Miserable Psalms

Follow Me Home

If you’re painting a picture
With the dreams outside your window
But the oils still muddle
and time moves all but slow

O, follow me home

I know you’re aching for an exodus
That final burden’s escape
Shut those cutting blinds
And untie the drapes

O, follow me home

O, follow me home
O, follow me home

Taking steps between the days
Penning letters to those that died
Time and again, fold up your works
And accept your fate in stride

O, follow me home

Extend your welcome hands
and swallow the April breeze
Stare back into my eyes
And put your mind at ease

O, follow me home
O, follow me home

If you’re biting your tongue
Just to feel again
And your mind’s own desires
Feel like a deadly sin

O, follow me home

I know that you’re fearful
Of what lies out of sight
But don’t forget that there’s
A tunnel at the end of the light

O, follow me home

O, follow me home
O, follow me home

Dear light outside
Share this song with me

O, follow me home
O, follow me home

Say hello to me on the brighter side

O, follow me home
O, follow me home

Stained Glass

When that warmth hits
You know exactly where to go
Back to the suburbs of better times
That everyone else outgrows
Can you feel the pane of broken glass
Can you see through the years
Of age and weather and cast away stones
that pierce my darkest fears

And in the morning light
Feeling overshadows reason
Blocks out everything

Once your friends are gone
Are you supposed to stay away

And you say it’s not ok
Life sweeps you up and you can not stay

And the heat doesn’t stop
It scorches every inch of me
What does it take to break the frame
And shatter an entire century
There has to be a method
A way to fracture wounds
When you’re breaking the broken
Will the shards fall back in tune

And in the summer light
Feeling overshadows reason
Blocks out everything

All your friends are gone
Were we meant to stay away

And you say it’s not ok
Life sweeps you up and you can not stay

I want to see the window shatter
I want that peace of mind
But in order to hit the playback
I’ll have to press rewind

Clutching Chords

If you’ve ever felt a blood rush cleanse
Tell me how heartbreak mends
Cause the hinges on my window
Are rusted thrust open again
I’ve been living each day the same
Now these chords are all I’ve got to claim
For I set fire to the house
And threw my diary’s pages in the flame

I’m clutching chords
Hoping they reach you whether
This music is the death of me
Or your company is measured by measures

Our blood pulses to a different beat
I’m haunted with proof
But in staring at this sooted wreckage
And the antiques of my youth

I still play for you

I’m clutching chords
Hoping they reach you whether
This music is the death of me
Or your company is measured by measures

This place was a mentor
It’s turned into gold
I’ve turned into gold

Monuments and Memories

Revealing what I’ve come to expect
The sunlight cutting through these branching trees
It’s just that warm palette skyline balancing
Upon man’s black geometry
I wanna lie in the depths of this city
Like it lies in the depths of me
I want to shower in the gravel
of its monuments and memories.

Show me where this city sleeps
So that I can lay down
Show me where this city sleeps
So I may rest sound

It’s the love/hate/love
In this affected heart
These streets keep my blood coursing
But the median tears my veins apart

A score to wipe away
20 years winding down
This city has a firm grip
But I’m getting out, leaving town

Show me where this city sleeps
So I can lay myself to rest.

I’m taking one glance before I hide my face
Rid myself of all I know
Five flags of surrender surround
A thickening fog of an off-white glow
Walking down Palafox towards the Quarter
Those friendly store fronts I abuse
Every step is a temptation to skip the curb
Born and raised and fed cobblestone curfews
This town is a maelstrom of retired ambitions
Laid my parting words on those graffitied tracks
All the founding fathers have turned to stone
I’ll do the same as I look back.

*I’m in love.

Bury Your Head

Have you ever felt what it’s like to be god?

We all share the same stories
Listen to the same narrative
Our backs are to the same binding
Common existence is relative
In a moment’s notice
Your life will be through
Please take every step as it comes
As it comes around to you

Such a shoreline perspective
No idea what we’re moving toward
We all answer to the same thing in the end
Keep it moving forward

We’re living solemnly as synonyms
Patiently waiting for ye olde redeemer
Wake up wake up wake up
This is the real world, dreamer

Please be the antonym
Please be the fox

Such a shoreline perspective
No idea what we’re moving toward
We all answer to the same thing in the end
Keep it moving forward

Even the sand is made of seashells
Our promised future is gone and dead
Swallow your last breath
Make a move or bury your head

It’s been leading up to this forecast
The crackle of lungs flash
Radio static
Radio static

I’ve been reading a book called the condition of man

And it’s lacking a certain intrigue
For the pages don’t turn like they should
And the words do not flow seamless

I suppose therein is the basic flaw:

There’s no reason in strife

There’s no need for a greater understanding
There’s no purpose for self validation
There’s nothing but you and me
And thoughtless generations
that withstand the test of time.

This is what it means to be our own deities.

