CBSpicer Art

Read Excerpts

• Bonita Speedway
• All I Need
• Off the Coast of Carolina
• Emergence of the Butterfly
• Fireworks
• Echoes
• Second Best
• So Easy to Forget
• Worst Enemy
• Angel
• Iridium Anomaly
• Heisenberg Confirmed

Bonita Speedway

Summer trees send fallen leaves
Upon a road still wet with rain
Blurred by tears plaguing the years
And every turn's calling my name

Midnight run beneath the stars
Flying down a tree-lined track
Tires screaming to the world
This time I won't be coming back
Headlights scattered by the trees
As I am coming 'round the bend
Close my eyes, I'm letting go
Beautiful road, beautiful end

An obscure note I quickly wrote
Left to find a day too late
Changing sides of yellow lines
I'm setting up for my escape

Midnight run beneath the stars
Flying down a tree-lined track
Tires screaming to the world
This time I won't be coming back
Headlights scattered by the trees
As I am coming 'round the bend
Close my eyes, I'm letting go
Beautiful road, beautiful end

Close my eyes, I'm letting go
Beautiful road, beautiful night
Lonely life, a lonely end
Beautiful road, beautiful end

All I Need

There's three feet of snow outside
But I can still see the ocean every time I close my eyes
A summer breeze flows like my fingers through your hair
I still picture us there

The sun's gone down, the beach is ours
As we lie there, entwined beneath a galaxy of stars
Something's much more beautiful about a crystal sky
Reflected in your eyes

My paradise is not palm trees
My paradise is lying in your arms, you sleeping next to me
Morning comes, your smile is the first thing that I see
And that's all I need

But for now all I can is count the days
And wait for the signs that summer's on its way
So I can be with you again
And I can be complete again

'Cause you're all I need

Off the Coast of Carolina

The wind and the waves
Pick up
As calm turns to storm
The horizon reveals
The tempest
Three miles off the shore

The footprints we left
Sand-blasted
Into our eyes from the beach
And the dunes we built
To save us
Now burying the streets

A sand castle falls
Into punishing waves
And so will we
One last look down the coast
As the lights of the pier
Collapse into the sea

It's the same
Season and season again
Warm weather and calm seas
Hide the hurricane around the bend
You can flee and let go of my hand
But I'll guard our footprints in the sand
Sinking with the dreams that I can't save
Look for my tomb beneath the waves

You can flee and let go of my hand
But I'll guard our footprints in the sand
Sinking with the dreams that I can't save
Look for my tomb beneath the waves

Emergence of the Butterfly

The fall of autumn sends you north
Brand new as the scenery behind
Still I keep you close to me
Blind to all the changes deep inside

The changes deep inside...

I watched you spin your cocoon
Weathering the seasons and the storms
Remained the branch that you clung to
As you took to changing forms

Discard the shelter of the shell
That held you safely through the change
Ready now to take to flight
Knowing that you'll never be the same

You'll never be the same...

I watched you spin your cocoon
Weathering the seasons and the storms
Remained the branch that you clung to
As you took to changing forms

Now emerge and spread your wings
Fly away and leave me here behind
Leave me here behind
My emerging butterfly

My emerging butterfly...

Atop your wings of orange and blue
So freely in the clouds you soar
You are beautiful now
But you were beautiful before

You were beautiful before...

Fireworks

I sit beside you on the car ride
Quiet as I spend the night
Wondering what's going on
Behind those beautiful blue eyes
I almost feel I'm not alone
This town still almost feels like home
Every second feels so much
Like everything I used to know

Still I'm searching
For that spark that I once knew
It was nothing short of fireworks
When you had me and I had you

A solo from across the street
The anthem to our slow defeat
The sky, it screams
So I don't have to speak
The scene, it kills me deep inside
While I hold on enough to hide
And keep myself collected
Through our final hug goodbye

Still I'm searching
For that spark that I once knew
It was nothing short of fireworks
When you had me and I had you

I watch my hopes ascend
Before bursting in the air
The one thing I'm still holding
Is something that isn't there

Still I'm searching
For that spark that I once knew
It was nothing short of fireworks
When you had me and I had you

You had me and I had you...

Echoes

I remember the night was quiet
The sand still warm after a setting sun
Your hand fit so perfectly in mine
And your lips tasted of strawberry and rum
I wanted to freeze that moment
And suspend it like the stars up in the sky
Beneath the Milky Way, lost within
The galaxy I'd found inside your eyes

Don't you remember...
The way it used to feel?

It's all the stupid little things
We never noticed back then
Now the echoes of the love
That I could never forget
And the ricochets through my memory
The distant sound of you and me

I remember the little love notes
And laughing like summer would never end
Singing along with the radio,
"Heads we will and tails we'll try again"
And when leaves turned to shades of red
Counting miles 'til the campus was in view
A state away, but still so close
Home was any place that I could be with you

Don't you remember...
The way it used to feel?

It's all the stupid little things
We never noticed back then
Now the echoes of the love
That I could never forget
And the ricochets through my memory
The distant sound of you and me

Don't you remember...
The distant sound of you and me?
Don't you remember...
The distant sound of you and me?
Don't you remember...
The distant sound of you and me?

