Broken Limbs

This road keeps changing names
As we separate
Someone should tell the city planner
It should last forever
No one remembers who they were named after
The chips on our shoulders
Dissipate like smoke signals
And someone killed the messenger
Killed the messenger
And someone cut all the lines
And no one knows how to repair
And someone burned the family tree
All the way down to the roots
And someone killed the messenger
Killed the messenger
And the clock ticks on
Only time will tell
If there’s still
Time at all
For the mark of reason
_____ of the people and places
Rules of thumb and euphemisms
Origins and bloodlines and hand-me-downs
Stories and paintings and moving pictures
The layers and liars of addiction
Blinking and winking lights
The bruises and broken limbs
Are something someone wants