Books (Anti- What Have You)

(album: Everything We Could Have Done Differently - 2013)

Television dials completely out of style, and no one's too sure if they work.
Frayed wires hanging above the remains of hopeful mice
Who took a roll of the dice
And tried to nest on top of that box that once projected murmurs of wars.
Books stacked on books, water stains mixing with the artwork dye.
Atop the loft of literature there for looks, sits Catcher In the Rye.
A story built the same year as this house.
A classic build with a vintage tone, but no proof that this house was ever a home.
Books stacked on books in a cart table that once hosted Monday night rook,
A cold neighbor of piles of dust, evidence of rust, a pinnacle for broken trust.
Books stacked on books by five frozen beings seated at the kitchen nook.
Newspapers that block the faces of what are assumed to be parents
But it's apparent there's no connection,
Just existence in the correlation between DNA and similar genetics.
Familiar faces to each other but no souls connected,
No wires intertwine just covered by the same physical canopy.
Genetics may define similarities, but don't always define a family.
With books stacked on books, disrepairing, lack of emotional continuity.
The stereotypical story of drones in a thriving society.
Missing out on the proclamation that they need to team up
Because deeper recession is always coming.
Books stacked on books, sharing stories of families like these,
Not rejoicing in the fact that we aren't struggling, or are we?
With boys from war arriving home,
Missionaries being killed with no access to the phone.
Heartlets selling their innocence to put meat on their bones.
A fallen union now a broken home,
The similarities to the brokeness overseas in this cold family
Is the fact that just like those broken hearts,
Our houses are empty and the lack of love does not discriminate against the rich or the wealthy.
Brokeness affects all who lack the love of a family.
And maybe mom and dad decided to leave you alone
But you have family that want you to sit on the right side of a beautiful throne
'Cause you don't deserve to live empty.