SEPTEMBER

I miss the tilt and racket of your face,
the collapsing factories of your anger,
the shoreline wearing your boas of foam—
the steel mirror of your silence,
your glass contingencies, in the night’s hold.
I miss the morning’s coverlet of cloud,
one gull flying east over the moving distances
while closer in
the same boulder is kissed again and again.
As the blacksmith plunges the bruised steel into the tub,
erasing the heat of his industry,
I have cooled my brow
with the ice of your disdain—
I have held your cold hand in the rain.

  — Jim Armstrong. Blue Lash (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2006). Copyright © 2006 by Jim Armstrong. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. www.milkweed.org.

ALKALINE TRIO - GOODBYE FOREVER

Take your wings outside
You can’t fly in here
Besides a purple sky
Is better soaring
For you my angel
You’re an angel
You little devil
As for me I’ll stay inside
I’ll be a spy
And I’ll watch from the window

Cannot categorize
The nature of this sickness
A miracle that you’re alive
Stuck to the roof of my mouth with a staple
Remember last April
When we saw U.S. Maple
Somehow the singer showed the Fireside exactly how I feel

As we say goodbye
And go underground
Or up towards the sky
Up in smoke burnt down to size
At least we’re still friends
At least we’re still alive

Take your wings outside
No use for them in here
Bad luck to open inside
Work like umbrellas like a broken mirror
It’s getting clearer
This end is closer than ever before
And you’ll want something more
When your head hits the floor
And you’re lost in the darkness

As we say goodbye
And go underground
Or up towards the sky
Up in smoke burned down to size
At least we’re still friends
At least we’re still alive

As we say goodbye
And go underground
Or up towards the sky
Up in smoke burned down to size
At least we’re still friends
At least we’re still alive