trails of our transgressions And how they follow us 'til death? And I feel blind By that epic I was penned out There's something I understood then I hope I understand now I will never be someone else No, I could never be someone else! And yet I embarked on that bridge with so many t's Left uncrossed I can't let my electricity decay And become lost By some kinesthetic wish I'll devote my limbs Back in those woods (And scrape sky and blanket the ground as I should!) So into a future once unknown, I stepped foot

The slow-sharpening breeze barely stung my eyes I've had worse thorns in my side, I hypothesize I saw the grey overcast crawl, but there laid oases of blue And I could prey upon their solace for this trip overdue "Curse your barometric bones! Where's that faith in me? You act as if I don't know each peak of those marine valleys. If we cast off shore with haste and lather some elbow grease We'll be home all safe and sound before the first drop can breach." Well, imagine racing a storm Just to chase the calm before Sometimes I need to speak a bit more clearly And with emotion So we set our wayward sails and ventured out to sea But I feared the hanging blankets made it all look like ink But we kept full speed ahead as the air grew morose And the far hills lit by lightning seemed less and less rogue "You know we're not made up of steel! There's still time to flip!" "Well, you can rest be assured your sentiment's ridiculous, But if you do need some reprieve, and if I'm not mistaken, There's a small plot up ahead we can dub our haven." Well, imagine maintaining the peace Just to falter behind the teeth Sometimes I need to breathe a bit more deeply And with conviction Now I don't care to feel displeasure And the dampness in my socks sure isn't helped by the weather And I bowed down to assimilate Within the torrential waves that begged to decimate I should the constellations even when my eyes are veiled But somehow my internal compass returned discrepant details So, I was forced to take a plunge and fashion driftwood raft And when I find my misplaced rock you know I'll be climbing back But if I fall again Will there be someone to catch me When my arms are broken? Because I will fall again Who will be my cushion When I slip from the crow's nest?

I was born a black sheep in the hospital Made to wear a thinning coat of white wool I know this city's gold is malleable And I'll be damned if I'm played the fool I didn't want to admit it But the details seemed to slip from out my fingertips When there were hints within your rhetoric This is a life that you no longer want to live But if my instincts prove right I know their guard's down at night I guess our window would be slight But we could slyly slide by Or maybe you want to stew and rot And forever mind your thoughts But if not let's scale the gates and get lost You turned from the skyline and breathed a gasp As if overwhelmed by the colorfast Between our makeshift, nomadic camps Our ghosts wear new names and covered tracks You didn't want to admit it As if the words left an indication of how we used to live If only you could tear from these elements And return to a world a bit less imminent But I thought we'd agreed That this was cleaner air to breath Without the clinkering of shackles And streets of disease I never promised it would be perfect I merely asked if you would turn And you did But now there's fire and there's flood Through which we endlessly trudge While the mud floors my boots And the smoke fills my lungs Maybe that city is all that's morbid But those buildings would be warm And at least I'd live But I guess I see How I'd be a thief And your seconds are What I would reap But did I take More than I gave? I think this is an argument that's best saved For a better day

A spectral song hummed above the whole grave plot As I was ushered into the cavity By a show of grace (or compulsory display) You were stationed to lay right beside me First we spoke pretty small; you didn't feel sick yet at all And I found the movement of your face mesmerizing I got lost in your sea of curves But I needed your form to be preserved And I'll embody the archive before it's erased Because what's a mirror supposed to look like anyway? We turned to jeer at the bodies that brought us here Hearing laughs from our invented audience Then we traded digs at our personal superlatives As if we had anymore need for preference Then the sky synced up with the sundown in my gut I can feel the nausea gnaw at my stomach lining "So what do you think the last thing you'll be thinking will be?" "I hope it's something more cheerful than dying." Well, I'll bet you the stars We'll be shrouded in lantern light as they enter the yard And we'll drink their vials clean And be cured of the chemicals as they let us set free And we'll go down our own roads That lead to our homes and those we still know And we'll remember this night as some strange, distant dream But I'll cherish the reflection that you cared to share with me The vision ceased and my eyes were growing heavy But I could swear that your stillness was smiling

