Lyrics

Familiar tune
But unfamiliar lyrics
Replaced all
With skeptical humming
Fading in and out
Like waves on feet
Cast in green copper
The song escapes
As uncertain voices elect
To leave the singing to the lyricists-
That dying breed
They project till their filiments sever
And leave us in voiceless darkness
With music blurring
As the needle slashes the black center
We lose the rhythm
The inflection
Every single election
Till the call of liberty is lost
They say it’s not over till the fat lady sings
But it seems it isn’t over
Until the New Colossus finally falls silent
-Galwyn

Friends

Countless wiser men and women
Vision beyond that of hindsight
With their bonds of community
Warm, tight, and unobstructive
Like the grasp of an infant’s hand
Leading them towards the light

Despite my moral maxim
I find myself leaving them
Friends only wishing to see me
To hear how I’ve been
Yet I fail them as they fade away
Reluctantly returning to the functional

They offered their time to me
Their most valuable treasure
Yet I always seem to let it spill
Between digits too placid to perform
They were ardent bulbs
Filaments severed
Victims of convenience

The friends I want the most
Like snowflakes on the car’s hood
Turn to liquid and migrate
Vectors to the unfamiliar ground
Coveted freedom from Galwyn
They slick the tires that I try to brace

They leave with the sun
Shaking like a leaf
My hands on the steering wheel
Cold and clenched
My only hope is to drive
Steal the heat of the engine

Parked cliffside
Beside a lake
On the rails
All alone at last
Until a hand grips me tight

The one friend never to leave
Who floats around my head
In the frozen air of twilight
Incubated in these frigid thoughts
Beloved lonesomeness
Widow of knowledge

She pulls the sting from my eyes
The aftershocks from my skull
The waves ever toppling me
Dry to salted plains
Given sleep by her hand
Reality and dreams unpolerize
At last willing to be awakened
-Galwyn

Specs

She pinches me right between the eyes
Holding my nose like a rowdy child
Her arms wrap around my head
Holding me close
Her grip is slightly too strong
And I feel a faint ache
As her dark skin massages my temples

Through her everything seems clearer
Her body transparent
To a fault-
No soul fogs her form
Yet when I see through her
There are others before me
Brimming with emotion
To a fault-

I watched my love wander away
And as I reached
I could tell my hand would not meet her
From my crumpled face I pull an old friend
With dark arms and transparent soul
Her fingers pulled from my nose
To let the cold breeze in a little more
And blur the wandering love away
Perhaps it is better to be blind
Than to be trapped with the crisp image
Of a lonesome night

Though it is slightly less lonesome
As she rests beside me
Arms crossed
Waiting
To give me a clear world in the sun
And wipe it away when it starts to hurt
Leaving only splinters of the truth
Specs
-Galwyn

Watch

Some high or indulgence
Expensive and fleeting
Taking what it offers
While paying the price
Find what makes you happy
And watch it be destroyed

Like synchronizing the tides
Lightyears away
Two liquids
Of different composition
Trying so hard not to dissolve each other
But there is no solution
Find your love
And watch it be destroyed

Unable to satisfy
In one or another
Time swiftly goes by
As the escape ladders
Are snapped free of rungs
Leaving you to the flames
Your grief will find you
And watch you be engulfed
-Galwyn

Starkling

As the evening seeps
Twin wings flutter above
Swiftly, but not fiercely
For the starkling delivers its omens
Right on time
Such a slight creature
With tenacious eyes
And midnight blue feathers
Spiraling upon the water’s surface
Like a skipped stone
Of smooth sapphire

It doesn’t nest
And its legs never tire
But its wings,
Are cooled by the nighttime air
And loosened by the morning sun
Feeling nothing more then the sting
Of perpetual motion
And the tossing of tempests

The starkling offers sleep
And stillness
To those who it appears to
Those with eyes skyward
In the cold night
With nothing else to stare upon
Than shadows in the inky sky
-Galwyn

Bright Morning

It could have been a bright morning
With silhouetted curves
In loose sundresses
Hair like silk
Skin like milk
A tall glass of beauty
Cool
Salted edges
And sweating
Icy condensation

But that’s not how it is
It was dark
Humid
And ever lonesome
Milk and youth evaporated
But dregs cling to an translucent glass
Sour and bitter
It could have been a bright morning

-Galwyn

Mary

It ran so subtle down her left brow
That thin line
White like a salted field
And in its wake, nary a hair grows
Off-kilter, it severs a smooth slope
Of burnt sienna
Pale sliver of a waxing moon
Tangled in shadows
Those dark lashes
Raising from an emerald pond
And glistening so slightly
Dilating
Reflecting the sky
The scarred earth shifts
As she raises the auburn ridge
And her wry smile brings the light

