The kids were singing
Jesus Saves
But I must have missed him when he came
I probably passed out on alcohol
Or hit my head and had a fall
But what was left when I woke
Doesnt feel like love at all

I just cant get around it in my mind
Those winged cowards left us behind
If this is whats left of life now
I hope that heaven keeps me out

Have a tap dance party on my grave
**** it, do some drugs, throw a rave
So sing along as I scream and shout
The world's gone deaf
And we're gonna drown

And I dont want hell to let me in
Not that Im above or better than sin
But ash to ash and dust to dust
Best better bet to let my body rust

The kids were singing
Jesus Saves
I'd rather gamble with the devil
If he comes my way
Im no angel to rise or fall
I dont want anything at all

Let divinity take me
Dispose of me and lead into
The nothing that I seek
Just count me out

If I could erase time
What would take it's place
Nature abhors a vacuum

If I ceased to exist
How many lives did I save
How many failures might be
For someone else to achieve
How many wrongs did I right
How many times was I wrong
Bards and tapestries
Scribes, artists, historians, scholars, and weavers
What would inspire them
How many stories have I left untold
How many stories could have been mine
Or maybe today is just a bad day

If I could erase time
I can only think of one thing
Worthy in it's place
Intuition, emotion, truth,
Are too grand and obscure in concept
To be deserving
Id replace time with an instant
Described maybe by only three words

You and me.

I scream every night
Sometimes out loud
To the shadows and whispers
To strangers and passers by
Sometimes its Shakespeare or Poe
Yelling into the darkness
In the desperate attempt to claim
This life is mine
And you will witness me
I scream every night
Every night
Even when my own muffled voice
Quieted by reluctance
Anxiety
Sometimes its in my sleep
I wake up regularly
In pools of sweat
And my own salty leavings
However much I do my laundry
My sheets are always damp
With "this is me"

The epics and opus
The ouvre and the frey
The bastille and the bastion
The adept and ashamed

But who are we
In the frames of history we felt
How can we judge our present or past selves
When our weakness has always been information
Who we are now
What we believe
What we should be
Who we become
Come tomorrow
No longer valid
And relent
The past creeps up on us
And sometimes we were wrong
We were wrong
That you'd learn with us

Once in a generation
A poison is brewed
So deep with temptation
By the brewers
That the sweet deeps of sleep
That it promised
Could question our own moral bonds
And yet we will continue to pay
Humanity comes with a tax
Those with the knowing
Owe to the ignorant
And to take profit is worth reticence

In times of trial,
Its true to remain neutral and
To seek to redeem each side
When the use of that very trial
Is weaponized
You must revolt
You must revolutionize

Im tired of standing and watchin
Sam Vimes,
I know you're here with me.
I have not much left in my life to fight
But they can take it from me.

How do they rise
How do they rise
All of your angels,
How do they rise
They lift their heads up
They lift their heads up
And they rise
See how they rise.

Simple songs were always the most defeating -
And they said bard magic was silly.

Did you notice the sunset tonight
The purples or crimsons in the skies

Did you see the shoreline's greens
Turn to blue under moonlight

Did you catch that breath of air
Fresh on the high tide seas

Did you notice when I walked away
Or even see me leave

When sometimes you get lost
I'd only hope you'd find me

But my bedside is cold
And my tender heart too weak

So I let you go
Before you have the chance to leave

And we both know
That this was temporary

Did you ever make a choice
Well intentioned
Did you ever give violence a voice
That set things in motion
Did you ever watch when
I lit the sparks
Did you ever see
Look deep
Was it a candle?
Was it a sparkler?
How long did we watch it burn?
Look in the flame
Watch it burn a little longer
Search for the blame
Watch the wick release.
And once the fuse starts to ignite
Casting new shadows
I never wrote a song long enough to survive
Dynamite.
Once a flicker in the dark
A shimmer scared of the spark
The flame runs away
And it chases her through her veins
Out of pure devotion
The fire says
You set this in motion
No forest can ever breathe
Without my last breath
To crack the strongest seed
Somewhere within every cigarette
You ask for me
And you will blame me
In this I grieve.
Fire made wild by a passion
To turn away our eyes
When we'd prefer to be blind
Keep in mind
My embers are all that I leave behind
"Wildfire" is what you'll call me
When your lives are in commotion
Remember just once that life that was mine
You set in motion.

Im sorry I've forgotten you
When you brought to me so much meaning
I cannot recall your name
But hear your words like breathing
A few vacant phrases
Punctuated by lines imprinted still
Each chord caught in a whistled melody
The gaps I cant fill

I cannot forgive you
For not forgetting me
Settled, a consistent reminder
Of a once promised harmony

But the drum beats echo like tip toes
On a "Fosse" glossed frame
Slipping and sliding
Never to be with me whole again
And maybe this is the first look
At a future that destines me

A plaintive consideration for what's left of my memory
Or a record more broken by forcing the needle to read it

But I apologize to you
And to those which made you to be
For how much you've shaped me
Your details escape my memory

Assured I will find them
Or replace them with what I thought they were
You can bet as a guarantee
I'll only miss or be off a few words.