Erin Cowart

I cannot fight the dead
Or those that want to die

I cannot will you to life
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In this new world let us not talk of order
Let us talk of peace
Order is the ugly step-child of peace
Used when humanity refuses to be peaceful
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Being a good person will take you far
Like one wheeled bicycles and dead battery cars

If you do your best things will turn out fine
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Just because it has always been does not mean it should always be
The institutions have failed the madmen
We must fight for our right to be free
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It is night
2 am
I am driving to the store for cigarettes
A short trip
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Yesterday there was an earthquake in North Carolina
Some things were knocked off the shelves
And broken
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I went to visit mom today
And ask the standard fare

Are you Ok
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I have painted you in the brightest yellows
Green and golden light that shines

A million prisms reflect the light of you in my life
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Beyond this body
This heaviness that encloses
There I exist
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There is a wind that runs through your life
It will carry you
Lift you
Cool you
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Today I took off the war paint
Laid down the mask
And showed my face to the world
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There is an art to being human
And we are all horrid forgeries

Hollow, pretending at goodness
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Here's to the Gods of dirt roads and country lanes
To porch lights, sun downs
And the smell of the rain
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Today I am walking in the sun
The birds are singing
The heat is warming my skin
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Words spoken in the stillness
Between dark and dawn
Are lovers' gold
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If today is all there is
And all there ever will be
Let me say this
In the glorious nowness of the day
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The air is heavy today
And sits on my chest
A crushing reminder of unmitigated loses
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That night when you realize that your husband is afraid of you
Lying in bed and hearing his plans for your life
How you will get a job any job that makes money will do
Something respectable maybe
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The last man on earth sat at his desk
In his little room

He looked at the dead cell phone
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There were others here before me
And after me, others still
Planting flags
And claiming territories
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