~Posters with torn edges hanging from rotten walls~ The doctor told me something once she SIGSTOP DRINKING slapped her across the face with this NOI walked right out of that office went right down to the hole told the bartenderWHISKEY, MOTHERFUCKER he poured and he poured and I slapped my money down on that bathe man I had been driving around withe just sort of sat there next to this hooker she probably had something rotten way down there between her legs her eyes told of no soul emptied the bottle down my throat and ordered some chips the bartender told they'RE STALE and I give him a I DON'T FUCKIN' CARE, GIVE ME SOMETHING'He slid me a ham sandwich dripping with cheap low-fat mayo and saidENJOYI went back to my room and talked all nights much conversation it turned the toilet bowl pale

— Dave Matthes

Reaction time Touch the underside of a penny you find on the street Doesn't feel any different unless you close your eyes can taste the copper in my mouth now seeping from between my teeth There's an explanation I'm sure all this blood it's from all the times I held the glass too close And forgot to tip the dancer storm just passed and like every other one that came before it was left unharmed The dogs are all barking and the cats hiding in the basement And the sky is colored that bright yellow glow makes it feels like you're wearing sunglasses that you can't take off Wherever you are nowt's not here because I missed it missed the show missed the curtain call And forever more I am cursedlike a blanket without a body to keep warm

— Dave Matthes

Sad, slow music in the small hours of the morning isn't just sad and slow music. It's a narration. And through the myriad of morning dew, we are the twinkling stars that fade with the rising sun.

— Dave Matthes

She came towards me with a juicy gash between her legs that smelled like my best friend's sister" Just when I thought I'd escaped them all She comes reeling herself in pulling at my strings her hand quick to find my zipper She moaned the way a drunk old lady does And I wasn't even inside her yet"You don't have anywhere else to be," she managed to say..." My wounds have been reopened tonight already," I muttered caught wind of the gully ...the part of her she once kept sacred as a Christian smelled the information lifted my hand into the air and hailed a cable rolled down his window and saw her"Find another cab," he said, and sped off into the night took her home because she said she was lonely really she was drunk off something some memory or some choice she walked funny... -one of her heels had broken On the couch I left her, Before I could go, she grabbed my cocky slapped her across the face, and she pulled harder Her eyes stayed closed Her lips dripped Her grip clenched I wasn't getting out of this one unscathed"If I take my pants off, will you let me go?" I asked"If you take your pants off, I'll be suckin' that cock till you pass out from all the screamin'..." I slapped her again, because she needed it She laughed Saying her cousin beat her harder Saying her father knew how to really... ...make things happen asked her what her father's number wallet's get his motherfucking self up here to take you away, that's what I said She said he died, or killed himself"What's the difference really," she said, chewing on her hearse let go of my cock on her own accordant she opened her eyes for a moment She closed them again And I could tell she was sleeping Her eyes opened once more Her face red where I'd hit Hershey tasted the blood on her lip"Do you think if we remind ourselves enough, we can make up for all the pain we've caused others?" I said to her, "We can't. All we can do is keep ourselves from all those who don't deserve it.

— Dave Matthes

She once told me of a night that fumed with escapes and was filled with bedsides reeking of ecstasy; she told me the stars cast not judgments, but blessings, knowing full well the disastrous outcomes of the deeds they cradled with the strings of their young hearts. She’d inhaled the night itself, those around her doing the same, and so all become one. No disharmony. No discordance. Nothing to shatter the cause; nothing to unearth the beauty. So as we together ascended that front porch, allowing the glow behind the blown-out windows and the odious steams plunder us from through the cracks...time forgot to distill us, and our steps became as silver as glass. I could no longer deny the boiling words of my blood: tonight would be the beginning of a very long road indeed.

— Dave Matthes

Some people's glasses are half full. I'm the one drinking them. Some people have forgotten that Pluto is still a planet. I still remember my childhood. Some people are vegans. I have common sense. Some people call me Maurice. Some people call me the Gangsta of Love. Some people just want to live...but me, I'm the one still alive.

— Dave Matthes

So you mean to tell me you won't fuck anyone you don't share some kind of deep emotional connection with? What a sad, depressing, truly horrible life you must lead...

— Dave Matthes

The day I became a writer it wasn't the day a whore paid me in sexing exchange for one of my books which often happened and more and mores time went unit wasn't the first time someone actually paid for one of my books which happens less and less as time goes unit was the day I realized that everything is created by mango, Satan, Judas, phobias, excrement, even death even women everything is created by Manson I said to myself shit, let me make something let me tape together some words and sentence sand prose and predicate sand the residual shit that sticks to my ass after I wipe and compose a new kind of thing But then I realized that others had discovered this for themselves as Welland suddenly the world became a jungle Where everyone eats each other alive And shits out the same shit

— Dave Matthes

The door is cracked We used to meetlike water does Landon that more like when skin touches skin kissing fingertips or when air escapes a lung and is felt across the world've leapt over cracks in sidewalk sand swallowed away troublesome back pains that could only be fixed with someone else's pills We met by your house one stray Dayan you drove me to the bay where we sat and kissed like it was yesterday And here you told me that you loved mean that you always loved mean that you would always love Bethe wind blew, and I held you You rested your head on my shoulder and the wind blew warm Later, in your big red truck, we smoked some Greenland I kissed you harder and held your breasts, and felt between your Legrand with a gasp you told me you were in love with mean then you drove me backhand we promised it wouldn't be the end not this time The quill and inkwell on your foot'm a writer, and you are my greatest art returned to my hell and dreamt of you once more

— Dave Matthes

There just isn’t enough cock in this world to be caught suckin’ and be called anything but a slut for life. The cynic in me would call it a bad habit, but that’d make me a whore in denial and if there’s one thing I am, it’s an honest bitch. Then again, you don’t get famous for being daddy’s little angel, but you can easily fall into the Infamy Bracket by preaching a made-up Bible quote now and again. They say I’m shallow, but I’ve made a living out off diving the deep end.

— Dave Matthes