charlie manson eyes

I woke up this morning
and I looked in the mirror
and what I saw 
scared me half to death
I wanted to run
I was shaking with fear
I closed my eyes 
and held my breath

'cause what I saw
was the final straw
and it caught me by surprise
I look in the mirror
and what do I see?
me
with charlie manson eyes

wake up and you're older

get up, boy
supper's getting cold
so go on do
what I just told you 
there's the early bird
at the crack of dawn
you wake up and you're older
and time keeps racing on

Government-issued desks

Man, I tell you, this fuckin' world, I don't understand it at all. I go back to work after being off for the summer, and it's even more fucked up than it's ever been. Which is saying a lot, you know?

Work problems, eh, farmboy?

Yeah, every year it's the same fuckin' thing. Those fuckin' people who make all the decisions, they don't have a fuckin' clue what they're doing. They don't do the actual work in the field, they sit behind government-issued desks and hand out press releases that make themselves look good. 

Sounds frustrating.

It is. It's super frustrating.

Want to talk about it, farmboy?

Oh, God, no. It's the weekend. I don't even want to think about the fuckin' job. 

Well, you brought it up.

I know. I've been thinking about it way too much, man.

sick to work

let me go home
crawl into bed
pull all the blankets
up over my head
that's what I should have done 
but instead
I called in sick to work

when summer fades

when summer fades
it takes the truest part of me:
a child who sleeps with the window open
and his t-shirt off;
who stares at the stars
without knowing which ones they are;
a child who eats 
open-faced peanut butter sandwiches
washed down with instant iced tea.

now all I have are rusty memories
of the summers I have known

but I am grateful
and I am busy imagining
the possible summers to come

start over

let me start over Jesus
I've made a mess of this life of mine
I know I can do better
if I can try it one more time

public school

I was not taught
to believe in myself
I was not taught
that I could succeed
I was taught to obey
everybody else
I was taught that the future
was not open to me

I was not taught
that I had any choices
I was not taught
to seek out the truth
I was taught
to memorize the voices 
that taught me about failure
and how I was the living proof

I went to public school
I went to public school