Prodigal Girl

Crushed like a soda can 
Can this lifeline recycle itself 
to the fullest straight and narrow? 
There’s no time like tomorrow 
to make it like today 
I kick a rock down a road, 
I throw a stone into a stream, 
to dream of less important things 

I wake up screaming 
Kick yourself for sleeping in 
through the re-ignition moment 
Until the planets realign, 
the sun and I will bide our time 
It moves on anyway, 
regarding regardless of what to say 
about the wrenching wait 

The prodigal girl was led astray 
Her words ring so true  
if only to get back at you 
for losing a grip, sanity 
I’ve got it sinking in, 
its warmth is a blanket 
to the greatest of the Great God’s 
air-conditioning vent

MM 1998

(Artwork by Bob Rob)

Joyous & Tragic

Mark steady with trembling hands
X's across the calendar
Count up the days I thee wed
You've stumbled across your balance
Scratch away the cold secrets
Loving with paper and pencil
Reaching the most quiet resolve

You have passed a failing test
I was bound to bleed the rest.

Your voice sounds like it's right next door
I can envision you right around
Cold kissing with sweat in vacant air
I can still remember you right here
Count up the days with numbers
It's the strangest kind of loneliness
Counting with quiet resolve

Airports are both joyous and tragic
They make the sweat fall from my palms
That day I woke up beside you
Today I am living inside the phone
Your eyes are the stars across my dreams
If they would fall just for me
I might well be the one

MM 1999

(Artwork by Bob Rob)

Right Out or Right On

See closing doors are open
Hear open doors slam shut
I'm either left on or left out
I'm either right out or right on
      You could be either one

Revolving circles of understanding
A moment on a moment off
The cuff I'm clinging onto,
a downward funnel inward
      If you could relate to

The shovel use is digging
your way out your way in
Not inherently anything,
it's just another instrument
      I am the musician

Open doors to let control out
The harbors burdened some
Seeking out and seeking in
Spinning spools do come undone
      I am the other

MM 1998

(artwork by Bob Rob)

Slump

Here I am, as broken as the bottle on the sidewalk
Here I stand, as solid as the key that unlocked your heart. 

You make it so easy to lose myself
You make it so easy to find myself

Here I am, as empty as the lines are drawn between us
Here I stand, as solid as the space that we will fill in

You make it so easy to lose myself
You make it so easy to find myself

Here I am, as ugly as the last conversation
Here I stand, as beautiful as a first kiss

MM 1998

Saturday Night Party Two

Fuzzy tones and crickets chirping,
moths gravitate to the light bulb
Bones are crackling like a campfire
I'm alone with my desires
Black dog he's all give out,
man it was a hot one today
I'm kicking back with reflection
on what's transpired

From one moment to the next
it's all of little consequence
to guests of a party
thrown for someone. No one
really knows what it's about
Me, myself and I had it out
over a drunk bottle of wine
and a two dollar bill

It's hard to hear yourself
thinking about much at all
over the snoring ruckus
of the sleeping dog
The music of mellow tones.
is admittedly intoxicating
The silence of ringing phones
it put me to sleep

MM 1998

Pow

Pa-pow pow pa-pa pa
Nothing more than an afterthought
Pa-pow pow pa-pa pa
Nothing more than the time I bought

Ra-ra ra ha-ha ha
Nothing more than a holding tank
Ra-ra ra ha-ha ha
Nothing less than the sharpest shank

To end it all to be it all
To see it all to free it all
Feeling no less than ten feet tall
Nothing more than an afterthought

To end it all to flee it all
To breed it all a free-for-all
Feeling less than very small
Seething like a gaping flaw

MM 1997

Days-a-Wastin'

Like the last granules of sand -
these are days-a-wastin'! 

