(no subject)
i. THE VERDICT
I...I don't want to be saved
But if I fall asleep they'll bury me
Under the records I never made
ii. CLOSE YOUR CIRCUITS
I'm not writing for anyone
What's the point when it always gets fucked up?
I'm just tall a glass of gin
Keep me bottled up until I'm beginning to spin
And then you'll know who I am
Maybe feel the weight of everything I've said
I'm a poet more than a man
If you want my love, you'll have to pry it from my hands
Where do you want me to start?
What's the point when I don't where it ends?
I'm just a needle and thread
I'll close your wounds until it's time to remove them
And then you'll know what I meant
When I told you I do surgery on the dark places of the head
But I don't know much of medicine
If you want my pills, you gotta read the letter I sent
I don't want to love anymore
Your veins are the circuit
My tongue is cutting the chords
I meant to atone for my mistakes
But the wrongs aren't the things I want to change
I'm the poster boy of sin
I'm three things you don't want to get involved with
I'm a liar and a thief
I'll say I'll save you then give you my disease
And it is true that I'm a flake
If you want my love, you gotta get inside this grave
I don't know want to know what it's like
Missed the night shift, now they're turning off the lights
And you know when you're the last one to leave
You got a heart you got to start to deceive.
iii. A SYNONYM FOR FALL
Where do you got the world, baby?
You're a long-winded hook
I'm begging on your street for change
I want an excuse just to stay the same
So, I'm going to make up rules and break them
Work discomfort into your sheets
I'm going to lie awake and fake this
Act like now I'm who I want to be
Damn right, you're going to make a sound
Like I can't be found out
Yeah right, it'll make us poets proud
In the glimmer of the webs we weave.
Damn right, who you calling out?
Like I won't be found out
Well all right, you know me now
And that's why I'm going to have to leave.
And who says winter's coming when the leaves start to change?
So, where'd you put the night life?
I've only got a rough sketch
Of plot points and radio dials
In a somewhat authentic head
I guess I know myself too well
I'll never start what I won't fail
I'm only in the downpour
Pressing hard against your sails
Damn right, you're going to make a sound
Like I can't be found out
Yeah right, it'll make us poets proud
In the glimmer of the webs we weave.
Damn right, who you calling out?
Like I won't be found out
Well all right, you know me now
And that's why I'm going to have to leave.
And who says winter's coming when the leaves start to change?
iv. THE SKYLINE (PLUS OR MINUS A FEW TALL BUILDINGS)
I'm classically trained in destruction
I sure know how to ruin a good thing
I left my friends in my home state
But the ocean offers the same view I once had by the lakes
Did you mean to me to be something more
Than a bruise I never noticed was there before
I'll let the chorus speak for its self
I'll give you a little time to let your heart melt
Please, don't look me in the eye
The only place I can't disguise
I'm a master of open sea rhymes
But I don't know shit about search and rescue
I'll think of an excuse to run away
And dedicate poetry to the times I'm glad I stayed
Are you unhappy with the notes?
Did you mean to hold onto something you let go?
But I'll let my music speak for its self
The only way I know how to make girls hearts melt
Please, don't look me in the eye
The only place I can't disguise
The night time inside
The skyline.
I will break in with blue
(I want to trust you)
Leave it strewn across your face
(I really do, but...)
My ink comes in black
(There's a shadow in the frame)
My letters leave stains
(Where you're supposed to be)
I will break in with blue
(I want to trust you)
Never ask your name
(I really do, but...)
Write me all over you
(There's a shadow in the frame)
Sink back inside the stains
(Where you're supposed to be)
v. HOW LITERATE
How is it you seem to get caught in the times
Just ahead of better days?
It's rain on the party, they move inside
And you're standing next to me
Saying something about Shakespeare
And this boy you knew
And how it comes down to
"Unto the breech."
We're copacetic long as someone's sleeping next to us
Another night on the town, might as well drink it up
You always hang out in Kafka coffee shops
If caffeine's heartache, you're number one at loss
And you're always saying something
Some romantic idiom
Like, "sex and love
Are disaster's interim."
So I guess we're copacetic long as someone's sleeping next to us
Another night out with the girls, might as well drink it up
vi. GUILT SPARES YOU FROM BECOMING A VILLAIN
You got your partner, got your halo, got your guns
You're ready to go
You made your friends, you made wars, you made your lovers
Now you're so cold
You're a lot more than what I thought
And I thought about it a lot
Just don't ask me if I'm a good guy or not
I'm like the Midwest's pride
The tale gets taller every time I lie
Just don't ask my alibi
I haven't had time to write up the lyrics.
