‘ COYOTE STORIES ’ STARTERS
from the album by the crane wives. feel free to change pronouns, etc.
’ when i was a child, my nerves ran wild. ’
’ with the risk of fall, i never climbed at all. ’
’ my daddy always said “nothing worth doing comes easy.” ’
’ time is not your friend. time is not your remedy. ’
’ no amount of waiting will make you brave. no amount of fear will keep you safe. ’
’ the older i get, the more fears i collect. ’
’ i carry them with me. ’
’ what if the steps i take turn out to be mistakes? ’
’ how can somebody like me learn to say “come what may?” ’
’ your fears won’t keep you safe. ’
’ i could have been anyone else before you made the choice for me. ’
’ my feet knew the path we walked in the dark; i never gave a single thought to where it might lead. ’
’ i made a bed with apathy. ’
’ my heart knew the weight: ten years worth of dust and neglect. ’
’ make your peace with weariness and let it be. ’
’ i loved you like the sun. ’
’ i loved you like the sun: bore the shadows that you made with no light of my own. ’
’ i shine only with the light you gave me. ’
’ we could have had anything else. instead, you hoarded all that’s left of me. ’
’ i want to feel the fire that was kept from me. ’
’ the words i speak are wildfires and weeds; they spread like some awful damn disease. ’
’ i swear i didn’t mean what i said. ’
’ forget it all. you caught me in a moment, weak. ’
’ sometimes i just can’t help myself. ’
’ are we allies or enemies? ’
’ this will be the death of me. ’
’ remember when i could tell you not to smile when you were mad, and you would always crack? and we’d both be laughing in the end? ’
’ now, you’re not so quick to forget. ’
’ all’s fair in love and war, but i can’t fight with you anymore. ’
’ what happens now ? ’
’ i’ll admit i’ve had my doubts, but i want to be let in, not out. ’
’ i once loved a tailor who took eager care of me. ’
’ sew together my loose ends with stitches neat and clean. ’
’ my love is gone and i am left unraveling. ’
’ trim my weeds and give me room to grow my flowers again. ’
’ i am left here, withering. ’
’ sand my rough edges, craft new and lovely things. ’
’ i can’t help the fracturing. ’
’ i never knew that i needed you. ’
’ i once loved a man who kissed me once before he left. tied me up in knots and said he’d soon return again. ’
’ i’m trying to make something of myself. ’
’ i feel like i’m working with barbed wire and moth wings, cause i can’t really get ahold of anything. ’
’ i’m one deep breath away from a breakdown. ’
’ the world is hostile, and i’m fragile, and i need someone to kiss the cuts and tell me to keep trying. ’
’ does everybody have it together or are we all pretending? ’
’ is it really just me holding it together with one loose string that i can’t stop pulling? ’
’ i rip myself apart at the seams. ’
’ i find one weak spot and start unraveling, hoping i can find a better me, a fresh new start buried under me. ’
’ can we stop pretending now? ’
’ i know you want to plant your feet, but we best get a move on. ’
’ i pray today my soul to keep. ’
’ drop dead sprint now, my darling. ’
’ don’t look back now. ’
’ just try to breathe. ’
’ the monster’s coming, and it don’t care for you or me. ’
’ we best get a move on. ’
’ i’ve gotten good at leaning on metaphors. ’
’ i’ve gotten good at living on someone else’s page. ’
’ i cut my teeth on secondhand sentiments. ’
’ you can’t trust a single thing i say. ’
’ i keep my closet free of skeletons because i’m much better at digging graves. ’
’ i always dig up bones in your sympathy. ’
’ i can’t trust a single thing you say. ’
’ don’t look too hard, because you won’t like the scars he left in me. ’
’ i’ve gotten good at stretching the truth out of shape. ’
’ all these words are sweet. and meaningless. ’
’ i’ve seen good men spoiled. ’
’ their cries are a warning to everyone following. ’
’ no man should stand to work all his days, and have nothing at the end of them. ’
’ i’ve got no money but the change that jingles in my pockets. ’
’ time? i am powerless to stop it. ’
’ my papa was a howling man. ’
’ my dear papa gave me lessons in regret. he said all that he’d done would be for nothing if i followed in his steps. ’
’ my papa taught me how to hold, how to bare my teeth and growl. ’
’ the hand that feeds deserves to be bitten when it beats. ’
’ i may never be a rich man, but i can make sure that i am free. ’
’ the rich man will never have me. ’
’ it was a march towards ruin and despair, but we held hands all the while. ’
’ i swear that i loved you. ’
’ beneath the table, you would offer up my bones, and all the dogs would lick your fingers. ’
’ i dragged you through every room inside our home, but you still held me at night. ’
’ you still held me at night. ’
’ i swear that you loved me. ’
’ we didn’t give up. ’
’ we wouldn’t dare surrender. ’
’ it was an honest loss. ’
’ i fought with tooth and nail before the flag had flown, but you were already gone. ’
’ i feel the mountains shifting under me. ’
’ the sleeping giants are finally waking. ’
’ my pulse is clear, rushing in my ears. ’
’ i hear something calling me. ’
’ the moon is humming lovely melodies. ’
’ out of the ocean, over the harbor lay no sons and lay no daughters. ’
’ it was there i wrote a sad, sad song. ’
’ if my lover will not heed it, take my voice and take my spirit. ’
’ only my lover, not i, can keep my soul. ’
’ on some level, i think i always understood that these hands of mine were clumsy, not clever. ’
’ i tried to do the best that i could. ’
’ i couldn’t bring myself to hold you. ’
’ it’s a secret i keep tucked inside my chest. ’
’ this heart of mine is guilty, not remorseful. ’
’ there is love that doesn’t have a place to rest, but it would’ve buried you if it had settled on your shoulders. ’
’ a ship can never really love an anchor, so i did the only thing that i could, and severed the rope to set you sailing from my harbor. ’
’ there are times where i still wonder about you. ’
’ you are someone i have loved, but never known. ’
’ you’ll never see the reasons i had for keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you. ’
’ i am selfish, i am broken, i am cruel. ’
’ i am all the things they might have said to you. ’
’ do you ever think of me, and my two hands? ’
’ i want to stand on the edge of the water and see horizons stretch on forever. ’
’ i want to know that there are lands not yet touched by human hands. ’
’ i want to be the one to find them. ’
’ i feel like i’m lost in a desert. ’
’ these steps i take won’t go to waste if i’m moving towards something. ’
’ i want to believe there’s something left for me. ’
’ i want to kindle a love that doesn’t age, even when all the years carve lines into your face. ’
’ tell me i’ll be surprised. ’
’ i want you to prove me wrong. ’
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