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Burn the books, close the ledgers, shut the doors, and teach us all...
Burn the books, close the ledgers, shut the doors, live in the now,
forget the past and whatever-will-be's.
Victors of war will always write the pasts
Blood and pain spelling names in the ground
torrents of truth will shield you from any doubts
walls of information create a never-be-found.
Any doubt frowned upon
Any voice pummeled into silence
All the sums have long been done
but all the sums all seem wrong
This is the age of information
So you should know what's good for you
Trading our wisdom of woe
for the grids we covet so...
A calculus of cowardice for the feint of heart
A calculus of cowardice, fucked from birth, dead at the start.
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Quiet shadow tracking
but I'm running free (reach out for this)
I can feel this sphere of distance
surrounding me (reach out for all)
Changed my place in life by drawing all these lots
Rorschaching my way through it all through fear, ink and knots
Bleached by sun and scorched by fear
wide-spread eyes soak up the here
Reach out for this/ Reach out for all
So through endless twilights I dreamed and waited, though I knew not
what I waited for. Then in the shadowy solitutude my longing grew so
frantic that I could rest no more, and I lifted entreating hands to
the single, black, ruined tower that reached into the unknown outer
sky. And at last I resolved to scale that tower, fall though I might.
Since it were better to glimpse the sky and perish, than to live
without ever beholding day....
Quiet shadow tracking
but I'm running free (reach out for this)
I can feel this sphere of distance
surrounding me (reach out for all)
Self-resilience, a pose and a threat
But I'd rather die trying than to crawl
crawl and forget
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3. |
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The ghosts I call up in these long nights
are painted on the back of my head with my own two hands
these memories, fleeting fragments, or mere
dancing shadows of once-last stands
No one remembers, no one forgets,
but if no one remembers, please, just let me forget.
Sunrise, sundown, sun long gone
Night clouds, staring back at what I've done
Chasing the shadows across the floor
keep myself from constructing these pasts
haunted nights, vivid dreams
a painful proof that nothing lasts.
Sunrise, sundown, sun long gone,
night clouds, come gather, and tell us all what was done
Snippets of sound filter through the curtains,
faint voices reaching out.
Numbed sense battered by my own two fists.
Collecting the parts left behind, at least,
that's what I want them to be,
as if trying to make sense of all of this.
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4. |
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“Are you still working at that diner?”
Chutes and ladders, snap and fall
“Your dreams have drifted...” but hey, my customers stay
And you know, I shouldn't even be here at all...
Mom is calling, kids keep asking
My world falling apart
This is my, my certainty / I am poor and I'm beaten
I've got a somewhere to start
Well, what can you offer me then
besides your high hopes and your benefits?
Do you think that they will pay for the four of us?
Pay for their education, pay for the world to come?
I didn't think so, well, I'll see you, say hi to your mom...
Well, what can you offer me then?
Big mouth, small heart, eyes drifting away?
My dreams may have drifted, but my customers stay,
and you know, I shouldn't even be here at all
My kids are starving, my mom has died
My world's falling apart
If this is my certainty/ I'm poor and and I'm beaten
I beg you
Give me somewhere to start
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5. |
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Drawing circles around the names
of those who passed and those who remained
Tepid coffee and lonely nights,
and holding on to fading, once bright lights
I carried my loved ones into their graves,
I watched my family anxiously trying to be brave.
But nothing hurt more than standing around the graves of friends
and trying to find some comfort and solace in tear-stained, clasping,
grasping hands...
It's not as much a fear of dying, as it is a fear of getting lost
We will all die alone, at least, that's what I'm told
But I'll carry the loss, the love, the loss of both young and old...
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