Butch Femme Planet - What made you smile today?

Stop Signs
by Shane Koyczan

Its all stop signs,
It’s all lines that shouldn’t be crossed,
It’s all interpretations that have been lost in translation.
Even when the meaning has been embossed in something that redefines stop signs
Something that erases and redraws lines For all the times curiosity gets the better of us
But until it gets the best we can test the lines,
Until it gets the best it’s all stop signs.

And then there’s you.
And I wanna kiss you so bad I’d be willing to
Cut off my own head and just throw it towards your lips
And you’d be well within your rights
To just swat it to the floor
but I’d redefine hardcore
lying there at the tips of your toes
because God knows I’d be trying to figure out
some way to roll towards them.
and maybe that’s crossing the line,
maybe that’s a little creepy.
did I mention that I like you?
And if I knew you better than I do
Then I’d probably know that creepy isn’t the way to go
So how’s this:
I wanna kiss you like a traffic jam,
I wanna move slow,
I wanna stop and go like I know at least I’m moving towards you.
And there’s no use weaving through the gridlock
because every clock keeps probably ticking and tocking
And only there’s time for all the amazing
In-between that’s been seen and heard
and each word that’s passed between us
like someone with somewhere to go and
I know I hardly know you so let’s go slow
like a turtle with a purpose let’s not miss a single minute
because every sixty seconds contained within are about two hundred times where
I’ve tried to coax each smile to bloom into a laugh
and the exact science of math can’t begin to calculate half
the time it would take to
make misery turn itself into a punch line,
one that was willing to mine past silver and gold
just looking for someone to tell you that’s never been told
I wanna hold you like mine were the last arms in the world
I want them curled around you like the red and white stripes on a barber pole I wanna give you a lump of coal for Christmas
and tell you in a million years its gonna be a diamond and will you wait for me til then?

Because that’s when I’ll be evolved enough
to melt all the other brains of men on earth
Maybe I’ve got a shot if all that remains are two gazelles and saringetti planes and me
of course if you’re willing to make sweet sweet love with animals I’ll totally understand. I’m good like that.
I’ll band together with whatever vegetation is left living,
Me, three weeds and a rubber plant will spend thanksgiving
saying how grateful we are that you’re happy.

I want you to feel like the banana peel under Charlie Chaplin's shoe
cos it’s you that brings the house of this heart down
It’s you that’s the chamber of commerce
in a town that’s got nothing to offer
but everything everyone can’t find everywhere else under the sun
I’m done with all of the every that
done thinking about where it is I’m going
I’m figuring out where it is I’m at.
And that has got to be the sign that one will stop me from trying to calculate the sum total of someone is that
This biological calculus has ever done anything for me
Other than be the something that keeps me seeking to solve problems that don’t exist
Like a swat team sharp shooter with cataracts
I’ve missed the point more times than certain Americans have been elected to the oval office,
which is always once too often,
And let’s face it sometimes two times too many.

But this time
I’m willing to pay interest on the penny for your thoughts
Mortgage my mind finance an expedition that
would find me a better way to get to know you
cos I’ve read through the short story of my life
and found that your name stands out on the page
your slightest look unlocks the tumblers on my ribcage
and you can engage my sincerity
when I lift my heart towards you and tell you in a million years it’ll be less than dust
the slightest gust will blow it away
but you’ll have to listen to wind chimes say that you’re still waiting for me
don’t tell me you’re not beautiful
you’re the kind of beautiful the blind would see
if we could figure out some way to give them three seconds of sight
when you tell me you’re not gorgeous I wanna pop out your left eye and show it to your right.

You’re worth crossing whatever distance it would take
Worth building bridges to make a connection
Because I’ve been secretly stealing stop signs
Repainting traffic lines so that it can only go one way
Because as far as I can tell dedication is the better part of foreplay
And I admit it I’m committed everything I’ve done I did it to make you smile
Cos it’s been the largest part of a long while
Since I had someone do that for me.
You feel like comedy after three years of being on the bandwagon of calamity
and I can’t be bothered with the tragedy of
not trying to get to know you I’ve been through enough wretchedness to know
that some flowers can still grow through the garbage
and you make me wanna take up gardening.
I’ve seen sadness drain the spirit out of this history
and if the worst is yet to come,
anyone who took the time to get to know me
knows I don’t run partly because I’m not athletic
but mostly because that’s life and i've met it head on.
I’ve gone the distance more times than
George Lucas has looked at Jar Jar Binks and thought fuck.
And until I can’t feel I can still fill
My days trying because I’m yours from the bottom to the top
And I’m not just saying I’ll be here for you, I’m saying I’ll never stop.