I Know Better

Ice cold morning

A hole in my shoe

I have to make some money

To afford fast food

It is raining razor blades

But I’m in a good mood

Everyone gets lucky sometimes

I’m about due

People bleed in different places

diamond-shaped cuts in their faces

Gashes on their elbows and knees

Turn to ice-sealed scabs at 11 degrees

I know better

To be undermined by bad weather

You shouldn’t be swayed

By the well-meaning brigade

Who want reality quarantined

In their living room

I don’t like parties

I do like you

Blistering summer evening

The concrete undulates

I’m strolling the neighborhood

Off the 3 AM train

The moon is an empty plate

My mind and body are plagued

By the realization of wherever I go

My malady refracts in new array

Everyone has the right advice

I’m unemployed, they’re Jesus Christ

Preaching a sermon of responsibility to me

Because I’m on an indefinite vacation after my bachelor’s degree

I know better

To be undermined by bad weather

You shouldn’t be swayed

By the well-meaning brigade

Who want reality quarantined

In their living room

I don’t like parties

I do like you

Coda:

Well you don’t judge me

You have this habit of just listening

The same way cardinals perch

On branches and absorb another day

Beginning and ending

They are programmed to fly, die, eat

And perhaps barely understand what they are

It was a long, lonely summer

The first time I played my guitar

And it was a dark, cold winter

Only a little while after that

I disappeared through a number of indistinct doors

With an NY upon my hat