I gave a speech about Amelia Earhart last year - and how we both flew over the Atlantic Ocean in the pursuit of our dreams.
I’ve always soared high in the air
feet off the ground
head in the clouds
My mind was everywhere.
I mentioned a dream that defined me and pointed me through the troposphere to LAX.
Cause before I was myself I was a dreamer
reckless, but still anxious about ending up like Icarus or a fool without a flying license
or ending up like Amelia Earhart - disappearing over the churning ocean and hearing a lotta nonsense about what went wrong with me.
Cause I’ll stay with you on the radio over future flights
Saying “Over, baby” just to grasp a little stardust from the sky when it’s lit by stars
cause now you’re my LAX.
And since then I’ve dreamed of Skid Rows and diamonds.
I’ve flown like water and watered their palm trees, a silos.
The transition was clean
no bruises on my soul to keep.
No fear of flying into the blue
Cause when I come out
I land over you.
And I think of false alarms and motels in the desert now that the tan’s come off
I will continue to dream large
having seen dream and life merge
My makeshift wings I will clutch
as I’m running off the edge.

Call me cute if you wanna
but just so you know you won’t be the first one.

Call me hot if you wanna
but just so you know someone already has.

But if you call me yours
and I extrapolate the right idea
that maybe I deserve to have my turn
it’ll enunciate to me the answer.

Mind-******* feels good
but have you ever been called lovable?

I call my men babies cause they are
I call you on the telephone - your number crumpled up
I grasp it tight.
I never meant you bad or ill
I’m just too wild to grasp
You think of me like dream
You’re ******* right.

Freesias
Gardenias
Roses
You’ll only realize I’m gone when I’m withered
Dahlias
Azaleas
Orchids
I’ll sing my song if you pour me a river

I call my man baby cause he is
I call him on the telephone - I’m down for the count
Need to be held tight.
Need something more than goodnight
Need something higher than high life
You’ll only realize I’m sad when I’m withered
So pour me the great Arkansas River.

Grandparents took us to the fair “I need a penny”
I said all sweaty in joy, grandad said “I don’t have many
more. But go on and play along”
Now I’m sitting at the ice cream shop in love, one I miss every day
I’m waiting for the walking green, woman at the florist’s ties a new bouquet.
I think of North Carolina and the South
Think of all the things I couldn’t live without
but now I do
Now I can’t function without you
I walk by the fair, your touch over my hand and I think of how I have everything I want
and how I wouldn’t trade you
for an extra penny or a ride-along.

Should I reach out? I’m too scared old babe
You switched it up living it up in black suede
wedding dresses.
South is where you’ve gone while I stayed on my way
Dyed your hair hot pink and smoked your life away
in Chanel jackets.

My perfume says “Black Suede Leather”
I’ve worn it once in saddening weather
It made me ablaze like a candle that was dead
It made me glad
to have been who I have been
and who I am.

Saw you saw me in the Old Town where we used to live
I backed away from camera flashes, oh you loved them camera flashes
Love being the center.
Know you saw me seeing you, yet I didn’t say a word
And now it’s been four summers since the door shut on its own
But deep down inside, the part of me that’ll never change - I hope our ice cream shops turn out the same
I hope the heatwave could make us both synchronized - and perhaps we can make up for the wasted time.

But for now I’m wearing “Black Suede Leather”
I spray it on in scorching weather
It makes me reminisce about
how scent wears off and roads lead south.

Let’s slow dance in the smoke of cigarettes
rain pounding distantly on the windowsills
Do it like them all, cigarettes after ***
Do it like Brooklynites, do it for ourselves

Let’s walk down the Bowery
dust from ashtrays falling
we’ll pretend that it’s snowing
hum some David Bowie
or Leonard Cohan’s Chelsea Hotel #2
but only if the traffic cannot see us through
I wanna take a trip to 1972
dance in the smoke of cigars, only me and you
Dance in the smoke of taxis, smoke some Malibus
Dance in the smoke of cigars, only me and you

I wear an engagement ring on my left hand and not to figure out what it feels like to be married.
It belonged to someone dead or alive or nobody.
I wear your jeans jacket to feel not just warmer but closer to you
I crave something physical
more than sexting when time slows down
but feeling what you felt
breathing the same air
and hearing the sound of your voice in the morning, when I have more than calling
sexting
“boring”
I wanna be yours forever.

I don’t wanna get anxious when I see you calling
“Pick up, idiot”
“I’m sorry”
But I’m cute or at least that’s what they say
I listened to “Diamonds And Rust” earlier today
And I thought of the rust on my ring and then it made me think
that our love can withstand corrosion
heavy rain
erosion
So I kinda wear it to sleep now..