24
Medicine
bottle
Down Colorful Hill
Japanese to English
Lord Kill the Pain
Michael
so it's not loaded stadiums or ballparks
and we're not kids on swingsets on the blacktop
and I thought at fifteen that I'd have it down by sixteen
and twenty-four keeps breathing in my face
like a mad whore
and twenty-four keeps pounding at my door
like a friend you don't want to see
oldness comes with a smile
to every love given child
oldness comes to rile the youth who dream suicide
giving into love and sharing my time
letting someone into my misery
I told it all step by step
how I landed on the island
and how I swam across the sea
and it crosses my mind
that I may wake to a knife in me
no more breath in my hair
or ladies' underwear
tossed up over the alarm clock
blood dripping from the bed
to a neatly written poem
a heartfelt last line reading
there is no more mystery
it is going to happen my love
it's all in your head she said
morning after nightmare
you're building a wall she said
higher than the both of us
so try living life
instead of hiding in the bedroom
show me a smile
and I'll promise not to leave you
it happened under a rainy cloud
passing through the dark south
we went into a big house
and slept in a small bed
I didn't know you then
as well as you of me
we talked of our sad lives
and we went off separately
I found your overseas souvenirs
holiday greeting cards
and some long forgotten high school fears
it's all in my head I said
banging a piano
I've not been so alone I thought
since kicking in the womb
I drank so much tea
I wrote my letters in kanji
around the block I walked and walked
pretending you were with me
not wanting to die out here
without you
the hurting never ends
like birthdays and old friends
we forget what is flesh blood and bone is human
turning phone lines to airlines
unwilling to face
the love is found on the inside not the outside
and like a medicine bottle
in the cabinet I'll keep you
and like a medicine bottle
in my hand I will hold you
and swallow you slowly
as to last me a lifetime
without holding too tight
I do not want to lose
the thrill that it gives me
to look out from my window
and scowl at the houses
from my world in the bedroom
it's all in my head she read
in her girlfriend's self-help book
it's all his own making
a war with himself
like two sides of a wall
that separates two countries
he shuts out the world
and wants only to love you
not wanting to die out here
without you
out of the box
down colorful hill
wind lifting tired feet
skin sensing challenge ahead
prayers prayers prayers
for success
prayers prayers prayers
always die in time
losing the dream
face to face sleeping
losing the dream
open mouth breathing
where unadmired beings
dread the due changes ahead
prayers prayers prayers
for success
prayers prayers prayers
always die in time
like empty roofs above
life for poor doves
like empty roofs above
rid of our love
I went as far as losing sleep
I went as far as messing up my life
unloving still strike me different
a million miles away from home
and fifteen from a payphone
where we sat lonely on the sand
where we sat lonely on the sand
where we sat lonely on the sand
where we sat lonely on the sand
you're ten years older
we translate japanese to english and English to Japanese
it's not that simple
this dictionary never has a word for the way I'm feeling
and its nothing plain for me
of the different god and moral
what if I laid my head down on your stomach
and put my mouth to your hand
I cannot translate Japanese to English and English to Japanese
what I had to say is unsaid
what I had to do is undone
and if it was done I'm sure it would have killed our hour
where we sat lonely on the sand
where we sat lonely on the sand
where we sat lonely on the sand
where we sat lonely on the sand above the water
the awful gray our current from japan didn't sweep away
lord kill the pain
lord kill the pain
lord kill the pain
lord kill the pain
don't want to ask again
kill my girlfriend
and kill my best friend sam
cause I saw them making eyes again
lord kill the pain
lord kill the pain
lord kill the pain
oh lord kill the pain
don't want to ask you again
kill my neighbors
and all my family too
they doubt my direction
lord let it rain
lord let it rain
lord let it rain forever
lord let it rain
don't want to ask you again
drown my country
drown everyone but me
so I can live peacefully
or put me to sleep here
and wake me in Japan
I want to speak a new language
drop me a line and pull me out
but do not find me amongst dead underground
let me hear the whining sound of a pig drown
and lead me over summery hill
to a place I like to think about
and sedate me with Tylenol pills
oh how I love to dream about
drop me a line and pull me out
but do not find me amongst life on the ground
let me see the burning down of my home town
lord kill the pain
michael
where are you now
Michael
where are you now
somehow in my excitement the last time you called
it slipped again to ask your whereabouts
I got a lead from your old triple X girlfriend
she said "I heard he lost his mind again"
"again?" I said, I didn't know that you ever did
Michael
where are you now
Michael
where are you now
sleeping through the mornings in flannel
in getting high in the southern air
shoeless in the evenings down the unfamiliar
glasses full of salt water
freely skipping shells in the dead zone
with the ghost on your side
of the state borderline
whispering
take it take it take it take it take it
do you remember the first subway ride
our first heavy metal haircut
our last swim on the east coast
and me with my ridiculous looking pierced nose
I remember your warm smile in the sun
the daydreaming boy without a shirt on
your burning and barfly father left your mother of three sons
you're the oldest juvenile delinquent bum
my best friend