Conservative Gun with a Liberal Magazine

The lion's mane was made of straw
The mouse lit the match and caught it all
The roar ran up into your room
You weren't prepared for what to do

From towers high to streets below
You heard the screams, how could you know
It was the end of the world, and it was already tomorrow

We caught him at the scene of the crime
We held our breath and took our time
He let us take him without a fight
There was nothing left after last night

From court rooms to the guillotine
It was everything you would have never seen
From the tea party to your popular liberal magazine

He spoke no words but said too much
They cut the feed, having heard enough
Revolution is an act of fear
We know they do not want him here

But we don't know why, we're afraid to ask
Freedom is such an arduous task
And ignorance has stood in its place so well in the past

Temperate Hostile

i can see some blind eyes/ take sidelines/ inside i'm/ wondering why/ but i spy it's the right time/ to make a move/ but don't assume/ that we know all the right lines// when taught to be just fine/ and alright/ with a wined and dined lightning time refined life/ that's built on the backs of those in the tightening binds life/ while we live the swine life/ and complain there's a recession on/ ‘cause uncle sam won’t pays the bills and for pills when our depression's on// i can see gangs not forming but formed/ in small towns where we act as if the norm is still the norm/ is still white and alright and our biggest plight/is for some new insight/ about what to watch after work, over dinner on a tuesday night// tryin’ to catch fame and cast blame/ on those who would point out the blight/ that our ignorant racism ignores, out of sight/ but in our minds we make judgments with our wallets/ installin’ gourmet grocery stores for our overweight pets// before we’d ever allow community centers, sayin’ “not in my backyard”/ but it must be hard/ avoidin’ certain roads with your luxury cars/ but maybe you’ll care when it’s your daughter comin’ home with the scars// and, no you don’t seem to be completely blind/ taught by the fear-mongering pundits you hide behind/ stopped me once, said you could tell/ that the world is all goin’ to hell/ but did you notice your little pocket grove isn’t doin’ too well// so fall right to expectations/ while sayin’ in this nation/ it’s a problem of documentation/ you can claim my observations are mere exaggerations / ‘cause anyway, it belongs to you, your space, your stuff, your bigoted determination// to get away from criminality you moved to the suburbs from the big city/ ‘cause nobody, not no one, will ever take your liberty/ but from your actions it’s clear that what you fear is finding out that they’re just like you, but see/ perhaps their only crime was poverty//We fill our lives with apathy to cope with the abandonment/ we are the victims of a system but have also had a hand in it/ from nazis to commies to terrorist cells/ we can look through all the books on every library’s history shelves// but faster than the american justice system fills up its cells/ we find ways to place the blame instead of changin’ ourselves/ and the first step is seein’ that it happens in your home town/ tell me what’s goin’ down/the times they are a-changin’ and it’s gotta happen now


Here's to hopin'
Your mind stays open
But here's to hopin'
You don't stay the same
'Cause no one ever
Made a difference
If they never
Made a change

They Watched in Amazement as the Flames Leapt from the Revolver in Her Hand, A Violent Burst of Crimson and Smoke

This doesn't mean anything
And it's certainly not about you
So get your head out of the shadows
You've been pullin' the rest of us down there too
I don't mean to sound insulting
But your every utterance is revolting
Then again, this right here, is NOT about you

Watered Chestnut

Watch as the clouds roll in
The rain begins, and you forget
Your painted mask wears thin
Unlike your thick skin, but you forget
Runnin' too slow to win
But that old box of tin makes you forget

It's not what you had and lost
But what gave away
It was a cheaper cost
Than you once said it was worth

Coronation Day pt. 3

The ghost of bad decisions
Haunts me
In the open
I am frozen
This phantom
Of my fears
Is at my door
Again
And I wonder
What will be left
Once you've closed
Another door
Slowly
In
My
Face

to find It

Set a Siege upon the Sound
Of my Soliloquy
Interrupt
enter the Room
and Conversate
Don't Deliberate
Searching for
The Perfect
Words
Instead
just Jump
In
And then Say
What Needs to be Said
Extrapolate
from Context
And Personal Experience
whatever
is on Your Mind
That fits so True
So Right
It will
If it's Honest
that's It
that's All
that's Deep enough
to Reach me
Offend me
Dethrone me
Wound me
Heal me
Corrupt me
Console me
just Tell me
Honestly
something
from Your Own Mouth
and Not
mine

'Fraidy Cat

From the womb to the tomb
From the grave to the cradle
Somewhere between
We find out we're unable
To hold on, hold on, hold on to anything
From the tomb to the womb
From the cradle to the grave
Somewhere between
We find out we can't save
Any moment of time or go back and rewind it

I wish you could see yourself
As beautiful as you are
Really wish you could find out there's
More to life than breaking your own heart

Still looking for a prince to treat you like
Royalty
I hope you find someone who actually treats you like
A human being

I wish you could see me now
And be proud of me
Maybe we could have worked things out
Eventually

Try opening your eyes to something new
Outside
The boxes that have defined you
For such a long time

And we all need to grow up sometime
I suppose
Just how to do that
Nobody seems to know

Wisdom is for the fools who know that they're not wise
When it comes to death everyone is looking
I don't want to be left looking for life

That Way...

