Lights Go Cold

We move across the floor
Dancing like the couples do in those black and white movies from the 1930’s
Back when the music was soft
And the kisses gentle
Petaled like country rain
But just as passionate

I don’t need color to be so bold
Just the silver of the screen and a woman's hand to hold
When the lights go cold

You should know that sometimes I am a stranger even to myself
Because I lose reality in those black and white movies from the 1930’s
And I find myself staring right back at me
Wearing the clothes of Bogart and Grant
Even after the music swells
And the closing credits run

I don’t need color to be so bold
Just the silver of the screen and a woman's hand to hold
When the lights go cold

Always Only Yesterday

Always Only Yesterday

Some part of this makes no sense
But there were mountain passes and strangers
Beneath the face of the sun
Blood on the tracks I rode upon
Outlining the hills in bold crimson
Memory hounding the tall strange shadows
Cascading across the ground
As I made my way
Across Arizona sands and away from you

With nothing to believe in
I rode on in silence
A cold hunger in my stomach
And a strange howling in my ears
She tried to pull pictures from the fire we once stoked
Wrote it in a tear-stained letter and sent it to me
Said hot coals and warm ash soon destroyed everything
And only the cold bones of logic remained
Distance equals rate times time

Still I rode on in silence
With nothing to believe in
Only cold hunger in my stomach
And a strange howling of the wind
Some part of this makes no sense
There’s no use in remembering
She was always only yesterday
And I was my first fear;
A sad young man in a train

Smiling Skull Ring

Tapping yellowed bones on a cloudless night
That’s the sound my boots make on the street in front of your house
Yeah, I’m calling you out again
Wearin’ my smiling skull ring

Got your letter in my back pocket
And it’s still sealed with your kiss
Don’t need to open it to know what it says
Goodbyes always feel two-stamp heavy in the U.S. Mail

Honey, I ain’t looking for trouble
Just someone to keep me warm
Beneath this brilliant canvas of stars

And it could be you
So before you ride those silver wings that Haggard sings about
And fly away from where you once stood

Open your door
Walk out your front gate
Please face me again
Let’s spin another bottle or two

And try our luck at gettin’ as high as the moon
We have nothing to gain
And only time to lose.

Hemingway's Boat

We are Climbing aboard Hemingway’s boat Stars glisten like wet sand pieced into the inky night And paper meets the restless scratching of pen Words gather (never) silent, always salient; Behaving as satellites above what isn’t said in the conversations behind Every action; every breath; every moment; Every single time my gaze falls upon you.

Broken Pavement

Rain falls crooked If it ever falls around here And the hot air only forces the cracks in broken pavement. “I won’t make promises,” is all she ever says.