Chris Cole's Blog

you come in colors
that the naked eye wants to undress
spread out
on a canvas of egyptian thread
detail
that it will take a lifetime to replicate
and twice as long to forget
lips that part
even as they come together
words forgotten
even as i start to remember
"don't get too close
but don't go too far"
the brushstrokes
that make skin come alive
the lines
that connect like highways
offering travel suggestions
that are impossible not to follow

i am diving
into the grand canyon
at sundown
hoping i will lose consciousness
before i hit the ground

when i look back
it's never behind me

how can so many people be so lost
when we have no idea where we're going

you talk with your hands
even though everyone said I was the one
motioning
trying to get everyone to pay attention
and the music
did you mean to look at me that long
and our hands under the table

what is it called
when we are what we are

if the moon's orbit
had been a centimeter closer
that night
would you have come back
after he was asleep
i thought you would
where I had been waiting
rolling cigarettes
looking up at the sky
and trying to move it
just enough

you let the devil in
just so you could see what he���s all about
and you found out
he wasn���t enough

if i could, i would keep the memories i want and forget the ones i don't. but since i can't, i'll just keep them all.

i fell in love today
no big deal
it's happened before
i don���t even know her
but she is the soundtrack to my life
if i was just that cool

i could be her arthur miller
and maybe
it would last this time

but the hipsters
are lining the streets of williamsburg
with getaway cars
they lay ironic roses at her feet
and write love letters in sanskrit
making out checks
in time
to the beat of her heart

and they can���t fucking dance

doesn���t matter
the agents
and their agents
and their dates
got that shit locked down
and she is thousands of blacktop miles away
but i just keep saying
over
and over
who
are
you
how can you just appear
and hold that much weight
on a seven story mattress
and your voice
that would have driven jack and dean
off the road

(for lg)

question everything
because the questions
are the only answers you will ever get

the money

the money

the money that we owe

will never buy back forgiveness

from everything we know

it’s the things we can’t touch

that hold us in the end

it’s the arms that don’t shoot

and the words that don’t pretend

i still owe you

for the time

in the back of the car

you took something from me

that i’d carried too far

and i’ll wait here

for something

for something i know

when i see it go by

i’ll be ready to go

the feeling

of falling

of falling i know

you never realize how high you are

til you look down below

i’ll be there

forever

forever i know

i was okay with it ending

but now that i know

i want to hold you

to hold you

so that you can get through

i never thought about myself

until i realized it’s you

and i’ll wait here

for something

for something i know

when i see it go by

i’ll be ready to go

who could have guessed
what it meant in the rain
a certain kind of whisper
and a dangerous refrain
who could have guessed
you're born and you die
an inward breath
the city sky