It's a long road I see ahead
But I can't seem to walk it yet
Can't seem to get my weary feet
To kick the dust and hit the street
Can't seem to move past this house
You built around me to keep me down
But it's a long road I see ahead of me
And I hope I'll be on it eventually
Headed somewhere far away
Where you don't hold sway

Princess in Blood

The bullet in the gun
And I'm the only one
Who remembers your smile
As you pulled the trigger

Shot me down cold
But the story gets old
And after a while
Your lies just get bigger

Teach me the breaths...

Would it matter what I said
As the clock moves your feet toward the door
The draft blows in
And they're all waiting for you
You turn back and reach
Apologetically
For my hand
Your eyes speaking the words
Assuming my hate
Yet I offer only help
Should I submit that you won't take either
Wondering myself
If you still care enough
To try
But I will not guilt you
As I have been guilted
Run if you must
It was bound to come to this
I'll be around
You know I will be

To Dig a Moat

Tried to dig a moat around a sandcastle
Thought I could do it well
Dug the trenches in deep and a path for the water
As the tide came and the sun fell
But then it started to rain, the walls caved, and my mind changed
I knew my castle wasn’t gonna make it through the night
So I tried to dig faster to somehow suspend disaster
But I couldn’t fix my oversight

Tried to build a high and mighty fortress out of glass
That would let you could see inside
Know all my little secrets with such clarity
But strong enough I could still run in and hide
Built the towers tall so I could be seen by all
But the dungeons I made out of stone
While I gave up freedom for security, I also gave up honesty
The safer I was, the more I was alone

Tried to write a song for the world to hear
That would tell them somethin’ true
Somethin’ honest, somethin’ thoughtful, somethin’ catchy
But I really didn’t have any kind of clue
So I listened to the greats as the critics debated
And I hated everything I wrote down
Then my life it took a twist and I had to deal with it
Like some kinda cathartic creativity in sound

Main Street

You can call us side-effects
We're acting more like symptoms
Entire generation's
Just a product of the system
And if you can't afford to learn it
Become the oil it's enriched in
That's right mothers of the children
It's his corpse that boy's enlistin'
And do you for an instant
Think someone else is to blame
You can see it in the way we keep so busy
We are our own shame

Melodious

You are the song in my head that makes me cry
Lights up the earth with cracks in my rock face
Stand and replace the night with a life-line
Focus the wires and drip the last drop just in case
We can't escape this place
We are its prisoners
You and I
We are its animals in cages
Corrupt and disabled
We are the flag that is flown at half-mast
We read the book backwards from the last
Page to the first paragraph
We have no sense of perspective or time
Depth perception blind, we stay in line
Redefine corrupt files coded with rhymes
Coated in slime, the crime of our minds
Education for the weak
Take the blocks, build to a peak
We never speak gut-wrenchingly
Honesty anymore? Only fallacy
Fiction for the families of industry
Capital gain a recession of imagination
Running out of my depression medication
Anxiety pills to thrill those that killed our nation
A dream in experimentation
Built on the back of slaves painting statues labeled liberation
But the tall lady hides knives under her skirt
And her husband is a giant who crushes cradles in the dirt
And holds the hammer, for it's all he knows how
Both are blinded, both are bleeding, both are bringing me down
And so I stop
You are the song that I sing every single thing to explain
Yet there is only destruction in the description of the same
Patterns and order and logic and fact
Under attack and then reinvent a super pac
Fund the british, fund the french, fund the nazis, fund the soviets, fund the terrorist regimes
We didn't mean to do it!
You are the song that still sings in my head
Over and over the rockslide of betrayal in threads
Of unwoven fabric that kept up the charade
Revenge is our law so let's have a parade
...you are the song that stops singing when they want it too
they taught me to sit quietly and never listen to you
you are the song i will whistle as i walk away
you're the song on my lips at the guillotine

These Days

I don't want to hurt
And I don't want to hurt you
But if I have to choose
I'd rather go for honesty

How is it supposed to feel
To be so far away
To walk this road with miles lost
Between the times of hope

To know the story told so well
The knight slaying the dragon
Except I'm the beast
And this tower's gold my every thought

You've made me the villain, haven't you
It's okay, just what I'm used to...

Fallen.

Wanna Know Why?

Don't you get it
You're the one who made this nightmare
Wave your wand, really a whip
Guilt your game, so play like you care
Dare to jam down "love", such blasphemy
Into throats of those who would otherwise speak honestly

"You hurt my feelings."
Okay, I'll hold your hand
"I don't like them"
Okay, I'll stop being their friend
"I feel sad today"
Okay, I'll give it up to you
Whatever you want Princess
After all, I am your slave

All you wanted was a puppet
A play actor who doted and devoted
All the time and energy
Into this well-staged tragedy
Now pretend your the victim
Simply because it didn't all end happily
I hope you never find another
For the poor lad's sake

