The use of Red Eyes first came from the Switchfoot song Red Eyes. It was such a perfect ending to Hello Hurricane. I can’t tell you how many times I have blasted this while driving and rocking out. The line in the song, ‘nowhere feels safe to me, nowhere feels home, even in crowds I am alone.’ I dig and when I was writing this I was thinking of how much I appreciate my mom. She is a flight attendant. I find it slips into many a poems my references to airplane and airport language. I love using the idea of traveling as a device to show the escapism in our souls. Jetway, fuselage, my samsonite, turbulence..Wanting to not be around certain people at times, feeling lonely, wanting to run away. God sees. And in God seeing our cry for acceptance should give us red eyes. Either we cry or we pull our hair out wrestling with longings that are most of the time just a sign that God is doing more in us and that their is more…

All my life been searching for that deep down satisfaction

Now I am lacking and missing in action, love has slipped from

Me, love has moved away from me, now the sky opens up pleasantly,

And draws near to me, hearts all around open up to me, now I can

Barely see, red eyes tonight, Persian queen tuck me in, make me clean,

Turbulence you lived in, turbulence you stayed in, out the door it became

Fall to blame, winter to never change, balmy breeze to put you at ease,

Orange town on fire now, down town a look to tell all, see safety is what

I want, but love is what you have, nothing now tastes the same, not that

Little bit of fame that I have to my own name, now all I want is for things

To never change, now I feel like I need to rearrange this time of mine,

And change my mind to be a man now, to grow up now, and give in now

To that which should overtake my choices, volition kicking, premonition

Down the freeway, just a backseat chaser listening to those in front now

To afraid to drive down this narrow road, unsure as always of that which

Sits inside of me, doubting that power so easily, red eyes tonight trying

To get it right, up late for all the wrong reasons, notebooks full of lies,

Continuing to pile up, now Lord keep me screwed up, fix up now on that which

Is needed, new revolutions per minute down this freeway drive, the

Summer sense changing now, all my expectations lifted now, just waiting

For change, but now Love is all that remains, time no more needed to be

Wasting away, time now for me to live and say yes to you today