Some Thoughts

Amy Lipman

Spring

I tried to find home in a lover, he was lost as well
I tried to find home in a friend, but she had a lover
I tried to find home in me but I have
Too much on my mind
To keep all the way clean and dust-free for everybody to live in
Even though I wash so many times a day
And say my prayers before I sleep
But I've always housed really comforting songs


Why We Still Use Money

Some things snap in half
A button, a tree stump
A roof
But a wrecking crew couldn't split a penny,
Wouldn't waste time on the clock colonizing my brain
'Cause it would take
All the chemicals in the world that we use to stay hydrated
And inebriated
To find value in a stranger's blood


Plastic Guns

Men who hunt
Have been evicted
From church, from skin
From poetry
And want to see
What they used to believe in
Given the funeral they won't receive


New Year's Resolution

Our lives start in a calm yellow room
We seek to defy our limbs
Rise from a cradle and part from a mother
In time to run late to meet father for a drink

We cut our hair
Lose touch with people
Meet nice boys
Stay in control
Check the weather
And starve when the frost comes early


And then I turned to my mom and said, "I'm a tough bitch."

I loved you because I knew you'd leave me with nothing to lose
You, sometimes were good
I, always told the truth


Isn't that against your religion?

I've cried in a few churches
Once I wished for a father

I got on my knees in the synagogue
I said, "you'll be ok" to my dad


Strict Analysis

Patience is washing the sheets instead of burning them
When someone forgets you let them sleep in your bed
Feeling is moving a lamp past the ceiling
To find light in the room where it happened
Vanity isn't knowing you're beautiful
It's trying to convince yourself why someone else isn't


Victory Dance

The way that I walk when I get the chance,
Have some extra time,
Feel my clothes getting looser,
Is an excercise of evacuation
How to be the first out of a burning building,
The only way to fuck without coming close to the hands

Witnessing a Stampede

We kissed
Maybe you didn't notice

I’ve felt better, seen worse inner-workings of man
Than you
How you searched for you not for me not for we

You couldn’t see past my eyes
You probably thought you'd discovered an ocean
I am warmer
Than water cherished seasonally
By vacationers and by other people I meet looking for relief
I was raised to stay on the rise; a rose