Never A Moment Alone

Give me unruly crowds and thick toxic clouds
Conversation muted; music loud
Give me portions of less so I’ll come back for more
‘Cause I die every night
Just to wake up bored

Spare decisions, well-earned criticisms
Spare me the mirror and send liquid dinner
Spare me one honest friend with their biting insight
‘Cause I’m bored every morning
And I die every night

Evening comes – we seek her out
Swirling her in our mouths
Another petite mort
Until the real one comes around
Until the real one comes around

Trade me one ugly truth for a hundred charming lies
Trade me “are you alright?” for two averted eyes
Trading everything I am for a whim unsatisfied
‘Cause I’m bored every morning and I die every night

But for now, we’ll settle for these shallow sips
But for now, we’ll bathe in this manufactured bliss
But for now, postpone the day while we persist
In this artificial happiness

It’s no disrespect
It’s a simple disconnect
It’s devotion masquerading for idolatry
Sanctifying pastimes
Spangled Xs, thin blue lines
They’re deified to obfuscate
Our ugly history

This hand won’t be forced over my heart
These lips won’t be coerced to take part
In glorifying fabric – to recite or sing in chorus
This hand will not be forced

It’s no disrespect
It’s denial of perfection
Etched into us from our youth
And make to make us yield
While the silent, deadly, mighty wait
Using anthems as their bait
To sedate us further
Someday everyone will kneel

This hand won’t be forced over my chest
At my side it’s clenched tightly in protest
Archaic is the mandate and explicit my retort
This hand will not be forced

Behold our new religion
The worshipping of linen
Adoration of a rag
How would the maker feel?
I’d wager if he’s real
That he probably hates flags
He probably hates flags

This hand won’t be forced over my heart
These lips won’t be coerced to take part
Archaic is the mandate and explicit my retort
This hand will not be forced

The streets are deep in slumber
They might be comatose til summer
Traded whirlwind days for a world on pause
Adam and his Eve except that they
Didn’t get here first
‘Cause it feels like we’re
The last two people on earth

What will become of us?
We were wanderers once
But now we’re hibernating
So much for the spring
Adam and his Eve
Except that their Eden is the worst
‘Cause it feels like we’re
The last two people on earth

When nothing is beautiful
And when everything hurts
When each day’s a deja vu
I’ll find my solace through
You

The streets are deep in slumber
Wanna air your despair?
Take a number
Traded whirlwind days
For a world on pause
Adam and his Eve
Except that their Eden is the Worst
‘Cause it feels like we’re
The last two people on earth

When nothing is beautiful
And when everything hurts
When each day’s a deja vu
I’ll find my solace through
You

Detectives at the scene
Of a murder mystery
The suspect will confess
In the absence of evidence
Life is a series of tropes
You were in on the joke

We’d always be amused
They never used an alibi
Just one more gullible bad guy
Ripped from the headlines
Life is a series of tropes
You were in on the joke

Now when I come home it feels
Like transcending time
Why did you go
My partner in crime?

Now all that’s left of you is the best of me.

You’d be the wisecrack
And I’d play sidekick
Never surprised at
The slyest trick

I know that you never meant
To flee the scene
My partner in crime
I’m missing your identity

Now all that’s left of you is the best of me.
My partner in crime
You’re my partner in crime

Now all that’s left of you is the best of me
And all that’s left to do is what you’d expect of me
And all that’s left of me wants one more
Murder mystery

Meet me at the station and we’ll run away together
Make our stead in foreign lands more green
So she waited at the station ’til the sun made its retreat
Please don’t make a promise that you don’t intend to keep

Give me all your money and your sickness will dissolve
Cup runneth over, pockets deep
So he threw away his fortune as the tumors multiplied
A promise made was how the poor man died

Potent are the oaths we make
In a hopeful ear they sound immense
Often they are uttered
Less often sincere
No significance

What you said rings in my head
I’ve been losing sleep
So don’t make a promise
Don’t make a promise
That you don’t intend
You don’t intend to keep

Let me be the bastion
Where all your hopes are stored
I’ll gladly fortify what you want most
But the walls were never built
Just embarrassment and guilt
At having conversations with a ghost

Potent are the oaths we make
In a hopeful ear they sound immense
Often they are uttered
Less often sincere
No significance

What you said rings in my head
I’ve been losing sleep
So don’t make a promise
Don’t make a promise
That you don’t intend
You don’t intend to keep

If the walls are never built
Build them yourself
If the walls are never
You gotta build them yourself

So don’t make a promise
Don’t make a promise

Mind of a predator
Mind of the prey
Mind of a cannibal
Gnawing at his leg
Mind of a windmill
Mind of the wind
My mind is both enemy and friend

Mind of mitosis
Two dueling cells
Mind of a preacher
Preaching at himself
Mind overflowing
Mind in a drought
A mind so certain
In all of its doubt

Cleaved in half
One side cries
While the other one laughs

Mind of a hammer
And mind of a nail
Mind so brazen
In being so frail
Mind, the kind
Who prefers the pretend
My mind is both enemy and friend

Split in two
One side’s white noise
The other one’s mute

Cleaved in half
One side cries
While the other one laughs

Enemy and friend
Enemy and friend
My mind is both enemy and friend

Why weren’t they stunned
When the river turned to blood?
Everything sanguine
No need for suspicion
Why weren’t they moved
Under the obsidian moon?
The stolen light – a warning sign
That we’re on borrowed time

