on a wire

with no home

I've been living alone for fifty years,
and I'll stay here for fifty more,

but you're not all alone, my dear,
you have friends beneath the floor.

no one dies at the end

but really, even if i didn't want them
to get together, she was pretty enough
to make it okay, and the way her arms moved
and her wrists let her hands lie
was nice.

and really, the bad wolf is gone
(hit by a car, don't you know)
and the tigershark trailed smoke over him
(he called out its name, but it couldn't
it couldn't save him.)

now really, isn't it time
that we let the mayor marry a crazy woman
and let the boy rip up our stumbling zombies
and let a swinging, still young man lead us
(to a new life system)
and let the drugs do the talking?

murder by death is a band who wrote this cool lyric

you know, you drink a lot.
and your job pays minimum wage.
and you get in fights over the smallest things.
and you know you'll never settle down.

but hey,
if a guy ever knocks you out cold,
i'll smash a bottle over his head,
and if your boss ever screws you over,
i'll slash his tires for you,
and if a girl ever uses you and throws you away,
i'll spill red wine on her dress by "accident."

because
"i know there's better brothers,
but you're the only one that's mine."

soy sauce

most days,
everyone speaks, and
sometimes listening is no pleasure;

but one day,
for the cause of love,
the only sound was laughter.

you won't know. (which is a Brand New title as well)

I heard your voice calling across that space,
proud of something that wasn't yours,
yearning for approval because
you think that you are not enough.

And yes, I'll look down on you for it,
because if you are not enough,
then what do you have? who do you have?
If you say you're not enough, then
it becomes true, you fool, you brainless en-soi.

(I understand that this is harsh,
but I've been hoping for a while
and I was in a good mood
and now that's all smashed to bits.)

i wonder what "eye candy" is in welsh

hey, now, don't you go away.
we've still got plenty of time to play.
put away your fears, the spring is here,
and this time, i swear it's here to stay.

the morning star's coming over the hill.
nine in the morning and it's rising still.
once again we found love buried underground.
ask me to hold your hand and i swear i will.

everyone dies at the end

i took a liking to her on paper
i read a long while
i wanted to hold her hand and wait
outside her window

some other guy got her, of course
on paper
some other guy gave her more words
some other guy knew she was a beauty

but everyone dies at the end
and the guy, he was okay, i guess
but the girl, i miss her.
and i never even met her but i miss her lots.

(and)
(i even miss the one i met)

my own mix

i felt like an insect
my intestines cascading up a glass pane

i felt like a dry leaf
my body cracking along the edges, flying

i felt like a drumbeat
my heart thick and deep and cool

i felt like a rivet
my face forever locked in a metal casket

i felt like collapsing
and breathing down and holding tight

things that aren't true

skip, skip go the ladies

slip, slip goes the boy

snip, snip go his scissors

but he never reaches their pearls

air! (a quatrain for each song)

i know they gave us lies
and still are keeping the truth
but i'll do my best to fly
and scream from the rooftops with you.

i wish we were more aware
of the awful things we've barely seen.
i want to reach out and care.
i want your daughter to live through her teens.

i don't need speech to talk
or control of my muscles to move.
i won't take you for a walk
but i'll fly you across the moon.

how can i live without my child?
how can i live with this pain?
i should have known your spirit was wild,
but you're lost to the sea anyway.

i will nudge you from the nest
and see you black against the sky.
all i want is to take my rest.
all i want is for you to fly.

i'll pick you up when you suffer.
i'll take you and ferry you above.
and though i have been your mother,
i'll do it without your love.