Endings are better than lazy chapters
Just as our souls through time careen
Like waves crashing across
The cardiac monitor machine

Prometheus Unbound

I heard my footsteps
singing off the sand this morning
Where the sea meets the sky
Where the waves surround, all untouched
Searching for the place where the sky finds its light

—————————————————————-

Waves break not far off the coast
I think the sea thirsts for my neck
It feels as though the tide has interviewed my soul
And knows I’m a total wreck.
I sink my head deep in the sand
With my last emotion expired
I can hear the tinkling granules whisper my fate
Like transmission through a distended wire

Heavy hand stretched to atmosphere
Use my eyes to outline the sky
Losing touch with everything
Rescind this line and sever all ties

Holes in clouds are minutes passing
And the skyline unfolds into explanation
So if death is the answer
To calculations composed
Then I’m wading waist deep

(Beware your own preemptive strike)

Ride life to its peak
Sell the stock
Pull the plug
(Take a step back)
Jump off

Heavy hand stretched to atmosphere
Use my eyes to outline the sky
Losing touch with everything
Rescind this line and sever all ties

Perhaps I’m betraying myself
But I’ve never felt
Such a sense of truth

Skylights Ignite

The sweetest scent lingers
Above our grave
A perfume of iron and ocean
And the emotions you stave
Delayed footsteps echo overhead
And this affectionate effect
Has left a smoke signal of paranoia
And a fog of regret
We’ve not a headstone
You chiseled your exit in my chest
Another skylight ignites
Another love laid to rest

You’re the light in the night sky
With a new moon in bloom

I could wonder through the darkness
Rewrite every law I’ve penned
But it won’t bring your presence closer
Or erase our untimely end

There’s a chill outside
An unruly October drift
I’ve peered down my own rope
A winter that will never lift
So dawn your autumn bronzer
The soil will keep me warm
Keep converting chlorophyll
Into chloroform

A departure
Left with no vapor in my lungs

And I’ve found I’ve got this gazebo effect
Where nothing exists but visitor’s time
Sharing experiences had while away
And in the darkest hour, a streetlight that shines
Perching under what radiance I can offer
Always free to open yourself
But never overstaying welcome
And claiming residence somewhere else

Gated communities are more rewarding
But building a wall would block out the sun

You’ve beauty so brutal
I sensed it in your smile
While we breathed secrets and truths
And solemn swears of trust
But the churning framework of my heart
Met with blood and succumbed to rust

So keep showing your grin
As it’s all I can recall now

The lingering taste of vodka on my lips
The deep set of winter is etched into my bones
You linger on me the same
Like cold heavy breaths
The shiver up my spine
You linger on me the same
Nervous glances echo silence
with no intentions of tomorrow
You linger on me the same
And if I had any preconceived notions
On what love is
They were dissipating
With the smoke that left your lips
So you crawled under my skin
And slept there for the season
Now the hands that touch
Are foreign and unfamiliar
And the words that used to flush my face
Repulse my trembling frame
You linger on me the same
I am intimately familiar with loss
And though I am without a god to pray to
The most beautiful must come from pain

All Engulfing Kerosene Sleep

There’s an old lighthouse on the jetties
Guiding fire led astray
I turn my head once more
As aching corneas give way
And I’ve tried to peer into its light
Least a hundred times before
But I’m always told I’m a broken man
All beaten up and sore

Rain descends
Containers fill
I pick apart dreams
and pray to God
It’s more than just a ritual

This all engulfing kerosene sleep
Has affected me again
For its flickering tongue of light
Caught you like methane

Ignorance is bliss
Blindness is perfection
But pondering has left me marred
At this rocky outcrop’s reflection
And as serum breaks the skin
I succumb to sheer elation
For I’ll leave this world knowing that
I am my own creation

This all engulfing kerosene sleep
Has affected me again
For its flickering tongue of light
Caught you like methane

So be it if I display chagrin
You smell of paraffin

Wrap barbwire around the necks 
Of those who didn’t deserve it 
Kill the lights 
Resting in the leaves and in the streams
Can you hear their screams?
Mute the cries
Turn the blind eyes

This all engulfing kerosene sleep
Has affected me again
For its flickering tongue of light
Caught you like methane

O, disciple of frailty
Following, failing, refusing to sway
Birds of a feather
We’re all headed the same way

Mangrove Veins

I want to have a future
Where I can relate
An intricate web spun around me
By my family’s warm embrace
This ever present urge
To stay at home and fill my place
But in stroking my need for belonging
I’ve performed an about face

I’ve been crawling amongst the tree roots
Searching for a stronger tether
Can’t ignore the seams of these family ties
Unstitched left to sever

I should probably thank my elders
For leaving me in this present
I’ve got a very strong sense of what I don’t want to be
I’ve got a damn good idea of what I don’t want to be

After crawling amongst the tree roots
Searching for a stronger tether
Can’t ignore the seams of these family ties
Unstitched left to sever

My bloodline is a mangrove
Half-buried in the sea and in the sky
Salt may creep upon my roots
But I’ll never wither, never die

I’m trying to understand
What makes a man a man
And why I should bow at his every word
But if simplicity and religion
Are what’s left of our tradition
I’d sooner fall on my own sword
For a God fearing man
Is a self fearing man
And I know myself better than that

Wave After Wave

In time we’ll all face it
If shown the light of day
Slowly creeping ever reaching
Our very essence left to fray
Like a gust blowing through the marram
Bending close to break
Enveloping ourselves entirely
Our very existence left at stake.

Wave after wave
I’m hand in hand with the best of me
Crash after cap
There’s a shadow cast at my side

And there are meetings with this shadow
Where I take the best of me
And wrap it up in tiny satchels
And I throw away the key

Wave after wave
I’m losing grasp on the best of me
Crash after cap
My shadow grows past the parking lot

But I have my love my life and family
And the caring and kindness that gnaw
I’ll cast them out in the rain bundled with my frozen heart
And pray dear pray they thaw

And I share all this with you my dear
So you may one day see
It’s not my darkness you could not love
But what I strive to be

Wave after wave
I’ve lost sight on the best of me
Crash after cap
The sun streaks for the horizon line