The Portfolio of Richard Harrington

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Benefits of Growing

2011-12-8

I made your young crush fade away
amidst your silent sorrow's sound,
while all your friendships slept around you
in their beds beneath the ground.

You sang,
"I would have taken you in the stars.
I would have stolen your name.
I would have carried all your fears.
I would throw dirt into your grave"
— or something like that.

I led her off into the night,
forgot her silver eyes and lips.
That nervous memory she gave you
was the one you all but missed.

You sang,
"This is the way of life around me.
This is the piteous will.
This is the lover I despise.
This is that foreign hunter's kill."

No idea where you're going,
just an inkling why you were here,
all that's left of you is in your heart
and that's where you kept her tears.

You sang,
"Something was taken by the old clock.
Something was in these embers.
Something was supposed to be there.
Something I just can't remember."
— to me.

Stolen by a fear of beauty
in the moment of her power;
always strong, you held fast despite me
though she is me gone sour.

Her Ghost

2011-11-8

This is the closest she's ever been
when her shoulder touches my arm
unsure of how she got there
but assured of why she stays

She feels it as we smile
when we don't know what we want
we're marching blindly to the end
yet each step remains a thrill

There are days she'll never know
when they've long since gone by
crashing sweetly along the shore
happily home in this new land

She tells me I should wake
when her lips press against my own
that's all that remains in my dreams
so I'm not scared to die asleep

As Stubborn

2011-10-27

You won't like who I am
when I listen to the sea;
who I am when you're alone.

I don't think you can know
how I feel like I'm flying,
when I'm happy on the ground.

When you're most uncertain
is when I believe the most,
what you say I am to you.

So I've trembled before,
as a pillar without load;
bowed down in a gust of wind.

I've waited my whole life
to be older in your arms,
always as stubborn as time.

Yet you like me today,
so I hope you understand
when my mind is out to sea.

Live on Bread and Water

2011-10-4

Let me travel with you as your lover;
Go where you will go,
do what you will do,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

I don't ask for your vows or your word;
Say what you will say,
take what you will take,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

Stab me in the back and throw me out the window;
cry when you will cry,
break when you will break,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

I will not change for you;
be what you will be,
live how you will live,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

Long Way to Love

2011-8-7

So she kisses my back,
and I curl
beneath the weight;
these feelings sit heavy,
but I think
that I know the way.

So we hope, for tonight,
the engine
will not succumb
to our quick-beating hearts
— there is still
a long way to love.

This journey's not over
past the distance we drove;
with our friends in the headlights,
down a thousand new roads.

And just over this hill
is our home,
at least for one night;
we'll move on tomorrow,
as we go
where we think is right.

This journey's not over
past the distance we drove;
with our friends in the headlights,
down a thousand new roads.

Farewell to yesterday's
honeymoon,
so we've been told;
we'll hold to these things hoping
they remain,
as they always should.

Wedding Vows

2011-7-18

Throughout our lives
there are many promises that I,
or we,
may make to each other.

There are things I may forget,
there are moments in which I might waver,
and there are feelings that may change,
as we change,
through the times we spend together.

However,
there is one promise I will always keep.

As the times change,
as we wonder off course,
and as our minds surrender to age
– with you, I will always hold strong to this one thing.

I promise
to care for you.

I make this promise knowing all that it entails.

I will hold you up when you are weak,
embrace your brilliance as it dwarfs my own,
and worry with you.

I will remind you that life is beautiful,
share all the knowledge and wisdom that I have,
and be comforted when you offer protection.

I will embrace you as tightly as I am able,
as our lives march towards an assurance
of our beautifully defective qualities.

And as we grow a lovely family
as those added to our life need us too,
I will love them as I love you
– for those children held in your heart,
will have an equal weight in my own.

And as our faces grow old,
as our hearts beat along the final stretch,
perhaps we will not stand with the mountains
and we may not feel the lights of the brightest stars,
yet so long as wherever we go,
we walk most of the road there together,
I know the destination will be alright by me.

I love you, Natasha
so I will care for you
– for so long as time does not end.

Werewolf

2011-6-13

As the leaves and clouds gave way
To the faintest slivers of light
Which etched deep across his face
The myriad tales of life

Then, in our last moment of empathy,
What once stood as a proud man,
Hunched behind my husband's beard
And growled from behind his widening grin

This was the smile which had loved me
When my beloved returned from sea,
And the man who would embrace me
Beside the empathy of the waves

This had been our life
But now that face has gone afar
With the glint of light in this old dog's eye
And the silver that buried him in the leaves

Odyssey

2010-11-13

You sail around this rock as you're looking for your home
And you dive into the ocean to drink the dark unknown

Here, smiles melt like candy, but the saccharine puts up a fight
And you sleep naked on the reef, because an hour's not a night

You would dig your own grave just to see her again

But only one coin's in your pocket

And the stone carver asks another for her name

So you tie to the mast with their voices at your back
And you seek your home no matter how their words attack

Then you roll over in the morning, beaten and old from the war,
But in the time it took to heal she's once again out the door.

The Smile of Apathy (Lacuna)

2010-6-19

Knowing what will come
will come;
what will go,
will too.

With all this heartbreak
alone in a crowd;
set fire to the world,
and freeze in the night.

When the rain falls
and you've forgotten your umbrella;
your feet bring you back home,
to rest divided by the storm.

But the days pass
and soon you learn;
you walk again into the night
this time with a hand in hand.

Cynosure (Lacuna)

2010-4-12

Splintering like glass,
up from the grave;
down inside your words
so over-depraved.

Feel your beating heart,
sounds of your love;
see your whole self there
where touch ain't enough.

Cynosure to me,
fiery for some;
wind across your cheek
so icy and numb.

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