The silence before you speak

Come the morning and steal the breath
Of children playing and dancing
In the streets and alleys

Come the morning and steal the joy
Of couples lying in beds of roses
In the gardens of the night

Come the play of sunshine
Upon the grass of fields
Of drug-inducing seeds

Come the answer to the question
Of what is to be done
And what is to be counted

Come to me and be my guide
Down streets I’ve never walked
And through doors that are never closed

Come and laugh at all I’ve done
As I walk into your life
Just one moment too soon

Come feel with me the passing breeze
And lay with me here
For hours or mere seconds

Come place your lips and eyes
Here beside mine again
So I might be taunted

Come the sorrow and the days
When I will sit alone
Upon my bed once more

Come movement that pulls me so
To be once more with you
Standing at your side

Come and come again
Agitate me like you do
With those words you say

Come be that temptation
That I live by
That I know you enjoy

Come be everything to me
And I will always know
That you came only for me

I think there may be someone alive in here

Pretty pink hair that looks so bright. I wonder if it’s real. I wonder if those eyes you look through let you see the world you like. I wonder if your footsteps always make up a dance. If they let you tiptoe softly. I wonder if, I wonder why. I wonder these things so they don’t pass me by. Do you twist and shout? Letting all the words come out? Do you spiral like a leaf on a breeze? Or are you more like a tree? Pushing down roots and growing up all tall. Growing old, seemingly immortal. Always there. Always watching over us. I don’t think you’re that old really. I don’t think you’ve been here that long. Your pink hair would be faded along with your smile. Your eyes wouldn’t smile so brightly. They would be knowing and wise. Your eyes are too new. They haven’t seen enough. They haven’t been there through too many experiences to count. I look at them and they tell me that you’re young. They tell me short little stories and anecdotes. They pull me in and make me want to show you so much. They tell me that you don’t want to see this.

-Alice

I’ve developed a taste for your failings

I pulled her in close as she walked away. I put my lips to hers as she shouted obscenities from across the room. I took her hand and led her to bed as she ran her nails down my back. She lay on the bed and I dressed her slowly. I pulled on her clothes and she finished unbuttoning my shirt. I whispered in her ear and she smiled slowly, like she’d forgotten something important. She told me to leave and I dropped to my knees before her, refusing to stay. I closed my eyes and gave her the kind of look that could fry chicken with a toaster. I walked out the door and picked up the phone in the hall. She was calling me for the third time that night and I hadn’t the heart to tell her I was busy. I shook the receiver and placed it against my chest. She spoke with some urgency and I felt that there was little I could do but ignore her. I chose the opposite and made my way downstairs. She was standing there like she expected something from me. I refused to give her anything and proceeded to take off her shoes without question.

-Alice

I can even hear her now

Kitten, Kitty, oh so pretty
I see you’re dressed in white
I see you’ve found
Below the ground
Another source of light

I like your taste
But there’s no haste
To bring things to an end
We’ve all been there and we’ve all done things
That should never have been said

Kitten, kitty, oh so witty
The joke’s on you, my friend
Tip them once
They’ll come once more
And play their tricks again

A duck, a dive
That tall beehive
You wore back in the day
Pretty kitty, how’s it fitting?
Now you wear it the other way

These words, they say
Could be sold for almost anything
Although, I think
You’d much rather have a dream

Kitten, kitty, leave the pity
To the ones who’ve practised so
They toss and turn
Each time they learn
A new way for them to show

That Kitten Kitty
Though she’s pretty
Will lose her tall admirer
He’ll step down and fade away
Just like all those behind her

We hum and we moan
About the telephone
And the bad news that it brings
We complain and get so riled
From saying such bad things

So Kitten, so kitty
So unlike what we always hear
So smitten, so pretty
So tiptoe, so softly
For Kitten Kitty’s always near

-Alice

Everything sounds better with an accent

Fey the wall and ket sul arm, on all the tane upon cliff dair. Withar two set so bare ejek culdane, for all set up o dawn for darn ferdern ferain. A lope et sest upon full kes, an porr an parr an ress. Ulane ulang uleck elest eless eleast elise eloise elarr. Caar carr kerdeen o fiet o feit and full and check and push and laugh, like cool cut dawn for all chitsane. Por randerrmanow manoo magog! All they could ferrain for all and an all and an o way. Ton pain to towe towaer wit bore, candellsit sot sore, but every so, kell for chess fortress. Mucktake must take mistake and keel fettlien for deep, dor least must pees for all. A draim millpane foltake foltane, folrake fil mist mullaine and again and sane will show. Cut stiff and board an all tooshord, mill the cray and take mill rae, upon the kerrmidew. Rit for and laft and for and cart and all the trane mikkew. Mikkay! Mikkey! Mikkel! Mikkek! Ket a ran and kit o run, there will be one, all too sun and al tare sin. Al rin, al din, akin no more! Shiff so mar I far, I faith!

-Alice

How do we keep it up each night?

Flicker light in dead of night, the candle and the grue. The click, the clack, the thunder-crack of a well-heeled shoe. A step in haste, with hand on waist, could this be very clear? The steps and cries and free-range eyes are drawing ever near. A step back, forever on track, would never take me home. I feel and kneel just at your heels that you are all alone. “What is this nonsense?” you could declare and I would feel so prudish. That you would not, shows some little care that the hour approaches soonest. A lick of rhyme could be unkind as pushing comes to shove. The harsh old words that they unearth, make up the world above. I counter-step and you correct my grace and flourish. I find my niche and so unleash a love so under-nourished. The throat of one so kind that, would I dine, I would feel still so ill. A liar and an ugly one at that. I have come to feed your cat. I step inside and try to hide the vomit on my lapel. The cat is gone, its made its home in some other stable.

-Alice