The Blog of Record for All Things Andre Archimbaud

Subway Stories - Depth to Down

Heaven knows the world
And shows the silent sounds
Of time passing over all of us.

Reckless wounds abound
Soulless tombs of time & tides
Of slashing around all of us.

There's a quality to happiness
That's flat & all the same.
Nice to be there...
No difference; when it came.

There's a depth to down.
Gives a sense of place and space.
Bounds to move around
There's a depth to down.

Biggest smiles cannot hold a candle
To the widest frown.
There is a depth to down.

Measuring the sadness seems easier
Than polishing the gladness.
There is a depth to down.

Heaven knows the world
And shows the silent sounds
Of time passing over all of us.

Restless wounds confound
Timeless bounds of ways & means
Glazing all around us.

There's a quality to joy
That's bland but has no pain.
Nice enough to be there...
No difference; when it came.

There's a depth to down.
Gives a sense of breadth & width.
Bounds to move around.
There is a depth to down.

Subway Stories - Easy Smile (Don't Be So)

No one holds your heart any better than you can.
Or owns your smile better than you do.
Given up before for less.
You should know by now...
Is it worth the moment?

Don't be so easy with that smile
Built to last a lifetime.
More than just a few nights...
Don't be so...

Easy with that smile.
They'll earn the rest of you
Don't give away the farm.

Don't be so...

Easy with that smile.
Keep your blue eyes blue.
They'll only keep you far from harm

Don't be so...

Entrusted heart & mind.
Putting it all out on the line.
Tell yourself another lie.
Don't give it away so easy,
It will not be fine.

No matter what they give
No matter what the lie.
Your smile's not worth the suit $ tie.
Don't be so...

Easy with that smile.
They'll earn the rest of you
Don't give away the farm.

Don't be so...

Easy with that smile.
Keep your blue eyes blue.
They'll only keep you far from harm

Don't be so...

No one holds your heart any better than you can.
Or owns your smile better than you do.
Given up before for so much less.
You should know by now...
Was it worth the moment?

Subway Stories - Verbal Architect (#happybirthdayshakespeare)

Construct the syntax in such a way
As to inform the world of what to say.
Worlds of words spent on his themes
Building all the actor's dreams.

Sussing out the lines & rhymes
As to inform the world for all time.
Kings, queens, jacks & jesters
Father of soliloquies and lectures.

If all the world's a stage,
Shakespeare built the pages
On which the entirety revolves.

There were men before, to be sure.
Those who played at pages.
No one, though, made the impact on the ages.

Verbal architect
Builder of dreams it seems.
Weaver of words, it's absurd.

Founder of dialect.
Deceiver of time with rhyme.
Deliver the space of pace.

Construct the lines in such a way
As to inform the world a way to pray.
Worlds of words spent on his themes
Building all the actor's dreams.

Building out the time & signs.
As to inform the world of its kind.
Prince & princess, Lords & Ladies.
All brought down with fear of Hades.

Verbal architect
Builder of dreams it seems.
Weaver of words, it's absurd.

If all the world's a stage,
Shakespeare built the pages
On which the entirety evolves...

Late Night Liturgies - Who Will Hold You As You Go?

Suddenly stripped from gravity.
No one left around.
Someone stripped the melody.
I hear not but a sound.

The silence it has grown
Since you took leave from this place.
I cannot wrap my mind around.
No more I'll see your face.

Soul departs so suddenly
She was grabbed from behind.
It is my own sanity
Certain I'd lost my mind.

Who will hold you when you go?
It can't be me, I'll let you know.
You mean too much to me you do...
Know that my heart is true.
Who will hold you when you go?

I could go on about her life & times.
But words will not hold fast.
Like an actress playing all her lines,
She was meant to last.

Suddenly stripped from gravity.
Her body'd hit the ground.
Someone stripped the melody.
I'll tend her fresh, new mound...

The silence it has grown
Since you took leave from this place.
I cannot wrap my mind around.
No more I'll see your face.

Who will hold you when you go?

You mean too much to me you do...
Know that my heart is true.
Who will hold you when you go?

Subway Stories - Same Beautiful Smile

Tragedy is a mountain that's too high to climb
It's all about the way you fall off the cliff.
Will I give it the slip?
Will it make me shine?

Horizons are the way they will be
Long, frozen and meant to be seen
Focus on the next phase
It's not meant to be mean...

My goal out of all of this,
To keep the same beautiful smile
Through this pain...
I've walked more than a mile.

My eyes never expected to glimpse tomorrow
For all too long they were fixed on the sorrow
Of all that had come down on me...

Same beautiful smile
Before and after pictures
Showing off my pearly whites
Not once showing my fear or fright.

