you ruin lives

in case you haven't come to understand this, the destruction you leave in your wake, the fall out of your lies, the dishonesty, the guilt, these things are not apparitions people make up to paint you in a dirty whiskey lime light. these things are warning signs that you truly are the ruin and demise of happy souls around you.

though i have had my share of unforgivable mistakes and have hurt people out of my weakness and cowardice, i've never disregarded the people i claim to "love" in such a way as to knowingly injure their most intimate natures.

you feed on the twisted games you like to play with the weakness of the people you attract. and make no mistake, that is what you attract. the second someone realizes they are stronger than you would have them believe, they detach and float away.

you do this because some part of you knows that you will never grasp the concept of love. people only love the idea of you, who you really are isn't worth that kind of emotion.

i've come to realize you are simply a waste of air. the moments of "truthfulness" or affection we may have grasped were really a selfish facade on your part. i'll suffer for you no longer. i can't recall a clear moment between us that wasn't altered to fit you ever growing denial of who you really are. poor empty shell. you're soulless and, being so, you are nothing to me.

i'm sorry for all the times i let you help me.

take a look around you and tell me that what you see has promise, potential, or even a shred of hope. i'd love to see you get up ans stop pretending you're so much more than you are. i'm a terrible person, but at least i admit that.

besides if that many people can hate you for seemingly no reason... maybe you should evaluate the idea of just how great you really are.

have a nice life. i won't be a part of it.

for joshua

The greatest of the summer loves

We crash the summers

Shirtless in your arms

And bid goodbye to a pastel romance.

Teaching me how to be rebellious

And finding your place in my backseat

With the windows down

In the humid Georgia nights.

Star spangled parking lots

Where your parents never knew

The moments of sand and air

Lying about ages and intentions.

Spinning in the softness

Of broken curfews

And kisses

That sing lines of endless summers.

Hands on skin that begs for stolen houses

And afternoons alone.

Sparkling eyes begging

take me anywhere.

tiny seconds

tiny glances

of leaving the ground

for jealous skies.

Finding the missing thing

And letting it flow out of me

Like the sticky river air.

A touch on my neck

And we’re off again

With excuses and all the reasons in the world,

Just to see each other one last time.

A summer hidden in silence.

A summer painted in whispers.

In hay fields and truck beds,

In saturns and city parks.

Tomorrows like yesterdays

And todays like nevers.

You buzzed like the tune of your bluegrass heartstrings

In my restless eager ears

Drinking in the chlorine

And the breeze of freedom

Holding close my shoulders

And promising to marry me

An endless season

Spent on linens like ink on a page.

"you have stolen my heart"

We watch the season
Pull up it’s own stakes
And catch the last weekend
Of the last week
Before the gold and the glimmer have been replaced
Another sun soaked season fades away

You have stolen my heart
You have stolen my heart

Invitation only
Grant Farewells
Crash the best one
Of the best ones
Clear liquor and cloudy eyed
Too early to say goodnight

You have stolen my heart
You have stolen my heart

And from the ballroom floor
We are in celebration
One good stretch before our hibernation
Our dreams assured and we all
Will sleep well
Sleep Well

Sleep Well
Sleep Well
Sleep Well
Sleep Well

you have stolen my
you have stolen my
you have stolen my heart

Watch you spin around
In the highest heels
You are the best one
Of the best ones
And we
All
Look
Like
We
Feel

vacancy

i can't sing about
affirmative action
welfare lines
drive by's
and gang wars

but i can tell you about
cowardice
liars
rape
and cocaine

i don't know
cancer
car wrecks
abortions
or death

but i've met
anger
hate
razors
and pills

i don't understand
God
science
math
or the universe at hand

but i can write about
art
movies
music
and love

i can bleed as well as the next wet soul
i can starve over food and attention
i can ache over my lover's wrongs
and weep for the fall of the sinners

i cannot undo the lies of the world
the deaths of the innocent
or the moments of fear

i cannot save this place from its darkness
but i can be swallowed up too

i can fill voids with my ashes
unwrite this blood lined vacancy
and hold human life in my hands

hold it like you hold your heart
and keep it pumping with my comfort