Word Thingys: Salome Strangelove
I know I tilt at windmills — chase too many unicorns
But then, I’ve been on borrowed time since the moment I was born
You think I’m re-inventing wheels here, but if I don’t like their spin
Why should I settle into vehicles that never let me win
You say you can’t do nothin’ with me, I don’t fit the shapes you’ve carved
But I’ve watched the others twist in knots while their souls got slowly starved
You always take the hardest path; you refuse to travel light
Saying you don’t have the wherewithal to trade away your sight
So you embrace the asphalt’s venom, fix your eyes into the burn
I guess we all must make our choices when it comes time to take our turn
You traffic in raw emotion, I move about in clever phrase
You cling with such devotion — evangelize the trails you blaze
It’s an apple-orange scale, I hit the rhyme, you hit the gut
But once you strip away our veils, the measure isn’t so clear-cut
I’m a whisper of vernacular; I adhere to shape and fashion
Noting too spectacular, a little slow burn, a little passion
You’re a devotee of candor, punching hard at every mirror
Allergic to the pander, your ship rocking as you steer her
Taking on all that water, listing from the waves
Your shanties full of resignation and yearning for the grave
I’ve never courted misery, it reveals itself in time
Why cultivate the things that only seek to undermine
You hammer nails into your palms — I watch you drive them deep
As you climb up on that cross so you don’t have to gaze beneath
At the wide-eyed dirty faces looking hopeful for a savior
Confusing your self loathing for more divine behavior
I guess it isn’t in me to weaponize that suffering
Risking hopes and dreams on half promises and bluffing
Gambling they’ll all want to see the truth you want to serve
It’s a noble enough intention, but I find few maintain the nerve
I don’t think you understand the true burdens of reality
We are merely monkeys cursed with awareness of mortality
So we distract ourselves with wine, with love, with beauty and with song
It’s hard enough to get through days knowing life is short and death is long
You’ll find as you grow older, hours fly, whole years can blink
And it’s less and less important to transmute our blood to ink
So that’s why I choose to savor, laugh, consume, revel hedonistic
No longer fascinated by the cruel or the sadistic
That anger takes up all the room it wants to once you let it
Give it up too much too soon you may find that you regret it
I know you cannot hear me, I know my breath is wasted
But I do hope you find a way to bite the fruit I’ve tasted
Put down the whip and shield, bind your wounds, remove the armor
Stop worshiping the pain, look for something a little warmer
I understand you rue affection — view sincerity as crime
You won’t believe it, but I was just the same way once upon a time
And I also would not hear or see what now is crystal clear
What I pushed away so long out of ego and of fear
But if you find the fog’s too thick and you need a quiet place
I’ll leave a light on in the darkness just for you, and just in case.