Look real close.

If you looked close,

(real close)

you could see little lace-y, trace-y lines,

blooming webs spanning a face,

tracking the tread marks of lies, strains,

smiles and surprises,

all leaving footprints
after coming around often enough.

My eyes can only see what left a mark,

soap washes away the fingerprints of today.

You open your mouth and there-- there I see it.

The lie. It’s behind the sides of your smile,

peeking out like so.

Lies twitch, and so do you;

you're staring me straight in the eye, you're that good

and I'm waiting for you to put the finishing touches

on all this, 
and there you go,

singing sweet words and absolute promises...

both of us know that next week,

maybe the week after next
i'll find the lie
again.

Red and White

The ambulance rains,

red, white, screaming and loud

are taking their toll on my head,

screaming at me to fix it, fix it.

The cars

some of them won't get out of the way,

and that’s the one taking the toll on my heart.

Human curiosity is amazing, disgusting.

I want to know, want to know what happened,

what I'd say, is everyone okay?

The city has a voice, sometimes loud, sometimes not

so much. But its always there.

Its wailing begs to drive me away, but I know,
I know that anywhere else,

it’ll never get any better.

She Doll

She sat and she sang,

and for all the eye could see,

she was as happy as could be.

Fine gold threads made up

little lashes framing

big oval eyes, set with blue stones;

Fanning across cheeks so

pale they could only be porcelain.

Rose petals must have been brushed across those

lovely cheeks, to give them that palest pretty blush.

Positioned at will, she could do nothing

but look as pretty as she did,

while she was told of all the beautiful things in life

she had.

Thin copper strands dusted her halo of gold,

dancing around her face in the winds and breeze,

fluttering fancifully around red lips

she couldn’t put to use.

She,

the delicate rose

white as cotton

in a sea of plumage.

They looked again,

For her, their treasure,

and when they did

it was a diamond that rolled down that slope of porcelain