down the burning ropes
james vincent mcmorrow
slowly fade into the water like some ancient lover
on a ship filled with ghosts
when the paper thin girls
with twisting little braids in their hair
they take off their coats and throw
pebbles and stones from the side of the boat
past the places where the steal beams meet concrete skies
you make your bed under the moonlight
i think it's time we said goodbye
cause nothing moves in the warm air
and words that once would cut like a knife
they just hang in the cloud and you're
but you're pulled by the crowds and
there's not a shell unbroken
in the valley where my heartache and the timbers lay
it's not the time to be hanging around here
you know what some might say
that people get too reckless
that even with the simplest of crimes
as i clean the knife for the very last time