-Galwyn

Both Hands

She opens the door
Quietly in the night
Using both hands
To supress the sound
And as she closes it
Again, with both hands
The room stays silent
Save for the rumbling of my heart
Refusing to break

As she lies down beside me
Reeking of another man
I promise myself
To leave her
Closing the door with one hand
And saving my other
For another
-Galwyn

Core

You were always sweeter
Further from the core
Tearing through that bright flesh
And caressing the wound
With soft kisses
Crisp snaps of sweet flavour
Intoxicating and refreshing
This icy cider
Each moment shrinking you
And carving you like a statue

But rather than the perfection of art
All that is left is the central husk
Tasteless and stiff
With no scraps of sweetness left
And as your pale insides
Wrinkle and brown in the sun
I search each surface
For something to restore the flavor
But your sharp barbs slash my throat
And leave me gasping
Never again
In the breathless way
As days gone by

I feel them in my insides
Carving so roughly
Like mechanical knives
And I wonder
If perhaps you felt the same
Along the way
Maybe we aren’t much different
For as I look to the mirror
I see myself torn clean
With my withered core turning to rot
Your teeth marks ripped the valleys
Salted with tears
And never again to bear fruit
-Galwyn

The Jester and the Fool

Bells chime from her hat
As she juggles the apples high
But in an instant
They come clattering down
My pointed shoes
Vibrant and coiled like snakes
Stumble and fumble,
Slip and trip,
On the split halves
As I fall
Arms flailing
Body sprawling
She breaks my fall
She, the clumsy jester
I, the blinded fool

We flick each other’s noses
And electrify with a touch
But underneath her stage makeup
Is a face too genuine for me
Too beautiful
Cheeky smiles radiate
Across my pallid face
How did someone so great
Settle for me
They call me the jester
And she, the fool

We dance clumsily
And stammer together
Snorting and chortling
On each other’s breath
Bright shimmering clothes
Toothy grins
Jingling bells
Ugly laughter
Such a spectacle we must be
To the audience,
We are fool and jester
But to each other,
We are king and queen
-Galwyn

The Corgi

It begins with white pillars
Towering over a sky blue pool
With crisp, but temperate waters
I’m at the home of a ex lover
Though its design is not as remembered
From the water an orange form rises
Up like the sunset,
Bringing memories of firey hair
And soft kisses
But instead of bygone lovers arms
I find myself staring at two pointed ears

A small dog with stubby legs-
A corgi, I’ve been told,
Whimpers and flounders from the pool
My sleepy haze is broken
And I rush to save it from the water
Its ears flick off droplets
As I lift its abdomen
But rather than lifting it to the shore
I carry it along beside be
With my clothes soaking
Somehow I hardly notice

As it shuffles happily
And makes a vibrating wake
I find myself smirking
At such a simple moment
Without any weight or roughness
Much like the floating shape to my side

The corgi sticks its face below the surface
And blows tiny bubbles
Which sputter and pop
Until they moisten his eyes
And cause him to shake indignantly
I almost drop him
But he places his paw on my forearm
Not desperately
But with inquiry
The claw marks don’t sting
Beneath the waves

This pool was too deep for him
But not for me
And I could never leave him to it
Not on his own
Yet I couldn’t bring him to the dull shore
And leave him in the sun
While I knew this was a dream
And he’d be gone when I’d awake
I couldn’t abandon this one
This hopeless figment of my mind

So I taught him to swim
And even after
We couldn’t leave each others’ side
As we walked along the shore
My mind wasn’t on the pillars
Nor on the unfamiliarity
Nor on ex-lovers
But rather,
On the safety and happiness
Of the stubby dog shuffling beside

As the dream faded
Into my eyelids against the sheets
The corgi grasped my hand
And when I looked down
Right before the dream faded
I saw the smiling face of a child
As I woke up
-Galwyn

Other Than Yours

Other than yours
Every side of the bed is wrong
I wait outside every evening
In the flickering neon light
Of a shop which never closes
Legs crossed at the ankles
Sitting low to the ground
With a drink in my hand
Making every attempt to look enigmatic
Yet I’m longing for no contact
And wishing for nobody’s attention
Other than yours
-Galwyn

Sheets

Light and soft
Cool and smooth
The sheets sliding over you
Folds gripped between your toes
And gliding over your midriff
Like being wrapped in the dawn breeze
Around your face
Not restrictive or oppressive
But calming
Like the subtle caress of a lover
Fingers gracing your cheek
With wafting scent of fresh rain
Here in a field
The sheets hang between two trees
And envelop you
As you are lowered into them
A cocoon for the weary wanderer
The world at last becoming small
As the silken robes you wear
Comfort what is left of you
As you are taken, at last
To the world of sleep we all desire
-Galwyn