Harder Harmonies

Like a shadow on a shadow, a phantom in a filmstrip, 


Faint glimmer

Of the past trapped in mother's old slides. 


Sits still in the

Apartment while sifting through some pictures


Of the child that he

Once was and the sense of hope they framed. 
"It's a shame,"

And I fear that fate while the humming from the street keeps me awake, 



He says, "I let life get twisted. Get worn out, torn up, and Late with the rent. 
And now nothing makes sense except the bench and That piano. A feeling nearing
Order when I'm pressing down the Chords."


And he plays,

And it swells and breaks, but what'll it take to make my life sound like

That. 

And brings a fever, a dream of sweat and ecstasy.

A Kiss on every hammer hit that follows as


The keys fall down and bring

An order first, then chaos, then a calm, that paints every shift

In
Murals on the wall.

And it presses to your neck, it clutches to

Your hips, softly sings to you of fireworks and

God and art and *** and

It's strange—


That it feels so right when nothing else does.

But all the while he's playing there's a humming


Coming up and

Through the window from outside. 


And even he has to admit a certain

Melody in it, 


But then why can't he harmonize? 


It's like the

City's got it's own song but he can't play along. 


He sees the notes

As they fly by but always plays them wrong. 


And in the bathroom it

Gets blurry gets warm and distorted; 


Like light pushed the orange of

The pillbox he poured in his palm. 


It falls to the floor, he smiles

As it hits, 
"Sounds a little like an instrument."

Like a voice in the choir, that hum and that drumbeat of life as an

Art-form and


Fire through the streets that keep moving us in silence

To phantom baton sweeps, 


Keep tapping to the tempo of our feet. 



And all the ones who seem to fit the best into the chorus

Never notice there's a song


And the ones who seem to hear it end up

Tortured by the chords when they fail to find


A way to sing along. 



And when you sing the wrong thing it all starts collapsing. 


Starts to ring out and feedback, starts lapsing and crashing, on

Notes that don't clash but that


Never quite feel like they match. 



And I never quite feel like mine match. 



There's A melody in everything, 


I'm trying to find a harmony

But
Nothing seems to work, nothing seems to fit. 



There's a melody in everything, 


I'm trying to find a

Harmony but


Nothing seems to work, nothing seems to fit. 



There's a melody in everything, 


I'm trying to find a

Harmony but 


Nothing seems to work, 


Nothing fits.