Cemetery Flowers

If you ever shower me with gifts
I hope you remember
Cemetery flowers

Decaying things
Like our lives before us
Are as beautiful as me

And you
The greatest fool
Always wishing to give me
What I want

Be it silliness
Precociousness
Or downright nonsense

We are a light in the sky
That seems a bit suspicious

A star that is burning too bright

We never should have lasted
We came so close to no ending
Much less a happy ending
Than we did to anything at all

Still your eyes are like water
Murky delight
And my smile though never pretty
Is genuine

Our mouths are venomous
Yet we only bite till it bleeds
My poison is mine
Yours spills beneath you

So as I descend
Find me all in
With a smile and a weapon

Lemons and Saltwater

Like lemons and saltwater
Curling my way through California
On the lawlessness
That is the train tracks

Staring out a blank window
Into the night
The scratchy intercom
Announcing stops

Barely any lights now
We are far from civilization

Barely any passengers willing
A collection of human trinkets
Traveling in the pocket of the gods

There is a void
Between the places people live
And the way they are moved

I am drowsy in it

Like lemons and saltwater
I am just a part of the tale

The Music Fades

A beautiful life
That should have ended sooner
Like the story that can be changed
Like the poem that writes itself

I feel the music kick in
And step sweetly
To the paragon
Of innocence and life

Forces at war
If we are to live
Our innocence is bound to die

I’ve never grown up
But I’ve seen too much
The way the lie is built
Has me crumbling

They never tell you the truth
Smiling mouths are likely to lie
But what a beautiful life

What a tragedy

Time has been running out
For so long
Yet the illusion
Sweeps me away

To struggle
For days
Or weeks
Or forever

Music hits the beat
And it throws me
When the music fades

Words are erased
And I stand
Never knowing
Definition
Beyond definition

I know so little
And yet I wait
A beautiful life
That should have ended sooner