Grease monkey on a bridge
knows the password, knows which way to go
Cold junkie on a ledge
holds his heart, contemplates the jump

Warm body on a bed
flushes away the fears, regroups for tomorrow
A hothead gathers steam -
she knows there's a train-a-comin'

Sands-a-slippin', 
the tide's washing you away
Everyone had a laugh and a drink
Let's take roll and see who all is left

Let's take a pulse and see
who is alive and who is dead
Impulse says to make a plan
I've got plans to act on impulse

With a hammer to the porcelain god on the mantle
who never answers prayers
With a hammer to the skull
who never knows an answer

Slippin' away, yesterday
was the day I've spoken of

MM 1997

Gathering of Children

(Note- there's a picture that inspired this writing, unfortunately I cannot find it.)

Head of triangled eyes,
wide open like the sky
Stars staring down at me - 
geometrical gathering
Smile as if to know
where the pointed arrow goes
Striped like a candy cane,
lit by a hand of flames

Snout like a baseball bat,
stuck out long and flat
Just there to see the sight,
just hanging out at night
Eyes grope the swollen face,
feeling strangely out of place
Walking with sandpaper soles,
too afraid to venture home.

Just the second in command,
upward eyes and spotted hands
Blind and loyalty's intact,
philosophies are based on fact
Keeping watch on the distance,
feeding off a nervous penchant
Breath in the chilling air
disappears away with care

MM 1997

Moment of Clarity

You've got a locket in your hand
to raise the stakes of your command
A blue-eyed boy will come soon
to represent the month of June
I've got a bruise upon my thigh
I pushed too hard and fell behind
Too far to reach out with my claws
Too fast to run down with my crawl

Brace yourself
What is worth living for? 
What is worth dying for?

Dwelling up in your sleepy mind
there lies a box in which you'll find
a little charm and diamond crown
It's time to rediscover sound
Close the box and then wake up,
take a sip from a paper cup
You've got a spider upon your skin
who wants to know just where you've been

Brace yourself
What is worth living for? 
What is worth dying for?

I mentioned to him in conversation
you read the book of revelations
We had our moment of clarity,
he felt he could confide in me
We glanced up at the ticking clock
to gently ease your state of shock
I felt your twitching hands collapse
like ice melting in my mouth

Delayed Reaction

You're wondering 'round my door
You're wondering 'round the wrong back door
     I haven't started yet
     I haven't even mentioned yet

You're wondering 'round my dear
You're barking up the wrong tree, dear
     I couldn't climb away
     My hands are hard and gray

Piss away 
hours in a day
a day
Mark away 
hours become days
the days
the days 
the days 
the days
Piss away

You're wondering aloud
You're wondering painful thoughts aloud
     I'm not adept at this
     I've got a cleft in my fist

You're wondering overhead
You're camping out inside my head
     I've never learned
     I have no formal training
     so train me
     
Piss away 
hours in a day
a day
Mark away
hours become days
the days
the days
the days 
the days
Piss away

MM 1997

Sunshine Slowdown

Pull the sunglass lens over your eye, 
brake for the rising sunshine 
Another morning might have been the one, 
a passing day it has become 

The green numbers glaring off the dash 
will always read ten minutes fast 
I broke a split-second too late 
to chase the clouds away 

I’ve got a sickening feeling 
churning up in my stomach 
I think it may be taking its toll, 
or just finding its place 

Echolocation ran you into a wall, 
you’ve got my sympathy 
Now go out and find that vote of confidence, 
the one we’re looking for 

Feeling on the dash for sunglasses 
to block the first morning sunshine 
Staring down at the lines on pavement, 
just kicking around what the night meant 

Half-shut eyes getting their first look, 
taking time to pull the sleep loose 
It feels just like winding down, 
but still feels like the sunshine

MM 1997

Saturday Nite Party

They say that waking up is hard to do
when the most peaceful part of a day
is jolted into reality
by a voice who's tone is not so soothing

The morning radio just does not suffice,
it's not a substitute at all
for the moments of tranquility found only
between the sheets and blankets