So I'm done now
You can weave your yarn
Get them all to hate me
No more fun now
Play your games and play alone
Just don't debate these
Details that prevail in the consensus that I'm the liar
I built your house of straw
You're the one who wanted it higher
I built your house of sticks
You're the one who built the fire
I built your house of bricks
You're the one who brought the hammer
Don't call me the big bad wolf
Just because my breath is stammered

An explanation I can't give
I try, you just won't take it
This game of hearts, you've stolen mine
You don't need it, you'll just break it

Rewrite

The colors of the leaves had changed and faded from the sky
As night set in, this autumn wasteland of perfection in my youth
I still remember hearing your voice from the other side
And I still remember convincing myself of these bitter half-truths

Had I known back then what I know now
Maybe something good would have worked out
Had I not said then what I wish I could take back
Maybe I wouldn’t be sittin’ here trying to rewrite the past

The summer sun beat heavy on our ending, in a way recommending
What once seemed so hopeful had become your newest waste of time
Yet you never caught a glimpse of your castle walls descending
As every word laid siege to your perfect dream, still pretending you were mine

Had I not played games with both our hearts
Maybe we wouldn’t have to restart
Had I known back then a way to make this right
Maybe I wouldn’t be wishin’ on what-ifs and rewrites tonight

Catapults and cascades of desperate pleas
Accompanied by tears that neither of us needs
Anticipation built and then it all collapsed
I wish that I could take my heart back

The Fall of the Fortress of Plentitude

Words can't console what the heart hides behind
Inside of each of us the little lies that combine
And collide with our consciences sitting in conference with
Every little fallacy we want to make reality

But I'm not living for your entertainment
Anymore, these masks were arranged in such a way
I'm sure you hoped that I would never get away
But I'm not dying for the trends you call contagious
Here's my hope you call outrageous, dismiss it all
And then watch your walls fall

Words can't define what is lacking in persons
Our purses are cursed, sports car hearses we put worth in
Dividing our depressed decisions we regress
Making our mortality the only neutrality

But I'm not breathing for false confrontation
Anymore these eyes were locked on serving sensations in such a way
I'm sure you hoped that I would never get away
But I'm not settling for your loose contentment
Not bitter or resented, just sent with a message for all
It's time to watch your walls fall

The simplest smiles
Go endless miles

And I won't fight you anymore
I won't fight you
I won't fight you anymore
But I refuse to be your slave

It's not the next
It never was
Don't pretend you know
What I'm thinking

In The Grave You Dug For Me

I used to know you so well
But things have changed inside my head
I used to try to speak my mind
But now it's speaking me instead

The falling lights
The soft cascade
Long lost mornings
Drift away
We were friends
But now we're not
I wish you'd take
All that you've got
And go

I used to love you so dear
Gave every little piece of me to you
I used to want you to be happy
But then I saw what you wanted from me too

The drifting sounds
The sharp mirage
The pavement cracked
By the garage
I loved you
But now instead
You took it all
And left me dead
Just go

I used to care what you thought
Fought my way up to the sidelines
Thought I knew how to give you the best
The game you played out of sync with the right time

The crashing waves
The moon that night
What new regrets
Did I not treat you right
Did you forget
Should I still care
Who else did for you
What only I dared

Corse

What lies behind those crying eyes
What memories of better times
A story filled with separate lives
Where no one's living...what

...hurts the worst I can't define
Every single word serves to remind
Me of something I had left behind
Hoping for hope in giving...up

All I know is gone
There ya go makin' heroes out of hired guns
You've got your rights to wrong
Can anybody see, am I the only one

Can't believe how you have changed
Now that what was real just falls away
Still searching your eyes for what to say
I keep denying...it's

...got the smell of a corpse with a different name
still on the right course but with a different aim
say you intend to make it right, of course it's all the same
but I'm not buyin'...it

All I know is gone
There ya go makin' heroes out of hired guns
You've got your rights to wrong
Can anybody see, am I the only one

April Showers (Remembered)

There is no solid ground
To stand on
Don't demand a second glance
I've turned around
Again and again
Too many times

There is no starting line
This marathon
A cross-country race
Of near infinite proportions
Only reminding me
Of my mortality

Did you seek out
My shaking hands there in the dark
The pouring rain a sign of hope
But I promise you
From the very bottom of my broken heart
That someday, somehow I will learn to cope

Behind each well-worn mask
There lies a blissful trademark
The one who was there first to pour the glass
Only halfway to judge my mood

And behind each tired eyelid
Sleepless from second guessing
There's a record of the winding paths
That I slid down alone

It seemed so simple
Were you as terrified as I
Caught beneath the moment
Waiting on the weight of past and present
All to eclipse our every word

HardScuffle

There's an exhalation
The long-held breath
With the assimilation
Of all that's left

In letting go, we take upon
Our weary, traveled selves
That which, at first, when we had gone
We'd left upon the shelves

And often, then, in honesty
An honest plea is raised
That some leave off false modesty
And others empty praise

Whatever the vice, those circumspect
May try for more of the same
But some, like me, show no respect
For traditions of guilt and shame

So I, in this, will turn my head
And with it my wearied form
And remember again to release the dead
And greet the new day's morn

To brush the dew with younger feet
Yet never without their callous
To forge ahead but not forget
No mercy, and no malice