A Long Road Bending

This life is one long lovesong
and I've trouble with the lyrics
Yet you still smile from the piano
when I've forgotten words
then hold me up, never holding on
Allowing me another breath
I'm afraid to look you in the eye
It's easier to glance away
Always hope to find some sense
for me in penning notes
Forever trying to find a name
for the ghosting nameless

Reaching after description, a sense
of times gone, choices made
and lived so long ago
They're foggy now and yet
my heartbeat sometimes quickens
and there's a tight fist
somewhere in the middle
of my self esteem
A swallowing of missed opportunities
Gulping away the fear
So, what is there in looking back
that rings true

Looks right and sounds like
music not too overworked
Manipulated to meet
whatever the current need
Is a hit tune really quite that good
or does the whole thing
depend on rhythm and beat
woofed and tweeted, amplified
Scores written across night skies
in blue black ink
Small wonder it's obscured
lying here, looking up

Maybe I've just not found
the proper key, still humming
and it gets beyond me
stays just out of reach
Play it again Sam, it's got to be
a sort of mirror writing
Clear in the reflection
I'm obviously standing here
looking for the proper shade of green
in a whole damn forest
Sorting through brambled underbrush
for one clear thought

Otherwise I've tricked the truth
and truths have a way
of slithering back when least expected
Jumping up to bite me in the ankle
It's simple enough this mucking about
from day to day
The struggle for a song is mostly
maintenance at several levels
Offering comparative economic choice
on the Mercedes Meter
when any fool should know
that a motorcycle fills the bill

Someone on the back I care about
arms around my waist
The maps all left behind for those
looking for destinations
Running with me in the wind
singing phrasings in my ear
Making time to lay on grassy banks
and let it slide a while
Wandering and wondering along with me
where it all will end and if we'll find
the song we've written
is finally just a long road bending