An Ode to the Nite Ratz Club

The gas inside the combustion engine
Took away all of the mystery
And adventure from the walk to your house
In the dark
So that we could stay out all night long
And be king of all the roads
And the woods, and the lake, or anything we chose
Because everything was ours
And we would spray-paint "NRC"
So that everyone would know

We would break into the factory
Our childhood autonomy
Had no respect for authority, or property
Or your asshole neighbors' complaints
And I still have all the keys
To the forklifts that we never got a chance to drive around
Or tear the building down ourselves

From the top of the water tower
We spilled our guts on one another
And we compiled them together
And we all shared the same heart
And we hated all construction
But we loved all their machines
And they hated our destruction
And we picked their locks apart
And we thought we were damn clever
Because they never kept us out
And we thought we'd live forever

Until the night when it got way too serious
And you showed me your damaged wrists
And you broke down and we embraced
And nothing at that time meant more to me
And if I had only known
That it would be the last time
We'd be on that level with one another
I would have never let you go

I still walk those paths at night, but now just on my own
I recite to myself every story
In hopes that I will never let them go
I'll hold on to every polaroid from France and Rome
And remember the nights at the Alamo
As if it were my second home
And I know that we had no idea what we were doing
But an artist's first work can be his greatest
Under a different set of lenses
Our ideas of staying close together for all time;
I wish I still had that same state of mind