Dec/23/2008: To Spring
There was a congruence in your words
that left me breathless. I wanted
more than a mirror to show myself.
The voice that held me suspended
could bring me to my knees, praying
not begging; What so oft was led astray
I thought I was found instead.
But no sooner could a woman rejoice
when I was stolen by another
not in mind but by the heart of time
The sands of seconds bound me to their hands
Not longer was I free than I was against my nature.
To spring, yes, the birds in the trees call
to me, they come
and I unhindered follow them.
that left me breathless. I wanted
more than a mirror to show myself.
The voice that held me suspended
could bring me to my knees, praying
not begging; What so oft was led astray
I thought I was found instead.
But no sooner could a woman rejoice
when I was stolen by another
not in mind but by the heart of time
The sands of seconds bound me to their hands
Not longer was I free than I was against my nature.
To spring, yes, the birds in the trees call
to me, they come
and I unhindered follow them.
Nov/12/2008: Collapse
But the scars,
They keep coming back
The cheap powder they’re concealed by washes away
Just so quickly, I’m thinking
These wrinkles smoothed over
They keep reforming
The injections dissolving my face waste away
Just so quickly, I’m thinking
The lies wheeling my mind
The broken player’s stuck on repeat
My ability to think for myself is being erased away
Just so quickly, I’m thinking
What’s my place if I've lost track?
What was I believing when I decided to turn back?
What will happen when my mind has collapsed?
They keep coming back
The cheap powder they’re concealed by washes away
Just so quickly, I’m thinking
These wrinkles smoothed over
They keep reforming
The injections dissolving my face waste away
Just so quickly, I’m thinking
The lies wheeling my mind
The broken player’s stuck on repeat
My ability to think for myself is being erased away
Just so quickly, I’m thinking
What’s my place if I've lost track?
What was I believing when I decided to turn back?
What will happen when my mind has collapsed?
Aug/17/2008: Short-circuitry (Five Odd Ends)
1.
But what say we, and learn to let go.
Don’t treat yourselves to this
It’s a ne’er to do thing that just helps us ache,
and that we keep fisted, half-moons like tattoos
written like an angry statement on our hands
this, we hope will leave us when we die.
2.
Sticking to the walls in the shadows
observant creature, watch over me
I’m taking the step to end all steps
This will carry me over, they said
So I guess I’m leaving,
but I’ll stay with you for now
Alright?
3.
What if we died but lived while we did?
What if we walked but stayed as we strayed?
What if we loved but held on while we waited?
What if we hurt by bliss but blistered until it faded?
4.
Time is gone because it never was
Sing for all it takes, all you have
Broken glass will hum as sweetly
Your melody, it rang down my walls
As my heart, it beat steadily.
5.
Voice, static on the radio
I hear you through it
Not an illusion, I swear, because
There is not one person I know better
It must be you, the static is our wire
Whisper on, girl, I’ll be here listening in.
But what say we, and learn to let go.
Don’t treat yourselves to this
It’s a ne’er to do thing that just helps us ache,
and that we keep fisted, half-moons like tattoos
written like an angry statement on our hands
this, we hope will leave us when we die.
2.
Sticking to the walls in the shadows
observant creature, watch over me
I’m taking the step to end all steps
This will carry me over, they said
So I guess I’m leaving,
but I’ll stay with you for now
Alright?
3.
What if we died but lived while we did?
What if we walked but stayed as we strayed?
What if we loved but held on while we waited?
What if we hurt by bliss but blistered until it faded?
4.
Time is gone because it never was
Sing for all it takes, all you have
Broken glass will hum as sweetly
Your melody, it rang down my walls
As my heart, it beat steadily.
5.
Voice, static on the radio
I hear you through it
Not an illusion, I swear, because
There is not one person I know better
It must be you, the static is our wire
Whisper on, girl, I’ll be here listening in.
Aug/7/2008: The Pied Piper
High and sweet, dripping mockery like
battery acid, I’m your delicate betrayal
loyal like yesterday, hiding subtlety behind this glittering façade
your castaway nightmare, your cold embrace
Ignore your throbbing conscience and come to me.
