Inspired By

It's your best friend at the drug counter with hunger in his eyes
It's that feeling you get when he's wasted
Swings his arms back and forth from side to side
But he still speaks so polite, and high, of you
Well he speaks of me too
We say come on down
let's talk about it like we used to but it's over
He's over my head

It's the way the voices carry down the hall
Right through your bedroom wall from your parents room
While you're lying in bed, eight, nine or ten
Give or take a year or two

Someone's been lying
Someone is leaving
Because someone's been receiving calls from out of town
They sit you down in that kitchen chair
Run their fingers through your soft blonde hair
Not a word is said
Until you ask who was at fault
And man, did her face get red
She said it's over your head

It's the smell of warm spit on lipstick
Like iron and it's not too different from the sound of a crack to the chin
Like splintering wood the day when he came out to him
He said "Now I ain't raise no faggot boy
Don't sit there so primped poised and coy
You've torn apart this family
You're mother and brother and me
Can't be seen again
Just think of what they'll think of me

It swings back around like the weather
It might be this way forever
We're not all in this together despite what they said

I want to understand and I think I understand
Because I read about it on the internet but it's over my head

One day my Mother will let me see her alive and then she'll let me see her dead
Just like my Grandpa did
Just like my Grandma did
Just like Malia did
And I wish them the best
Because they're on their way to heaven
Just like they believed they could have
Like they believed they would have
Like they believed they should have
But they're behind Noah Yates at the gates
With a sign
"You must be this tall to ride"
With a line
That's over his head

It's over our heads

By the time we get some closure
It will have all gone over our heads