A New Name For Everything

When the bus shelter windows and napkin dispensers surprise

With distorted reflections, it's never the someone you're hoping to recognize

And the rent is too high living here between reasons to live

Where you can't sleep alone and your memories groan and the borders of night start to give

When you can't save

Cash or conviction, you're broke and you're breaking

A tired shoelace or a wave

So long past past-due, a new name for everything

When the one-ways collude with the map that you folded wrong

And the route you abandoned is always the path that you probably should be upon

When the bottle cap ashtrays and intimates' ears are all full

With results of your breath, and the threads of your fear are unfurled with the tiniest pull

One more time, try

Stand with your hands in your pockets and stare

At the smudge on a newspaper sky

And ask it to rain a new name for everything

Fire every phrase

They don't want to work for us anymore

Dot and dash our days

Make your face the flag of a semaphore

All you won't show

The boxes you brought here and never unpacked are still patiently waiting to go

So put on those clothes you never grew into, and smile like you mean it for once

If you come back, bring a new name for everything