I’ll save you, lead you to the one place you can never leave
They call me the Pied Piper, my flute enchanting,
it sings you to me with notes that whisper through the night
Be deceived by the lies that glisten on my lips,
the smile I dangle before you.
My sighing music may surround you for only so long
But I’ll cover your eyes so you’ll never see the truth.
Credits: Lines 9, 10, 12 © Yun JiUn
battery acid, I’m your delicate betrayal
loyal like yesterday, hiding subtlety behind this glittering façade
your castaway nightmare, your cold embrace
Ignore your throbbing conscience and come to me.
I’ll save you, lead you to the one place you can never leave
They call me the Pied Piper, my flute enchanting,
it sings you to me with notes that whisper through the night
Be deceived by the lies that glisten on my lips,
the smile I dangle before you.
My sighing music may surround you for only so long
But I’ll cover your eyes so you’ll never see the truth.
Credits: Lines 9, 10, 12 © Yun JiUn
Jun/26/2008: At The End
Save yourself, she said unaffectedly,
This pain just isn’t worth the wait
Why become a mere shadow
When all you have to do is walk away?
It’s not by decision that I made this choice, I replied honestly,
It’s instinct that’s led me this far
Why should I turn back now
When all this can be saved just a few steps away?
You aren’t superhuman, she insisted timorously,
This whirlwind mess can’t be prevented by just you
Why do you have to be the one to rescue the world
When all you have to do is walk away?
I can if I believe, don’t try to stop me, I declared determinedly,
I’ve got skill, I’ve got talent, I’ve got power, I’ve got practice
Why waste my abilities
When all this can be saved just a few steps away?
Let them go, let fate come to pass, she pleaded desperately,
Stop this make believe capacity of a god and stay alive
Why do I have to lose you, and us
When all you have to do is walk away?
One small attempt can save a million, I stated resolutely,
I must be deaf to your request, I won’t know unless I try
But why should we be the only two to survive
When all this can be saved just a few steps away?
This pain just isn’t worth the wait
Why become a mere shadow
When all you have to do is walk away?
It’s not by decision that I made this choice, I replied honestly,
It’s instinct that’s led me this far
Why should I turn back now
When all this can be saved just a few steps away?
You aren’t superhuman, she insisted timorously,
This whirlwind mess can’t be prevented by just you
Why do you have to be the one to rescue the world
When all you have to do is walk away?
I can if I believe, don’t try to stop me, I declared determinedly,
I’ve got skill, I’ve got talent, I’ve got power, I’ve got practice
Why waste my abilities
When all this can be saved just a few steps away?
Let them go, let fate come to pass, she pleaded desperately,
Stop this make believe capacity of a god and stay alive
Why do I have to lose you, and us
When all you have to do is walk away?
One small attempt can save a million, I stated resolutely,
I must be deaf to your request, I won’t know unless I try
But why should we be the only two to survive
When all this can be saved just a few steps away?
Jun/1/2008: War Game
I find it is best
To hide in the thickest of the throng
So come what arrows or nuclear bombs
There is a chance the wind blows it wrong
For then I may rest..
Lines drawn, it is obvious to a spectator who will win
But with skill and tenacity of a true fighter,
The slighter army will prove the better against the masses, an ancestral precedent reviver
The supreme higher-ups may intimidate, but their confident smirks are liars
Our bond and will are made from the strongest fiber; we will bare our iron defenses amongst the din!
Bodies may fly and blood may dry, but slowly the great will sway
Modest, we may be, but it is because we believe
Our power is as one, and we will not leave
This is the heartland we will surely retrieve
We will force them to their knees and surrender, I steadfastly pray..!
But really, it is too much a shame
All this strife and wasted life
The battle cries and heroic suicides
The wins and losses of both persistent sides
All this death and gruesome destruction was all simply a game..
It’s like chess played by gods who parry for the prizes without the pain
Who giggle and titter at our cavalier demise,
At our useless, feeble hearts that are washed so easily away by the rain.
To hide in the thickest of the throng
So come what arrows or nuclear bombs
There is a chance the wind blows it wrong
For then I may rest..
Lines drawn, it is obvious to a spectator who will win
But with skill and tenacity of a true fighter,
The slighter army will prove the better against the masses, an ancestral precedent reviver
The supreme higher-ups may intimidate, but their confident smirks are liars
Our bond and will are made from the strongest fiber; we will bare our iron defenses amongst the din!
