the art of war
the blackest blue
I love it when
you call me out

 
from arms to arms
we travel high
here's one side

the city built on ruin
she bleeds me dry

did you guess it would be me
living out your dream?
casio and toasted bread
anonymity instead

Julia will go when she does what she came to do
obsessed with goodbyes since her long-ago exile

got a new treat
it’s the same taste
watch it rot my teeth

good tempts the fight
we'll walk the plank I'm sporting
I'm calling everybody out

little girl with your
plaited hair you will
wear him down you will
run him scared

count your blessings and
think you know everything
while I play “deluca” again
“buck up, buttercup,”
she used to tell me
each morning we passed in the hall

I owe you a mix tape listen
I owe you a rainstorm
but I won’t ask, I won’t ask to keep you up again tonight
I’m keeping quiet, now try to get some rest

I’m not kidding myself
that I could’ve saved you
cut my nails for the trouble
they never make me prove it

she is still and cool, a portrait
lying in the quiet, not on the run
he moves, and with her,
shifts the shape of sleep

my skull is an hourglass
I open my mouth
sand rushes out

I carved of him a talisman, a charm to ward off loneliness
with this act mistakenly, more power did I give to him

two at a time she takes the stairs
calls me out if I'm up there
then, casually, "oh boy, did you deign to notice? I've got something in my pocket. Are you waiting for it?"

repression is good for my complexion
but dirty needs a walk
my condition’s not all superstition
do I bite or do I bark?

standoff, stand down, who will blink first?
arms lengthing keeps me from saying it to your face
you mix the girls behind the scenes with bad advice from magazines
oh, I get it, and now you’re gonna get it

would you syncopate my sleep
to satisfy my wicked gleam
[come] settle down, down
and press yourself against what I have labored long to keep

hardest to shake
“you are overrated”
expert witness your artist
dissolve

shaking the satellites from their hiding places
some collide
on my dime
we go our own way