Stumble.

Come and stumble with me;
Maybe we can catch each other.
But then again,
I wouldn't mind falling for you.

- Marilyn - Bullet.

"Come on, Karen!" I called into the wind.
    A breathless voice behind me said, "I'm coming!"
    I tore down the pavement on my bike, drinking in the summer air.  Karen trailed along after me.  The day was bright and bursting with ambition.  Weaving my tires across the asphalt, I grinned.  Adrenaline pulsed in my veins.  Soon I'd reached the spot, and I waited for my friend to catch up.  She was pumping her skinny legs, barely dragging her bicycle along.
    "Give me a second," she said.
    I swung myself off the seat and leaned against a tree.  Before us lay a gaping concrete crater.  This was the levee, the dry pit behind the town's water supply.
    "Ain't it beautiful?"  I watched Karen's expression as she approached me.
    She got one look at the dam, and the color vanished from her face.
    "Marilyn, you can't be serious."  Her voice quivered.  "My mother will kill me.  Actually kill me."
    "Sheesh, Karen, don't be chicken.  Jerry and the boys all did it!"  I pulled my wheels to the edge.
    "Well, Jerry's arm is currently in a sling. . . ."  Karen sighed.  "Don't you think it's a little bit dangerous?"
    I climbed onto the bike.  "'Course it is," I told her.  "What fun would it be otherwise?  Come on."  I slid my wrist beside hers, pressing our matching love bead bracelets together.  "Best friends forever."
    Karen swallowed, but I didn't wait for her answer.  There was only one way to get her to follow me.  I turned away to face the chasm and, closing my eyes, let my front wheel tip down.
    Feet on the pedals.  I began to fly.
    My eyes shot open, and I felt a smile exploding on my face.  My heart was about to pump itself inside out.  Earth and sky streamed past me in a whirl of color, and I realized that I wasn't breathing.  The wind was breathing for me, blasting through my skin and hair.  I screamed, partly out of pure terror, but mostly out of exhilaration.  For I had become a bullet.
    Behind me, Karen's bike was rattling down the slope.  She echoed my scream, and we raised our voices together, shouting into the clouds.
    We were victims of the blind boldness of youth.

Omnipresent.

How?

Worn.

Arrows choke my mind
Sometimes poison is sweet
So teach me to slow dance
In the middle of the street.

Explorers.

I see now why you called

To open up our eyes

At the sound of your voice

I felt you exploring mine

Could've guessed I'd be here

At this end-of-year crisis

Well, this one goes straight out to you

Because it feels like a day

Sun rises, sun sets

Behind the same shivering clouds

Last real one

Then we're off on our own

We've always been explorers.

And you've shown me such grand skies

This world doesn't scare me.

Thanks for the fairytale.

Tracks.

Until the clocks break,

They tick down to the day

When you'll erase these tracks from my face

And we'll find our escape

Stay.

"It's not a ghost; it's gravity."

Kaleidoscope.

When I'm alone
Is when you seep in most deeply
And every song
Slows and sways
To a two-step rhythm
Once again
We find ourselves waiting
Most anxiously,
Smiles in our hearts
And one day
When it's all passed by
We'll take the train to St. Paul
And walk through an atmosphere
Shaking winter off its shoulders
Smiles on our faces

Eight.

That clock was stuck at eight
Eight in the morning; a day ahead
Eight in the evening; a night begins
It's still stuck in my head
Those hands never move
And I'm frozen there
Whispering to you

Young.

Come on then, let's shout it -

All you cracking hearts scream:

In our dreams we are forever

And you can't take our dreams away!

Slight.

You've stolen my heart, you know

And it shimmers deep within your eyes

You've seen my soul, you know

And you're the only one who doesn't step back from the fire

Carpe.

I see now.

I see now.

And yes, I will seize this life in its full beauty -

Holding fast with the grip of death -

Knowing that you created roses with thorns for a reason.

- Aecercylle - Portrait of a Villain.

