like a god he stands
perfect in the light
bathed by the sea
birthed of the soil
made of clay and stone
he is our envy

he is our pride, they tell me
he is who you can one day be
he is who the women want
he drives the farming plow
he sails the seven seas
he picks his perfect bride
he kills the evil man

to climb olympus is to seek
judgement from the gods
and so after tempering myself
i climb olympus

i say to them,
i cannot be him
and my brother,
he cannot be him

for it is suicide to try
and become something
which does not exist

i was walking the other night
closed my eyes
saw you coming at me like a flashbulb
i saw you before i heard you
but you were so ******* loud

knocked me off my feet, you know
you did and you
broke my bones
bled my ears for every last reaction
until i had no more to give

i drifted awake the next morning
silent until noon
i couldn't trust my own voice to produce
its sounds or my ears to hear them
you had deafened me so
and blinded me so

my hands twitched to replace the cane
you'd never offered me so i could find
my way, alone and afraid
crawling back to you
stiff like a dead man
numb like a soldier
soft like a child

now, i sit still

i wish my stories could tempt
tears like yours do
but such skills in storytelling
come from the heart
inspired by fear

when i hear your voice my
tongue bites and my ears
call for silence of the brain
so i can wholly focus on what
i might then hear

i know we can't laugh and cry
like we did just weeks ago
so close i could touch it
so far but only by a measure
of the past, where an instant is the
same as a year

reason says move on, now
for once my devils are silent
for i am the only survivor
of their awful ranks
this much is clear

there's seltzer in my skull
pockmarking my bones picking
at my marrow, eating me alive
i know how to fight things on
the skin but how do i defeat the
enemy when the enemy is me?

we're caught up in illusions of dignity
i'm terribly afraid you'll see that
my blood is red instead of blue
or when my voice cracks you'll hear
how scared i am of losing you

when your teeth break my skin and
you feel my blood on your lips
i want you to know for whom it
flows so hot

on many lonely summer nights i can
feel it fading, the death of zeal, the
slow and steady mental nightfall, and
often i forget the happiness that crests
with rising sun

i love the days when the sky burns hot and
i find myself lost in your smile, our friends
filling my ears with laughter, my own chest
sore from running

night waits for no one, boy,
but neither does the day

your stories make me cry
my chest never aches like this
i wish i could get these tears to flow
i didn't know they made dams this strong

your tongue tastes like *****
i can't stop these bullets from
slipping between my lips

i crave our moments together
and i know you don't want the
things i do

i wish you did

started on their sophomore record
brave enough now to move beyond
tracing years like a spinal cord
feel your breath hitch
i found it

found snakeskin on my brow
newly shed
oddly red
wished i was dead
i'm wiser now

lonely nights
all i got on my mind is
this song and you