To William Lee (day 2719)

I know why you ran so far away
Not a scene could do for you
The world rambled some unfathomable blithe
And your vision clouded from contempt
Ever growing greed – lost seed
Lemonade stinking in the shade
Yellow circle glasses and a leftover jacket
Naked in soggy rows of an everglade.

I would also run away to the other side
Liberties are assumed and everybody’s ruined
And each land war is solved with a knife.
I would carry on in my inevitable way
No job calling me to pay taxes aside
Just like a hooker in the park and dark lines on her eyes
With a leather jacket man stopping by again
A bag in his hand and a promising grin;
Feeling empty again, night’s unwavering sin.

Though I tell ya William, I wouldn’t have shot the gun
I wouldn’t have taken aim again,
Party tricks and everyone’s looks
Southern games that nobody wins
Makes a man lost into the void.
But if you’d ask me to sing you a son.
Don’t expect it to sound like something you’d want to hear,
I’ll build and collapse and spit at it too
But that’s the price we pay, damn it every day.

Ancient Ruins (day 702)

Standing here marked in my sentinel pose
The pigeons have come home, bringing what blows
Shifting time here from then, now, and future
And watching seasons twist before my eyes
Carrying new colours with birth, love, and death

But my purpose has been lost in the changing of regime
What once was a tyrant has now become kindly
Taxes increased, but civil liberties have too

Blinking slowly I become a shifting flower of dust
A shocking array of memories unwritten
While passersby brood and confuse points on maps
And come more and go, pigeons of flight
Remain here in harbour, remain here at rest