Aidan Moffat's Car Song

I thought I could forever be your passenger,

as we gently raced beneath

the trees of B roads and C roads,

watching for fauna and singing along

to that Classic Love CD we found in the hired car.

A weekend away from pills

and paranoia was the plan,

so we headed for familiar territory

in the comforts of memory.

I'm happy when we move.

I'm happiest in here,

where nothing's left to prove,

and nothing's left to fear.

i used to swim over there,

but that pub's gone downhill.

I made my very first and very last attempt at smoking

on that swing bridge with Gillian Smith.

We all loved Gillian.

Expelled from school,

we crashed the graduates' ball

in the function room of that hotel,

and I came second-last

in the treasure hunt.

I'm happy when we move.

I'm happiest in here.

where nothing's left to prove,

and nothing's left to fear.

So let's do it.

Let's sell our home and all our things,

and buy a camper van,

and live on service station junk food

and roadside pub lunches.

We can burn our smartphones,

and donate the computer

to the school down the road,

leave binbags full of clothes

we never wear outside the charity shop,

and just go.

We walk to the shore,

and I think I could keep going,

till someone deep inside you quietly screams,

"it's time to stand still",

and he's right. So let's go home.

And while we can't build in bricks,

I can build in my heart.

where we know heretics,

and we know where to start,

if the foundations rot,

should the wrecking ball swing,

if I misplace my plot,

and so lose everything

just remember us here,

hand in hand by the shore

and forget each dried tear,

and the burdens we bore.

Vague

At times, the only urge I feel

is to roll over to face

the other side of the beds we shared

and ask you, "are you okay?"

as I kiss you on the forehead.

Lemons

We give strange names

to the daggers we

drive into our lives

hoping someone else

will come by

and know how

to pull them out.

All we want is to

be grateful. Lost in

the warmth of

another.

To feel as if we

can carry each other

and, in the darker

corners of our

hopes and fears

cling to someone

who will save us.

Walk

The air is razor wire

My skin shreds when

I try to make bridges

out of our forearms

The sun takes a piss

on a cool spring breeze

And the smoke snakes

through our hair as we kiss.

I move to find I am turgid

still a part of the ground

And I let go of loftier ideals

like self-expression and will

The fruit I bear weighs me down

And with mirth, you pick

at the life on my bending boughs

And leave what is left at my feet.

With somber eyes, I think

it's time to admit

what we felt all along.

Tannin

My toe is always drawn to

the most treacherous of waters

Why can we not just sit

on your porch with our wine

and talk of something banal

like petrol prices, or the weather?

Every breath stops me from dying

And there you sit, splendorous

As I wonder what God is

and (whatever it may be)
Why I always find myself

neck-deep in deuterium

when I don't know how to swim.

Don't throw me a rope.

Let me thrash this out.

Let me see if I can

lose you in the waves.

Let me see if the mirrors we carry

can show me what we look like.

Let me see if we were

at all, meant to be.

Nicholas and Plato

You may claim

that we'll just be friends

And that is how

it was meant to be.

Ten years from now,

I will still want

The taste of my tobacco lips

to swill in your whiskey

while your anxious tongue

flicks your Monroe.

I will bend the crease

in the fiercest of your coattails

and stupidly wonder why

I burrow into green waters

at once shimmering and empty

To allow myself to see

my rough hands

grabbing you by the collar

And pulling you closer

To keep you away. Forever.