Remembering Tomorrow
Remembering Tomorrow
By Michael McGowan
Copyright 2013 Michael McGowan
Thank you very much for downloading this collection. To me, this is a reflection on the past year, both personal and observational.
1.Journeyman
2.Hymn for the hopeless
3.Planetary siege
4.North star lost
5.I am…
6.Remember tomorrow
7.Burning heart, icy lungs
8.Like clockwork
9.A step too far to return
10.Shaping shadows
11.It’s okay to be afraid of love
12.As all things end
1.Journeyman
This is the last time
I’ll be at this crossroad
Shattered and hopeless
I walk it all the same
This path I walk on
Might be old and broken
But I’m not forgotten
For you know my name
These thick rusty nails
Have left these scars
Stories on the skin
Of where I have been
I’ve survived this hell
And adjusted to morality
How can I be the same?
When I’ve felt the flame
Despite the horrors I’ve seen
I’d rather go back there
What is there to prove?
I’ve been around here
For far too long and now
The love has truly died out
Rights have become wrongs
And they’re out for me
This way of life will remove
Any remorse I held near
Shall be wept in the tear
That you shed for me
Not because I’m free
But because I’m gone
2.Hymn for the hopeless
You’ve let your dreams die again
And it’s getting too much
It breaks my heart to know
That you would think as such
To give up on everything
And settle for nothing
To risk it all for a thrill,
A vacancy that can’t be filled
You would protest to say
The many reasons why
You’ve ended up this way
Why would you lie?
Now the truth cuts deeper
The truth is judgemental
It casts a long shadow
Over everything sentimental
We are immersed in grey
The colour has been drained
The stars have burnt and died
Your friends beg for you to stay
But we both know that
Goodbye is the only way
3.Planetary siege
I look to the night sky in times of sadness
The idea of not being alone in the galaxy
Gives me solace while being here alone
I will take off one day, free from the stress
I’ll reach for the stars, though no one believes me
And ill explore every rock, every stone
Until I find a place where I know I belong
And find the ones that make me strong
I’ll tell stories of the galaxies
And the wide open seven seas
While they put me back right
Using small sturdier pieces
And the ideals of light
There will be no more mistaking
This heart you’ve been breaking
4.North star lost
This life is a shipwreck, which is lost at sea
A forgotten thought forever undiscovered
All I ask for is one more chance
To just discover who I really am
Test your faith, push it far
Don’t be afraid to be who you are
There is so much left to say
That I will keep with me
Through the darkest days
And the clearest nights
There is no relief, no remorse
That could ever set me free
I swim in tragedy
Pushing us to the peak
With waves of apathy
Unsettled and bleak
Where do I go from here?
How do I escape my fear?
Where can I start again?
When can I keep you near?
5.I am…
I am the good man
I am the foundation
I am the good friend
I am the trusting
I am the willing
I am the promises
I am the hero
I am the power
I am the two-faced
I am the liar
I am the corrupt
I am your leader
I am your future
I am your sadness
I am your problem
6.Remember tomorrow
I remember when they used to say
Live life as if it were the last day
This world could end tomorrow
And you’d be left with the sorrow
Full of hope, full of faith and glee
We would see the morning’s dawn
Turn away from the evenings dusk
A day of happiness and memories
A day with only the close families
Oh how things change in a moment
They say you better pray
Or burn out and fade away
I scream up towards the sky
Don’t ever help me please
Because rather die on my feet
Than live a second on my knees
Those nice memories can’t stay
They belong back in yesterday
I won’t preach that god
Has changed my ways
I can atone for my actions
But a price I will not pay
Because I found out
That ‘hate’ turns cold
This puts out the fire
That burns my soul
The happy ring of roses
Combust like when Moses
Looked at the burning bush
And took down orders in a rush
Rules for a religion to live by
This is why I say goodbye
Rules shouldn’t rule over me
Just manners and decency
So I won’t change
The pain can stay
I’m forever stuck
In my ‘evil ways’
7.Burning heart, icy lungs
She said with a sudden surge of emotion
There can’t be love without commotion
No trust to be earned without devotion
This then set the moment in motion
A passionate fire burned in her eyes
As sinister words rolled off the tongue
‘I need to know how to feel alive’