And when the foot hits the carpet
it's like stepping into a steel trap,
because I know what is coming next,
and it's not always pretty

It's not always worth waking up for,
but it's there nonetheless
like some mysterious force that pulls you out
into a cold world

MM 1997

Get On Down

Color in the corners of your eyes
It is guiding you
It was calling out a name
too soft to comprehend now
It was speaking out instructions
in code and in dialect
You could only pick out
what seemed imaginary

Get on down and hear them

Motion in the mirror
You've got questions I know
them like that sinking feeling
of falling out astray
There's a story to be told
projected out on the big screen
The morning angels sing
your story so softly

Get on down and see them

MM 1998

Yellow Dancer (Bear)

Just before you hit pay dirt,
you'll know, they will tell you
They told you falling tides
I heard a terror in my ears
We're landing feet first
to heed the sweeping motion
You motion me away
to build the bridge I'm falling from

You fell in a wake
to pay respect to passing days,
to when the ticking clock
would make the music for a song
I sang in a procession
with passion for the song
Sung on a stage in heaven,
broadcasted from the sun

And you're a yellow dancer
just basking in glow
of my outstretched hands and arms
clutching in the dark
Feeling out a knob
to turn you into something
Still confused about direction
of the passing of the flock

MM 1997

Horizon Sky

The clouds in the sky,
they just don't hold no rain
Man they look so black,
they just hold empty feeling

The rain in the sky,
it just don't hold no thunder
It's like a constant gnawing
It's like a constant beating

The clouds in the sky,
they look like looming largely
They like to hang around
if only to remind me

The horizon sky,
it never shows no lightning
It packs it all inside
It's never more than threatening

MM 1997

Your Song

This is your song
What you have to say or think
This is your song

To each their own view
or version of a story
Think and feel out of my hands,
words become nothing
They die out in some version,
I hear them, you hear them
in transformation

Experience, fear, bias
translates into a personal language
that makes the outside world meaningless
This is your song
What your have to say or think

MM 1995

Breathe Again

In the corners of my eyes 
breathes again 
an apprehension that corners 
my movement 

The lid has been removed, 
and the contents left on the table –  
saturation 

Can you pick up the pieces? 
Can you forge a meaning 
in a puzzle for which you’re constantly throwing 
away the pieces? 

You can burn them, 
but they’ll never go away 
You can run, 
but they’ll always follow 
Like the vision in the corners of your eyes,  
always clearest 

MM 1995

Spiraling

Bound the hands with bars that won't bend
Tear the eyes look inside you'll never see
the folds the cracks the opening
Shadows cast the vision's clouded
It's a maze I can't find may way out of
All around, hands are tied, eyes are down
I can hardly see.

I'm circling my images
Am I playing true to form?
These tests aren't getting easier
Am I playing true to form?

Lie to yourself
to make things easy to understand
like what the truth should be

MM 1995

Lonesome Jones

When gravity settles in,

the pull makes your blood boil

as you step off for the last flail

or kiss off

We’ll sew your feet to the ground,

with fishing line!

It’s so unsettling,

it’s bounded

I’m down with it

I’m down to see it breathe

We’ll get a big kick out of muddy fangs,

a big kick out of gaping holes and fiery eyes

A lonesome jones just sitting there,

like cornered prey

realizing that nothing ever changes

Because gravity is so unsettling,

it keeps you in your place

It tells you to shut the fuck up,

after the consoling stops

A lofty attempt at something big

may gouge those shifty eyes,

but the screams can’t drown the laughter,

can’t stop more pressing issues

The realization never changes

MM 1994

The Defeatist

Insignificance... 
it lives
It breathes... 
breeds inside
Its consequences manipulate
every step or action taking place

For the fear of it showing
itself in speech and thought
The fear of finally branding oneself
with all its beauty and grace

There is no stranger to the self
No face beneath the mask
It's there flourishing
with every precaution to avoid the inevitable... 

