Tummy

From the second dinner date to
The first long kiss
To the house key that imprints
In her strong fist
To the slow dance steps that she
Taught me in the hallway
Whisper, snuggle, lay in bed all day
I keep a heart breaker pistol
In my sheets tuck
Covering the carving of initials
On the tree trunk
The type of pressure buried seeds break under
Choke-hold the limbs till the leaves change
Color from the blood loss
To the love toss like a wooden stick to
A young puppy scrapping with his litter mates
Scratch until he rips the drapes
As he’s teething on the wood that
Was bracketed to picket gates
But it was our house and we were young lovers
My nerves separate to numb clusters
And look like lily pad patches
In my blood stream and made the love fade
Shattering the sun beams
But there was one thing certain
Together we brushed our teeth and
Closed all the bedroom curtains
And I held I held her in the sheets
We didn’t talk about life
We felt it was complete
Protected by a shell and didn’t speak
I’m guessing my intelligence had peaked cause
I could not out-smart science
From her trembling "you’re gonna
Be a daddy" smile
To my haunted thoughts of raising up
A latch-key child I had to

Walk nine more months in her shoes
Cause these are not those dreams I can abuse
Soaked when my baby isn't brave
From the tummy to the bottle from
The cradle to the grave

And I watch her frolic over black asphalt
Simple pleasures, jubilant confusion (hi)
Guarded by the curtains of adult hands
Who disinfect wounds with amniotic fluid
There's an instinct to fail you know
It's my job to make sure
My daughter is protected
Too many masterpieces weren't painted
Too many painters put their
Signatures upon sketches
And I chalk them over damp black asphalt
(garbled)
Drawn by the fingers of adult hands
Who disinfect wounds with amniotic fluid
And there's an instinct to fail you know
It's my job to make sure
My seed is protected
Too many masterpieces weren't painted
(distorted) too many painters put their
Signatures upon sketches (distorted)

And I remember pressing my ear
Against your pregnant belly
So I could hear what our baby
Seal had to tell me
The fragrance of pheromones
The season we’re sober
Massage my thumbs upon
Your over-worked shoulders
Cooking you cheese eggs and luke-warm pudding
Thinking of names
Shopping for newborn footies
Teagan full of fire with a
Tummy full of water
We’re gonna have a daughter
I’m gonna be a father
My hands are blistered working two J-O-Bs
Waiting for my baby corporate
Servitude is lonely november 11th of ’03
I smell the amniotic fluid bubble when I
Heard the news they told me
Telephone, urgent, Teagan’s mother is calling
She told me that you were lying in
A puddle of offspring and weak
Cause everything that was so sweet
Was miscarried onto blood soaked sheets
So from the knuckles that I
Broke on the concrete walls
To the tears in the hospital bathroom stalls
From the vast amount of blood
You lost in seven days
To the daughter I could listen to talk
But never raise i poured a 40 ounce of
Amniotic fluid to the concrete
I wished to be an author in his prime
I co-wrote a failed motion picture with you
The plot twist: god turns water into wine

Rock-a-bye baby are you fertile
Are you brave?
When the water breaks the cradle
Turns into a grave
And even if it falls, there ain’t no pad
That can soak up the gustation period

It goes rock-a-bye baby are you fertile
Are you brave?
When the water breaks the cradle
Turns into a grave and ain’t nobody sober
Cause God turns water into wine before
The gustation period is over

Walk nine more months in her shoes
Cause these are not those dreams I can abuse
And he performed it himself
Performed it himself god damnit

Walk nine more months in her shoes
Cause these are not those dreams I can abuse