Borrowed time and we’re deepening the debt
Belligerent – clearly in the red
Reckless and lost
In the abscess that’s absence of thought
And all is chaos
‘Til they embrace a cause

Ignore the floating fish
They don’t exist

Why weren’t they stunned
When the river turned to blood?
With eyes that barely open
Rarely recognize an omen
No sign of dread at
Impending pestilence
Boiled skin – so it begins
Ignore the evidence

‘Cause evidently it will never satisfy
Be insincerely optimistic
While the waters turn acidic
Life is lovely when it labors
To stay in your favor
While tired hands hold up
The ground on which you stand

Oh, deride them they deserve it
Be snide because they’ve earned it
This pathetic paradigm
All judgements justified

Will we be stunned now that
The river’s turned to blood?
Will we occupy the present
With fear for firstborn sons?
Will we be spurned?
When will we learn?
Truth’s never had an antidote –
No salve to stave its burn

When will we learn?

I met a happy medium who said
I’d never find one
Got high on druggless bliss
Just to crash to this
Tepid existence

Burned through the days
Burned through the days
Brighter than the blaze that
Smoked Notre Dame
Just to sink beneath a sea
That never calms

Surviving in between
These towering extremes
I have become
A semicolon

What month is it? What day?
Christmas bleeds right into May
And I’m forte and reticence the same.
Which night is it? Which moon?
March stampedes right into June
And drags me through the dust
Until I’m husked.

Fixtured in between
These towering extremes
I have become
A semicolon

Fixtured in between
These towering extremes
I’m surviving in between
These towering extremes
I have become
A semicolon

Gravel scattered, patches of dead grass
Once spanned across this mountain pass
But they gathered up their goods
And they gathered up their maps
And the road was made by walking it

Coyotes crying, hiding in the desert shade
Rocks that cut like a razor blade
Burning backs baked from relentless rays
And the road was made by walking it

The task to make a passage was a lengthy feat
Countless miles swept by countless feet
A millennium or ten until it was complete
And the road was made by walking it

The strength to stand upright with forward-facing eyes
Smashing stones turned to enterprise
Passing what they favored down throughout time
The road was made by walking it

We find it in our bloodlines
Right in our ancestry
Tie your laces, brace the weather
Can we walk this road together?
Our solitary purpose
Our common cause is this:
Persist, persist

Gravel scattered, patches of dead grass
Once spanned across this mountain pass
But they gathered up together and they made a pact
And the road was made by walking it
And now you find yourself with two broken feet
Days of isolation and misery
I will carry you until my arms grow weak
‘Cause we make the road

We find it in our bloodlines
Right in our ancestry
The fearless stride of those we follow
Won’t you walk this road with me?
Our solitary purpose
Our common cause is this:
Persist, persist

Cars crowding these urban arteries
Barely any movement
More machine than human
I’m more machine than human
You can strip me of the city
Still remains my plight
I’m living life like a Vegas night

Like dice in a palm
Evening tossed – then dawn
Shattered glass, cigarette ash
Eternal Babylon
Eternal Babylon, go on
Bet on my behavior
Knowing you’d be right
I’m living life like a Vegas
Night – night – night

You can blow your mind
(With a gun or a good time)
Amber waives the pain
(Pour me fields of grain)
You can play roulette
(Like there’s no bullets left)
Leave behind your chamber
(Find a little bit of danger)
And ardor in your spine
Living life just like…

There’s nothing poetic
(In dying an acetic)
Nothing more profane
(Than living to abstain)
Double zero by day
So I spin it at night
Make the most of
Coasting through this
Check out line

Life like a Vegas night…

This advertisement of my habits
Hang it on a neon sign
I’m living life like a Vegas night

Stargazing space cadet
Deadlines you’ll forget
And at this elevation
You’ll get singed by the sun

To daydreaming addicted
Distracted, you’ve lifted
Off into the blue above

Left behind a silhouette
The rest of you was lost
Blew right past the stellar gas
And nebulous the cause
Your view infinitesimal
Peripheries be damned
But landing looms
And you’ll say soon
“I don’t know where I am”

To daydreaming addicted
Distracted, you’ve lifted
Dreaming devoted
You haven’t noticed
You’re floating towards the blue above

Patience, saintly patience please
For this space cadet
Who vacates without restraint
Desperate to reconnect

They know not what they do
Dig for black blood in her veins
Scalp her, strip her bare
Not a care for her future nor theirs

All we do
Is consume
Turn the world in full bloom
Into an arid tomb
Kyrie eleison

Wring the ground ’til it’s dried out
The shore roars in foreboding
Soon they’ll be forgotten
Defacing their coffin

All we do
Is condemn
Host of temporary men
Plundrous hands and oiled grins
Forgive them

And all we do
Is consume
Turn the world in full bloom
Into an arid tomb
Kyrie eleison
Kyrie eleison

Never a moment alone
We’ll have to share apartment homes
We’ll have to eat from the same plate
‘Til we sweat to death or suffocate
The ever-expanding shore
Will blur the line between
“Mine” and “yours”
Tug of wars, resources dwindle
Eat the rope, whoever wins will have…
Never a moment alone.