Don't be so ******* yourself
Don't be so ******* someone else
Give that anger a break
Don't be so hard
Don't be so hard

Don't be so down on yourself
Don't be so down on everyone else
Give that sadness a break
Don't be so down
Don't be so down

It's not your fault
You want to be better
You'll get it together
Tomorrow is not another day
It's the start of a new way

Don't be so brittle
Don't be easy to break
But don't be so hard
Don't be so hard
Don't be so hard to take
Don't be so easy to break

How is it that a memory
Is more real than when you were here
There is nothing for granted
The story has been told
Now you can cry about it without fear

I don't have to look at pictures
I can shake my head now instead
At shooting stars that disappear
You have become every one
An amazement that once filled my bed

The sun rises everyday
It’s so beautiful to see
It’s the point of view
That gets you closer to me

The sun sets everyday
It’s so sad to see it go
Goodbye feels this good
Underneath a sacred glow

I took a hot shower
Then I was ready
For another day
To be the boy
I once knew
Not black and blue
Full of power
Without amenities
And laughter
At high noon

An elder of stained souls
There is no faithless tribe
No commerce for glory
The sun accepts no bribe

Look at it as you walk away
Did you really nod silently
At another person’s hate
Because it gave yours sanity

Take a cold shower
Take the curtain down
You can’t handle it
Passion is not the same
For fools or clowns
Not like a wanted man
Who doesn’t ask permission
The ocean is a ladder
And the rainbow swells
Are all he can see

She wasn’t so good to you
And she became every woman
He can only watch it set for another
Even the sun can break the heart of a man

I want to fill your heart up again
Tell you I would give anything for you
How you are more than I deserve
I want to tell you because its true

Don’t be impressed by anything
Except by how much I love you
You don’t have to ask me about it
It’s just something you know is true

If you can just let it happen now
No swearing or pledges to you
Just wake up knowing I’m there
The feeling between us is true

Put your hair down now my love
The only thing in life I want is you
There is nothing left but your skin
And what you are is why I am true

As we prepared for our last goodbye
I cleared my mind of the past
I memorized her face
For that was what was cast before me
I had to remember that moment
Without a memory of our mistakes
I wanted something good
To see an unknown beauty
To believe in love
A new beginning
And when you spoke
Your farewell was as sad as your hello
For I had rescued you once
And now as you again set yourself adrift
I watched a human heart that I once loved
Sink under the weight of an unsolved mystery

She doesn’t really like the cold
I saw the tears in her frosty eyes
She says she’s ready to melt
But not for a man who makes her cry

I know she’s ready to settle down
She had her time to be free
She met a man or two along the way
But they weren’t better than feeling lonely

You want something to show
For winter winds that blow
I watched it happen to you
Because I made it start
I was on the wrong side of your winter
I want to be on the right side of your heart

Her kids have some of their own now
The flowers have all fallen at her feet
Now she’s planting somewhere new
I’m on the other side hoping our hearts will meet

You want something to show
For winter winds that blow
I watched it happen to you
Because I made it start
I was on the wrong side of your winter
I want to be on the right side of your heart

I’m not going to conjure up
Rabbits blinded by stage light
Or with nothing up my sleeve
Prove my love will make things right

Even with the many hands of my sins
That I have extended like casting demons away
I was not the sorcerer that made love to you
Instead I was begging your heart stay

I don’t make magic
I only discover it
I’m not full of tricks
Only a shot of wit
Drink if you must
But first you better sit
It may not feel well
So drink only a bit

I am hardened by our world
The mystical nights we shared
Did not obey a man of tricks
Instead I found someone who cared

How perfect it was
We knew by our eyes
It was as true as a trick that lies
A soul mate from stormy skies

