Glistening strings danced along
the deepest fibers of my being
They lapped and lounged, filled my bounds
and wound up in my needs
But now the threads, whom I had always dread
are cut through right and quick
I flit and float, on an anchorless boat
wishing life wasn’t quite so thick
Then a day arrives, with joyous sunrise
reminding me of life’s slick groove
So I took a step, with a little more pep
and found my own way to move
There comes a time-
Between yours and mine
When we reach for all the branches
When your limb was missed
Throughout fates dreary kiss
Nobody grew quite frantic
For you’re a father
Without all the bother
Who took nothing quite for granted
And now a card, without a guard
To show your care has landed
That voice on my brow which carries me through
Stretches along my anachronistic mind
Breaches through the softest cries
and changes what was blue
Family and friends, they cannot carry–
This weakness found within
But experience grins when the veil becomes thin
and all the world is merry
She sat upon a window sill, feet splayed to the air
Untying knots that bounded free, floating here and there
She slipped one, crossed another, picking at life’s spots
But then she fell, twisted with a yell, and cursed her casted lot
I speak for the naked, the shivering, the clothed in steel
They know not what they feel
They only react, unsurprised at these foundations, these
choices they’re forced to make within strange nations
The required strikes, placing us in unknown situations
There is no preparation for this, no safe sensation
Times a bastard, calling on an unready body
Speak your piece and try to act like somebody
Movement from the corner of my eye, another
other arrives
Make a new notation of this frustration
Try to release your temptation
Hard to breathe, strangers make accusations
But we’re just here, with quietly dying aspirations
The deluded of all traits
Devotion would have you believe in perfection
Sprinkle it too lightly and you’re abhorrent
Too deeply and you’re a fool
This is the dividing line in life
To what do we apply our allegiance
Who deserves our worship
Only those with more than a pinch
I know why the wind calls with a thousand voices
Its arrival is an argument, a clash, a forced opinion
Nature knows no allies, time knows no structure
But man is all-consuming
Those damned voices, stretching across modernity
Who are they to tell us we’re wrong
Who are they to feel so alive
It’s time we talked, of who we are
No, not skin and voice, not money nor choices
It’s about your soul, about your poisons
You need to find yourself, find your guiding star
There comes a time, when you’re in a place
You’ll know it well by how it grabs
It finds us all, even the dads
You cannot run, can’t lose its embrace
It’s called a code, a way to be
It’ll find you fast, make you its thrall
You have a choice, stand tall or small
As for me, I never took the Knee
There’s a way to live, better than you now know
It’s in how we strive, how we take life’s blows
What do I find myself to be
Called upon with expectations, requirements of another world
Finding fault that lies not inside but within the eyes of others
Staring, thinking, breathing my soul out as if I were a puppet
Why do you think I am this machine? Why are you demanding my acquiescence?
Life is what you make of it I’m told
Like my father, I am a terrible creator.
Call from your deep below
Let it fall away
Strike the truest blow
I never dipped a toe
They knew to enter the fray
Call from your deep below
The mountainous walk is ever slow
It follows with the morning grey
Strike the truest blow
Say the words and break room to grow
Let not your spirit’s breeze sway
Call from your deep below
Now, we find, the sweetest lake to row
Its rise and fall sings with the day
Call from your deep below
Strike the truest blow
