Safe and Sound

Your heart is beating quickly,

In time with the clock on the wall:

Tick-tock, thump, throb.

You submit yourself to the feeling

Of your blood pounding fast.

Follow, follow, pour, pump.

You close your eyes and give in

To the ringing in your ears.

Ring, ring, thump, throb, silence.

You reach for the bottle to pour another shot.

Bang, bang, shoot 'em up.

You swallow more misery trying to loosen

The lump of lead in your throat.

Tonight, is a bad night.

You're remembering him too clearly again.

As you sit by the window waiting

For the gravel driveway to lie to you,

He rolls over in bed with little Miss

Stars and Stripes on top again.

You're fine though. You're okay.

You've been popping pills all day.

And you're heart's still beating,

It's still pumping, throbing,

To the rhythm of the clock on the wall.

Tick-tock, thump, throb, swallow, swallow.

Down goes two more shots, but your breath

Is still fogging up the window and your

Heart is still working, barely.

As you stare at the phone, waiting for it

To lie to you, he goes downstairs to the front desk

For more towels and hits on the hotel clerk

Who wasn't smart enough to know what you know.

You're stumbling to bed,

Vision blurred, judgment impared, sex drive howling.

You're alone on your bed,

And the clock on the wall is ticking, tocking

Rocking you back and forth to sleep.

A very deep sleep indeed.

As you lie in bed dying, sleeping, barely breathing,

Your heart thumping, throbbing

Slowly out of rhythm with the clock, the world,

He puts on his clothes and sneaks out

While another girl sleeps in the bed you made.

Author's Note

May 4, 2008