Boxcars

2019

Like boxcars in the night 

Rolling towards the light 

Hoping sounds excite something deep within ourselves 

Long we left home to roam on inflated dreams

We boxed up beliefs with sweaters and jeans

We were sure we could follow stars 

So we hopped on constellations, impatient 

No fear, trusting the clouds would catch us if we fell

The cosmos swelled in our guts because 

The world was our oyster and we ate it up 

We were full on freedom without remorse 

We made choices on a whim 

Unknown wind behind the sail of our ignorance

We broke glass and laughed at our reflections 

No superstition to keep us guessing 

We were lost and in love with bad maps 

Laughed at what we lacked and made it work 

Caution was a distant relative 

We only acknowledged when he visited from afar 

Life was ajar to us all, pried open to reveal 

A glass packed with blackberries 

A sweetness that feels like the first time every-time

And we would rewind the days, again. 

Do you remember when.... 

When optimism was first nature 

When refrigerator boxes were castles or spaceships

And car rides were rollercoaster in our eyes 

When the world reset in our sleep and we woke up to new days

Now, we wonder where they went  

Now boxcars carry the things we need 

So we can continue to do what we hate 

And we travel across tracks, 

No rollercoaster ride 

We drive to storehouses of desolate dreams 

Skeletons in cubicles where wonder flees 

Daily dying. 

Remember when. 

When we had life. 

When we had wonder. 

When mistakes and blunders were comical 

But now we pass playgrounds and pour liquor for the lost boys and girls of  ourselves 

But what if... 

What if we could reinvent the world, like 

Just shake it til it's blank like an etch-a-sketch 

What if the death that died could be resurrected 

Where women speak talitha cumi into their hearts 

And men retrace their steps through echos in the wood. Back. Backwards from brittle bones and security 

Underneath fear's failure where we do things afraid 

Where we find through portals we're mortal no more

Explore, implore, adore the dawn, 

Recrown the King 

An heir is born! 

Dethrone the dead 

Embed and thread with wonder's silk 

Quilt, warmth, storm, 

Toil, trouble, broken vessels worn thin, 

Expend pens where the ink be our blood! 

We'll flood the world again 

If we remember when 

When we believed in boxcars in the night 

Rolling towards the light 

Where the sounds excite our resurrected child.