"Why didn't you just leave?"
  Her question hangs in the air, and she can see the images flashing behind his eyes.  A world of peace birthed from conformity.  A people clothed in pure, blinding white.  A secluded island floating on the horizon.  It used to be their home: this city built on ruins, this place where war trapped all the people inside one mind.  The bloodshed brought them to believe that the only way to harmony was the destruction of individuality.
  Shards of her own memories begin to seep in.  She sees a pristine shore where the tide never varied.  The water always stretched onto the sand and retreated in the same pattern; there was no high tide, only the clockwork of waves.
  It would seem peaceful to the stranger.  To her, it was a prison.
  "Leaving wasn't enough," says Daasen.  "You know what they do to the ones who are different.  You of all people.  If I'd left, they would have just forgotten me and continued about their madness.  I had to be stronger.  I had to make them remember me."
  I guess that's always been the difference between you and me, she muses.  You, the strategist, and me, wild as the wind.
  "Well, you've got what you want," says Aecercylle through gritted teeth.  "No one can possibly forget you now."
  There's no mistaking the condescension dripping from her words.  Daasen hears it and jerks on the thick net around her abdomen.  Aecercylle's vision darkens for a moment as her breath is sucked away.  She chokes and struggles for air, pressing against the ropes.  Above her, Daasen is smiling.  It's a smile that shows more in his eyes than his lips, and it makes Aecercylle shiver, as though ice has been planted in her heart.  But she locks eyes with him, never backing down for a moment.
  "You never wanted to be the special one.  You wanted to be the only one."
  Daasen halts, his smile falling.  He stands there and pierces her with his stare.  After a long moment, he unfolds his hands from behind his back and steps towards her.  Aecercylle steels herself for the wrath that she knows is coming.
  Bring your worst, she thinks.  Just get it over with and kill me.  Maybe then you'll realize what monster you've become.
  But her tormentor says nothing.  He simply reaches to the wall and knocks.  The moment he does, a huge door lifts up into the ceiling, letting daylight flood the cell.  The sound of a throng, chanting and cheering, rises into the air.  Aecercylle cringes against the harsh light.
  "It's time to see your friends again," says Daasen.

- Theresa - Forte.

It broke her back sometimes
  She would sway and bend like a willow tree
Pounding the keys
  Harder, louder, forte
So the girl in the window would leave
  And her hands would slip sometimes
As saltwater blood fell between her fingers

Amnesia.

December rain,
No need to remind me
Where I am.
I know full well -
I remember perfectly fine -
The tears haven't dried.
Have you spoken to the stars?
I'd like to know
Why they shine in the city
But flee from my window.
Maybe you'd ask them for me
One of these days

Close.

Funny how she forgets
That he's only here while he's here
His presence washes it all away;
The memories and the ghosts hover,
But they ever surround the now

And when she returns
She sees them as those ghosts sometimes
Locked away in separate cells
But you see, there's a hole in the wall
That's all they need
The mind to distill
Enough space to reach
And be infinitely close.

Barricades.

Up go the barricades
Shove it out, shoot it down
Good or bad?
Wrong question - faith.
Time to shatter my ticking clock
And jump onto this train.
All the while, a song in my head
Blocking out the noise
While bringing it near.

Faith.

Stretch.

So hold on, dear.

They do come

Those days you see in your sleep

And when they do, you'll know

Each step is liftoff

And away, away.

So run, dear.

Don't quit the chase now.

Amen and amen

And lift up your eyes.

I'll tell you a secret:

This is your life.

Two Hearts Race.

When two hearts race,
They both win.

Return.

Insomniac insanity

Here I am

Whispers turn into shrieks

Buried in blankets and horror

Come back to me

Both of you

And S.T.A.Y.

Wormhole.

You're a supernova tonight.
You're brilliant and blazing and beautiful
Raging with fire, roaring into darkness
So electrifying that I can see you flickering
From millions

Of

miles

away

You're probably already gone.

All I can see is an echo of you

But all I'll ever know is your stellar vitality

If only there wasn't so much darkness between -

So much empty, black space .

Glimpse.

Sunset makes everyone younger again.

A sepia hue radiates golden on our skin

Funny how we get a drop of the past each day

But it sweeps past most of us into empty gray.

Alone.

I heard you were sitting alone in a crowd

I try now to reach back and rearrange

To melt the past

And pull myself from one place to another

To make a sound amidst all the noise

And fix this lonely, longing heart

Pandorica.

My eyes are bleeding.
Please feel the pulse
Know that I'm alive
Hiding deep down inside

"If only time flew like a dove."

Launch.

Time to jump, love.

Not going to fall backwards -
No, I'll be running at full speed.
Going to launch myself off that edge.

And if I fall, I fall.
But if I fly,
You'll be the one carrying me.

Smoke.

The sky was in smoke tonight

Shrouding the sun's dying light

Not the smoke of a forest blaze

But the older, thick, stinging haze

Of the last campfire before we say goodbye.

When we huddle close and squint our eyes

Coughing and laughing until the flames die

The sky was in smoke tonight.

There's a song stuck in my head

It's why I lie awake in bed

Reminds me to escape to Amsterdam

Such a short life, and so many plans.

When I glimpse the eyes of my brother

I wonder if I'm already my mother

What is this cycle and what do I dread?

There's a song stuck in my head.

Moving.

Run
Fly
Slide away
Don't look back
And never say
It was one year ago today
So thus this year will slip away

Moving
Chasing
Growing near
Stopping short
Frozen in fear
Blinking when I see you're here
If only the future was so clear