1. |
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These images mark the end of summer days.
No place to go that’s safe, there’s no use running away.
Being brave in this case: We hold back, not retaliate.
Or be lowered from our ledges and lured out in the rain.
“Shock, pain, concern and anger.” All these problems were caused by strangers.
Well now there’s nothing left to say or do to make this place less of a mess.
Sermons for our suffering. Our families, for friends.
How do we defend when it’s a surprise?
The one’s who did it didn’t even survive.
Some say treat this as “only a test”.
Their stories make no sense and there’s nothing left now.
How many times do we need to debate before we start seeing some action take place?
We are tired of reliving the same hour that you won’t let change.
Take back the power. We end this today.
So tell me; where are you hiding? Are you still smiling?
We are still fighting, children are crying.
People are dying but the men keep multiplying.
They told us we’d find you but that won’t be the end.
We can’t prevent it, people will die but who’ll be blamed for all the lost lives?
Don’t say that this was only a test, take a look around you now,
There’s nothing left.
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2. |
Leather
04:22
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Looking over your shoulder at all the clouds closing in.
They hover and hang over as the spiral spins.
A calm before the storm has the rain pouring warm.
Nobody was informed, not everyone will fit indoors.
Looking over your shoulder
I hear you thinking as I hug you goodbye.
You think that I don’t feel, I don’t cry.
How can I assure you I will later tonight?
Looking over your shoulder.
I gather words just to keep it together.
Watch your motorcycle fly by.
Nothing seen but a flash of leather.
Looking over your shoulder I will lie.
While I wasn’t listening I’m stopped at another question mark.
While I wasn’t listening I got tangled up in your heart.
While I wasn’t listening I’m lost in another photograph.
I expired, ran out the hour glass, got lost in my own tacks,
Turned off trail, dropped the map and left no bread to bring me back.
I am starting to think, spiral and sink.
Caught up in the current, held under the waves.
Drag the lake, bite the bait, I’ll fight fate to bring me back.
While I wasn’t listening chemo came and killed the cancer.
Well now that I am listening, I just found another answer.
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3. |
Outside My Shoes
03:20
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I am sleeping in the afternoon. I keep reaching for the alarm clock snooze.
I am tired of having to dream of living outside my shoes.
There’s nothing out there for me to lose, I might just pack it up and cruise that’s the truth.
But city buses don’t leave the city lines.
I’m at a stop with a broken watch and only dimes.
I have no idea what time it comes, how late it runs or where it stops.
I don’t know where I am going, how far I’ll or where I get off.
I don’t know where to start the line is hidden in the dark.
And there are scratches on my glasses so my eyes can’t see that far.
In no way do I feel safe I’m walking alone going my own pace.
So this gravel road under my toes will soon be paved.
If I could leave just for one day, book off work and spend a week away.
Then I could see what’s outside these gates, maybe come back with my head on straight.
I might rearrange a bit, stage a switch, age a bit, make a list and follow it.
Or fall to bits then call it quits, burn all my bridges, dig a ditch then crawl in it.
I know that there is so much more than what’s locked in here with me behind these doors. I wonder how I’ve be able to ignore the way this bottle keeps me stapled to the floor.
I know that there’s something else and I’ll go anywhere to find it if it helps.
I’ll have to drown in the water down the well, search for miles until I find me in myself then…
No more sleeping in the afternoon,
No more reaching for the alarm clock snooze.
No more being tired, no more having to dream of living outside my shoes.
A tight squeeze but my boots fit.
I guess I haven’t outgrown my roots yet.
So I’ll keep walking although my feet ache.
And try to learn from my mistakes.
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4. |
Lover
05:22
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Call your lover to explain over the phone.
Block the number, hang up untraceable.
Gone to your mothers…a typical plot unfolds.
Pull off the covers, reveal what I’m not to know.
Tonight’s gone too far, you struck out the nucleus.
The sliver in my heart is now a stake stuck in the middle of my chest.
