The marriage went stale
We lived our separate lives
I had a pocket full of floozies
She slept with some wives
Drinking in a crowd
And laughing way too loud
Ignoring what I lost
Forget about the cost
On a dusty old road
With nothing left to see
I burned down every bridge
From Barstow to Western Tennessee
Drinking in a crowd
And laughing way too loud
Ignoring what I lost
Forget about the cost
I'll buy another round
And cut myself some slack
I'm telling you for sure in this crazy ole world
There ain't no way to turn ever back
Drinking in a crowd
And laughing way too loud
Ignoring what I lost
Forget about the cost
By Richard W. Bray
Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do
–Hank Williams, Cold Cold Heart
Don’t blame yourself
For your broken heart
It might feel heroic
But it isn’t very smart
There’s something you know
But you’ll never understand
She made you so happy
But she didn’t give a damn
You could spend some time with a real live girl
But you’d rather keep bleeding in Imaginary World
You’re a really sweet guy
But you gotta let it go
It wasn’t your fault
When she stomped on your soul
I really wanna love you
But I can’t compete
With a sad sad song
That you wanna repeat
You could spend some time with a real live girl
But you’d rather keep bleeding in Imaginary World
By Richard W. Bray
Telling your life story
Leaving out the facts
Time travels sideways
Turkeys go quack
Nothing that happens
Is ever your fault
Look inside a mirror
See who you're not
Crazy as a hound dog
With a pigeon up its ass
Fantasize a future
Wish away the past
Nothing that happens
Is ever your fault
Look inside a mirror
See who you're not
Blood on all your garments
Dripping from your hand
But you never stop saying
You're an innocent man
Nothing that happens
Is ever your fault
Look inside a mirror
See who you're not
By Richard W. Bray
paint a picture
sing a song
tell yourself
you’re never wrong
swallow anger
exhale fear
stomp on hope
and plug your ears
busting kindness
crushing faith
feasting on
an empty plate
live your hatred
love your lies
empty hearts
and cold goodbyes
by Richard W. Bray
"To see what's right in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
–George OrwellWhen you don't wanna know
What you know
It takes a massive toll
It'll singe your living soul
When you don't wanna know
What you know
The fables that you tell
The fiction that you sell
When you don't wanna know
What you know
What people say and do
What's right in front of you
When you don't wanna know
What you know
His face is full of doom
He smells like cheap perfume
When you don't wanna know
What you knowWhen you don't wanna know
What you knowWhen you don't wanna know
What you know
by Richard W. Bray
it's easy to hurt
another human being
if you're careless
if you're stupid
or just plain mean
you can't take back
the hurt you give
you're gonna
have to face it
as long as you live
it doesn't matter
how bad you feel
it ain't gonna help
the other person heal
you can't take back
the hurt you give
you're gonna
have to face it
as long as you live
by Richard W. Bray
I thought I was your only one
You tore my insides out for fun
Don't be so careless
Don't be so dumb
Don't hand over your heart
To self-centered scum
You were such a sparkly girl
You dropped a napalm on my world
Don't fall for the phony
Don't fall for the hype
Don't expect a dream
To repair a broken life
Life is a bucket full of stink
I'm gonna end myself with drink
Don't sing the blues
For your stupid decisions
Don't blame the world
For your own masochism
by Richard W. Bray
Telling more lies
To prove you aren't a liar
Committing arson
To cover up a fire
Pretending away
Facts that burn your soul
Pretending away
Truth that takes a toll
Festering lilies
Troubles grow like weeds
Caress and fondle
The monsters that you feed
Pretending away
The pain and the smell
Pretending away
The things you never tell
Cardboard illusions
Menageries of glass
Forsaken future
Imaginary past
Pretending away
What everybody sees
Pretending away
Your own reality
by Richard W. Bray
Tell me on a Friday
If it isn't working out
Give me two days
To cry my eyeballs out
I'll arise on Monday morning
With a pile of work to do
Before I can remember
There's no more me and you
The paradise where roses bloom
Is just another lonely room
Tell me on a Friday
When my day is done
And all my happy hopes
Can set with the sun
I'll have 48 hours
To completely fall apart
Then I'll pull myself together
And resuscitate my heart
The paradise where roses bloom
Is just another lonely room
by Richard W. Bray
a man-hating woman
and a woman-hating man
raised a couple kids
in a pool of quicksand
daughter got away
and overcome the sad
angry little mama's boy
blames everything on dad
a man-hating woman
and a woman-hating man
smells and yells and warning bells
forty years of rage
and they never even knew
they built their own cage
by Richard W. Bray