Still Looking Up
Graying temples and sagging skin,
clothes that don’t fit
and recycled thoughts
originally made for young love.
Dancing after youth
and embarrassing the world
setting fires but only in the heart
where desolate chambers lay cold for years –
how did we think we were better?
Right round corners and into dragon’s caves
where English teachers modify our futures
with the words of the dead
and high school bullies make us a figure of empathy
and the blonde girl in the corner will never know
what her eyes have done.
And those eyes are the same
but in another
and outsides have run away from unchanged insides
while eyes see what they’ll see and
cause and effect needs to lack any subtlety
to get through to you
and your own failing sight,
chasing after kids,
you can’t fool yourself forever.
Words will keep us together 