Will it be dark out? I used to love how the moon would breathe Gentle wind across the silent town, Playing with the silhouetted trees "So what do you say? Do we take a chance to sink or swim? Or would you like to uselessly wade In the obsolescence of your limbs?" Well, I'm standing at the cliff, looking on downward With one foot in front and one set back If I stumble toward the sea and become submerged How much of myself remains intact? Even lovelier still Were the embers on the mountain side: Little incandescent films In which the actors compose their lives So I propose we meet I'll wipe the sweat spawning in my hands And I'll take a running leap I won't know the difference between wave or land Because at a certain height things have the same impact "Did you actually think that you could be dead? (Even after you heeded the consequence) Hold your fragile frame and try to relax (You do know that the worst is still yet to pass?) Did you get all you expected?" As the whir of my joints hum aloud I don't even know if I feel stronger now Is that shine of the sun still meant to endow (On every little cell that dares to sprout)? I guess I'll wait until we build eternity to figure that out

I got the call to pay my regards Before my stomping grounds Are turned to rummage yard Up those wooden stairs I marched Through all those darkened doors Betwixt too familiar art I breached into the attic scene And caught a mouthful of dust (Which covered everything) And within those rows of towering Cardboard tombs I found All these forgotten versions of "me" Don't tell me so All these frames were left in shadow Don't tell me so I can't imagine those eyes closed Am I wasting your time? By being inelegant? By veering off road? Am I wasting your time? By being inanimate? By being a ghost? I suddenly became entranced By internal elegy For those wasted plans The stream rushed swiftly past And I begged to float away But you can never truly turn back As I looked at the capsulized list Of scattered artifacts I had to admit After every hand that's ticked There are some things that I still miss Don't tell me so There's no light on in the window Don't tell me so There's so many years that I'll never know again I am wasting your time By being a counterfeit By looking below I am wasting your time By being inadequate By being disposed

*Keep your hands above your head Keep your hands above your head! Oh, your hands may be dirty But don't let them sink below again Keep your hands above your head Keep your hands above your head! Oh. your hands may be dirty But wash them in the sink instead* Well I had to burn the bark And watched the sparks illuminate As the sun wound down I saw my skin dull with age The warmth from the flame's Been converted into ash And I fear this scribbled map Has gone sour a few miles back Maybe this wandering Is a stage for strange comeuppance In the perfect inferno I'd never be able to tell the difference If I'm present within these woods I must have sprung somewhere And it's clear the clearing up ahead Is a place for my route to be repaired Lit by the morning It's time to rectify my quest All this harbored grief and near repose Are about to intersect The view beyond the glade Shows the flood will still sprawl But if that's where I stand I don't want to know where I'll fall

I always said "we" in reassurance As if there were inhabitants, Or an ever-peering audience I guess I half-suspected You were witnessing and listening To me discover every puzzle piece Now I see; it's about time we meet After all those days in retrograde It feels nice to be spinning straight I am sure you're, too, enthused But as we exit from those traveled years Where do you suggest we go from here? You always said I wasn't worth it All the work I spent building our core Would always at least an atom short And the seeds I delicately planted May as well just wilt away (They'll never reflect the light of day) And to think! I was believing That smug fog on my inner lens You breathed to occlude- -Hey, may I interject? You seem stressed Your muscles feel all tight and tense So I'll suggest to you that you should stretch Bend at the waist Lower our arms Use them as weights So here I rest as I'm encompassed In the warmth of friends from far away And light bleeding from the window pane I gaze at the path behind me It looks so much greener than The earth I first traversed and tracked And all the songs I chose to sing Are still heard swelling endlessly, Still enchanting with their melodies And I feel whole; and only half afraid So you ungrateful, incessant pest, It's my turn to speak, you may not interject! Your arms dragged us through the sand You jammed us in that trench, Ashamed of your insignificance I promise you I've shown you my best And although I've lived this long, I'm not done living quite yet I don't think I am something That the sun will eclipse When I'm hidden behind walls Constructed by others' wrists And I don't think I am clever I'm just a voice that retorts As I'm swallowed by the flood And the waves that I ignore When I left the attic empty-handed I shook all my dreams awake All my joints have cracked and rusted There's no use to run away As dusk rears its head On its long body of night It's abundantly clear soon There will be no more lights So I wish I had your answers Or had some advice to give But how could I impart wisdom When I don't even know how long I've got to live?