The Exploration

  Backseat Days were short Nights were cold Hours of silence All alone On that road You sat passenger But you weren’t there From what I told you You were scared Body lifeless, eyes glued To the floor beneath you Hard concrete Below my feet You quit talking I sensed defeat A drive too long I wrote a song I never showed you The words were wrong December is cold January much colder Because Holidays have passed And you’re alone more Drive down Veterans I see a light Through a window I think I might… Drive Further down Turn up the volume Follow The Sound Backpack packed Guitar in the back Evenings at Iwen Life back on track Days are longer Practicing songs more Sunny nights Sounds of a lawnmower Thought too much About Words I Used Still think of it When I hear that tune Out of Tune But nights with you Made it so I could finally move I never said Thanks for it But you righted My sinking ship.

Dos equis/Ace Dos equis Struck out twice Since I made the drive Because what I thought my life Would be, isn’t what it’s like Dos equis And I take a sip But it’s not the same So I dump it down the drain Because these people don’t care And Dad isn’t here to share A variety pack That we bought in a place where You get worried about bears This time it tastes like beer Not like good times Or like a backyard Where you hear Laughter and talk about the years It doesn’t taste like Watching a sun set below the Horizon line By Horizon, way up on Cornice drive Back when the road ended And I could do more than just drive by Because you had left And I drove all the way home Alone, listening to Summertime Now you call me on the phone And I realize how much we’ve grown Because this isn’t your impala This isn’t Kum and Go This isn’t Hillside park Where I go to throw  Discs, cuz now I go alone And we talk about the next time We’ll both be at home I try to smile And think that it will be Like it use...

  Rewind A sun sets Bringing another day to an end I lay my head Down on the same bed That I used to when The walls were red Sometimes when I unwind My mind likes to rewind Like a VCR tape Starting in ‘99 Each memory A flash That I can only see For a couple moments Until it flees Back into the memory bank Waiting to be called on Like the kid who knows the answer But instead, the pick is me Subtle little sounds Or feelings on your skin Can take you right back To a moment you were in Like watching Mrs. Doubtfire On a Christmas night Could only eat a bun Puked like 7 times Don’t know if the shrimp Was the reason why But I’ll blame it on it anyway And it still doesn’t taste right Like that night We started to watch A show, four kids on their bikes And the first note of that theme song Can take me back in time What I looked forward to each day Was getting to watch it play Every day over Christmas break Had no idea, a memory was made When I used to come home Before midnight Not from bein...

  Sidekick It used to be easy But you never thought it was You didn’t know it was easy Because You didn’t know what would come Back when the biggest stressor Was deciding which game to play On your free days Back when it used to be  Just me  And chase the time that I spent with you Amazed by how you’d  Do things differently I wish I could too Wrappers from fireballs On the floor The laundry room door Open, to make it easy to get more Between builds Avoiding any chores Those days still Live in my mind When you couldn’t sit still Bouncing on that ball But focused on the thrill Of finding diamonds In those little  Figments of time They’ll live on When I think they’re gone I put on the song That brings me back where I belong Wet hands From the water that I tread Trying to keep my head Above, so I can still Love the people that I grew up With, but now there are more in the pic Sure, the water is deeper But you have to keep swimming In order to keep her Happy, like be...

Eyes follow me Like a bird Watching from a tree My every move Documented, talked about Like what I do for me Affects your daily Questioning Why I want my life To be different than yours Even though I see The fear, the pain, the exhaustion Deep within your eyes All you do is work For something that Isn’t even your own All you want is me to do Something beneficial for you But then you tell me I should do what I need to do But proceed to insist That I follow you Even though, since I was two I was told, I can do anything That I put my mind to Hard to give advice When you’ve only lived one way One life, and it’s not what I want for mine And you still question why So keeping looking down From your stoop Where you’ve sat for years Your branch is covered in poop And you can’t even see Because you’re busy watching me And soon enough In the sky is where I’ll be.

Capitol Frost freezes the windows Of that Ford Taurus Whose color resembles the environment In which it sits And it’s only 16 So a sweatshirt seems fit Four stockings sit Above a fireplace, lit Always warm inside Not from the fire But the coffee In the pot at lunch Because it’s a Friday So take a couple sips And head back up 4th For 5th period A boring drive Past the Capitol lights Remember when you tried to fly kites Out on the mall lawn But the wind wasn’t right Or when you ran a couple blocks To catch the sun setting right In front of you Pink skies, midwest night Not tonight Cuz it’s cold outside Not much to do When the weather isn’t right And the money is tight So dream of a place Where your face Is burnt by the rays Day after day And now you’re there 26 hours away.