live from clock tower plaza

Seems I catch myself glancing out at the parking lot before each roll of the dice this lazy afternoon. Funny how the snack bar at a grocery can be such a popular hangout, let alone the fact that it's across town from my school, but granted, close to anything worth while. So after dropping someone off at work why not sit around with the ghosts and beat Yahtzee?

They say the teenage years are the hardest we ever live through. At the beginning of it I sat on the school bus thinking those words and felt myself entering a tunnel, and come to think of it, I was right. Last year was a doozey. Had different friends before it started. Maybe we still are, it's just...different. I'm different. How much pressure can a person take? How many licks till you get to the tootsy roll center of a tootsie pop?

Friends make you confident, that's why they're friends. You earn each other's trust and pretty soon you're standing on it, feeling it under your feet, head high above everyone else and it's not supposed to get to you, but they don't put that in the brochure. The girls you talk to become the songs on the radio, sonic spirits, even when the words just blend in with the noise of life.

Everyone blames the girl I see, but she's just a pawn, devil's due, and it was gonna take stepping in a bear trap to eff things up. When Dad splits logs out back he uses a wedge but it don't do a thing until he smacks it with a hammer. I swung the hammer. Chased curiosity in my language and made promises in hers.

The company I get to keep in this deal is neutral, in the war, no threat to the current regime. Come to think of it, she'd look kinda hot in fatigues and shades, medals on the pockets, helmet and boots. It's a shame only dudes seem to get the top job in the real world. Hmm.

One time I swear she and I were walking out of here and I saw a dude who used to give me trouble, had a strange way of showing appreciation for someone. He's alright. We all have our ways.

There's a retired fellow I talk to, says he sometimes drives along a stretch of the highway to see if anyone's stranded and needs help. His wife reminds him how there could be someone hiding in the trunk, but sometimes we reach a point where that doesn't matter. We want to cross lines and break down walls. Springsteen's hungry heart. I just tend to burn bridges.