im-writing-again

[im-writing-again]

For Jim Morrison

Lovers in tabs, lovers in bottles, Lovers who seized control of the throttles, Driving 'til you were too blind to see, That we in these herds will never be free. Flirting with the danger of stage drops, And the free fall from the rooftops. You'd already left us far behind, Long before you started to unwind. When you danced in the flames of danger and love, Entwined beneath the mad wings of a dove, With leather and beads chained around your neck, As you sank - alight - to a shattered shipwreck. Now lizards crawl through the skin and bone, Of the king whose life was out on loan, To the monsters of the city you serenaded, And the solar eclipses that you jaded. Were you meant to live like this? Fleeing from the hidden kiss, Hiding in the arms of faceless strangers, Diguised as lovers, concealing their dangers. Were you meant to leave like this? Slipping into a watery abyss, A star fallen from the L.A. sky, Drowned in fame, by the by.

[im-writing-again]

Bonnie & Clyde

Did Clyde love Bonnie? I think he did Why else would he Do what he did? Put her above Billy the Kid Load her as The one bullet in his gun Keep her safe From the wrong side of their gun Let her shine Under the dim, desert sun Allow her to Join his life of crime Open the door When she couldn't stand their crime Open his arms When she crumbled for the dime Cradle her pets Against the chill in the night Keep her safe From the dead of night Shrouded in darkness Lit only by the firelight Play his guitar By the roaring flames Watch her smile As she danced above the flames Like the ghost That would haunt those lanes Carry her around To save her burning leg Leave her asleep For their journey's final leg Kick-start the action Before they were forced to beg Put her in The driving seat of the getaway car Let her rest On his shoulder in their final car Promise to her That they would go so far Use his body As an unwilling shield from their avenged death Though his plan Led them to that untimely death In the end They did not take together their final breath Now Did Bonnie love Clyde? Well, if you want a poem on that You can go and read hers

[im-writing-again]

The Lights Go Out On Broadway

Did you know the lights go out on Broadway? Even the stars fall from the New York sky, On Broadway. Every night the streets give way to shadow, After high heels and applause fade into silence, In a fleeting flash of runaway pearls and evening gowns, Those beautiful, blazing lights, Go out on Broadway. Do you see the streets now? The unwritten music sheets, the unpolished shoes, Tossed out like war debris onto the pavement shining like silver, Forgotten by a crowd unforgiving as grenades. Left under the burned, sunken lights, Of Broadway, Faded into the golden shadows like sunbeams, Stolen and choked by the death of night. Do you hear the music now? The wailing jukebox soldiering on in the dark, Soaring in a doomed operatic scale, The only lights not out on Broadway, Glowing yellow and green in the backstage caverns, Of Broadway. The light over at the Frankenstein place, At the theatre, the laboratory, the asylum. Do you know the people there? On Broadway. The shining stage takers, the smudged bin collectors, The paled prop makers, the washed out janitors. All gone now, gone home, gone forever, Running from Broadway, from the gravity it defies, Only to run back to Broadway, When the lights begin to ignite. Do you understand the words sung out? A desperate, pleading shriek for help, Echoing across the plush seats and darkened stages, Along Broadway, Sung to a ghost crowd fleeing the interval. He's here, the Phantom, the king of the stage, Sitting in his box, staring at the wooden boards, That his back no longer allows him to pace. Do you? Bonnie and Clyde, Sweeney Todd, Murderers abound, vagabonds creep out, All around Broadway In the flickering lights, candles by open windows, Waiting for the dark, the terror, the exultation, Of night and lightless pavements, For dead eyes and tired feet and restless hands to return home. They say the lights go out on Broadway, When all the stars have fallen from the New York sky, Into the depths of the New York streets, And the lumpy beds of the New York doorways. Leaving their starlight in the burnt out bulbs, Of Broadway, For tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, Until the warped stage forgets the sound of their feet, and the shot they threw away.

[im-writing-again]

Loves never seized, instantly lost on station platforms, Watching you look back at me as you board your train- The one I am not getting on. And you're off, to Liverpool, to Edinburgh, to Neverland, Wherever I will not be...

I should have asked you about the roll of papers, that fell to the ground, That I picked up for you. Was it an art project? Important work documents? Architectural plans? God, why didn't I speak to you? Beyond the polite 'thank you' and 'it's alright.' Why didn't I speak to you?

I wonder what could have been, if I'd gone your way When we were on the station platform, Or if we'd sat together on the train seats... Would you have the same music taste as me, And like the same songs I would play on our anniversary? Would I map out your gleaming smile, Like the moles on my body you'd join the dots of? Would I have met your friends coming off the train, And seen the confusion in their eyes, As I looked at you with the stars in mine? Would you have known my parents, In this distorted future, Would they have become just like your own?

But I didn't, did I? Go your way- I could have done, you know... Changed my destination, Followed your blue eyes across the country, Across the sea, Across the globe... I would have done. I should have done. Do you think? Would you? Did you want me to? To follow you- You looked back at me like you did...

