9. Magnolia

dust in the corners of our eyes from sunny beach days grained within the instincts of our skins / pulled into the places where they told us not to swim by the feeling we had something there to find / by the knowledge we could never leave behind / left with only dust between our eyes 

dust around those boxes where you kept your books away and the floorboards of your room where they would sleep / you took them when you left, you didn't tell me / there were stories we would never get to tell / there were things that could have changed the way we felt / that they all would become dust along the shelves 

please, for me 
don't go 

dust on the shoulders of our raincoats tucked inside a closet in a house we once called home / breaking at the seams around my body in the bed / and the waves of your voice inside my head / and the palms of your ghost like a thread / cupped within my chest once again / fingertips and chambers once again / putting me to sleep once again / putting me to sleep once again

8. Dust

the shades have been pulled down for six months wouldn't know if it were raining mud / Leah sent me coffee in a box tasted like the planet holding on 

holding on... 

when we were busy going here and there forgot to check in-between everywhere else / felt the seams in my coat coming lose / collateral assures I've been substitute, but how is that new? / last summer felt so safe, had time to sleep and places to get away to... 

let's move the furniture around the room behind the bed are probably pieces of the moon / don't let it freak you out the fault is mine / tomorrow we can toss them back into the sky if it's how you'd like to spend the time / yeah, if you wouldn't mind, 'cuz it's been on my mind

7. Remnants

out of the streams of the woods nearby summer fair mist faded your eyes smooth and weighted / first flakes and a broken heater lingering stench of over-drafting, it's been clean between these hands / been okay with blankets stacking 

the cold will come the cold will go 
when you spoke first, you heard alone 
pressing palms to your lips when you're on your own 
the cold will come the cold will go 

past the fields, lake winds still Chicago planting our leaves further north, never sure of what we're going for anymore / drain all the wine in & out in & out of dreams / by the time the dues are paid, the singing hills return our names / and we'll have learned how to wait 

the cold will come the cold will go 
I've known your teeth since last it snowed 
kissing my palms when I'm out on my own 
the cold will come the cold will go

6. First Flakes / here.there

whiskey weed blood and tears scattered across riled sheets / gentle strokes along the spine, purposed re-grounding / searching unnumbered hours my love's seas for the shore / to lose echoed focus forcing vignette, labored vision of our soar / what happened before? / with horizons varnished in fetter clouds / copper-coated men boasting before their rusting doubts / a promise it doesn't last once the worst is in the past / sorrow's hands on the lock, patient silencing / from a distance hardly seen / quiet as the rain turns to sleet 

remembering more than I'd like to admit 
it's not something you can choose 
storm brewers find their own way through the door 
how long will it be before clear skies no more refused? 

with sirens wrought to tongues captive to gritted teeth / uninvited faces unkind smiling thunderously / swing chains stiffly straightened well above children's grasps / the leaves turn the other way, for this act they ask to pass 

the shade won't steal our glow 
only ourselves the shade follows 
the shade won't steal our glow 
only ourselves the shade swallows

5. Periphery

cornfields in the heat of summer dry without the rain, can you blame them for blaming us? what a shame is the semblance of… / church steeples peak at a slant rest upon the woodworkers’ hands and their hearts, might as well, this town’s borrowed straight from hell / I still imagine myself floating by from inside the shade of moonlight, my mother, she sings the song the first time is where home belongs 

I hope it’s never too late to drive to Hamilton Lake 
will we still relate when the giants take to the sun? 

no, I didn’t remember to remember but I saw that they’re tall as forever, and we’re what they see the story unfolds on a screen / I boxed droplets of rain on the window to put away all I saved for when we think it’s too late 

I hope it’s never too late to drive to Hamilton Lake 
ambivalence is taking the state 

in this chapter in history books, it’s hard not to look like we never had a clue, with misinformation we’d been suffused / they didn’t tell me the more that I look between the full and the fade that wherever I go it’ll border Ohio

4. Drive To Hamilton Lake

haven't been this ill in a while skipping over cracks cluttered under desires not hesitant upon arrival / the neighborhood is now a maze hard to catch a breath when you haven't found the house for days stumbling around without a trace / I'll start by cleaning the bottom drawer, I know it's winter but the oddities I can't ignore their under-currents rattle the bedroom door / and I can't afford to lose the rest, this coming May these temporal lobes need readdressed / by finding... 

I've digested readings, I've discussed this out loud 
I've dried my sources up to now 
this crawling orbit has me clenching my jaw 
somehow, there's no way to see it all 

I thought we washed these shallow nerves when we cleared the phone attempting not to tease the urge and staying out of that state for now / don't you know how long it's been? glad they got more, glad that I found better friends, just relaying the "why" and "how" / swear we called it a mile too soon, still got the burns from the rope we climbed down from the moon, it took an extra week or two / like we knew what was best to do, but I know preferred are relics more worth binding to...

3. Memory Symptoms

I heard your storm ensue 
possessed by shade in the mirror maze 
you had caved, and hey, that's alright 
we'll take this one day at a time 
remove residue, bearing teeth renewed 

you felt that storm release 
you called: "so long, little beast! 
when I spoke first, I heard alone 
but the shade won't shy me from the glow" 
Echo, won't you sound your bellow? 

you know that storm won't pass 
and talk is all he has left 
fuck the rest 
no arrest over you

2. Cave Release

give it one more day to fall before your eyes and climb the mountain range to jump for another flight / one more day / I see you through the haze but I can’t recall the place, stains upon your photograph my mind can’t take away / one more day 

I heard you leaving town in a far train heading south there’s a palace where you’re going but they’ll never let you out / one more day / in the border towns they’ll ask if you know the morning birds you’ll whistle all those songs and they’ll ask for one more verse / one more day would change it all 

once you’ve turned for good and the darkness holds you still those empty tracks and sirens will rattle out the feel / one more day / I’ll still think of you even though you stole the fun, those morning birds will sing or else the sun will never come / one more day would change everything

1. Morning Birds

The Captain The Ship is a project of Toledo, Ohio native Mickey Osthimer. The Captain The Ship is a frequent but poor dancer. He currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky.