5: Listen In Silence

I grew out of my bedframe a few years ago
So I've just taken it apart and stashed it in the garage
The matress is down on the floor and my cat's freaked out
But I don't mind, it's my own world and I'm happy with it

It's one in the morning and everyone's asleep
But I'm wide awake in my darkened room
Headphones on and the radio set to the lower depths
Celebrating my newfound nonconformity

I've got the Cure posters on the wall
And the random pictures of bands no one's heard of
A single lamp is on next to my bed
Just enough for me to scribble in my notebooks

I'm listening in silence, listening to the overnight
While the rest of the world sleeps their life away
I'm listening to the grooves of an alterative world
And I'll be heading there soon, heading there soon

My life is no longer constrained by the ways and means
Of the society I thought I was a part of
My mind's been freed and I'm pushing it as far as I can
Here in this cave of a bedroom where I lie in wait

Tomorrow I'll be roaming those halls of my old school
I'll be above them, knowing what nobody else knows
Because I've found the soundtrack of my new life
Down here in the depths of the radio dial

I'm listening in silence, listening to the overnight
WHile the rest of the world shutters itself away
I'm listening to the grooves of an alternative world
And I'll be heading there soon, heading there soon



[This poem's title comes from one of the music compilations I made back in the late 80s, and the poem/lyric itself pretty much describes me and my mindset back then, when I was a junior and senior in high school. I've been visiting these memories lately to work on my nonfiction work in progress, tentatively titled Walk in Silence after the first line of Joy Division's "Atmosphere". The book will be a view of the "college rock" era from 1984 to 1989, before alternative music became popular.]

[Crossposted at Dreamwidth]