I don’t make magic
I only discover it
I carry no bag
That I will admit
Let it happen now
But first we must sit
This time is different
The magic is our spirit

my love for you is ocean deep
the life we lived together filled my heart
and now that you're gone
i float upon the memory of you
as the swells remind of dusk and dawn
living as we did
brother and sister
father and son
lover and lover
and while the sand rushes back to you
from the shores i walk upon
i say a prayer that what is being filled
is your soul
and my heart
while i watch sand castles moving on
into the deep

I know I’m not broken
I think you can even recognize me still
I’m underneath the things thrown at me
I’m the wall that wears somebody’s hatred

You wanted me to tell your story
A white wall that can’t complain about being poor
I don’t live on the side of town where people die young
I'm just streaks of paint from how I made you bleed

I’m living outside of love now
A fireplace and the dogs watching me are yours instead
You think you feel better because you stained me
I wonder though if you think I’m unable to stand on my own

I’m paying the price for loving you
I chose to walk around inside of you with a candle in my hand
But I was too close and set your heart on fire
I thought it was passion but instead it was only pain

I’m not what you remembered
What I wear upon my face is what I did to you
That is what I have become now
A painting nobody can save that dried up a long time ago

Every story has a broken heart
It's not what you said that happened
Because you'll only remember a few words
Probably the last two
Goodbye Forever Don't Go
The rest stays waiting for your next failure

Every story has an ending
The lucky ones don't know theirs yet
They keep failure next to a bible
Or maybe just a knowledge of life
They're strong enough to know a good thing
And they knew it when they met

Every story has already been told
But that's not really true
Nobody saw it like you because it's real to you
It's important enough to tell somebody
If you can get them to listen
If you can then it all really happened to you

Ever story is about loving somebody
Sometimes it takes a woman to make a man
She has to decide if he's worth the time
Loyalty won't let her ask that question
But your mistakes will one day
Then you'll have your own story to tell

Ever story tells itself to a friend
But a stranger is a chance for a new life
It's better though to talk after thirty years
To be able to look back and think about before
The things we said really did matter
It's true because we love each other as friends

It’s been a while for you
You’re sitting thinking of then
But you’re still young and beautiful
It wasn’t what you expected
Is it pride or did you really love him?

I’ve been on my own two feet
That’s the way I walk these days
I needed to find my balance
But I want to be uneasy underfoot
Like when someone new changes my ways

I could dig up some old pictures
Read that letter
But I know who I  am
Whatever she said was true
It’s the reason I can’t think about forever

We both know our memories
What good are they now?
Not very if you won’t love me
Even if the sea is filled with pieces of the past
Hurry, let me kiss you before your forget how

I’ve already given you my heart
It’s been yours for so long
You felt it in the rain and pain
That is how you have survived
I cried too while life did you wrong

Some things can't ever be replaced
A broken glass once held the water
But the water is still inside me
I’m just waiting for the spear to remind me

It’s not a bluff to get mad at somebody
They know how you felt
They may feel lucky to be alive still
As you showed them the strength of your will

What’s all this about hating a stranger
I need more than the gossip
If you loved me once I felt it
That’s the only way true anger will fit

But don’t get me wrong my friend
A bully doesn’t have to notice me
I can’t say God bless him
Even if God says ignore the victim

How can you ever feel lonely inside me
I know how to love you
But you have to let me hurt you too
The two sides of love is nothing new

I’m not walking the streets crying about it
But I did just one night
The glass broke while the water could only swear
That's when I noticed the cupboard was bare

She fell in love with the wrong guy
He said she was all he had
Two rights made a wrong this time
Now the right guy doesn’t seem so bad

They just wanted to have fun
The world was something to ignore
She thought he was so different
Now he’s got more problems than before

It’s up to her
It’s up to her
She asked for help
Then she said she loved him
That’s a personal problem
She picked a boy
Now she needs a man

He said a lot of things that sounded smart
He made her laugh and was a dreamer
She finally noticed it was just talking in his sleep
Now she knows why some promises can’t remember

Sometimes it takes a woman to grow a boy up
She thought he was exactly what she dreamed
He built her a safe place against the world
Now the wall isn't exactly what it seemed