Bodies may fly and blood may dry, but slowly the great will sway
Modest, we may be, but it is because we believe
Our power is as one, and we will not leave
This is the heartland we will surely retrieve
We will force them to their knees and surrender, I steadfastly pray..!
But really, it is too much a shame
All this strife and wasted life
The battle cries and heroic suicides
The wins and losses of both persistent sides
All this death and gruesome destruction was all simply a game..
It’s like chess played by gods who parry for the prizes without the pain
Who giggle and titter at our cavalier demise,
At our useless, feeble hearts that are washed so easily away by the rain.
Apr/4/2008: Blind is Beautiful
Because the lights are off
There’s a scream in the dark from every corner of the room too small for running
The sharp high pitch sails past the limp curtains
And hitches itself to the lonely broken shutter flapping mournfully in the wind
Together, they swing in unison,
singing a song of silent dissonance and disbelief.
Because the lights are off
The night inside is too bright for words said aloud
Ear-pricking tiny scritch-scratches
Of a box-cutter blade across the urine-stained wall
Her quick slashes of slanted messy capitals carve a last letter
From her hurried mind too slow for the approaching silhouette.
Because the lights are off
The glare of the full black moon is pre-eminent
…rush…rush…rush… the tension reverberates through the dark
And away, away she flows,
with her dollar-store sunglasses bouncing on a chain around her neck
And the Night at her heels.
There’s a scream in the dark from every corner of the room too small for running
The sharp high pitch sails past the limp curtains
And hitches itself to the lonely broken shutter flapping mournfully in the wind
Together, they swing in unison,
singing a song of silent dissonance and disbelief.
Because the lights are off
The night inside is too bright for words said aloud
Ear-pricking tiny scritch-scratches
Of a box-cutter blade across the urine-stained wall
Her quick slashes of slanted messy capitals carve a last letter
From her hurried mind too slow for the approaching silhouette.
Because the lights are off
The glare of the full black moon is pre-eminent
…rush…rush…rush… the tension reverberates through the dark
And away, away she flows,
with her dollar-store sunglasses bouncing on a chain around her neck
And the Night at her heels.
Feb/5/2008: Soon
It’s a perfect evening that you’re missing.
I’m rocking slowly in the slight breeze
on our old loveseat porch swing that creaks.
I’m wishing you were here with me again
A small wish, but
Nothing weighted would bring you back
Any lighter, it’d keep you away.
I close my eyes and remember.
You beautiful sky eyes,
magical smile and sweet wine,
nowhere but here, just you.
You are my everything, but you’re not with me
You’re not with me, and I’m aching
I want to join you ’cause I don’t feel like staying here alone anymore.
I want to be where you are,
and I’ll run to you no matter how far,
no matter how long it’ll take with my wobbly legs-
A song in the distance plays a slowdance slow song
the one we used to dance to, and my heart breaks again,
but I reach out and catch the falling pieces.
I get up with resolve, face the sky and speak to the clouds and above:
I’m waiting for the day I die, patiently
Because I’m tired of hoping and dreaming
of the day you’ll revive and come back to me
So wait for me, because very soon
I know I’ll be by your side.
I’m rocking slowly in the slight breeze
on our old loveseat porch swing that creaks.
I’m wishing you were here with me again
A small wish, but
Nothing weighted would bring you back
Any lighter, it’d keep you away.
I close my eyes and remember.
You beautiful sky eyes,
magical smile and sweet wine,
nowhere but here, just you.
You are my everything, but you’re not with me
You’re not with me, and I’m aching
I want to join you ’cause I don’t feel like staying here alone anymore.
I want to be where you are,
and I’ll run to you no matter how far,
no matter how long it’ll take with my wobbly legs-
A song in the distance plays a slowdance slow song
the one we used to dance to, and my heart breaks again,
but I reach out and catch the falling pieces.
I get up with resolve, face the sky and speak to the clouds and above:
I’m waiting for the day I die, patiently
Because I’m tired of hoping and dreaming
of the day you’ll revive and come back to me
So wait for me, because very soon
I know I’ll be by your side.