Homebound - Sleave

On being comatose

Don’t worry just yet

You’ll feel it in your toes

But not what comes next

This mantra is typical

For all the boys back at home

It isn’t cynical

But passed on their own

She wasn’t sick with it

She had a power to her name

She dropped out with a kid and wondered how things got this way

And all this weight she bears

Pulling the corners of her back

Somehow it all just seems so sad

They’re all here

I’m out there

They’ve been stuck all these years

So tell me

Why do I get so down

When I visit my hometown

They’re all here

I’m out there

I’ll move west in a year

So tell me

Why do I get so down

When I visit my hometown

They’re homebound

They’re homebound

In school, they had their fun

White garland necks

But with the system won

A blue-collar death

He kept his cool with it

Sustained the scarlet on his neck

His hands were calloused with the labor and the ten years spent

And all this weight he bears

Affixed a fixture on his chest

He kicks and screams in hopes these final words may still not be his last

I’m sick

Of trying

These dreams

Keep dying off

My youth

Is lost

Count up

The cost

How can I make it stop

They’re all here I’m out there

They’ve been stuck all these years

So tell me

Why do I get so down

When I visit my hometown

They’re all here

I’m out there

I’ll move west in a year

So tell me

Why do I get so down

When I visit my hometown

They’re all here

I’m out there

They’ve been stuck

All these years

So tell me

Why do I get so down

When I visit my hometown

They’re all here

I’m out there

I’ll move west

In a year

So tell me

Why do I get so down

When I visit my hometown

They’re homebound

They’re homebound