Slower Than I Was

I might have exactly
What I'm looking for
Within reach of upturned palms
Tall people and short people
The sound of the uphill cars
The purr of the buzzkill bars
I think I've got it / Now do I want it?

I shadow the slow walkers
I lie because it's easy
It's simple and pure
I'm slower than I was
Last fall, last time
I coveted and lost
It's an eternal internal cost

The girl with the red hair smirks
The one with the brown hair cries in a coma
The one with the black hair works
The other two with red?
One saves the dead
The other lives in Chicago

May 19, 2008

Veronica In Winter

We're in long pursuit
Of an impossible goal
To fill up the hole in the earth
To cradle the action
To covet the fraction
Of good into bad
Or false into all that is true

I don't name those numbers
Some numbers are proxies for names
I don't give out my real past
Some facts are unnecessary
I hold implications in my left hand
I hold cash and coins in my right
My notebook's a big one
My pens are blue and black
My family's dead, they're not coming back

It's a longing, she's got
A second child ahead of her
I'm confident she's got it down
As she rides into the new town
Her husband her soldier
Her first son her partner
Her cooler in the back
Iced out, blessed out

It was 1995
It all went dead or stayed alive
Revolving doors
Led me to bleak rooms
Forced me to speak doom
And on that June day
We wasted Wilshire Boulevard
We traded it in for a dirty 405
My cat was sleeping on the edge
Of the bed, like he will tonight
He's older but he's alright
I'm older and what I write
Trading gypsies for punks
Trading Jersey for Silver Lake
Trading legends for cold stark truth
Like Veronica in winter
Archie-less and effortlessly cool

May 19, 2008