What am I afraid of?

MM 1995

Correcting God

God needs helping, correcting
Is God on the right track? 
I could be a helping hand

Like a little child with the obvious answer
that was so oblivious in the higher mind and spirit
All the mortals saw the master's blindness
but no one wanted to admit any problems with the way things were

A shepherd or mere drifter? 
Which track are we on with God? 
Is it the right track? 
Is it wrong, my friend?

MM 1995

Framework

The friend has left me inside,
the friend that locked me out,
vulnerable and abandoned,
cold in a life without
some sort of subtle shelter
that would protect me,
that shields my eyes away
that would not let me see

The friend has left me wanting,
yearning for simplicity
Wondering when it all ends
I want it to return to me
A sort of easy answer
but just an explanation
for the bitter uneasiness,
for all my complications

MM 1994

You Win, Sucker

It's so much fun to be brought down
What would we do without our stupid inner (outer) conflicts?
Sleepwalk through life? 

Breathe a sigh of relief
because you've been shaken
You've been spit on and mistreated
and you that you are right

Everyone is usually right
with truths to back them up
Truths to show to friends
who can identify

Two side are on a collision course
so move out of the way
Life's a fucking fight
so get your boxing gloves on

MM 1994

Peroxide

She’s like a clean window,

so easy to see right through

Fragile as the glass that breaks,

the fragments draw the blood from you

The glass that shatters

so violently when provoked

by the pressure of an iron truth,

the damning of an unsettled doubt

You are naked by a window,

broken into pieces,

all that anyone can see

is the cut and bloodied skin

While they’re holding one another,

a sorrowed song is sung

that rings through the ears

of anyone who hears the screams

I’ve got a cold heart,

hardened as a stone,

because stone is the only thing

that can’t be torn away from me

I’ve got a blind line of sight,

because hindsight burns my eyes,

and I am seeking out

the comfort of a worn conclusion

MM 1994

My Wish

I dove into my wishing well
undone by a truth I found
hard to understand
and even harder to accept

And yet I was no different
than your cold betraying eyes
that could not comprehend
just what my life had become

I dove into my wishing well
unwound by experience
hard to believe in
and so unacceptable

Lost myself in sorrow
and the coldness of regret
and I don't understand
just what I have become

My wishing well gave me nothing but truth and hardship
My wishing well washed away my dreams

MM 1994

Lineage

I'd like to spend my time
wondering how I got here
and making some excuses
and crying it's not fair

I'd like to show someone
just how much I have seen
I want to turn my back and erase
my memories

Time is too important,
give me some to work with
and I'll make you happy
and I'll please myself

I'd like some patience
because I'm down to the wire
I'd like some insight
so I could see through what is wrong

If I could tell you a secret
and if I could corrupt your mind
I'd tell you just how close 
you came

If I could see the mistakes
in the lines of my picture
I'd scratch them all off
and start again

MM 1994

Dover

These things look on paper
Our hopes cry for answers
We know the way that things should be,
we're told to take a number
And I will stand here
until the end, until the day,
the day when your face cracks
And I'll dance around the pieces,
stomp them into the ground

Kick them like you kicked
with your hatred and spite
Holding life in my face
and laughing at the hope in my eyes
It is that laugh that I remember
that keeps the will alive
And what you use to drive me
is what makes me despise you

MM 1994

Summer Pick-Up

Sometimes, I'm all that I can give
My time and my emotions,
I give it all to you

In every way, I offer everything
You can call it your own,
I know myself through you

And there was emptiness,
I suffered through it all
I lost myself so many times,
I wondered through the Fall

And it was cold outside,
and I was scared to death
I got the one last chance
and to you I confess

Sometimes, I can only see you
My pride and my devotion,
they consume all of me

And every day, I can only concentrate
on the love that saves me
and it's all that I believe

MM 1994