"courthouse blues"

"courthouse blues"
after a wild day of distraction by jake kilroy.

my word, the layabout demons of summer
painted the inside of our house shades of yellow
one monday when i left my coma to die in my bed
and ditched out on work to swim back to my youth.

sure, it was courthouse blues sometime in the morning,
crafted from the magic trick meandering of a drunken god
who plays cards in the great gamble of life below the throne,
and all we did was drink strong-armed vietnamese coffee by noon,
ironically, playing cards, but the only thing on the line for us was time.

we got ahead of ourselves, sucked back the air that wasn't ours,
and gifted our mouths to the world, hanging our tongues out to dry,
holding out for a nice breeze at the community pool with tall cans.
it wasn't a pretty sight, but we were damaged goods at best,
and the pawn shops wouldn't take our eyes unless they were glass,
as if we could somehow make ourselves more fragile.

god bless you, while we're at it again.
the nerves of a twenty-something twitch just like a teenager's.
i suppose there's just more dust to rattle off the heartstrings
when something finally drives its way in and cruises the bones.
surely, this isn't the last afternoon we'll make haste with our lives.
i've been cracking my knuckles waiting for a day to be conquered.

mad about youth, i was mad about you, and all i could do was wait.
dreamy sky breaths swept at me in the parking lot of a liquor store
when i had a cigarette in my ear and another between my lips,
and i realized i hadn't thought about you in ages, and i spit,
conjuring up the voodoo that comes with a man posing as one.

sunset unfolded in the town like a sleeping bag out in the wild,
and i watched the headlights come on and i felt the junebugs crash,
and i waited, and waited, and waited, for the world to end,
but all that came was more life. there was always more life.