'cause things, they never work out right

I want to fall in a pirouette.
I want to hold a lock of hair.
I want you.
I feel it like a heart attack.

o madeleine

i'll tell you the truth:
there's a certain point after which
you stop dreaming,
and satin linings in rose and scarlet
are the only things that visit you
in your
(turmoil, thinking, waiting)
sleep;

and those sirens who bade you good night
have grown old and sunk to their watery graves,
and the wind has stopped whistling,
and the rain has stopped rapping,
and all you have left
is your
(unrest, breathing, curling)
silence;

and you will not see anything
and you will not hear anything
and you will not rest
but you will stay.

salt in every reason why

gasoline and letter openers
fire that fits on my skin
when I opened up, I
didn't mean to swallow down
all of hell.

cliffs and smashed feathers
staring contests with glazed-over eyes
when I told you I was dead, I
didn't expect you to take it
so well.

there's a fire in the school

a stampede filtering over
the hill
and they think they're not crushing me,
but look at my sunken chest
and my splintered limbs —
what will I do about that?

the flames licking at
the school
and they're not really there,
but look at my terrified eyes
and the smoke choking my breaths —
what can I do about that?

the hailstorm pounding against
the skylight
and it doesn't break through,
but look at the wrath of god striking at me
and the shards of glass parting my wet hair —

what am I supposed to do about that?

this child

i thought maybe it was my fault
when you got hit by that big SUV
i thought maybe i didn't love you enough
because love keeps our friends alive

i thought maybe i made a mistake
and skipped a prayer for the sake of sleep
i thought maybe i messed this up
because love is enough to keep our friends alive
right?

the following is utterly ripped off from "sic transit gloria... glory fades"

control control control control
control control control control

I was sitting there in the bar, having
so much fun;
I was sliding my hands along the counter
let's rewind a bit —

I was yelling in a place no one could hear,
"DIE YOUNG AND SAVE YOURSELF!"
and then suddenly
everyone else was yelling it too;

I was making them all shatter into pieces,
the glasses I mean,
because the people are mine, and
they were already broken anyway.

I was enjoying it, I was smiling
it was smiling twisted
but then I screamed it again at the wall,
but then I ran my hand down my body, and so did they;

I was making her show herself to me;
her eyes had nothing in them — I'd taken it away —
so I just asked her to show me her shoulder
no, that's a lie; I made her do it

He was waving and he was
making me wave back at him and I
had lost it because I had lost what was
inside of me; I was empty

He was making me wave back at him
He was making me wave back at him
I couldn't stop myself from waving back at him
He was making me do it

i lost control

I am in shock. !!!

I knew there was something strange about you
and it wasn't a red herring this time;

some things gave you away:
your red ribbons; your tidy home;
your tidy mind (but really you just
hid everything in the closets, didn't you?).

And you didn't recoil at Mr. Doe,
or beg to say that you lied,
or weep at the prospect of your true self
being exposed to the ignorant;

you just you always just
smiled.

après stop-loss

Our bodies are full up with blood,
so much that our skins can barely contain it;
and when we explode,
Pollock himself would applaud the result.

existentialism plus!

I believe in personal demons,
in digging up graves for fun,
in doing rain dances when a hurricane comes
until the grass is torn up beneath our feet.

All the trees in this mighty forest
depend on their roots to draw breath;
Men have no roots to keep us standing;
What are we doing? Where are we going?

Man is condemned to be free
and fly on wings of wax,
fearing the sun, the fog, and gusts of wind
that might trap him in the trees;

Don't put yourself up on a pedestal, boy,
You've done nothing good;
Everything was luck, it was all accidental,
We'll topple you down, boy, down, down, down!

I'll leap into the hellhounds' den
and let their red ripping jaws take me,
Because I'm no better than them, you see;
We're all condemned. We're all condemned.

Now our finale, boys and girls,
I'm going to step into a pit of fire;
Why don't you come forward and join me here?
It's only a matter of time.

And when (oh yes, when) you walk in here,
don't expect your right-handed glory;
your body is smoke and your spirit is ash,
billowing up into your sisters' throats.

There's no God up in that sky, you see,
but there's a devil beneath our feet.

There's no God up in that empty sky,
but there's a devil inside our minds.

mr. booth

there's a light,
in the skylight, past the sloughing of
the rain;

there's a light,
flashing over the brook, at the wide
window that bears witness to —

there's a light,
it flickers a thousand times a second,
or so, but my eyes understand;

there's a light,
in that boy's eyes, when he secures
himself in that man's arms —

but there's also a light
in the man's eyes, because
with that boy, he, too, is secure.