She would damn these Christians Just like Nero did Send them to the pit Post office closed, now her package is hostage Myrtle Ave’s a graying din, rain is threatening But this one girl’s out flyering She stops her with a fist, extends an offering In Comic Sans is writ: Our church invites you in She snatches the flyer, shudders, and thinks of home The drop ceilinged chapel, Mom’s chemo, snowbound roads Studied theater and history for an incomplete degree Worried about practicality, but she loved those stories Then she moved to NYC to try to act Bed-Stuy to be precise, when swine glide she’ll go back But it’s like giving up a kidney by the way they tax these cigarettes Cash ain’t exactly raining from the track-marked firmament She grabs a pack by her place Finds her roommate Buying Fluff and mumbling All I want is nothing short of more Is something more than the norm All I got were some soles more worn Than they were before And I feel it feel it feel it feel it But I like the way they sound on the pavement At the church the girl stuffs the flyers in her bag Enough with all these white girls shuffling by, looking sad But the congregation’s changing And it always welcomes new friends or So Mom had explained while slumped against the headboard She smooths her blouse, sighs, and checks her texts Her best friend keeps asking about the bio test But after Mom’s surgery, will there even be time for school How to find relief in “I know the plans I have for you” Up above screams the J Commuters sway Thinking And what I want Is nothing short of more Than it all

Southern California He's off to tennis camp Overheads, new friends, the fresh scent of Wilson cans Bret get gets him a Maxim mag When they're down in town Looking at the girls inside When the other boys are leaving on a practice round He slides it out From under the couch With shaking grip-stained hands Hey bud The ball's in your court Or maybe not, she chopped the drop shot short Yanking you up to the net From the page Dash to the baseline The boys are back on break time Forfeit the mag, you can't win them all Plus Jimmy's got a date with the bathroom stall Men are being made in Cabin A Sean's the only other kid Who ever has to shave Misses fine black hairs on his jawline every other day Ten beds to a cabin They're complaining of a smell Kid don't care much Reading Sabriel in his bunk But the boys are raising hell Pajamas sweat-soaked When he wakes But it don't ring any bells Hey bud You're going down with love Your doubles match alongside Alison The hottest chick in the camp "Whose dick did you suck to get that" The boys say Dash to the baseline A lob's aloft there's no time Your rackets kiss and fall Never seen a girl Pissed like this before Californication Boomboxing on the breeze Other kids hanging up his clothes On the fences as they please Sweating on the courts Shaking as he sees Cans of Axe© in Ricky's hands Spraying AC/DC tees And his sleeping bag And Alison is looking Last night of tennis camp The kid's packing his bags Thinks he's free but suddenly They gather 'round his bunk They turn and pull down their pants revealing Cracks of ass They swear, they say He's so damn gay They spray him down with Axe© Hey kid So you want to be a man Better send your mom to Longs To get some spray cans And what about the other kids you ask Well, Bret is gonna find his old man's mags Ricky's brother's gonna crack him a beer Sean will catch a couple punches for his weird-ass stache And all are pumped for tennis camp next year

Remember  a night of costume-destroying rain My bullshit about impermanence was so deep I got stuck Slurring, "It's just like the ending of the Matrix Revolutions” Should've dressed up as Keanu Remember when I first felt I'd die Reading tucked in Babar-patterned sheets Learned about the cooling universe and entropy  It strangely made me think of me Call it solipsism jr  I ran down the hardwood hall Found Papa at the computer Bathed in the screenlight So I walked back alone I was death driven Pajamaed and afraid Obsessed with the end If there's one shot at living Set the odds I'd be choking Remember the first time we cried Three rounds & a sound in the background It’s five years from that dorm room And I can't imagine how we'll say goodbye Remember Holding time at the powder house roundabout  The butterflies in frat basement gloom Revolutions inside of cocoons And how soon we'd lose it I was death driven Drunk among the leaves Cherry trees and your touch Now we're spinning through seasons  Summon our spring Turn it all up, let's turn it all up (death driven, we're death driven) We keep waking up (death driven, we're death driven) Let's turn it all up To keep waking up To turn it all up We are death driven Afraid of fading out Into that end If there's one chance at living Then let's turn it up until we can't