It’s up to her
It’s up to her
She’s too young
He’s too lost
That’s a personal problem
She picked a boy
He’s not yet a man

I was always felt I was real
But life made me a dreamer
I had to find a place to be happy
My pillow needs to get a little tougher

I’m not crying my friend
I’m the soil in the sun and the rain
I’m not a rock that can’t feel anything
And what will be is that I will grow again

I’m making it because I want to
I wake up and the day is mine, it’s true
The bullets and arrows only make me bleed
But I’m not dying, I know what I need to do

A beautiful woman is always on my mind
But I’m not living just to find something
At least not another way to say goodbye
It’s my imagination that knows my hearts being

I’m making it because I need to
I’m not leaving this life, I’m not through
I’ll let God decide when I’ve had enough
That’s when I will know how much he loved you

I can’t say how long I’ve been searching
Sometimes I thought I finally found myself
I had a vision of where I might be someday
But to be that person I have to stop looking

I need to know who I am before I go
Every time I relax something happens
The story is never over before it ends
I can’t assume I’m right even if I think so

We spent one night together
Only one night,
like lovers, watching
The heart that melts
And the river that’s made
But it was so long ago
So you tried to fall in love with someone else

I don’t think about being a butterfly
I don’t think about love like a child
So many things happen in the middle of a performance
The curtain came down early but I kept singing anyway

The way you said goodbye sounded like forever
But it’s not an echo that makes a memory
It’s the sound you thought you’d never hear again
Until I whispered the love you thought would never be

It's not how you said it
It's you made me feel
Was it that I believed you
It was how you looked at me
And you lingered
As if you would stay forever
If that was what I needed
On the long way down
If you take your time
The bottom will wait for you
It is how we land on our feet
The way to take another chance
Is when nothing left to lose
Is the moment you were waiting for
But a last look around the room
Was how I knew you cared

I want to get away from it all
I can’t go back and make it up to you
And tomorrow won’t wake up early
The sun said setting is all that’s true

I don’t need a big house
The refuge is only in my mind
I left town to see another one
Maybe a stranger is what I need to find

The nights aren’t that long anymore
I'm used to sleeping on both pillows
Maybe we talked too much
Now love is on the other side of the windows

How could I have known it wasn’t the right
Our whispers were so loud in our hearts
Something gave it all away
The secret is not how the fire starts

I did not understand
The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao
I did not understand then
But I understand now

I thought I understood
Thou shalt not ****
But your tongue is driving me from God  
Have you sinned against his will?

I do not understand
The love of life eternal destroys life temporal
In this life we sin to save ourselves
Yet the lamb rose from human betrayal

I will never understand
The weakness of the human mind
A wall of fear surrounding what God made infinite
Made of stone to judge mankind

I want to understand
So I walk alone searching the desert sand slowly
Is it obedience to man I will find
Or the burning conscience of what is holy?

There's no escape
Except inside your dreams
You imagine me there
Invite me over sometime

See you smile
How you see me
Yes that's what I need
A belief to try

Let me try
Let me try
I do want to know
How it is you love me

Go ahead ask
I tell you I was thinking
About waterfalls
And loving you there

You are beautiful
Yes let me try
To make you feel that way
The way you you feel to me

Let me try
Let me try
Running away in dreams
That you made for me

I heard thunder outside
I was thinking lightening in the drain
The sound cleared things up
Like a new set of guitar strings

I always wanted to see a piano shatter
It's better just to learn how to play it
That's how you make light in a hole
The power of creation finds new things

Don't make the insects mad
Oh yeah they're listening to you
Karma has ears everywhere
Crawling from holes wearing ghost wings

Sell the stage to the first punk you see
He won't pay you but that's the point
Let him entertain you before he's evicted
He shows us how to walk the night like Kings

What am I gonna do about peace of mind
It seems a simple girl is not what I can find
It's so obvious what life should be about
But I make it hard like a restless dreamer

