Ex man, next man (2006)

This is a case of the ex man messing it up for the next man
I don’t know how to say it any other way

You carry dreams
Like a guitar on your back
Black eyes sparkling with hope
Hoping to serenade and persuade
my heart
Until it dances like
A muse

This heart chooses not to dance.

You’re hoping you can set up residence
In a vacant room
In my mind
And occupy a space


But the space is filled.

You’re waiting on the bench
Hoping that
Someday
Even if it isn’t this inning
I’ll put you on

But that would be foul


You’re wishing with sparkling eyes
That we could
Find freedom
In a tight space, in a new face

But
This is a case of the ex man messing it up for the next man
I cannot give you what I do not have
And you can not provide me with what you cannot offer

If I met you on the street
When my heart was open
And full with songs, and space, and homeruns
Maybe the answer may be different
But I’ve seen lots like you
Before
Enchanted
To
Retreat
To maybe
When “Maybe” was a pseudonym for “No”

Right now
Maybe chills my skin
And the past brings sweat to my flesh
I’m smarting from a bitterness
That must run its course
And you don’t have to see me stare into the skies
His weight between our hugs


I can’t give my heart to anyone
Until I retrieve it from the man who stole it
Maybe gave willingly
Because I believed

His absence is larger then his presence ever was

Like new flowers
I appreciate your desire to entice me into spring
so lovely, that a woman would dance

But everything lovely
Has a season
Everything
Even you