And just like that, we were done
I threw my heart into the sun
And I shared my pain with no one
I curled up into a tiny ball
And kept the hurt bottled up inside
My skin feels like stone cold grey
I kept still and shook where I lay
As words resonated in my mind
I realised, that this was how to feel alive
8.Like clockwork
I trade blows with the man in the mirror
His grieve stricken face still haunts me
He gave up everything and lost it all
So there must be truth to this rumour
That he worked ‘til his hands said stop
r /> Made his way and hoped to survive
Today’s hard felt stubborn monotony
To earn his one shot at getting to the top
His family of three, mum brother and me
Began to cry in his long absences
Though he wasn’t home it drive us apart
Knowing where he would continue to be
Days turned to weeks and weeks to years
His skin began to wrinkle and wither
Too long had he waited for his chance
That now his ending was soon to be near
While he kept on, forever working hard
His kids had grown up and gone for good
And raised loving children of their own
When he took his ID from the lanyard
He took one more look around
At the place he had slaved at
And picked up a box, dark brown
Before leaving without a sound
9.A step too far to return
For too long you have stood out of reach, now it’s time to return
I’ve watched you slip away into the darkest oblivion
I reach out to pull in and bring you back from the brink
One day this will be a lesson that everyone needs to learn
I’ll put my life on the line for you because I know that you would too
Some things are better off forgotten in places that we can’t discover
Everyone deserves a second chance to rewrite how their story ends
But we wonder into the depths of our past to try and relive it
And re awaken the hateful monsters we didn’t want to uncover
When we lose the power to speak, we let others shout our words
We shall unite as one. This is who we are, this is our reality
we shall get through this together, because we are a family
10.Shaping shadows
Cries echo unforgivingly in the night
The streets flood with their tears
As the blood drips from our hands
And the youth die in the sands
We are faced with our darkest fear
Aligned with our own self-defeat
The reaper would be lost without us
And the atrocities we openly commit
If you could find your hope in a crowd
Of familiar faces that you’ve let down
Then you could have a way to be okay
If I could gather the strength a hundred times
Then perhaps I could have made a better life
But I must live with choice I made anyway
When I reach my bitter end, eventually
Please rewrite the words upon my grave
Preach the word of my horror story
Tell of the lives that I couldn’t save
Tell the world how they’ll haunt me
And if they listen, tell them I’m sorry
11.It’s okay to be afraid of love
There’s a world wake in your smile
That sends chills down my spine
And in that brief moment I know
That I will never want to go home
My wounds start to fade away
And I know that it will be fine
So long as this day isn’t wasted
I might not feel like I’m so alone
The way the sun shines on you
Hypnotises all sense of reason
It blinds my rose tinted eyes
Keeping me sweet and in line
But now the clouds come in
And wash away your fake face
To expose a truth I’ve known
That you were never mine
I’m so lost now without you
Time won’t let me move on
My heart can’t accept that
To you, love was a game
I was one of many pawns
That you freely manipulated
I feel sick to my stomach
I will never be the same
I can hear the people asking
Just where the hell I am
But I am not on this earth
I have vanished in the night
There’s too many people crying
But I’ve taken off into the sky
Up from the low rocky ground
And embraced the holy light
12.As all things end.
As this time comes to an end
I wonder how I’ll be remembered
Will you see me as kind hearted?
Will you see me as a friend?
I gave my heart for something more
To better myself and live my dream
I put my trust in those close to me
Something I haven’t done before
And as a result I lost those mean
But kept the few that I truly adore
Life can be lonely, life can be cruel
It won’t hesitate to make you a fool
Life will break the strongest spirit
‘Til you don’t know what to do with it
However friends keep you sane
The blinking light in the abyss
The fake ones move on elsewhere
Whereas the real ones will remain
Through your darkest hour there
A presence that any soul will miss
Read these words, nice and clear
I will forever keep you near
And for what we’ve been through
All I can say is… Thank you.