A Modern Day Atlantis Tale

          

                                                 

                                                This city buried in the sea

                                              Is all that’s left of you and me.

                                               All the treasure, all the pain

                                            Were buried deep in pounding rain.

                                              I shook my fist at God above

                                              For taking it, my place of love.

                                          But some things, I guess, are for the best.

                                             This immortal city had to rest.

                                            Too tired to sleep, so wide awake;

                                            For centuries sitting about to break.

                                            Perhaps the houses weighed it down

                                            And only ghosts were left to drown.

                                            But still the place was magic then

                                            The greatest world of joy and sin.

                                             To you, to me, and to our life

                                             She was like a faithful wife.

                                           Too bad your faith was not as strong

                                        And this love of ours couldn’t last as long

                                          Before into the roaring sea it crashed

                                           The waves upon the earth it lashed.

                                          You could’ve gone, I could’ve stayed

                                          And with the spirits I could’ve played.

                                            Without regrets, without remorse,

                                             Instead I failed to see the force.

                                            And like a fool I followed you;

                                           So pissed, so scared of all you do.

                                       While we cursed and fought and told our lies

                                         Those who stayed called out their cries.

                                       Now both our love and that precious world

                                         Has cost me more than I could afford.

                                        To lose you both has brought me here

                                         And as the water comes I have no fear.

                                            I’ll go and be with what I am,

                                             The happy sacrificial lamb.

                                         Don’t weep for me when you get word

                                            The very act just seems absurd.

                                           Just know that I’m content and bright

                                          Drinking and laughing in the night.

The Club

A piano plays in a room of smoke

The mirrors reflect it all.

Ghosts who dance the night away

Spill out in the hall.

The music’s clear, the voices loud

And why not let them go?

They’ve all been through something more

Then you and I can know.

It’s not so bad to take a peak

At what was once the thing.

Flappers, cowboys, jazz galore

And opera in the wing.

This crazy place, it keeps them all

From the confines of their graves.

All of them have come to see

That Jesus does not save.

So all the fun they feared to have

When life was still within

They indulge in now both night and day

In this place that knows no sin.

As I turn to leave I wish them well

Though my face they cannot see.

Hoping when my own time’s up

I’ll join the revelry.

Untitled

The room is filled up tight, my love

With words we never said.

They drowned out laughter, tears, and pleas

Inside my aching head.

You never want to answer me

The questions that I bring.

You only want to lie and cheat

While handing me a ring.

That simply isn’t good enough

The walls have eyes tonight.

They see the things you’ve done to me,

They see the way we fight.

The windows listen to the final blow

As I storm away.

While the moon lights up the way to go

Since I just cannot stay.

So when you’re sitting in that worn out chair,

The one you held me in,

You can talk to what you’ve built around

Your little life of sin.

Maybe they can make you see

By recounting our last breath

That you’re not strong enough to treat me right,

That I scare you to death.

A Moonlight Meeting

I met you in the moonlight

In a garden made of stone.

Dressed in mourning, drunk on wine

Standing all alone.

Morbid thoughts, they plagued my mind

Until I saw you smile.

How could I stop my stony tears?

It had been a lonely while.

It surprised me when you said my name.

Who knew the dead could speak?

Even after all that’s passed

Your presence made me weak.

Assurance that you’ll be just fine

Spilled forth from your form.

But such words only cut me deep;

Since you left I’ve not been warm.

So tell me, love, if you can

How is it that you deal

So well with being far from me

While my heart just won’t heal?

By the time I made my way back home

What peace I had was lost.

It’s so like you to prove a point

No matter what the cost.

Yearning for the Past

                                          I’m lost here in this crazy town

                                             Watching madness all around.

                                             People dressed in such a way

                                        That invites everyone who comes to stay.

                                              Flowers seem to never end

                                             And every neighbor is a friend.

                                              Best of all, there is this man

                                          Who seems to come from another land.

                                             He sings his poetry majestically

                                         And he taught me just what lust can be.

                                                I see him wander, lost inside

                                            This pretty place he made to hide.

                                         It’s his madness that will bring him fame.

                                           People will come because he’s insane.

                                          But they’ll miss the rest, the bigger point

                                              That at one time he could anoint

                                        His whole generation with the strangest things

                                          And only they can feel it when he sings.

                                          Their children may now yearn to know

                                        But they will never have the strength to go

                                                  Back to San Francisco, ’67;

                                       When the whole town was a brilliant heaven.

                                          And the Lizard King ruled his court so fair

                                         With a secret truth that was always there.

The Double Standard

                                                 Tell me something, if you can

                                                Do you study hard to be a man?

                                               If I can be used to scratch an itch

                                               Why can’t I be a heartless bitch?

                                                 If I have a harem in my bed

                                            Then I’m not a pimp but a whore instead.

                                               Men like you loyal, mute and dumb

                                             But all they really want is just to come.

                                              So don’t tell me that I’m too unkind

                                           Because a change in me you’ll never find.

                                                I’m not sweet and I’m not nice!

                                              In fact, my heart’s as cold as ice.

An Invitation to Stay While

                                              I saw the strangest thing today

                                                 While walking all alone.

                                               A garden for the dead it was,

                                                Though slightly overgrown.

                                          It welcomed me with a friendly warmth

                                                 Like none I had back home.

                                                But once inside I felt a chill

                                                    Seep down into my bone.

                                               The tea set out on a silver tray

                                                  Had long ago grown cold.

                                         Ants covered thick the sour grapes

                                                     Even the air was old.

                                            For years and years this party sat

                                                         Waiting for a jig.

                                          But the dancers tired of it all so quick,

                                               Their sorrow grown too big.

                                           I felt this place was not without

                                                 Its share of souls alive.

                                         But a body with both flesh and blood

                                             In this place could not survive.

                                         With shock and wonder I understood

                                               They wanted me to stay.

                                            It took a while to think it through

                                                  Before I went my way.

                                             Whether I was right or wrong

                                              To leave the way I came

                                            I know if I should change my mind

                                               The place will be the same.