Shaken

When mouths move the way they do,
silver sheen, the ruby gleam,
their sounds could mean anything-
a desperate heave, what to believe?

I was shaken like a giant rumbled past and it
took all I had to keep you slipping from my hands, it was
just an illusion but it got me really bad, will you
stay 'til the feelings pass?

Somewhere hidden in her frame,
secretly, a busy bee
flies to nest inside his eyes,
makes her home in honeycomb,
tastes so sweet, I can't compete with this.

I was shaken like a giant rumbled past and it
took all I had to keep you slipping from my hands it was
just an illusion but it got me really bad, will you
stay 'til these feelings pass?
This magician hypnotized me with her mask and she
spread like water that was spilling from my glass, just when I
thought it was over, before I had a chance, she had
begun to hover
and I watched her
I watched her

Fly away on the wings of some gray angel,
West and away, on the wings of some gray angel,
I'll never sleep again
I'll never sleep again
I'll never sleep again

Turpentine

Once awake, you're slow to roll over
until I shake you and pull back the covers
"Let's be late," you say, "or skip altogether
the plans we made over the summer."

oh, Designer, Designer, design me a way
Designer, Designer, design me a way to stay in her head.

Once awake, I have to start over,
strip the paint, and soak in the turpentine.
The canvas calls me, "So you say I'm a saint?"
It's hard to see, it's all been erased.
So what do I do with all this negative space?
What do I do with you?

When You designed her, designer her, designer her this way,
You designed her, designed her with all this negative space,
You designed her, designed her, designed her this way,
designed her, designed her, designed her this way,
to stay in my head,
to stay in my heart,
to stay in my head, oh...

Once awake, you're slow to roll over.

Good Things Worthy

She's been licking raindrops from windows again
trying to taste the honey-sweet life-giving water
in the rain that falls down from God's house,
the rain that falls down and fills up our mouths.

If we were kings like the ones that we pretend to be
with scissor scepters and fire in our eyes,
would we do good things worthy of white wings,
but really, what good men ever stay dead?
When the rains that fall down from God's house
wash away what remains of our tireless doubt.

What secret words would win you?
What secret words would claim your love?
Because I am just as cruel as the ones who pushed the nails through.

Although you and I will wander wide
with stalwart strides, no place to lie,
our hearts still beg to be unbroken.
Like smoking guns, the tears will run,
but He wastes not one, no not one,
is that kind of love so soon forgotten?

Hold Me Down

if you look inside my mind
you'll see the eyes of jezebels & succubi
and with taloned hands, they dig
and bury my heart deep within the mountainside.

if you write a book sometime
about my life, or someone's that resembles mine,
please address the mistakes i've made
so those next in line can turn around and learn from mine.

just hold me down
because i'll do, i'll do it again,
is it too late too late too late to say something
to save someone like me?

so blessed are the blind
sightless from birth, 'though other senses compromise
and death is never satisfied
and through the test of time, neither are these eyes of mine.

so just hold me down
because i'll do, i'll do it again,
is it too late too late too late to same something
to save someone like me?

i'd sit down if there was room to be found
at your side, at your feet, in your bed, in your head,
but the waiting room for love was always elbow to elbow,
and i'd sit down if there was room to be found.

Cut from Skin

here's how i broke the teeth from my mouth
without spilling blood or novocaine's help:

they grew in too thin and tasted of wine and tobacco fumes
and late nights in my room,
and late nights in my room
they fall out while i dream.

here's how i broke the rules that you wrote
in that note, slender hand, my favorite joke:

the love we trusted broke and busted in the cages of our hearts
and as they fall apart,
and as they fall apart,
they cry out, they forget about-

the kicker, the punchline,
the play on words that you climb,
that we're cut from one skin,
the sinew that you swim in,
and always we will be,
there will be no escaping
this body, this body, this body,
anytime soon

(because)

we were cut from skin and pasted to the pages of this town,
but why you're still around,
but why you're still around,
it was a good place to begin, but the last place i want to be found.
we were cut from skin and pasted to the pages of this town,
but why you're still around,
but why you're still around...

Breath on the Sheets (Oops, We Had a Sleepover)

I walked into the bedroom at half-past three
And who there laid did I see where I should be?
A slack-jawed contraposto came over me.

But are they breathing? (We are breathing)
Are they breathing (softly breathing) anymore?
No, they are stone dead in my bed and I think it's too late
And is this unsaid requiem all that they will make?

My love, he calls me Lily, I kiss his cheek,
We twist in mists, but captured we'll never be
So come quick, hold me now, no one will see-

Until our breathing is heavy, our breathing is heavy
So heavy! Lock the door!
They are stone dead in my bed and I think it's too late
And is this unsaid requiem all that they will make?

Like dogs, we like it dirty
And why should we compromise the animals inside?
Clandestine contentment
Falls away in a fit of grace!
Oh God, have mercy on me. (On me...)
On me... (on me...)

I am stone dead in my bed and I think it's too late
And is this unsaid requiem all that I will make?
We are stone dead in my bed and I think it's too late
And is this unsaid requiem all that we will make?
Or will the ground shake and curtain break
As You wake me up again?

An Eye for Composition

remember me, I'm the boy you used to know
i lived down the street for twenty years in a row
we met when our cars both slid out in the road
in front of our high school, slipping in the snow

remember me and the smell of chemicals
that lingered on fingers and always stung your nose
the time that your legs were cold and you asked to wear my clothes
now i can smell you like a darkroom in my home

i will take your wedding pictures
i will sign them with my name
and with my eye for composition
freeze two lovers in my frame
and all you have to do is say "i do."

remember me when I stayed at home alone
writing a love song for a best friend far from home
if you'd stayed or i'd followed, what would we've become?
two loves in a photo in my darkroom hung to dry

i will take your wedding pictures
i will even choose the frames
and with my knack for repetition
i'll go back from where i came
and when i ask if you remember loving me, say "i do."

Because I do.
I promise you, I do.

The Room Pt. II: Red Threads

So as I walk to your room with your memories
I am consumed
By the spiders and cobwebs you grew
To wrap 'round your tomb as decoration
There lies your bed where you once laid your head
As I played just for you
My favorite selections from CD collections
I knew you'd sleep well to.

But as the sun rises there're no more surprises,
The blinds are pulled shut so no light can pour
Through the big Eastern windows and pool in your eyelids,
Warming the sleepy hands that are keeping
The blood in your veins, the red threads that bind us,
There to remind us that we can be whole again.

I came here a mourner, curled up in the corner
Beside the now empty birdcage
And tracing the elegant curves of the wire frame,
I wish I could recall the name
Of a creature with you for its keeper
And hold it to see if its lovesong's as wild as mine.

I think somewhere on these walls are inscribed the reasons why you're gone.

Now, back in the hallway I picture you softly
Closing the door behind me once more
You blink unexpected first and then second flashes of emerald eyes
Never mind that my heartstrings were pulled from your irises,
You're still gone.
So slowly I walk from your room with your memories
And I am consumed...