I can't take it easy with stones so high
I pile them up to climb my own mountains
You know it seems like a good idea at the time
But time tells me again how much I miss her

Being an outlaw pushes a lot of people away
I could live a life on my own desert plain
They write songs about it but there's no love
I'm coming back to see if she's a forgiver

I want less input into my own signature
Somethings not right when freedom shrugs
It's gotta' be somebody who knows how it is
Echoing sand is not what I want to remember

If you
If you would
Listen to me
Then I
Then I would say
It’s you that I see
But I want
I want to hear you say
You want the same things as me
I was
I was not right
The first time
The first time we tried
I held you tight
Then I ran
I ran into the night
And you said
I didn’t want the same things as you
I thought
I thought it was you
And it was
And it was true
But then
But then you flew
And I
And I saw a light
But a shadow proved we were never right

She likes to go out of her way now
But her heart is still a back-seat driver
She keeps saying I’m the one driving here
You be quiet, I’m the one who’ll steer

I can’t get her to take a rose from my hand
She used to love someone else without any flowers
Now I have to make a promise before a kiss
She’s afraid of the feeling she’s gonna’ miss

Takin’ the long way around love
Takin’ the long way around love
She’d rather climb a tree and pretend
Than stand on the ground and love again

I want to sit by a river with a friend
Forgetting about hard times
Thinking about what’s to come
We used to be excited about a mystery
Now we want to know how the story will end

Takin’ the long way around love
Takin’ the long way around love
She’d rather close the curtains at night
Than let me love her under the moonlight

Take me home Lord or please leave me be
It's hard enough alone why can't you see?
You gave me time to live and time to be free
So let me suffer my own way so I can be me

Say something Lord so we know you're there
I don't need miracles just a sign that you care
My friends are crying from sorrow and despair
Help us as we wait on a horn blowing in the air

Take me or leave me
Bless me or reject me
Which one will it be
Tell me now Lord
Is it flesh or a soul you see?

Believing was hard even for a disciple
Their nets were full and loaves were plentiful
But they were afraid and could not be faithful
Forgive me for my weak heart is always sinful

I won't make promises anymore I can't keep
The last one I broke made someone weep
I pray now to the one who washed John's feet
And drink the wine and bread he served to eat

Take me or leave me
Doubt me or believe me
Which one will it be
Tell me now Lord
When will decide about me?

The love born from a mother
In her soul will love ever recover?
Why did you take her Lord?
Why do you make her suffer?

“Verily there is no greater love
than to give your life for another
but there is also no greater pain
than that borne by a mother
and as she sees her child rise
as only the holy spirit can carry
I have blessed her soul again
as I have the ****** Mary”

The love felt by a father
In his soul will love ever rise?
Why did you take her Lord?
Do you see the tears in his eyes?

“I know of his pain for
I too have felt it in the lamb
and I have spoken of him
the same as I spoke to Abraham
who offered his own son
as I would later offer my own;
I will raise your daughter now and
your faith shall be forever known”

The love known by a family
In their souls will love live?
Why did you take her Lord?
Will they ever learn to forgive?

“It is written that to believe in me
is to receive the grace of eternal life
but I must ask for a deeper faith
in order to soothe my own strife
for I have made man in my image
and I also feel pain as do you
but though I have made all things
my heart needs an angel too”

I'm trying to remember
When they told me how to live
I know how to get to heaven
But I don't know how to forgive

Isn't about time somebody said
You're gonna' hurt real bad
You won't be ready for it
You're gonna' be real sad

What am I gonna' do with that
Stop loving my girl
Stop loving life
I can't stop I'm committed
I'm gonna' keep gettin' hurt

I don't care about being a man
I don't care why I'm still alive
I didn't ask for it
I didn't ask for it

I heard about her leaving this place
More beautiful than she knew
She could have lived across the street
Now her mother weeps next to me in a pew

