Distress
So fades the lovely blooming flower
Frail, smiling solace of an hour
So soon our transient comforts fly
And pleasure only blooms to die.
Happy New Year
A Happy New Year to you all
May you never fall
I put desires in the dirt
I was alone, I wasn't hurt
The sandman acted miserly
Awake my eyes in cups of gris
The quiet night falls like a tune
Another song that spells the gloom
And through the window's shattered glass
The ladders sprawled on burnt brown grass
The sun withheld its light from me
I said a prayer, "we shall see."
I woke up drifting it was a loss
The strangest feelings crawling past
I said hellow to the counter man
And bought a coffee paper and
Walked around the park alone
Before I took a bus back home
And through the window's shattered glass
The ladders sprawled on burnt brown grass
The sun withheld its light from me
I said a prayer, "we shall see."
The Adversary
Seen in every stranger's face
The one you recognize
Think, and you will understand
No Adversary I.
Names escape you, voices fade
Morning breaks anew
Always undisturbed by words
No Adversary you.
Born to never know the truth
Undeceived at last
Altered only in your age
Now your time is past.
Up With People
Sunlight shines on the top of the trees
The highest hills feel the sweetest breeze;
You got to get up to get free.
Open your eyes, the things you see
Are determined by the height of the ground you seize
You got to get up to get free.
Pointing Fingers
Why the fallen moon?
Why the sad all swoon?
Ugly people talk about it
Don't go on so loud!
I will sell the night through
I will celebrate you
By the way I talk about it
By the way I live.
Isolation builds on nothing
By the way I'll give you nothing
Offer up your soul to take
Silence it just lies awake.
History's Great Navigators
Breathe the sky until the atmosphere
Comes clean with you
Clean with you
Carve the sun into a diagram
That reads to you
Reads to you
Cross your heart, hope to die
Calm your voice, set your eye
Turn your back and go.
Meet me maybe on the afternoon
You find the words
Find the words
Hear my voice again and laugh with me
But keep your nerve
Keep your nerve
Leave the land alone, light the lamps
Count the cost, take the chance
Lose the life you know.
Cross your heart, hope to die
Calm your voice, set your eye
Turn your back and go.
Busy Little Bee
The smallest part of nothing
Won't gleam in the sun
The smudge of spent gray ashes
To think "I might have done."
Busy little bee
A dance will make you free
Rest yourself on me
A sting before you flee
And stagger to the earth
Living in a safe place
Quiet as a mouse
They will always find you
Crush you like a louse
Busy little bee
Work will make you free
Laugh and dance with glee
Laugh again for me
What lies within the flower?
Your body may betray you
Mediate your wants
It's really all to simple
The ghost "desire" haunts
Busy little bee
Tend to all you see
Your hive up in a tree
Reflect and bend a knee
And pray the moon, sun and starts grow old.
Reckoning
Still again
My thoughts return to wandering.
Fields of grass
Soften savage muttering.
Backyard dreams
Of meadows find me promising
Lushness that I sold her
Studded, stumped and bouldered
Still the swaying, idle playing
Summer scenes are beckoning.
Calm again
Ghosts and angers flickering.
Laps and leaves
Cast shadows on the glimmering.
Checkerboards
Twist and buckle, shuddering.
Flattened gaping grins
Stitched together hymns
Bring dismissals, sighs, denials
At last a reckoning.
You Can Never Tell
I studied well
Each mourning bell
I walked the true path along the stones
I saw the white dancing of the bones
You can never tell
You can never tell
Her soul was old
Mine bought and sold
Seek time alone for the winter can be cold
Seek time with friends I will put aside my woe
You can never tell
You can never tell
Her burning robe traveled al the globe
Cities turned to dust, forests turned to stone
I walked the true path along the stones
I walked the true path along among the stones
You can never tell
You can never tell
The Misfit
I banked the plane into the clouds the tundra's static surface
Drops beneath the spinning wheels of matter and of purpose
The Misfit's empty presence drags me to the earth and matter
The sun stops my waking dream
Much sadder, much sadder, much sadder.
Alone among assembled souls it's later in the evening
Back on land and holding fast to poisons and their seasons
He interlaced his fingers round my spine, between my ribs
Now I know that people die by telling themselves fibs.
Climb inside the cockpit and he's hanging on the wing
I look away, he slides inside, I sing I sing I sing.
Floating in the air, my body's still chained to my bed
I wander through the walls; I wonder if I'm dead.
Down below I see my shadow slide across the lake
His hand is on my shoulder, squeeze until, squeeze until it breaks.
Thank Your Parents
Lying in the back room
Head into the floor
Dream another color
'Till you dream no more.
Laying in the petals
Dust becomes the smoke
Fly into the flower
Until it makes you choke.
Gather all the playthings
Living and alive
Slip into a coma
Surrounded by the hive.
You talked about your parents
As gold spun into hay
I don't think I can see it
The blue becomes the gray.
Stuck inside the back room
Staring at the door
Dreamed another color
'Till I dreamed no more.
The rattle of the branches
The shadows of the oak
Fall into the flower
Until it makes you choke.
A year without a winter
Lost inside the hive
Slip into a coma
Your reason won't survive.
We talked about your parents
And crawling by your side
We found a nicer reason
The turning of the tides.