But I didn't, did I? So I sit glumly on the platform and wonder: Are you seeing my eyes among the falling leaves, Like I'm seeing your smile throughout the station stores? Are the rolling hills the shape of my cheek, Like your hair is the warm colour of the heated lights? Are you thinking of my face, the one you glimpsed, On a nowhere station, Like I am thinking of you, Looking back at me as you board your train? The one I did not get on. So, when my train comes, I take my seat, Excusing, cursing, my ignorance, All the trains I didn't take, And all the you's I will not keep.

[im-writing-again]

Reserved From Euston

Our train was reserved from Euston The first day we left the city so unkindly Rows of clay faces watching us blindly As we stood in the aisles and roared Like birds who have never soared The summer sun hit the dirty glass The cool, tainted dark through the underpass 'Thank you, ladies & gents, we're coming in now' We alighted, laughing, and took our bow. My seat was reserved from Euston When we sat by the window on parade day God knew how many times we rode away With the carriage a span of emptiness Technicolour leaves of a golden heaviness The first time your anguished cries were aimed at me The conductor averting his gaze as not to see The tears in my eyes, the rage in your own As I rode on in the brief autumn sun alone. You were reserved from Euston Like a stranger stealing my air Pulling the breath from my lungs on a dare A cheap trick shot for the kicks you'd get When my heart broke and mind became set Riding home for Christmas 'cross the snowglobe lands Feeling the decade between our splayed open hands Lying across the arm rest, waiting for the season To die and expose our forlorn treason. I was reserved from Euston Away from a city that never loved me Into a town that won't know how we Ran through the parks, the flowers, the grasses Elbowed our way through the engorged grey masses Like they were the free gardens of Babylon The starched, doomed planes of Avalon Spring has come but I can't say I forgot How we were in love, and then we were not.

[im-writing-again]

I pace the cobbles  In heels to match your height  You race down the tracks  On wheels that don’t know I’m alive  You stare into the mirror  While I wait out in the cold  Red lipstick chosen for you  Wet footprints trail my approach  And now I see you  Bathed in the reflection of life  Smiling alone  In the dressing room of time  I see you in the shadows  That cover your eyes  Keeping me from you  For our eternity and beyond  And now you see me  And take me into your arms  As though I am a stranger  I am a stranger  I laughed with you  But you didn’t see me  I cried for you   But you didn’t see me  I wish I could know you  The way I used to know you  Like the backs of our untanned hands  When I was desperately thirteen  When you were an enigma  A computer screen crush  My closest friend  The best man I had ever known  And I know  Every day will carry me  Kicking and screaming  Far away from you  And I know  I’ll never see you again  But I’m glad that  I got to hold you, just this once 

[im-writing-again]

And yet I fall in love  With a being before my time  If i cannot have my singing dove  Shall I shoot myself down in my prime?  But, no – I'll fall instead  For the moon, the rain, the view  I fly heel over head  For all the things you knew  All the things great and small   The sea, the sky, the moors  Because maybe now, after all,  All these things became yours.  

[im-writing-again]

Maybe the nights only seem colder,  And the stars only seem dimmer.   Maybe the monsters only seem bolder,  And the chances only seem slimmer.  Or maybe when you ran to the light,  And left us all behind,  You took with you our sight,  And left us all blind. 

[im-writing-again]

Two starlit rivers  Dancing on fire  And if they will burn  So shall their desire 

[im-writing-again]

We had breakfast on the day of the summer  solstice beginning, unwind and uncover.  Take your directions and be on your way,  turn off at the bridge or they’ll lead you astray.  Keep to the trees, there’s monsters about,  they'll take what they can and won’t let you out.  Over the field of bluebells and daisies,  we’ve laid the table, it’s lunch for the crazies.  Apples and bananas in the late spring sun,  take your car, pick up your gun.  Rotting meats in the glistening rain,  lock and load, they’re back again.  Roll down the window and get down low,  stick up your barrel, it’s time for the show.  Open fire across the land,  take our fears into your gun hand.  Light up the trees and blaze the grasses,  incinerate the hearts of the spineless masses.   Tell us again why it had to be done,  how you took our minds and went on the run.  Leaving the monsters for dead under the throne,  and us to kneel at their feet and atone. 

[im-writing-again]

For John Lennon

Did you walk this same path, Beneath this same thundering wrath? At five to two, when the world stopped turning, And your blind eyes wouldn't stop burning. Were you watching for the tide along this concrete beach, Wondering why the world was out of reach? Stretched across the bay of high flying birds, Enough to inspire your guitar and your words. Were you parting the clouds for the stars you adored, The stars you could join if you struck the right chord? The clouds that wept with each tired strum, Crying in the knowledge of who you would become. Were you carving empty promises into the stage you owned, When Mother knew best for the knife you loaned? She took it away and you left her with The time of your life struck by a monolith. So, frozen in time on the coffee club floor, With rips in the fabric you used to adore, Now abandoned in the hands of an unknowing crowd, Silencing the ticking that once rang so loud. For all the trials that overcame you, After your world stopped turning at five to two, This is for the man that boy became, And the city that will forever scream your name.

[im-writing-again]

In a love letter to NYC, she said she hated the rain, Even while she stood out in it weeping for the sun, Like a child searching for a rainbow.