Save your sister, Marie
Tell her not to get involved with the devil in me
I want you every time I think
Comma splices, called 'em, Kings
Make yourself to a drink
We're not acquainted with shame
Sometimes we forget our own names
Just don't ask if we felt anything
I haven't had time to write the refrain.
Save your sister, Marie
Tell her not to get involved with the devil in me
vii. EPISTLES AND APOSTLES
At death they're going to crack my chest
And finding nothing else inside
But visions of maidens
And long-breathed lines
They're going to love my pen
Recite my lines to get girls in bed
I'll be the standard of imminence
"This is what you should have said"
Like a tryst in a tomb when the sunlight dies
Are you going to go with the moon?
I'm going to go with you
Remind you there's nothing permanent in life
But a box of letters
That somehow might survive
You want to be a classic lover
Get underneath these sheets
I'll be the standard for substance
I'll be your everyday speech
Like the name you wrote
In the fog on the glass
(The city is burning)
Are you going to go with the moon?
viii. YOU’RE LIKE ONE MINUTE AWAY FROM FAME
A little bit of lipstick on the tongue
Mistaken for blood
Counting the times you promised you'd
Never love anyone, again
Isn't it funny how pretty eyes can change that?
You laugh because you know I'm right
Fourteen minutes could be the rest of your life
I wish I had a friend
Who could tell me what I want
I'm sick of deciding, lying
And getting caught
A little bit of honesty
Could tip the whole thing
But it's our lies that
Make our lives interesting
Isn't it funny how sadists seem to get it right?
Don't laugh, you'll get it by the end of the night
Fifteen minutes could be the end of your life
I wish I knew a ghost
Who could walk around in my old clothes
I could change alone
And no one would take note
She's so hot she could light cigarettes with her fingertips.
ix. PROOFS
You prove little hearts when you open your lips
Or the big dreams you had when you were a kid
I'm writing you, hoping you'll understand
That home is still in the shape of a hand
The liars and the waves
(Both get washed away)
Into the silence of the sea
Reminded at one time, who they're supposed to be
Well, I was big on building an empire
Out of the gold from Kingdom come
Until Jesus came and showed me
That he had built a greater one
The liars and the waves
(Both get washed away)
Into the river of blood
Should've never died for anyone
My brother, Abraham has a son
He does what I command
There's never any questions
And my sister, Mary sells herself on the street
So what's the difference between them?
Because there's none that I can see
You prove little hearts when you open your lips
Tell me is there anything left to have faith in?
x. SAVE WHAT IT IS
The rioteer was a lioness
Dancing in your girlfriend's dress
We stopped to smoke out
The world was burning down
And nothing was like it should have been
All you can say is how fucked up is this?
You were sleeping with him
We're counting the money
Tallying how much we made last week
So we can spend it on things
That won't let us sleep
And nothing was like it should have been
Save what it is, just fucked up kids
It's just the streets
xi. WHEN YOU SLEEP WITH ME (YOU SLEEP WITH MY LESSER QUALITIES)
No one wants to make their own happiness
Why do you think love's such a hit?
Give my lesser qualities a kiss
As the night wears on
The clothes come off
You count the reasons to let me in
And I
I am the rain when you wake up
The teardrops on your make up
So much prettier six or seven in
And we
Told you all we were taped up
We know we come off as abrasive
So handsome when you're desperate
The girls in the boots want it, too.
They're convincing themselves
They're prudes
The guys play the fool or score a time or two,
Never get over the girl's need for rules
And I
I am the rain when you wake up
The teardrops on your make up
So much prettier six or seven in
And we
Told you all we were taped up
We know we come off as abrasive
So handsome when you're desperate
xii. FOOL’S GOLD
Some sixty days spent out in the desert
Living and dying on the cold the night brings
In the morning, the thunder woke us
Sounding both on men and Kings
And then the rain came over the mountain
Turned the valley into a lake
Those who stayed wound up floating
Belly down and bloated face
So what do you want that you can't have in the palm of your hand?
Love and rain both challenge things
And cherish life depending on the frame
It's not what you found that gives meaning to why you came
When most men don't come home with anything
It's the things that you lost that you can count on
Adding up to the things that you got
We are lions on the prowl, (proud and alone.)
Strangers in our bodies, (searching for soul.)
Daylight's coming; I'm going to close the blinds
Settle into the sound of swords and look for light
And if I'm sad, I'm going to write about it
Because there isn't a place in heaven for the faces we put on
When the old friends you used to party with
Are going to bury you in the ground
You're in the desert digging for fool's gold
Better know which crown you put on
So what do you want that you can't have in the palm of your hand?