F is for Foo Fighters…

Today’s lyric prompt challenge with Brandi was Everlong by The Foo Fighters. These lyrics, well, they were fun to work with! Can I tell you how how perfect, what an absolute moment of kismet, it was when Brandi picked these lyrics a week ago? Then I had no idea I would be doing this A-Z challenge, and yet the song she picked fit right into the week. Yay! Anyhow, I hope you enjoy these poems. They were a lot of fun to write. (I love this song and it had some great lines to just run away with…) Brandi’s poems can be found here.

You’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when…

Carefully set rules,
if you are going to participate
in my pain, then you must know
that you are equally trapped–
wrapped up in my rapture.
Your obligation, your duty is to
watch and wait, to know when
enough is enough. Yell at me,
I’ll tell you to stop— do not stop.
Stop means nothing here.
It’s an endless cycle:
hurt, be hurt, want more:
wash, rinse, repeat.
Enjoy it, because pain is an outlet
that is unique and cannot
be duplicated. It is the only
thing that makes me feel
(that will make you feel
now that you’re here with me)
the absolute, the utterly complete.

Breathe out so I can breathe you in…

Sometimes I wish you would relax
and enjoy your life. You have it so
much better than you think you do.
We sit here together and drink our
tea and eat our cakes, but you are
somewhere else— never present,
never in the moment. There is no
way to know you or love you when
you cannot let go and be free for
even a few moments. Take a deep
breath and then exhale. Exist
with me here and now. Then,
maybe, we can truly be friends.

And now I know you’ve always been out of your head…

I saw you on television: running.
You were in the background of a news story,
one on water contamination or the poison
that is leaking into our food. At first I did not
believe it was you, but then you looked at the
camera all wild eyes and desperation. I could
see your face clearly and my cheeks turned
bright red. There could be no question to
anyone about your identity. You always
do this to me, breaking out at the most
inopportune times. Like the time I had
the interview with that company in the
tallest building in town, and you threw red,
paint-filled water balloons at the CEO’s car.
Today was no different. Everyone will see your
naked body fleeing from no one, and yet fleeing
all the same. No crime committed, no pursuer–
just your crazy eyes taking off with my body
running from something unknown and back
here, to me, where I will have to clean
up your mess, just like always.

Come down and waste away with me, down with me…

Fall freely with me down to the bottom!
There is rest for you with me.
There is nothing to worry about
if you fall freely down to the the bottom.

Come see what’s here in the night time!
No cares for life in the light.
There is nothing but nothing
here with me in the endless, lovely night time.

Take care not to leave once you’ve been here!
You’ll find if you do that you’re dust
(in the mundane world right above us)
if you dare to leave once you’ve been here.

—