90’s Teen Romance

[Verse 1]
I hope you ask me to dance with you
The night’s almost over
And I’ve been practicing in my head
So my two left feet, don’t get the best of me
I always wanna give you the best of me

I meet your eyes across the room, and that’s it
I feel fourteen again
Biting my lip
Hoping the boy with the beautiful eyes
Will look at me like he’s in love
Like I’m the only thing he’s ever dreamed of

[Chorus]
So cue the music
Like a 90’s teen romance
Right at the climax
And I’ll feel it down to my feet
I’m holding my breath
Heart beating in my chest
Is this the best, it could ever get?
Oh, cause the night’s not over yet

[Verse 2]
And you’re doing that thing you do 
When you’re nervous
Tapping the tune to Hey Jude on your thigh
And I catch your eye and I can’t help but smile

And you’ve danced with every girl here
Cause you’re just sweet like that
My girlfriends whisper that you’ve saved the best for last
And I’m holding my breath, nails biting my palms, praying to god that it’s true
That you’ve been waiting for this too

[Chorus]
So cue the music
Like a 90’s teen romance
Right at the climax
And I’ll feel it down to my feet
I’m holding my breath
Heart beating in my chest
Is this the best, it could ever get?
Oh, cause the night’s not over yet

[Verse 3]
And when we come together that’s it
It’s electricity 
And I thought we’d be something soft and sweet
But I think I like what you’re doing to me

And if when we kiss, the city goes dark
I won’t care, cause my eyes are already closed
So don’t tell me if you know

Did the lights flicker in the hallway?
Was that your lips whispering my name?
Did the crowd cheer like fans at a football game?
Or was it all just in my head?

[Chorus]
The music
Like a 90’s teen romance
Right at the climax
And I felt it down to my feet
I was holding my breath
Heart beating in my chest
Was that the best, it could ever get?

[Outro]
I open my eyes, there you are right in front me
And I know, you know, they know
The night’s not over yet

Name

Tell me your name
Shout it from skyscrapers
Whisper it against the curve of my ear in the dark
I want to hold it close to me and press it tight against my chest
Pushing and pushing until it breeches the cage of my ribs
Making a home there alongside my beating heart
Where it will forever remain
—Etched into blood and bone—
So that you will never be forgotten

Some Kind of Poetry

And it was some kind of poetry
That spilled from my heart before
Jumbled and messy
Like back when I was four
Or perhaps that was fourteen
All the world before me
Always using someone else’s wings
Mine too broken and dirty
Lift me up, lay me down to sleep
For these forgotten words I weep
They were songs and poems
Fairytale and stories
That my heart dreamt while sleeping
And my hands wrote while daydreaming
And oh, as I remember them
Soft and sweet like a lullaby
Maybe something even better 
Than my mother’s voice at bedtime
They were my words
They were my hopes
They were my soul
Pretty and ugly
And bare and full
They were some kind of poetry
That’s all I remember now
Rhythms and steps—that a younger me had found— 
That the me of today—all grown up and proud— 
Can never know, can never sing
Again aloud

Eden

I have seen her
Walking through a garden
It was named after her
Paradise

She was not alone
Creatures kissed her name
Hell on their lips
Sin 

A man stood beside her
Arm draped strong and heavy
From his shadow she tried to climb
Fallen

A seed, a thought
It weighed her heart heavy
A seed, a thought
Dirty

Blame like stone
Fingers pointed and shamed
Two bites to an apple
Unforgiven

Let him who is without sin
Cast the first stone
My sin is your sin
Knowledge—all this we now know