somewhere
Suddenly they found themselves bound by the magic trick that had taken them so many times before. The disappearing act. The voice from nowhere. The warmth from the cold.
EMBRACE:
won't you close your tired eyes
somewhere we'll find a place to rest
drain the blood from a wounded heart
embrace the rhythm of a broken chest
fill your lungs with waves of darkness
the only way to take a breath
open your mouth and scream your grievance
truly live with second death
on this shattered clavicle
i have made the bed for you
the time has come to dream your dreams
just close your eyes until they're through
GOOD NIGHT:
I know a picture's worth a thousand words
or so I've heard
yours was worth just one more to me
when you said goodbye once last night
I know these words won't keep you as warm
as red sweaters and scarves
but I thought they could keep you company
in place of me
and I know you don't need me to hold your hand
please understand
you don't have to walk alone
as you have known all along
so tonight I will make this worth one thousand four
as you close the car door
and I will scream all there's left to say
good night forever
as I slowly walk away.
REFLECTION:
When rivers from her quiet eyes
leave canyons in her sweet disguise
in the darkness there is a lonely girl
blind from when she saw the world
burning bright with fading lights
that kept her crying through the night
and left her with a vacant stare
to watch her heart begin to tear
if only she knew that I was beside her
with empty hands to hold her tighter
if she should ever fall apart
from the burden of a wounded heart
but my arms grow tired and my hands have broken
so I shall leave last words unspoken
as I stare into my quiet eyes
closing beneath my last disguise.
MY LOST SUMMER:
I have forgotten the color of the ink
that painted your face through summer nights
I have lost the empty white paper
that under stars seemed so bright
for now and forever
I will carry you for all you are
another summer that I lost
bracing for another scar
to mark the end of one more summer
when you were all I knew
and I filled the empty pages
with pictures of holding you
and now I have forgotten
which of my colors two
painted your face through summer nights
was it bitter black or blue?
It doesn't matter which I held
through all the summer rains
either could fill a lost night
with emptiness just the same.
STILL:
I thought I could hold on longer than this
how easily reality falls through my fingers
just like the faces of the others
whose eyes could never bring hers
out of my conscience.
Every morning when I wake from dreaming
my shoulder feels colder than the night
I could not hold her for warmth
for her eyes are not asleep beside me.
Protecting her with my only coat
would have stopped my hands from shaking
for as the wind blew through my fingers
I wished I could feel the heat from hers.
TONIGHT:
your words mean more to me
than anything I could ever write
no matter if I never slept
no matter if I lost the night
to endless thoughts of holding you
through the most bitter cold
and whispering to your ears
all the words I've left untold
for in the silence of the winter
you wrote me a tender song
with three precious lines you knew
I would treasure forever long
TELEPHONES:
on empty canyons of gray concrete
I wandered through these barren streets
with the incessant burn of electrical fires
blistering cold as copper wires
until I found a rose
blooming beneath the vacant snows
to embrace across the burning fires
with simple wicks of copper wires
but your distant voice will always be
an endless ocean away from me
until I can embrace you without the fires
of quiet phones and copper wires
WINTER LIGHTS:
Beneath the stars I'll hold you
far below the frozen sky
where raindrops of light don't fall through
the infinite mirrors of your eyes
which gently keep every glimmer of starlight
in two silently watching collections
making the lonely stars burn half as bright
as your beautiful iris reflections.
BREAKING:
It becomes impossible to remain the same
when everyone tears away a piece of you
with idle barbed wire fences
that patiently wait hidden from view
until you feel their knives breaking
the skin across the back of your neck
you never remember all the faces
of people you failed to protect
and the razor waves will crush you
just before you begin to drown
and you will see your broken reflection
as the knives come crashing down.
INTO TOMORROW:
The seconds crawl away
an army in retreat
returning home after bleeding
beneath the tantalizing glass sky
which forces me away
from seizing their hands
and pulling them onward
into tomorrow
when I will once again
hold my breath
until I can fill my lungs
with the air that runs
across your lips
in this river
that halts the march of time
the only hands that will ever matter
are mine in yours
and yours in mine.
ACOUSTIC:
I will play
an acoustic guitar solo
until I can feel
the razor blades tearing in
my fingers will paint
a picture across the strings
of a better place
where I will hold you
dancing across the fretboards
where I will strangle myself
just to take a breath
and push the comforting blades
further beneath my splitting skin
until you can hear the river
flowing through my heart.
FUTILE:
Before the mercury can poison the sky
I already feel the clouds clotting
alone against the surge of light
of yet another blinding tomorrow
awaiting the mutilation of my hands
which struggle to shield my eyes
from the revelation of the new world
lying just beyond the nearest horizon
that which once tantalized me from a distance
is bursting forward to crush my resistance.
ANOTHER DAY:
Four times the numbered days gone by
of years beneath the broken barrel
reaching out for someone left behind
glimmering glass of a broken past
we etched in scars across my arms
traced into our fading memories...
me holding you in the empty park
engulfed between the silence and the dark
nights of the dawning tomorrow
of days behind our years of sorrow
tonight we lead, no longer follow
staying up for... a better tomorrow.
SLEEPING
My vacant eyes no longer see
beyond destitute illusions in my mind
where have I fallen to
the earth I can no longer find
as it torments me like a demon
scratching away at my spine
crushing this poor beating heart
to a dust so bitter and fine.
I can no longer sleep
with dark eyes that try to see
into the nights of the future
succeeding only in blinding me.
Until I wake to you
caressing the fine sand
that once was a tender heart
quietly dying in your hands.
RELEASE:
The passing air washes away
the dirt from yesterdays
I fell again
running toward the asphalt horizon
beneath my concave heart
you made the dream fade
tarnished it before my eyes
broken before my
innocent goodbyes
it comes with fair warning
too late to turn around
I'm running unstoppable
falling into the ground
that's where you'll find me
broken disfigure in your arms
shattered memories safe from harm
gone forever from warm eyes
gone from innocent last goodbyes.
STRONGER:
She whispers
my dear Mar
I'm getting sleepy
I don't want to let her go
inhale her echo
stay awake
a little longer
and hold the phone
a little tighter
I hear her breath
growing stronger
I fear my rest
no longer
than tonight
I wish I could press
my ear against her chest
and feel in her rising breast
her heart
beating away all the darkness.
BESIDE THE ROAD:
This guitar is strung
every scream in perfect tune
with melancholy melodies
to be my only comfort
the pedestrians tell me
my destination is a lonely place
as if they know
what lies in the darkness
I ask only for silence
I'll find my way on my own
as long as I can hear her voice
I know that I'm not alone.
BETTER HALF:
The car pulls you away
tearing sleeping eyes open
as I watched this sunset
with tears and sweat
bleeding through my clothes
I lost last night
running hands through
the pictures and poems
I drew with you
I hoped we would talk
falling through the sunset
with minds full of half regret
if only you were in my arms
I could hold the night behind
the walls which we once built
now turn to dust
then leave eyes blind.
ESCAPE:
I still hold half a heart
driving the blood through my veins
begging me to go outside
to follow this wind and run away
waiting here is crushing my back
like the dullest of blades
who couldn't quite pierce my skin
where angels wings should've laid
I will never walk again
if I cannot escape tonight.
Find the tides then quietly follow
and wander the coast until I see
half of one more bleeding heart
in rhythm with the rest of me.
Fine. Walk away.
You will never learn what love is.
Until you learn what love isn't.
And you will never find a love as true as mine.
So may this burn every time you remember.
What could have been.
yesterday
Email: marioluong@prodigy.net
