Stress is the flame
That burns you inside out.

I could roll them into paper
Tumble dry, hang on the line
Leave them out with the recycling
But never ever fill them in

These bullet holes
These bullet holes
Just won't leave me be
And I'm pierced through

Watching everything drain slowly
Down the plughole, kitchen sink
Filling up with all my me
Emptied out and tunneled deep

These bullet holes
Just won't leave me be
Cut me into pieces
Ventillate each smile
Break off all the brave teeth

You could set me down like jelly
Refridgerate me down to numb
Pull the shells out, operations
Won't reverse what you have done

These bullet holes
Are no more real
Than the rest of me.

It's funny I should laugh
But maybe it all comes out in the math
Every torn yesterday adds up
To today

Surreal - The Loss of a Job.

It came with no gifts
The door remains unknocked
As time writes out its lists
It barely gets a mention
With arms not offended
Or raised in welcome
It's feet stepped onto carpet
And barely raised a whisper
It changed everything
And left me unchanged.

I wish I didn't twist
And knot up every time
Wrap around stray thoughts
Till breathing is too tight
Spare the trust
Hate the sleep.

You occupy my innards
So massively
That gravity pulls my thoughts
Spiraling always in
And out towards you.

If she wants me to
There's nothing I wouldn't do
If she wants me too.

The Stranger Thing

A strange thing came billowing
Down my dark hallway last night
With hands not quite feet
And stitching so tight
It crawled creepy slip
Down under my sheets
And grabbily gripped at my dreams
A strange thing had eyeballs
But never a blink. Ever one single
Held heartbeat cupped slowly
Beneath the tattered weave of shingle
Skin. Reaching out milkily
With hands not quite feet
A strange thing came billowing
Down into my dreams
Where it spoke stranger language
Then scurried away
Leaving only one single
Held heartbeat cupped softly
Inside my time-chilled chest
Questions fluttered in its passing
Pale seagulls in a rippled wake
I fled from dreams and lay unmoving
Thinking thoughts of twisted snakes
Of lakes whose deeps know deeper things
To wonder what future heartbeat holds
And if she'll come lullaby
Some sweet unexpected day
Or leave one heartbeat held
Till dreams themselves fade and blow away.

Change is the heartbreak of the moment
The farewell kiss of the present
The footprint of time
The dance of the kaleidoscope
The release of a breath
The wiping of a tear
The rupture of laughter

Change is writing life
Down on a crumpled napkin
Doomed to be lost in the wash
But remembered like the ghost of a moment.

The summer stumbled in quickly
As spring rewrote its priorities
And decided to stop cutting the lawn

God Good.

God is so good
You can only say the extra 'O'

Christians choose to be weird
Painting their lives with Blood
Till living is death
The dying of the night
A hesitant dawn, a tremulous cry
A waking up to breathing
Emptying out alien lungs
To drink down an air so sweet
Made pure by the Blood

Trust

God has a place in the black
Where our feet fill the gaps
A constellation where our names
Are written in invisible ink
Where we can shine like suns
With light that never looks back.

Everything
Is so huge
When viewed up close
No wonder it
Makes no sense.

Speak like sunshine
Or like moonlight
Find yourself a pale imitation
Of her.

That strange cocktail
Of the terrifying
And the exhilarating
The human brain was not made
To handle life at full speed
Without the occasional wobble

The lines fall straight and crooked like they always do
And leave us to untangle ourselfs from them
Do the spaghetti dance.

Don't step on her hard
You both share a breath
She was born with her hands held so tight
And that grip it steels
Bares its teeth
Keeps her sane and so distant
Don't step on her hard
She keeps out of reach
To keep in her heart.

Leave me this time
In peace you mean it's mine
I need to find a safer place to shine
Wake up and find
The pieces of yourself in time
You need to go and leave this place behind
Leave a reminder
That the forest hides
Behind that first tree line
It's all going fine
I'll paint another blind
A picture of me leaving you behind
A deeper seat for me to sit and lie.