What am I gonna' do with that
Stop believing in God
Stop believing in you
I can't stop I'm committed
I'm gonna' keep gettin' hurt

I would change my life for you
if I thought you really loved me
I heard her voice walking away
That’s the trick of it isn’t it then
how can I make you believe in me

Our dreams are about far away things
there’s so much distance between us
There’s no echo of what’s to come
No sound telling us what we should do
Only the silent way of praying alone

It was long ago that we were so sure
But we didn’t really think about it much
We didn’t want to talk about change
We promised to always be who we are
But change is the only way to be together

You moved on trying to be a new person
You take my call but it's still long distance
The way you speak about your life is sad
I know I made you think about a new life
But not the one I'm making you live now

I'm just getting started my love
They said I'd forget you soon
Not to take it so seriously
But I can't live like that

I wanted to think of forever
I wasn't practicing how to love
I thought you deserved my best
I guess it's not good enough

I'm the one that got away
It's gonna come alive
You'll remember I knew
I knew how to love you
Because that's all I wanted to know

I don't want to make mistakes
I tried to figure you out
That's where I went wrong this time
Putting pieces together before they break

Now you want to say you're sorry
Somehow I'm more important than ever
Telling you it's ok so you can move on
And give a clean heart to someone new

I'm the one that got away
It's gonna haunt you
You'll wake up thinking of me
And how I was the right kind of fool
The right kind to fall in love with you

But I'll love again
Yes I'll love again
In spite of you
In spite of you

Stop them!
Don't make them go!!!
They are going to die!
Why? Why? Why?
It won't matter!
Our boys sacrificed too much!
Did you see their faces?
They love each other
There is nothing left except that love
Their duty is to each other
Brothers
They die together
They live together
They screamed, "Bail out Johnny!!
BAIL OUT!
But he didn't
He didn't
Fold a flag for his mother
Another flag
Sew another one
We will need more
More flags
No
No God
Why so many flags?
These won't fly Lord
His mother will never let it go
She will put it next to her womb
Next to where Johnny was made
She wants to think about a baby
How it moved inside her
How it hurt so much when he was born
She wanted to feel the pain of birth
Just as he felt the pain of death
She so wished it was her
It wasn't right
Pride was not ready for her heart
Only the blood of birth and death
No!!!
Stop them!!!
She drove to the base
"Let me in!!!"
"I have to talk to Johnny"
"Tell him not to go!""
"Martha! Martha! Martha! What's wrong?"
"It's Johnny! Tell him to not fly today!!"
"Martha. Johnny's gone. Long ago."
"No! Tell him don't go"
"Don't go"
"Don't go Johnny!"
"Don't go!!!!!!!"

Can you see the tears in my eyes
I want to pour them into your heart
And kiss you as long as the river flows
That's where my life is gonna' start

It’s more than holding a woman close
It’s that you are more than life itself
So beautiful and deep with love
More than a picture on my shelf

I don't have to  look for you anymore
I don't have to sleep to know your heart
It's life together instead of dreams apart
I won't need a picture frame anymore

You wonder how I can say these things
But I’ve lived all my life thinking about you
Waiting for a moment that’s here at last
Don’t be afraid of things that are true

You can kiss me anyway you want
Don’t think of anything but now
I’ll take care of the rest my love
My dreams will show you how

I don't have to  look for you anymore
I don't have to sleep to know your heart
It's life together instead of dreams apart
I won't need a picture frame anymore

It doesn’t matter how far I’ve come
You were with me the whole way
You’re afraid I only love a dream
But the dream became you today

When the solo is not that great
But the groove is unmistakable
You know where love lives
It's not in a lawyer's brief case

When the brush cuts into the canvas
There is nothing but blood to spill
You can't ask him to paint a jail cell
Or children crying unless that's the point

Don't ask a poet not to care
Don't ask an artist to be afraid

Don't ask
Don't ask
Don't ask

Don't ask except why children are hungry
Don't ask except why does a soldier have to die

