Wanting a Different Kind of Praise

How fast can you clear 40 lines of Tetris? And in how many games Can you cure your depression?

my best time for ‘sprint’ on ‘tetris friends’ was 1:21

Stack the blocks
Until they disappear
My absent head
Starts to fill with drear

Each piece fills a space Every time I arrange them in But an empty place Grows deeper every minute

when you’re waiting for that damn ‘straight’ piece to show up…

Stack the blocks
Until she disappears
My empty heart
Stays empty for years

There’s no gesture big enough
To turn your head 45
Except for my Tetris scores
From 2009

iN HIGH SCHOOL, I WOULD PLAY ‘TETRIS FRIENDS’. IT CONNECTed TO YOUR FACEBOOK account AND YOU could share A LEADERBOARD AMONGST YOUR FRIENDS. MY GF THOUGHT MY TIMES WERE IMPRESSIVE. WHEN VISITING HER Again 8 years later, this came up and it turned out she still was impressed - it felt like a dismissal of my other, more heartfelt attempts to impress her.

I moved mountains To get your attention and in 40 minutes I painted our affection

40 minutes is the duration of my 2012 album Goodbyenary code, which was also written entirely about this girl

Pitt, September / Twenty Nine / Eighteen: You smiled wider than I’d ever seen

i played a show at the mr. roboto project in pittsburgh on 9/28/18. the next day was when she had this astounded reaction to my old tetris scores.

There’s no gesture big enough
To turn your head 45
Except for my Tetris scores
From 2009

This wall isn’t big enough
To keep you out of my mind
You’ll hijack the psychic wires
Of our communication line

I’ll play ‘til my fingers bleed
And blurriness turns to blind
So long as it stops me from
Being hanged ‘til I die