You sit up there in all your grace. You sit an’ stare an’ call the pace,
A beat that breaks the strongest mind. It never wanes, it never dies,  
Your constant callin’ of demands, our mighty fall to greater hands,
A name that shakes the boldest man - he knows his place, he knows your plan.

You come to call when I’m alone, a figure tall, a face of stone,
You come so near I meet your glare, an’ soaked in fear I watch you stare,
You hold the blade with which you carve your endless name into my heart,
The Lord himself of all things cruel, who’ll tear the wealth from every fool.

You slowly stalk ‘til I find sleep, then with me walk through fathoms deep,
I’m losin’ form, an’ drift alone. The engine’s warm but there’s no road,
You bare the deeds dealt by my hands, apologies but words in sand,
So to and fro ‘til sense is gone - an’ I don’t know what side I’m on.

You’re huntin’ me. I feel your eyes. You’re under me, above the skies,
“I know I’m good”, I scream I’m sure, you throw your hood to show me more,
In my minds eye you sow the seeds. Our bloodstained skies, my dreadful deeds,
Then say I’m bound by cosmic chains to dance around a song of flame.

Resist, and stay restrained.
Oppose, and still ordained.
Forage, and find no friend.
Confess, and stay condemned.

I sweat so hard I nearly drown, an’ pray to gods I’ve never found,
In desperate bids to change the views, of those who sit in higher rooms.
Your prison walls come closin’ fast, redemption calls but can’t be grasped.
Who knows I’m less than I would tell? Who knows me best if not myself?

You draw the line but take no strain. You have us climb through endless change,
You need no mind an’ take no form, you spiral bind of days unborn.
The only course where all is set, the only force to cause effect,
You smash the speech of every tongue, your lashings reach our children’s young.

You’re sweeping past by sleight of hand, or fallin’ fast as silken sand,
We’ve made to measure what we can’t hold. Our greatest treasure sits unsold.
One guilty glare to rule this race - and everywhere I see your face,
Bring all we’ve known, hold all we crave. Both cause of woe an’ cure of pain.

My mind ablaze. My heavy heart. My unsaid name an’ unseen part,
I sit an’ wait, as you have done. At last your reign sets like the sun.
Your brutal bite’ll bare no hiss. Your stealthy strike not fail to miss,
From crib to coffin, sponge to sack. Pull no one nothin’ from your hat.

Intend, you won’t aspire,
Defend - from smoke with fire,
Convince, yourself you’ve changed,
Within’, it’s still the same.

So my hasty conductor - of each and all seasons - go tell how we fall at your task.
So my greatest instructor - reaped of all reason - come call on the all things you ask.
So Lord of all choices - of future and past - if a man raised his voice would you hear his soul ask,
For the granting of guidance - to do what he must - to fill your alignment from cradle to dust?

Off it goes again. Grinding. Clunking.
Trying to refrain from stalling. Smoking.
Off it goes once more. Trying. Failing.
Trying to recall. Dying. Paling.

I know I’m awake but still thoughts’ll not come,
I try every day through the stars and the sun,
I know I am here, but I don’t know my name,
I try every year with my cold, empty brain.

There must be a mind half attached to this soul,
But all that I find is a vast, hollow hole.
There  must be a light, somewhere down in the ghost,
Be dim or be bright, or be neither or both.

There must be a face to bring me from this Hell,
Some sound in the space that’ll ring a faint bell,
There must be a memory, emotion or more,
That can rise up to meet me, to open some door.

A fact or a fiction. A truth or a lie,
To pull back the curtains consuming this mind.
If someone could show me a photo perhaps,
Or play me a melody from back in my past.

Or pass me a trinket that used to hold weight,
To help me out-think these old derelict wastes.
Or perhaps take my hand and speak straight through the fog,
And so wake up the man, wake the person that was.

And stop all this sitting, and searching alone,
And stop me from missing all I must have known,
As for now I’m misplaced – with no sense of my time,
And for now here I wait. With my cold, empty mind.

I’d like to say I think I may have found my friend in you,
An’ I want to tell you how I fell, but know it lends no use.
I’d like to be where we could be, where I’m more than a friend,
An’ I’d love to go through, get to know you - if there lies an end.

I’d like to say I think you may have found your friend in me,
An’ I want to tell you you’re the spell surroundin’ all I see.
I’d like to rise from this tempest and part the troubled air,
Or I’d love to lie so my eyes insist I’m the one who doesn’t care.

Who ain’t the guy you more than knew was waitin’ in his cage,
Not quite the shy young squire used to play out little games.
Who ain’t the type to throw his hopes on any higher hand,
Though he always liked it when you joked of you and him as planned.

Who ain’t as quiet or as quaint as you might want to hear,
Who knows his fire ain’t as faint as that which has your ear.
Who ain't the one you’d weaken with the selling of your smile,
Though he always tried to keep you to himself for half a while.

Who ain’t as sorry or as sad as you might want to know,
Not quite the lone unlikely lad you like to throw your bones.
Who ain’t the one you may have meant those hollow words to hurt,
Though he always paid the compliments and crowed to your alert.

Who ain’t the toy whose tethers have been torn to every end,
Not quite the boy you bettered when you saw that old-time friend.
Not half the fool you took him for - nor all the one you greet,
Though he always watched you when you walked. An’ looked when you could see.

Not half the fool you took him for, Nor all the one you like,
I’m just tryin’ to escape the shores that never know the light.

As others feel an ebb and flow, a swayin’ with the breeze,
I find I fight to sail an’ row in high an’ swellin’ seas,
The lightnin’ fawks tear through the skies, an’ thunder clouds roll black,
The waves claw up to claim my life, an’ rain devoirs my raft.
I’m thrown around the dark abyss, no light to help me home,
I’ll not be found, I’ll not be missed. I spent my life alone.

As others struggle in the rain, but always find the sun,
I find for me there’s only pain – a pain I can’t outrun.
My futile cries meet wailing winds, an’ vanish in a beat,
I near capsize, I near give in – I’m famished an’ I’m weak.
Soon sounds of turmoil dull an’ wane, the hour has arrived,
The poundin’, tearin’ tides have faded. Silence falls around.
An’ peace befalls the thunderous scene – first peace since I was born,
An’ sleep besets the core of me. At last I leave The Storm.