I try it keep my eyes open when I can,
though it's painful to be alive,
it seems I’d rather survive,
and (being alive)
I’d rather suffer
than wake up old and realize
I've spent life on autopilot and
never stared at stars or licked my blood.
Oh, god pull me from the dust,
Oh, dust tell me you’re not the true fate of all of us.
Hold on love I know,
Save me love I don't
And I'll do some saving too.

god I’ve scorned, god I’ve defended
god I’ve extoled, god I’ve doubted.
god whose power and weakness,
goodness and evil,
and grief,
I’ve decreased and extended,

I’ve never committed, I haven’t prayed in years,
I drink and drug to make me numb,
I’m eighteen, i’ve never felt very young.
I’ll never swear in my belief to you.
Tonight I’ll break my poor poem and make a promise:
I will flounder and suffer
The rest of my life,
And often lay in bed
For days on end.
I will always be soft and hard,
Cynical and romantic,
And mostly I will just be
Around.

Through all the roughness soon to come,
(The weight of a world
falls hard
on every shoulder,
eight billion times over)
I’ll love the ones I love,
And weep for the strangers,
I will hold out a hand
And save who I can,
Before we all fall
Into something,
Terrible and unknown.

I just don’t know a thing,
But there will be more words I’ll wish to sing.

This is not a poem,
It’s a promise,
I will try to be a better man.

I guess I’ll stand
And serve,
Don’t expect me to smile.
I’m not yet an ancient, I’m no longer a child.
I’m both, but now also technically an adult.
A man I am.
I’ll do what I can
With my softness and strength.