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

Livid Step

Everything is a reminder,

a flickering candle, a photograph

of a light that would reside,

that would call out to you

In light, in darkness too, a reminder

It eroded, it dwindled

into the deepest depths of a spirit

One day you will know

Oh child, be patient

There’s something waiting for the clutch of your hand,

your heart too

Darkness can’t reside,

it just can’t live here anymore

It’s something to let go of

Flush the spirit, cleanse it

There are reasons for this, oh child

Be patient and realize it

MM 1994

Without A Day

Somehow your first taste of blood

is an initiation. A cold hard truth

you live with

You nor I will ever forget

how momentous it felt to step over,

to only fall

I know all too well

how far I’ve fallen, how deep I’ve swam,

because I’m drowning

You know all too well

because your heart is lifeblood,

saving me

I hope this is redemption,

or something close, because

this is all I have to offer

Everything that’s said, the glances met,

every solitary moment,

means the world

MM 1993

Hemlock

I like to think I'm harmless,
I've got a thing about it
I cherish the innocence
and live volatile
Take from it what I need,
build monuments for it,
and think it harmless to hurt everyone

I like to think I'm helpless
when acting out self-pity
and summing up the story
and falling at your feet
I hope that I'm still hopeful
when writing love letters
that make you forget
everything I've done

I've got a lock on time
to break and to bruise
I've got a lock on time,
I've earned a right of passage

MM 1994

20 x 5

Twenty times five is the age I feel
sometimes when I am tired,
when I'm reflecting on the past
and I can't believe it
That I have pulled through,
and how time can mess with you,
can give you the worst of everything
and take it all right back

And here I am
for a minute stuck in that time
subtracting years off my life,
reflecting on a lie
And time doesn't let you forget,
it can reach back just to show you,
to remind you that it owns you
It savors its control

And time yields all its pain
because it is the truth
And all good things come in due time...

MM 1994