A journey through mud and mire, over mountains, through rivers, across oceans, around obstacles, to the Truth.
Sometimes it's easier to pretend you were a pleasant dream or distant memory Both hurt The difference is your face flashing fast behind my eyelids my faint and fading smile waves goodbye to the dream and hello to the day You're gone Accepting your absence is much harder when you're real Like rereading the last chapter of a book in a series, our shared memories with replay in my mind Until we can write the next book
“Hello! I like your frogs!”
*reads from phone* “I’ll take a 4-count kids meal with a sprite, a cobb salad with avocado lime ranch and a spicy deluxe with pepper jack.”
“Okay, would you like the spicy deluxe meal or just the sandwich?”
*falters. gives his steering wheel a look of disgust and disdain. pulls phone back out* “Okay, I’ll take a 4-Count Kid’s Meal with a Sprite, a Cobb Salad with Avocado Lime Ranch, and a Spicy Deluxe with Pepper Jack.”
“Yes sir, I heard you. You said you wanted a 4-Count Kid’s Meal with a Sprite, a Cobb Salad with Avocado Lime Ranch, and a Spicy Deluxe with Pepper Jack, but did you want that sandwich as a meal, or just the sandwich?”
*Stares blankly ahead in utter shock and disbelief at the incompetence taking his order*
Gingerly, I place my hand into his skull and his head swivels to face me for the first time during the transaction. The face of the man is plastic. His attire is like the glaze on a stale pastry. His suit seems like it would adorn a rack better than on his immaterial form and his rainbow tie is akin to the frogs on the man’s dashboard. Inside his head my suspicions are validated. This is not a human to human interaction. I am only here to push buttons and recite totals. My input doesn’t even compute.
Resigned, if not affirmed, I mumble to myself, “okay, so, just the sandwich,” and then retreat into my role.
“Your total is $16.23 at the window. Have a great day, sir.”
The man speedily makes his getaway, and the sun sets on my small sliver of faith in humanity.
A splash of milk spills onto a page The morning's nourishment spoils the day Mourning escorts me to the night before last Where a memory reflects onto the retinas of the past Probably won't be feeling very frisky in the future You're a person not a conquest- I've dishonored you In the palace of my mind you lived in every room but instead of artwork I saw you as a tool Don't get me wrong; we had a good time but that time was stolen from the future and now when I picture us I see only memories that have passed their dates of expiration and need only to be thrown out
by Jon Foreman
I guess they’ll say I’ve grown
I know more than I wanted to know
I’ve said more than I wanted to say…
I’m headed home
Yeah, but I’m not so sure
That home is a place
You can still get to by train
So I’m looking out the window
And I’m drifting off to sleep
With my face pressed up against the pane
With the rhythm of my heart
And the ringing in my ears
It’s the rhythm of the southbound train
Oh,
Where the wind starts to look like her hair
And the clouds in her bright blue eyes
As the sea and the shore fall and rise
Like her breast as she breathes by my side
And the moon is her lips as the sun
Is headed on down to the sea
Like her head as she lays down on me
Until we reach ocean side
Over and over, I hear the same refrain
It’s the rhythm of my heart
And my sleepy girl’s breathing
It’s the rhythm of my southbound train
Oh,
I suppose they’ll say I should’ve known
Or maybe I’m just feeling old
Like a lawyer with no one to blame…
I’m headed home
Yeah, but I’m not so sure
That home is a place
That’ll ever be the same
So we gather up our things
And we head out in the cold
And your eyes are where you carry the pain
When I hear the whistle weeping
It’s crying to the sky
It’s the rhythm of my southbound train
The moon is the silent suitor, mesmerizing and stealthy A poor black hole who creeps on the innocent hearts of the wealthy So tender, so caressing; softly-lit is his gaze Staring out their crystal windows they sit- amazed The moon's cheap, imitation haze is stolen from another source The sun's blinding brilliance shines with incomparable force There's nothing romantic about a spherical, vacuous, thief; child of darkness Many men share the same selfish, parasitic likeness But find yourself effortless and rare illumination With plenty of love to share with every creation A genuine light with no beginning or termination Turn away from the conniving, lying, hallucination Refuse to be brainwashed by a rock
by SYML In my body I have a master I bow down when she comes around In my body I’m a disaster I break down when you shake the ground Every time I stand to leave my cage In my broken body I stay I want to love like a man I’ll build you a home when I can Give my new body a chance Patient now it’s all that I have I fought the world for your hand Give my new body a chance It’s all I have In my body I fight fire With the snow, my hell is cold In my body I have a soft light Burning low, but too hot to hold I’ve become the only thing I hate Leave this broken body today I was hearing words in black and white Twisted up inside my broken mind Outstretched dirty hands just like a child Hungry little fool, but you were mine You’re all I have You’re all I have
I am a sheep to the Shepherd of righteousness Chains of darkness have no hold on me I am fearfully and wonderfully made in His image and likeness Strike me down or break my knees The servant is not greater than his master I'm laying up treasures and planting seeds To one day rest in the greenest pastures While the wrath of God falls on His enemies I'm a revelation, a declaration of a loving Father and a risen King A new creation and an imitation of the one who formed my inner being He placed in me a desire, a fire To become like Him and shut the mouths of liars Without Him I'd be nothing but a vacant dream He gave me breath and saved my life replaced my noise with quiet streams transcending my futile, carnal strife Through Him, I am made complete He disciplines those He loves So we can live eternally Perfect, spotless, clean as doves
Please help I don't know how to feel I close my mind to what is real Provoke my wounds, won't let them heal I have bruised knees on which I kneel What's left for me is the leper's fate Isolation, exile, and disgrace Disease consumes me, I am waste I'm dead and buried resurrected, carried to a new place a new life a new face with new eyes that see the same cycle of lies the same disgrace the same bad disguise for the truth The best lies have some truth to them I am worthless but that's not the end The same eyes look down and see a foreign body a new creation They're not one yet but just be patient Body and spirit once again collide and just like before they can't co-exist They attack each other mist to fist and I'm stuck in the middle of a clear divide But this time spirit wins the fight and my redemption is complete My body and spirit unite My life is saved by my will's defeat
"walk fearlessly into the house of mourning, for grief is just love squaring up to its oldest enemy and after all these mortal human years, love is up to the challenge" Your time came and you left me missing you gone too soon I am a pearl without its clam a wave without the sea a beached whale on the sand a chick free falling from a tree I want someone to look up to but I can't crane my neck that far Which light peering at me from the night sky is your star? I would call but you don't have a phone anymore I want to write but there's no mailbox on Heaven's door Can you see me? Can you hear? If you can, would you lend me an ear? The photographs I have of you collect dust, tears, unanswered questions and regretful glances I guess I didn't grow up fast enough and missed all my chances to learn to fly before my Momma Bird took to the sky
Arise, Dear, please take my hand I know you miss me and I understand I'm right here Let's go to a place where tears are banned together we can redeem the years We can't turn back time but we can shake his hand and get an inside scoop on all his dastardly plans Partnered with perishing time always knows Who stays today and tomorrow goes What plants wither, what flowers grow Time sees every course of man When they run and when they'll stand still, and when the deathbell tolls There's a time for everything though you feel I was stolen I'm no longer suffering There's no need for eyes swollen There's nothing closer than death I'm always with you In your memories, in your breath I'm whispering I love you I must go know, time for no one bends Free yourself of me before this dream en-