When the words play music in your heart
There is nothing left but to listen
There is no greed or lust for gold
Only the truth of God's commands

Don't ask
Don't ask
Don't ask

There is no argument
There is no debate
There is no wall
There is no question

I only know how to live with the good times
But the garden of pearls is now desert sand
The beach empties itself as I walk before it
I find nothing now but honor as a brother
We bury Kings and Queens alike in grief
And as we look to the sky staring back at us
The sun reminds us the prince is now heir
Our lessons learned we can only remember
That it is our life now and the time has come
To live as his honor would demand of us
As men who make mistakes far too easily
And loving again with the fear of another loss
Underneath blazing skies that he now lights
His spirit is now the canvas for longing eyes
Where our hearts begin painting a new dream
With the blood his faith bequeathed to you

I am all these things
But what am I to you?
All these things
You cannot pick just one
You must climb a mountain
In the dark
In the light
Covered in white
Covered in green
Until it's not
As you wake up up
Covered in sand
Washing in your feet
By the side of the moon
While the sun laughs
Because you are so pretty at dawn
And he knows all I say is an act
Because desperation is only theater
And the parts I play are all I know to do
While you decide if I'm just a movie
Or real life

I've gotten away with a few things
Karma probably noticed
I might've paid for a woman
But not the man on the bridge
She knew my face
He threw coins at mine
Mexico is not for boys
But it once was for sacrilege

I wonder if I've paid my debt to society
I get the bill everyday
I signed up for my lot in life
I drink to heaven or hell, not sure which
It must mean something
I believe in both, that's probably good
I'm in love with my neighbor but that's not it
That's why Jesus won't make me rich

I wonder why I like hard cases so much
I learned more from a maid than a preacher
Enough to want to make her mine
She knows I'm not man enough for her
She won't take my money even for her kids
She don't owe nobody nothing
She made her own deal with God
Trading nails for grace from her savior

I'm not sitting on the fence
I just want to love the world
That's all I want to be
A beautiful dreamer
That's good enough for me

I'm not sitting on the fence
I'm over here locking the gate
Can't you read jack?
The sign says no trespassing
You don't live here go on back

I'm not sitting on the fence
I knocked it down the other day
All the animals left the farm
The rooster stayed anyway
Opinions don't do him no harm

I'm not sitting on the fence
I haven't changed my mind in years
I decided I know everything
You want to argue go right ahead
I hear a bell you can't un-ring

I'm not sitting on the fence
I'm not gonna listen
I'm smarter than you
You want an insult?
Just try to tell me what's true

I'm not sitting on the fence
I know what I like
Take your time to decide
I know why you're leaning on it
The barbs are sharp on either side

When you come to your senses
Call me
It's not a negotiation
Loving me is not that hard
It's loving yourself that matters
Chasing fulfillment is like running away
People are unhappy in Paris
We can be happy
We're no longer twenty
We've seen more than we care to share
But the game is over
The living has begun
I wonder if you know the difference
Between being a prize or a gift
Equality is not as easy as you thought
Especially for a princess who can't let go

The cloud has moved on
I once honored the rain in my life
No matter how inconvenient
But I blew it all away
Like a candle before bed time
Take a look at me now
I once thought of myself as you saw me
It's not a way of life anymore
I can't wait to not care
But that is a lie
My intentions are better served as mistakes
It's just that my expectation of you hurts
Especially when you don't notice at all

Broken minds
Broken bodies
Broken art  
Broken girl

What is the point of laughing anymore?
Dresden fires
Hiroshima pyres
Twenty two dead in Manchester
Twenty two dead in Manchester
Is it really true?
Is it really true?

Broken religion
Broken borders
Broken trust
Broken girl

What is the point of living anymore?
Planes and skyscrapers
Harbor infamy invaders
The god of Abraham silently weeps
The god of Abraham silently weeps
Can he hear you?
Can he hear you?