Second Best

I could take the change
And I could take the pain
With you by my side
I could take on anything
I could take the time
Until I came to find
That every day I dreamed of you
I wasn't even on your mind

I never tried to be
Your priority
All I wanted was to be part of you
But it leaves me haunted
The sense that I was never wanted
However much I loved you
However much I love you

If I could choke back the words
I wouldn't take another breath
If I could live without a heart
I'd tear it straight from my chest
One more hope I've tasted
One more heartbeat wasted
Never being more than second best

I could take the years
And I could take the tears
But, "In a way I'll always love you"
Are the hardest words to hear
Holding back the pleas
Watching as you leave
It's killing me inside
And I'm dying just to breathe

I never claimed to be
The one to set you free
All I wanted was to be part of you
But it leaves me haunted
I hope that you've found all you wanted
However much I loved you
However much I love you

If I could choke back the words
I wouldn't take another breath
If I could live without a heart
I'd tear it straight from my chest
One more hope I've tasted
One more heartbeat wasted
Never being more than second best

So Easy to Forget

I've perfected all my papers
Finals finally have passed
Taken by the cold blow of December
November came and went so fast
The trees are bare and driveways full
Old faces feign interest and delight
For some red wine, for some white lies
Whatever pulls us through the night

Bitter sips
Won't warm the winter cold
Empty words won't change
All the silence told
Still I come to hang my hopes
On the fire in your eyes
Rising with a dying flame
Destined to sink to my demise
In the ashes lies an image
But a dusty silhouette
That holds the embers of a love
You've found so easy to forget

Home for the holidays
Old flames igniting back together
A fire that I'd die to know
Just when I thought that I was better
Find my place alone in bed
As the wind blows through the trees
Whispering the harshest words
This end was always meant for me

Bitter sips
Won't warm the winter cold
Empty words won't change
All the silence told
Still I come to hang my hopes
On the fire in your eyes
Rising with a dying flame
Destined to sink to my demise
In the ashes lies an image
But a dusty silhouette
That holds the embers of a love
You've found so easy to forget

Worst Enemy

Framed by my mistakes
I've perfected being flawed
Transformed breaking myself down
Into my finest art
A true master of painting
The worst portraits of myself
Collect the images like trophies
Collecting dust upon a shelf

Perhaps it's only in my mind
That I'm not worth one breath I take
Perhaps it's only in my mind
But it's a place I can't escape
Open up my eyes to face
The person they refuse to see
And in that cold reflection
I find my own worst enemy is me

Torn apart so thoroughly
There's nothing left of me to break
Making honest compliments
The hardest words to take
I sketch my insecurities
Hang them high upon the wall
It's only when I hurt
That I know how to feel at all

Perhaps it's only in my mind
That I'm not worth one breath I take
Perhaps it's only in my mind
But it's a place I can't escape
Open up my eyes to face
The person they refuse to see
And in that cold reflection
I find my own worst enemy is me

Angel

A dark tree line
Recedes into a cold, black sky
The road, it winds
As leaves fly by my window side
And I'm so detached
Watching like a movie scene
Distant behind tired eyes
Careening down familiar streets
Fading hopes pull me to
Pillars made of oak and stone
Welcoming with open arms
Alongside a lonely road

And I ask,
"God, will You pull me through the fight?"
And I ask,
"God, is my Angel here tonight?"

Two bottles done
Open, empty, dead, and overturned
Just as I have come to be
Pushing past the point of no return
Shots now dance with sleep
Unfinished is my last image of love
A pencil falls
The only thing I'll draw tonight is blood
My stomach counts
Twenty little reasons to let go
Begging that tomorrow
Is a pain I'll never know

And I ask,
"God, will You pull me through the fight?"
And I ask,
"God, is my Angel here tonight?"

I don't need a lover
I need a Savior
Beneath the wings that grace me
I need Her arms to save me

And I ask,
"God, is my Angel here tonight?"

Iridium Anomaly

The atmosphere is set ablaze
Destruction streaks across the sky
A fireball signals the end
The heavens rain with our demise
Veils of dust eclipse the sun
An age of darkness soon descends
The world may survive this test
But for us it is the end

At the apex of our reign
The heart that I gave you to own
Now buried deep beneath the dust
Fossilized to hardened stone
An era over in a flash
This boundary will mark the end
The world that now bears my remains
Will never know such love again

Six miles wide with perfect aim
A calamitous impact event
Sweeping walls of winds and flames
Erasing all the days we spent
Years we counted by the millions
Nothing now but fragments in a sieve
All that's left to tell our tale
Are the bones of what once lived

At the apex of our reign
The heart that I gave you to own
Now buried deep beneath the dust
Fossilized to hardened stone
An era over in a flash
This boundary will mark the end
The world that now bears my remains
Will never know such love again

Our love was once the biggest thing
The world had ever known
Now eroding on a mountain side
Undiscovered and alone

An era over in a flash
This boundary will mark the end
The world that now bears my remains
Will never know such love again

Heisenberg Confirmed

Out of dust and empty space
Hearts, like particles, collide
In that big bang we came to be
My universe and everything inside
Formed with too much energy
For the forces to sustain
Diverging endlessly through space
Destined never to collide again

The universe we came to build
(From all the planets and the stars)
Now such a cold and empty thing
(To all the atoms and the quarks)
Devoid of mass and energy
(Say goodbye to time and space)
You were once my everything
(Now nothing of my universe remains)

Commitment held like carbon bonds
Now the chains fail to unite
Passion cooled 'til motion froze
Now the chemistry no longer ignites
So certain then of where we were
I failed to appreciate
The illusion of precision
Hiding how fast you had moved away

The universe we came to build
(From all the planets and the stars)
Now such a cold and empty thing
(To all the atoms and the quarks)
Devoid of mass and energy
(Say goodbye to time and space)
You were once my everything
(Now nothing of my universe remains)

Now nothing of my universe remains...