Hey! How are you? What are you doing these days?

How many times have you come back to your hometown for the holidays, funerals, weddings, reunions, etc.... and had these words asked at you with feined interest. "Hey" "How are you" What are you doing these days" they are asked at you in robotic fashion over and over again as you circumnavigate a room in search of a much needed drink or silence. The faces mouthing these words repeat and your answers grow increasingly hostile. Your mouth just seems to answer again and again the humdrum conversation started by people your pretty sure never even liked you, and your even surer that like you even less now that all you really share in accordance is an alma mater, a mutual friend, or maybe something as simple as a similar age bracket.
Your mouth gets dryer with each answer and the need to swallow a bottle of vodka, whiskey, or whatever your alleviation calls for overwhelms you, you rush to the bar flashing your $20 or maybe even a $100 so people will think you are successful and when the tender turns to you they can see in your eyes that the word "double" doesn't need to be asked, just poured. Swallowing it down suddenly you feel as if your evening has started over again, you see the same faces you couldn't stand earlier and you feel the need to conversate yourself. "Hey" "How are you" What are you doing these days" you feel yourself asking others. When did you become one of them? Was it the last drink you had that pushed you over the edge to becoming one of the masses of annoying people barraging one another with questions you can only imagine are designed to make you feel better about your great job, or acceptance into a master's program or on your up and coming research for your doctorate. Wow! When did I become one of these people? That question permeates into your mind and all you can do is laugh and talk the night away occasionaly checking your watch or cell phone to see if it is last call time yet and you can get out of there.

The Passing of a Friend

God took someone away today, he took away my friend
A place I cannot follow yet, to heaven he was sent

The lap you lay your head in and the way I swept away your fears
The purpose you were put on earth to have 5 happy years

The way you used to climb inside my pockets made of wool
The ways that my heart lit up when i'd see you after school

Late nights we spent reading, well I did while you slept
And in and out of your kingdom house you stalked silently and crept

You were a constant in my life and I just wish that I knew why
That when you love something so very much it always has to die

The late nights we had eachother, nothing else ever meaned or mattered
The losing of my loving friend has left my heart bruised and battered

The leopard cat I found one night, that night it began to snow
Now that you have gone ahead, my life just moves to slow

I know that when I feel those eyes, the ones when your all alone
That its you watching over me from the place we'll both call home

So wait for me in that perfect place the one made for me and you.
And when im done with all life's chores I promise i'll come for you.

I Fly Home Tomorrow

I fly home tomorrow to a place I dont belong
A place that seems to fade around me like the last note of a song
I fly home tomorrow to a place that held my life
A place that held my everything my family...my wife?
I fly home tomorrow to the things i left behind
A place i thought that only held these unique items of their kind
I fly home tomorrow to this world i used to know
A place that is assaulted by torrid sheets of snow
I fly home tomorrow my life has changed so much
A place that no matter what it has it lacks a lovers touch
I fly home tomorrow what awaits back their for me?
A place i feel i've forgotten, my eyes are open to see