Dark street diner in the town
Quietly the cards laid down
Oh those eyes you look at me
Burning through
What do you see?

I’ve heard a new sound
I’ve got a new song
Oh, I’ve been unbound
And you were all wrong

Can’t you read it anymore
All is lies in love and war
Turn it over quickly now
If I asked could you say how?

I’ve heard a new sound
I’ve got a new song
Oh, I’ve been unbound
And you were all wrong

Oh, look down, this is me
What is it that you see?
We’ve been apart too long
Why am I now so strong?

Halfway spreading through the sea
Paradox in prophecy
Always swimming almost there
What if I took Zeno’s dare?

I’ve heard a new sound
I’ve got a new song
Oh, I’ve been unbound
And you were all wrong

Oh, look down, this is me
What is it that you see?
We’ve been apart too long
Why am I now so strong?

Oh, look down, this is me
What is it that you see?
We’ve been apart too long
Why am I now so strong?

A nation great and strong we stood
The symbol of a dream
A city on a shining hill
A torch, a glowing beam

A statue tall and proud we built
Of copper and of gold
Its feet of clay away were cut
It crumbled into mold

Corrupted now our leaders are
And sunken into greed
An illness growing in our land
A toxic spreading ****

Now all the people stand in awe
From sea to shining sea
Fearfully they all behold
The tears of Liberty

The murk of swamps lies through the night
Weighing down on slate-blue wings
Raven cries in futile flight
Lifts his hopeless head and sings

Time and death, eternity
The afterlife, immortality
These are words that light a spark
These are the words that glow in the dark

This thought a depthless ocean floats
Of mute cries from many throats
The right weighed down by heavy wrong
Bodied in the raven song

I wandering walked
In a dream of a well
Soul shivered and shocked
For my hope shattered shell
All bravery balked
At the toll of a bell

Falling from clouds
To drown in dark lake
Crying aloud
I startled awake
Heart and head bowed
I felt my fists shake

Waking’s a struggle to drive
Away dreams of dark omen
Unwary, I close my eyes
They rise before me again

Why is the reward of my past
The return of darkness in my dreams?
When I thought I could rest at last
A new curse is cast upon me
I despair of the chance to ask
Why can I never be free?

In kissing the ocean
The old rivers dream
Of flying as clouds and
Reverting to streams

In drinking the river
The youth of the twig
Absorbs some small knowledge
Of trees that are big

In bleeding the mountain
The crack in the stone
Enriches the water
That springs from its bones

In breathing these pages
These poems I pray
Wish for me to become
A river someday

I was the last served from the dish of good luck
Where I sat at the table of life
The man before scraped the residual muck
From the plate with the edge of his knife

But the last shall be first, and so I was served
The primary course of mishap
I could not comprehend how I had deserved
Such a rich and luxurious scrap

How can one poor person consume such a feast
Of mischance as allotted to me
Others would sink in despair, at least
To see fate their forsworn enemy

The river is so hard to see
Rushing by below
The fog is thick, so none will be
Affected when I go

The water seems so close, so far
Reaching out a hand
To hold me near when life is hard
A grave of shining sand

The bridge, the wind, are hard and cruel
Silent to my pain
The world that takes me for a fool
Here taunting me again

The leap, the rush, the silent death
Dancing through my mind
Slow sinking as I take a breath
The suicide is kind

But then she takes me by the arm
Looks into my eyes
We turn and walk back to the car
I do not want to die