Coffee Stains on Paper Planes

Coffee stains on paper planes
make it hard to fly.
Steely knives and harsh little lies
causing you to cry.

Patriarchal lesson plans
and subversive teenage angst.
You can see the invisible hand,
but you mustn't break ranks.

Cultivated individuality
thriving in the place.
Injected originality
apparent on every face.

Look both ways
before you fall
into his arms
and night.

You may find
their serpentine bodies all around you
crawling in, calling you,
embedded in your mind.

Late nights, dank lullabies,
thousands of bottles of gin
in the air, you may hear all the whispered goodbyes
of those who could not win.

Coffee stains on paper planes
make it hard to fly,
but dampness dries and wings again my fly
when the lonely singer knows that he never sings alone