Standing on the other side
On which I never thought I'd place
Hoping that the thing you saw
Wouldn't be erased...

The strength, the hope
To carry on...
The faith in me
To sing my song...

My eyes never thought to glimpse tomorrow
For all too long they were fixed upon the sorrow
Of all that had come down on me...

Same beautiful smile
Before and after pictures
Showing off my pearly whites
Not once showing my fear or fright.

Tragedy is a mountain climbed.
It's all about the way you see the cliff...
Consigned enough to be confined.
Let the air beneath give you a lift.

Subway Stories - Otherwise Entwined

She met him on a train or a bus or a plane.
No matter the time or place or space.
They met. That's all that matters.
Just the same.

She couldn't get him out of her mind.
Even though she was otherwise entwined.
He couldn't see what he wanted.
He was blind.

Otherwise entwined.
Connected but still lonely.
Longing for days more defined.
There you are, there I am.
Otherwise entwined.

The best rest nights are left to those who love so deeply.
Freedom is saved for those who pursue it.
Don't give away your love so cheaply.
The night before is based on those that ensue it.

Her smile was different in his mind's eye.
The sort of look that jumps off a page.
The kind of face that contains his rage.
But he was otherwise entwined.

His surly brow but gentle way
Was what she looked for every long lost day.
Her home was a wreck of love and mishaps.
Her soul was just a little more than trapped.

Otherwise entwined.
All other feelings phony.
Their only hearts in decline.
There she is. Here is he.
Otherwise entwined.

He couldn't have planned it out like this.
Laid his life out like laundry on the line.
The tough stuff should line up in the middle.
But, love's not something that should be a riddle.

Otherwise entwined.
Connected but still lonely.
Longing for days more defined.
There you are, there I am.
Otherwise entwined.

Subway Stories - Love's Long Look (Resilience)

Staring into all my tomorrows.
Blinded by yesterday's sorrows...
I see so clearly the love that stands in front of us.
It stands for nothing if not for trust.

Smiles fade...
Charades parade...
Love's long look left its gaze
On us.

Embracing all our chances
Girding loins and stances
Against the winds that want us to break
We may bend before we ache...

Embrace the wind
Regret no sins...
Love's long look left its gaze
On us.

Keep a lantern lit for us
May that warmth keep up the lust
Sparks to fire, tame the wire.
It's that of you that I admire.

Embrace the wind
Regret no sins...
Never had neither...to begin.
Love's long look left its gaze
On us.
On us.
On us.

Subway Stories - Don't Go

Kindness glances across every place and space you touch.
Little thought crosses your kind.
Little do you know just how much
You mean.

Don't go.
Now, don't you go & leave.
Don't go.
In you, I have always believed.

Sweet faced angels walk the earth.
Of this, you are evidence.
I've known you my adult life.
The look on you, benevolence.

Don't go.
Now, don't you go & leave.
Don't go.
Not once have you deceived.

Trusting you came in that first smile.
A willing partner in my life...
You begged me in.
Stay, be with me some more, awhile.

We all lose somethings sometime.
It's a matter of where & when & how.
I just can't stand to lose you now...

Don't go.
Don't you dare to go & leave.
Don't go.
For something so small, amazing how large a tapestry you weave.

Don't go. Not now.

Subway Stories - Sliding

Pushing through the pain that comes in waves.
Holding onto it like a life preserver.
Hoping, wishing, needing that it save.

At the end of the day, there's no difference between a lie or alibi.
Both are inversions of the same.
Both are conversions of your frame.
No matter how you try, no difference between a lie or alibi.

You're sliding...
Into the hole of blackness you'd never thought you'd see.
Sliding...
Down a path that life presents you.
Feeling that life resents you.

Subway Story - Silence Has A Sound

She looks at him thru a haze
A fog of love and anger.
He looks back, amazed
Sensing they're in danger.

Not a word is spoken in this exchange of glances.
Knowing that they've run out of second chances.
Neither could know what their hearts did hold.

Their silence has a sound.
One that's shaped from the ground
They've both held onto so long.
Someday they'll come around.
For now, their silence has a sound.

He flicks his last ash into the tray
That last drag pulled
Knowing that he cannot stay away
His nerves have dulled.

His silence has a sound.
Pushed & pulled his way through life
Now feeling like he's drowned.
Someday, he'll come around.
For now, his silence has a sound.

Her wayward ways left her all alone.
Sadness greets her sunshine.
Walking the street, like few have known.
This is how she'll stay...

Her silence has a sound.
Kicked & screamed around all life's corners.
The only place for her is down.
Don't know if she'll come around.
There is a silence to her sound.

There is a silence in a sound.
The before & after of time & place.
Embrace the noise inside of you.
It will leave you when your lips go blue.