Two failed trips and a broken transmission
It all leads to Norman
A milk crate in a brushy creek, green and tarnished
It all leads to Norman
A man in a trench, face down among the artillery scars
His name was Norman, strip his magazines and grenades
Under a bridge over the Canadian river, among the broken glass and burnt tents
It all leads to Norman
Walking in sand that smells of ****, dodging needles and bullet casings
Norman, Norman, Norman
Drunk on the street among the locust step of smiling faces
Norman is crying in the streetlights
Norman is trying to find us
Norman is bleeding in loud silence
Cramped hotel rooms and bags full of trash
Trying to gain footing before the next crash
It all leads to Norman

Smooth as beeswax on red catlinite
Sharp as black chert knapped out of spite
Souls in this creek wander downstream tonight
Dreams wrapped in sinew take their last flight
Listening to darkness from old cutbank heights
Cardinals chasing crows through pale moonlight

Disposable soul
Thrown down it's hole
Like something I stole
Once empty now full
Inhabiting skull
False securities lulled
Fingernails lovingly pulled
Holding onto this cold
Doing only what's told
Scold the mold for growing
Or the bones for showing
Men for towing their sorrows
Dreaming a hundred dead tomorrows
Screaming sparrows and cardinals
Today I lost all my marbles

Rough rusted railroad steel in my palm

Dogs are following me in the woods

It's a long way to the river yet

Running out of battery

Dark tracks rattling hard

I found you in the gravel,
the wet muddy gravel

How far did you travel,
in sunlight or in shadow

River winding high,
receding when it's dry

Reflecting clouded skies,
perceived through panfish eyes

Here chipped secrets lie,
downstream our dreams do fly

All we can do is try
scattered like flints awry

Wise in worldly ways?
I'd rather be a fool
Who dies honest anyways

A handful of heat, coffee tastes sweet in the bottom of the mug
Splayed out, dissected human bug, body chopped and tugged
Catalogue my suffering, patch me together with hemp twine
Ignoring every sign and warning, falling is soaring interrupted
A life defined as loveless, a body bled out bloodless
This mud is sticking to my brain again, no way to win
Don't you hate it when it don't work out
Hanging around until you can't leave
Cried all my tears and can't grieve
Nothing left to even believe