Broken world
Broken God
Broken belief
Broken girl

What is the point of dying anymore?
Suicide bomber
Children ******
Thou shalt not ****
Thou shalt not ****
It's nothing new
It's nothing new

i can't but help thinking about the other side
is it as real as the dreams they once had?
i don't know who decides when it's time, but
i just wish dying didn't have to be so sad

it doesn't seem fair that we can love so much
what are we supposed to do after they leave
we are born and receive their tears of joy, but
then we return them when it's our turn to grieve

it's not right
to think an old man can bury one of his own
it's not right
to love someone a lifetime then be all alone
it's not right
it's not right to read their name on a stone

that is the price we must pay for real love
i'm ready to begin calling out someone's name
thinking about it is how I will live now, but
a dream is not the only reason why you came

i can only live knowing my fate is the same
is the only truth we know the things we conceal?
i wanted to tell you how much I love you, but
love that deep sometimes is too hard to reveal

it's not right
to think an old man can bury one of his own
it's not right
to love someone a lifetime then be all alone
it's not right
it's not right to read their name on a stone

Once our lips meet my love
I will enter a sparkling web of stars
A nebula of diffused and swirling light
Once a dark silhouette cast upon my life
The distance traveled is upon me now
The entire lifetime of our existence reminds
We are so small in his eyes, far and near
And as you keep kissing me, as I dreamed
Each one becomes supernova
More beautiful and violent than the last
Swallowing the one from before
Growing ever larger with gravitational lust
Until galaxies swirling far away find their place
Inside my once void and formless existence
But they will never be large enough
To be even pearls in God’s eyes
For that is why we close ours
To find the light in our own line of sight
The one that is now pressing upon our bodies
Bursting into pieces like the stars that drew us near
The ones that burst long before Christ died
And as my heart is risen inside of me
I can only feel the longing in your arms
As you pull me close to the world of mystery
That draws me to my balcony every night
To renew the vow I made to myself long ago
I will endure God’s wish that I witness the dark silence
Until it becomes the pillars of your breath in my ear
Soothing my longing as what is upon me now
Are the arms of light and memories of the past
But a past of creation and not destruction my love
For you were always the beginning and never the end

I am not old
I am alive
I am a new discovery
I am not living to survive
I am not old
I am older
I am not feeble
I am a strong shoulder
I am not old
I am wise
I am able to tell the truth
I am not a lie
I am not old
I am strong
I am able to say what is right
I am not afraid to admit I'm wrong
I am not old
I am not possessed
I am able to control my desires
I am able to live with what is blessed
I am not old
I am love
I am able to live life with faith
I am not waiting for a twig from a dove

Yeah well
You're gonna have to look for it
This ain't Shakespeare
It's not proper
But it reacts quickly
And hard
Without style
Just effectiveness
The art is in the reality
Class rides up front
Life in the back
Except this is your stop
The driver stays
You get off
You play country club
We don't play
You use a cork
We take a shot
You sip
We gulp
You speak King's English
We speak the street
You'll understand
You'll know
The ******* is on your side
That's what God told me
It's true
He said you never could thread a needle
You always asked the maid to do it

I try to avoid labels
They're too tightly wound
He said he was a ******
You want to cut your hair

Where you going with that
Was it a mirror talking
Or what your ex said
I think you listen too much

I haven't made up my mind
Ambiguity is always good
Cigarette ash in the chili is not
But I ate some because it's different

I like you a lot
Let me know when you decide
Not about me
But what you want to be

I saw your hair on the floor
I asked them to leave it
It laid there like last night
I wish we were still there

There's no point in repeating
That's right there's no chorus
If that's what you need to remember
Then you're just another brand

what no other has ever known
except maybe my mother
is how I see myself

what no other has ever known
is to see how I know I've done wrong
they always say I'm so sure
but the only thing to be sure about is gone

i told more than one how I felt
and though I did for a bit
mostly I didn't belong

there was once a feeling I had
of being wanted
but she could only feel
the things that no other has ever known
except maybe her mother too

they never did meet
but they both know
what the other has known
that their children
aren't always so strong

