Pawn Shop Guitar

In honor of National Tell A Story Day, I'm posting a story I texted my girlfriend not too long ago because she was bored at work and asked me to tell a story.

There once was a lonely guitar in a pawn shop down on some urban sprawl corner. No one ever seemed to want this sad old guitar. One day, a boy from a not particularly good neighborhood came and bought the guitar with exact bills and change. It was worried that maybe the boy just wanted to pretend to be a rock star and take it home and smash the guitar.

The boy got home, set up a playing area in his upstairs bedroom, and began to play the most wonderful song. The guitar never felt better and was with the boy as he grew up and toured the world as an indie rock star.

Rebekah Is A Fashionista

There's times where random things go running through my thoughts per happenstance,
and I have to admit I love how fashionable you are on a self-disciplined budget
Thrift stores and credit cards don't mix, and that's a good thing
Now before anyone rushes to judge, I'm no cheap swindler
It's 'cause you're living within your means, and that's sexy, darlin'
I mean no offense, but I'm tired of the artificial and all their material

You're a trend setter, love
And I'm falling for you even more the way your pretty dress falls along your soft shoulders
And I'm sucker for everything...
Yeah I'm a sucker for everything about you

Dormant Volcano

I'm gonna sleep soon, but I don't know when I'm gonna wake up
Inside my body's just a dormant volcano shifting to erupt
I know your heart; I know the struggle
Pushing to depart... unstable knees buckle

Your ever present lack of passion is a disturbing trend
And we all drift along hoping to outlast the end...
We can only be stolen from so much before we break or give in
And the strength of infinite possibility overcomes these accusations

Our throats are still open and our hands filled with everlasting water!
Every time you think you've won, and we've exhaled our last breath,
This blinding dust swirls into flesh, and innocent blood covers our deserved death!

Sons and daughters, there is a light behind a closed door, and all you have to do is knock!
O' my soul, we bend and move pretending we're striding giants tuning out the cry of the rocks!

But remember!
Remember!
Remember...!
Love still remains in a world that wants to forget!

Rain/Water

I know it's so cruel, but there's nothing we can do
So we struggle through the distance
Cleansing rain fall on this separation
Streaming water catch our hands in your flow

It's alright, it's alright
Just two rescued searchers learning how to fight

Love cover these anxious muscles
Grace overcome these strenuous days

I know
I trust
I know
We're gonna go from just trying to survive
to love and freedom being truly alive

The Things We Already Know

She said, "I know... it's hard though."
And I said, "Oh I know, darlin'. But love isn't easy in this world."
And she said she knew that too
"Then we're just saying things we already know," I said with a wink
"But maybe reminding ourselves is half the way to remember we want more than this world's promised."

Tired Bones

Kiss kiss your tired bones

Dip 'em in the warm water
Soak 'em in the soothing tea
No time for sickness when we're singin' these songs

Kiss kiss your tired bones

The pages of our lives haven't been written yet
So darlin', let's get outta here and let the ink on our heels tell our monumental story

Kiss kiss your tired bones

Place the stones to display the marker
Remember the evidence of this devotion
Trembling hands quake no more
Anxious hearts be calm

Kiss kiss your tired bones

Assertions In Elland

Ah another beautiful starry night full of tiny irises reflecting here in Elland, or the United Republic of Tanzania as they like to call it, but we prefer Elland. That’s what we elephants named it long ago in the Early Early Hour when Elbert the Elegant first laid claim and rule to the land. Now we decided to go to a democracy, and yours truly has been elected Queen Elainey by her peers. They know grace and clout when they see it. We’re big, but we’re beautiful you see.

I look out across the whispering plain with my strong eyes. Prancing zebras and speedy impalas and stupid water buffalo and tall white storks are all slipping and sliding around ol’ Wet Water tonight. My pack of pachyderms is enjoying Wet Water with splashes and fountain sprays from lithe trunks. The elly cubs are smiling from one floppy ear to the other. They’re tusks are just starting to come in. I smile too.

Wait… Sniff sniff. Lions are close. Lionesses blending in with the beige tall grass. This is new. They’ve never gotten this nearby to our proximity before.

Oh you lionesses, why are you so close tonight? Bored or just letting all that heat get to your dumb heads? I laugh heartily. Oh and your boys that they like to call “kings of the jungle”? I laugh again from the deep insides of my cavernous rib cage. We’re the queens of this here court and they have no authority at all so keep on walking. What about our masculine mates? Yeah their bellies full of earth may be impressive, but we all really know whose trunks trumpet loudest at the end of the day! I laugh again.

It feels good to be the leader of this sect of Elephantidae. Yes, madams, maybe you should look into it for yourselves. Making all of the decisions is like the sweetest juice from the highest Reddy Red berry trees. Only we and those meddlesome giraffes can reach them. (Don’t worry. I’m working on a plan to get rid of them forever.) But what I say goes, and if there is a fuss thrown, I quickly remind them where they’d be without me. Out on their stumpy tail is where! I am the reigning Queen of Loxodonta africana! My tusks and trunk are the longest and loudest!

So go ahead and flash your fangs in the starlight. Remember our ivory tusks are nothing to shake your pelts at, darlings. You know you can’t take our size or numbers.

You feel the shake of the earth as our feminine feet stamp down… the… trees… Hmmm… where is everyone…?

Now now lionesses, remember who you’re dealing wi-wi-iiii-ahhhhhhhhh!

The lionesses are attacking! I run and stamp and smash and thrash, but they just keep piling onto my massive back. There must be hundreds! (In reality, there were twenty lionesses.)

Their jagged claws and blood-stained teeth continue to try to sink deep into my royal, rugged hide, but I keep running. Maybe if I go into these trees, I can knock these horrible creatures off of me…

Where is my herd of loyal subjects? I cannot have gotten that far away from them… They have to hear this. Why aren’t they rushing to their marvelous leader’s help? I cannot do this alone. There’s far too many of them…

Are these fiendish lionesses starving? They’ve never attacked a full grown elephant before?! What is this?

Oh my dear Elbert the Elegant, I’m feeling weak. These wretched beasts feel like they’ve broken through my mud-soaked skin. I can feel my noble blood dripping down the ridge of my regal spine.

Legs… keep… churn… ing…

None of my aides or subordinates has come… Cannot keep goi-…

I crash into the undergrowth away from my scenic savannah. No one seems to hear the immense collapse. Can barely breathe. I reluctantly listen to them stalking along my back. They’re snarling like the uncivilized brutes they are.

One particular villain walks across my colossal back toward my refined, sturdy neck… One last thought, “What possibly could have happened to my fellow elephants? All I ever did was give them everything they ever dreamed…”

The lioness bites deep into my sinewy neck and severs brain stem from spine.

Is this what I deserved? I will never see the fields of my ancestors. They all died as nobility should, in their sleep underneath Elbert the Elegant’s gigantic feet on the softest beds of grass nearly as tall as our shoulders. Where to now…?

One meticulously eating lioness says to another, “This queen’s trunk is quite tasty, isn’t it, Calla?”

“It most assuredly is, Queen Leora. Most assuredly.”