not all right

My brother and I used to be the best of friends. We'd run, and we'd play, and we'd talk until the day's end. That all started to change when our parents took their sides. He was far too young to be able to decide.

He said to me, "It will be all right".
He lied.

Then seven long years passed, and he lived in another town. A vagrant was he, with a self-indulgent and inscribed frown. I had no idea what happened, but he blamed her for all of it. The drugs, and the lies, and the women, and his conscience.

He said to me, "It will be all right".
He lied.

It got better, and it got worse. He never lost that unshakeable charm. But divorce shook him harder than the filth going into his arms. I look to God and wonder how he's made true all of my dreams, but his love and his family are thrown away under his feet.

He said to me, "It will be all right,
it will be all right".
He lied, it's not all right even though I've tried.

sappy dappy

sometimes i'll read
a sappy sparks novel
to find out how the
world should be

but it will never
turn out the right way
if she's not here
with me

new orleans, louisiana

as we walked we saw thousands
of charred black faces
none of them would ever
find a home
they say that you can tell
a civilization
by where the corpses lie when
their souls are gone

two accused hang
by their necks
a crime that
only they know for sure
charged for what it was
they were carryin'
we know they were carryin' more
than they were before

can we offer some kind of relief
to the battered and broken city
of new orleans
x2

it washed away a lifetime
of memory
a son, a daughter
no more
we scrape, and we clean
and we hurry
but when time's your last friend
you don't know what you're hurrying toward

we hope and we pray and it makes us
feel significant
like a thoughtful word can
create legitimate change
but if you aren't out there
fighting on the front lines
you'll never meet the enemy face to face