note #56

i just spent fifteen-hundred years
rocking it in the underground
touring battle fields
and worn out towns
wondering when
i'd see you again
now here i am
missing your eyes
missing your sighs
telling lies
about where i've been
so where are you when
i need you close
to push away
that lingering ghost
of fears and tears
from the loneliest time of my life

i come back home and i walk around
and it doesn't seem the same
as it did then
not so big
and way too small
how did i
survive at all
i need you now
like i wanted you then
will you please just be my friend

fifteen-hundred years alone
fifteen-hundred years ago
fifteen-hundred years with this face
fifteen-hundred years of disgrace
worn out eyes
and long goodbyes
too many sad sighs
i just want to lie with you again.

note #55

Leaving suburbia, its sub-urban tries and small city wishes. The run down apartment complexes and mixed media neighborhoods. Where the fast food joint is over ten minutes and a mile away, and the local strip mall is the best there is for the next five miles.

Snapshots of family living, neighborhood block parties, pretty lawns, SUVs and minivans. Little girls outdoor tea parties, plastic swimming pools, soccer balls, and little boys playing cowboys. Where gossip is trafficked by women like a drug without which they'd stop living. Men trade little league stats with BBQ tips and the latest in office quips. Yearly invasions by kids dressed in brown, green and blue selling candy and magazine subscriptions.