I am constantly going over the edge
beating on and on
pouring myself out
throwing myself on the sharp edges
that wait for me below
And sometimes I carry you over
and you fall too
dashed to bits
with such great forces
I am on the edge
and falling and
hitting rock bottom
all at once
And you are in me
and on top of me
and under me
and struggling
and surrendering
I watch as you are carried away
the drops fall
the torrent flies from my lips
the undeniable rush
And you are gone
forever

If life is a highway then friends are a three car pileup
Disaster is waiting, but we still drive
Stay in our lanes and try not to get caught

Music on the stereo still ringing in my ears
As I fly through the windshield
Asphalt catching at my skin and ripping through my faded denim jeans

Just broken glass and bent metal holding our bodies
In macabre poses for the morning edition
In other news, everybody goes in the end

But I get up and you get up and the cars keep going by
Like a wreck never happened
And we don’t matter at all

Laying back on the grass
Watching as the clouds take shape
Melt and reform
Flying through the sky above
I can taste the springtime air
Turning warmer as the wind blows through the trees
Cold water from the mountains courses through the river, swollen and covering the banks
It feeds the trees and plants, like entropy has slowed, the clock turns back while time goes forth
And I empty my words with a voice full of force
Pushing them, shaking violently, and it all explodes at once like a cork from a bottle top
I bellow into the air, to nobody in particular.
“This, this is what I’ve been waiting for!”

My head is a blank page,
but it's filling up with notes
all the things I can't help thinking
sing out from my soul
nimble fingers moving
playing out their song
so be my instrument
and make music with me
sing ourselves a sweet lullabye

**** and cigarette smoke mingles with exhaust and the smell of cooking food
The homeless and the elite businessman walk side by side with tourists and hipster girls, and so few stop and stare, to gawk at the urban sprawl of the city, regally scraping at the cloudless sky, fingers hoping to grasp at god
The trolley bell, the scream of distant sirens, the shuffling of feet scraping the ***** sidewalk, the hydraulic hiss of brakes, the music of construction workers pounding and making and fixing, the blare of traffic horns and laughter and serious conversations of passersby in so many voices and tongues all combine like some cosmic tune, a discordant harmony that speaks to the very nature of city life
I feel the wind blowing through my hair as it carries pigeons and trash and the branches of the trees wave their greeting to the people, a friendly universe choked by stone and asphalt and metal shapes, but life will not be constrained, and so the city prospers and we go on and on, not as cogs in some machine, but cells in a body, growing, changing and shaping the whole

Etched into the flesh
With the permanency of a tattoo
But it tells another story
Like the medals of bravery soldiers dare not speak of the horrors they survived to earn
You carry them always
They commemorate the struggle
They are dark shooting stars forming constellations of wishes that were never granted
But carry them without shame, without self doubt, without self pity
They are not random marks, but battle scars from the wars that most will never see
You did not deserve them, but you’ve earned a right, the place reserved for veterans, the unspeakable survivors who can share their stories only with each other, often more with glances of emotion than words
Take pride that you have overcome the overwhelming, that you’ve weathered the worst storms and you have come to where you are, wearing scars
They say war is hell and no one really wins but you held back demons who clawed at things much deeper than just skin
Remember for the fallen, they must not have died in vain
Live on in their memory, take victories in their name

It struck me suddenly
The sinking feeling
That I know so little about you
The tip of the iceberg is all
The ship can see from the surface

But I am not afraid of sinking
The descent into
The depths of knowing you
The unrevealed parts of yourself
That I might discover and explore