1. SONIC TONIC

Look homeward angel
Separated by the sea
I drop by distant you
And mercy will sit between

After a dream: all
Day walking in fog,
To the pure, all things are pure

My face is empty
With flecks of ecstacy
Yet I would let fall walls
Guarding an uneasy peace

It's just a dream
Everything that you saw
The impure brings something impure

Moonshine and Mead
You push the product
You buy to be
What is low
Who then is free?
A scarecrow
Bondage with ease

How do you know
What you don't know
Chance is all we have

We're like a whirlwind
We live life at third hand
We are such great fools
We play a game of swans
Snake oil
Idols of the tribe
Shadows
Idols of the cave

How do you know
What you don't know
Chance is all we have


2. MOONSHINE AND MEAD

(Instrumental)


3. NOS

Attired with stars
No man would be old
Everything is endured

The bread that we store
Our casual creeds
The gold that we hide furtively

Believe what is true
Love what is rare
Drink what is clear
There's so much blood there

Our hands blistering from their haste
Our backs caving in with the weight

Return more
Don't ignore

One moment it's you, then soaring wind
Rising, I let it carry me
As if it were the first rain
To where lies seem like reason

Return more
Don't ignore

Tripping across my bones on the floor
One picture atop the other
The sorrow of scars and brown rivers
Feel, as if nothing else matters


4. SOMETHING'S GOTTA HAPPEN

Between days
Plumbing wells
Building ruins
Inner hells
Spitting stars
And all is sky
Tomorrow, the moon
Now a far frozen time

Transition
Whale-blue dreams
The slow-motion chase
Bones on the beach
Things I�ve become
Sirens whale blue
The painful burden
Of nothing to do

What's going on
Nothing much
The cynicism
Of this meager touch
A crucible
For distant ennui
Obsessed with your
Everyday irony


5. BOTTOM OF THE HILL

All my life
I've lived at the bottom of the hill
Always waiting
Amphora never filled

Men from the sea might rise
Lifetime never known
Soul of sweet delight
There's no going home

Wait for Lazarus
But he won't come forth
Pain or lament
Are more than mere words

Too much love of living
I hesitated and fell
If I had known,
I would have lingered

Men from the sea might rise
Lifetime never known
Soul of sweet delight
There's no going home
My strength is not
The strength of stone

There was a man
In the land of Uz
Stand and unfold yourself
I've been such a fool

Show me the steep and thorny way
But stretch forth your hand
What hour now for
The forgotten man


6. DOG AND PONY SHOW

This salve, your salvation
A little rebellion
Trust no future
Some reprieve
You call for faith

Art was made to disturb
The world, which seems to lie
Climb the cross of the moment
While humanity is sold in shame

The wolf howls each yellow morning
Stuff wax in my ears
Dying piecemeal
(Or so we argue)
I'm sick at heart

We have no need for genius
Our discovery ends there
Heroes come back from war
None intact--what will people say?


7. ONE O'CLOCK WHISTLE

In the distance, sirens
Jump at this dead hour
Wild-eyed,
I am too much in the sun
Willed beyond my power

A little more than kin, straw sins

In the rainy season
Closed despite the sun
A clarion to call me home
My fingers going numb

Every Monday, run away

I'll stand in these four corners
Though hell itself should gape
I'll cross it, though it blast me
And walk right through the gate


8. NATCHEL BLUE

It was a lurid start
Acrid sweat and agony
No one could cross three thousand miles
Gathering prayers

You there, quickly forgetting my spilled words
Me, here, wondering what I meant

Only sometimes does it mean
We'll be here to see them bloom
One moment your life is a stone,
And the next, a star

You, there, quickly forgetting my spilled words
Me, here, wondering what I meant

In this dark world and wide
Dollar go from hand to hand
The world is never small
And you shouldn't treat it so


9. HORSE BEFORE THE CART

Through the open window
Dizzy with your presence
I chanced upon the mirrors
Wheeling west on 24th St.

Then it all vanished
In the breaking storm
The train to Centre
And a hanging goodbye
I'm feeling your anger
The night, agitated
You're leaving for nowhere
This music never heard

Forgetting altogether
Making up excuses
Standing on fishes
No praise for lies
Jugglers, fire-breathers
Just beyond my window
Your dying applause
Pretend not to hear


10. LEMONGRASS

Give me the green sun
How blue, dear. Ah! blue
Each word must sleep unspoken
What fields as fragrant as hands?
Sickness, my new obsession
These infections know no latitude

On the verge of going blind
The salt of most unrighteous tears
Touching this dreaded sight
Lost you a little less
Reaching, never touching
Life lightly brushes your lips