You pinned me down, unarmed, left to defend with feet and fists.
No dose of your charm will win forgiveness.
I could hurl a brick through your window with a note
But it wouldn’t fix a thing. It wont repair what you broke.
If it did, I’d take the credit, let it known.
To hear you hurt will be the only way to let it go.
Blast through your speakers, hit you where you will hear.
Your act strewn across your t-shirt, I don’t have to look too deep.
Make me an offer, something I can’t resist.
Show me how far you’d go to save this.
Keep counting your cards, I’m betting on all your bluffs.
You’re not leaving unharmed…
Fall, forfeit, fold, quit, cry because you can’t keep up.
Cash in all my chips, of course take half of what I’ve got.
Grant my one wish, tie the ends before they fray like lace.
Lift loves lid and unleash on both our fates.
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5. |
Meeting in a Parking Lot
04:55
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Woke up this morning with a familiar state of mind.
Reminisced in a daze, skipped the shower and shave,
Then I wrote the journal lies.
I asked myself, “What else could help to forget all about last night?”
But it’s just a matter of when I’m gonna do it again.
Why wait and til’ what time?
Ran fast to catch the cab that I called to pick me up.
By the time I paid, I was running late.
Guess you could call it both our faults.
I wasn’t thinking at the time about anything and I didn’t mind going to work.
When I get home I’ll have plenty of time to reflect on everything I didn’t learn.
I’ll have plenty of time to learn.
I’ll create so many crime scenes before I get hurt,
I love to set off the alarms then hide.
So subtle like a meeting in a parking lot wondering what he gave to you.
Big trouble like waiting for a guy who’s got greedy hands and a bad attitude.
I have never been so paranoid, seeing shadows in my room again.
I remember hanging out with all my boys thinking, “these aren’t my real friends”
Some would leave, some I’d see once a week, maybe.
But I was there until the end.
Some would lie and even steal from each other. That never made any sense.
I’ll drive far from what is chasing me tonight.
It won’t devour me in just one bite, I’m ignoring crosswalks and stop signs!
Speeding right through every color of light, fasten your seat belts and close your eyes.
Hit every speed bump to help us take flight.
Hope I never come down from this high. Enough said….
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6. |
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I’ll move on if you run away. First I’ll come and plead with you to stay.
If you still want to leave, that’s your mistake.
When your gone, nothing’s gonna change.
Everyone you’ve touched will wash your fingerprints away.
Don’t try to wash your mouth with soap and say, “I’d rather be in clothes then dressed in rags.”
I’m counting days until it gets hard, hide in the shade til’ it gets dark.
Find a place where I can see you park.
Then I’ll make my way across your yard, chase the maze into your heart.
Sneak upstairs, ladder to the loft.
Or you could grow your hair, drop it down and I’ll climb up.
Or I could sing outside your window til’ you come out and talk.
Can I buy more time to offer you a hand?
I’ll read through the lines, or die if I could understand.
But I wont lie and say I’ll fuel the plan to drive away another man you loved.
I’ll be left to answer, ace the hardest quiz.
What led her to chance hurt? Who cut a scar on a wrist?
There will be speculation that there was no on else involved.
I’ll be the last one who hears you and it wont be a call over the phone.
Jump the gate like Jack on Crown, stumble my way up to your house.
To steer you away, turn you around.
Not even fate could pull its weight to keep me out.
Swim the moat, scale up the wall. Walk on my toes down creaking halls.
Creep up the stairs, so quietly crawl, back to your bed where I belong.
A swinging door, a broken hinge. Waging war, an unspoken win.
If you want a shot count to 9 then tell me to not act surprised.
Our story’s written out in lead, easily erased by the other end or the pen.
The imbedded marks on the script is where our buried fairy tale lives.
Someday come and search the sand, Find fossils of our romance,
What remains remembers not, a life that you gave back to God.
The life that you have back is gone.
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7. |
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