I’m willing to sleep in a bed
No matter who makes it
It’s not that I don’t give a ****
Actually I don’t
I believe I’ll wake up anyway

I know more about myself
Maybe that’s why there is no order
I can’t file my thoughts anywhere
So I ask them to stay awake just in case
I think that’s why I’m always tired

I’m checking out now
I’m checking out now
You might not understand it
You might not know how
But I’m checking out
Yea right about now

I’m trying to figure out how to be normal
Whatever that means
I think it’s not falling for too much make-up
Or thinking about somebody’s new car
Maybe it’s just feeling cold when it snows

Being different is just being different
But you can’t think about it
It takes years if you put your mind to it
Then you forget how you used to be
Some people need drugs to do it though

I’m checking out now
I’m checking out now
You might not understand it
You might not know how
But I’m checking out
Yeah right about now

I wish someone would hold ******* up
I’d like to look into their eyes too
Is it just a fad or would they carry a sign
Maybe if they were drafted we would know
But that kind of decision is only for the poor

I don’t have to be twenty to experience the sixties
I wanted us to win the war
I remember a picture of four long hairs
And there was plastic all around
Mine never exploded like Warhol though

I’m checking out now
I’m checking out now
You might not understand it
You might not know how
But I’m checking out
Yeah right about now

If you’re cool enough you can steal a lick
Most people won’t remember it
They just want to feel something
If you look weird they think it’s the future
But you know it’s really just the past

I’m checking out now
I’m checking out now
You might not understand it
You might not know how
But I’m checking out
Yeah right about now

what you have experienced is real
you do not have to explain it to anyone
in ten years it will only be a memory
in twenty years it will seem like an illusion
you do not have to know why
but you were created to feel emotion
and what happens to you is reality
that is all the proof you need
for there is no illusion
pain is not an illusion
life is not an illusion
only a perception, except
that which you know to be true
and it is enough
to know what you know
and you do know
and you do live on
with the storm that rages inside your heart
as the past is water smashing over the side into the hold
though you can still smile at a lover
like a calm sea making love to the setting sun
while the unseen life below feeds upon itself
and waves crash down upon faraway mariners
as they try to escape the shores they once loved
never asking for permission to die
only a reason worthy of the illusion they will shatter
in those who loved them

you can put notes on paper
you can think about a girl
but there's nothing about that
until someone hears your courage
it doesn't matter then
as long as you meant it
the sound of your soul
or the love in your mind
is not a lonely man's sadness
it is the way life must be existed
even if they can't hear what you mean
or a piece of paper is ripped from your heart
but my son
you think I am too old for love
that how can I know to want it
or what to do with it
but I know how I lost it
how I am afraid of it
yes I remember what it is that you want
but I also know how to survive it
and that is my curse
that I know how survive
when instead I should know how to die for it

I say a lot of things
I'm not always so careful
But it is the first thing I think about
Every time I decide to show you my anger
I've already killed much worse in my mind
But the way I want to come to you
Is to fill the soft places you have saved for love
I want to fill them with what remains inside of me
Because what was able to survive my own life
Is the only part of me worth giving to you

It matters to the family
If not to God or the new lake
They go there to pray on Sunday
Even if they're not really there anymore

We look at auburn streaked skies
And see his welcome beauty
But the door to heaven
Is not to the attic but instead the cellar

We wonder how everything will turn out
The current changes speed and direction
Gospel songs float on top
And the rising waters take us home

The howlers and the wailers are natures friend
Grace comes from its unmerciful ways
Their roots are bent sideways and twisted
But the way of the land is all that faith knows

This is not a white country
This is not a black country
This is not a Latino country
This is not a male country
This is not a female country
This is not a straight country
This is not a gay country
This is not a macho country
This is not a feminist country
This is not a religious country
This is not an atheist country
This is not anything
This is everything