1. BEFORE THE WAVE

We run our skins up the mast today,
Set the bones in the water and sail away.
But a prayer repeated won't carry us over
This heavy stretch of water.

We lie still as the shore slides, silent,
Dripping red and blue and violet.
To think inaction could get this violent :
Sleeping on the ocean.

Before the wave.

Success assured as the anchor lifted,
The endless drift is out destination.
The young and handsome, wise and gifted :
Eaten by the waters, by the ocean.

Before the wave.

Like your father went before you,
Daughter, this will happen to you.
Hold on.


2. HANG YOUR HEAD

When the walls of your world start to peak inches over your head.
When the plane spirals down with the tail and the engines both dead.
When the boat in the storm comes apart at the seams,
When the worms and the maggots eat all of your dreams,
Just remember the words that the sorrowful victor had said :

“Let me ask you, honey, have you ever done something
just because you wanted to ?”

For the time when your foot's in the face of someone on the ground.
For the feelings you hurt in the course of a night on the town.
For the shame that you know on the following day,
For the courting of death and of dangerous ways;
Remember the words, weave the syllables into a gown :

“Let me ask you, honey, have you ever done something
just because you wanted to ?”

Bring your eyes over.
Bring your bones over.
Let me be a place for you to hang your head.


3. KINGS MAKE SLAVES

Kings will work the soil 'til their
Hands are worn to shoulders;
In his throne, the peasant smolders,
“Soldiers, I need mine.”

In every saint a sinner waits for
Cues to leave the wings and take
The center stage with poison lines,
Like, “I need mine.”

Take this man who'd never
Hurt a fly and turn the tables over.
Watch the snow ascend from boulders,
Forming clouds across the sky.
See the whale choked down by Jonah
While the mastiff leads his owner.
Abel, rising up, announcing, “I need mine.”

Rivers swiftly fill you veins
As blood coagulates the harbor.
Now we've memorized the mantra.
Hide your swords behind the pulpit.


4. SLEEPERS EAT LEAD

Sleepers eat lead like time eats time,
Like sour grapes bring sour wine.
Drunk on sloth at the starting line
I wipe it off my lips.

Sleepers eat leat like days eat days,
Today we spend, tomorrow pay.
Let's chase our corpses to the grave
And shake away the frost.

Old man, your walking days are over.
Force a smile as life decays.
Cast away all charms and four leaf clovers.
Old man, please move over.

The waves will pound the rocks to sand:
The water's weight turns sand to rock.
Let's make the most of time in hand
And use our fists to smash the clocks.

Lie down by the breaking tide;
Enjoy the sound of our own breath.
We'll soon be old and soon be gone.
Be thankful that we are not yet.


5. PSALM

Cast reflections,
Ripples in the water.
Replicate yourselves with sons and daughters.
Harvest timely fruit from trees.
Recognize beauty and let it be.

Let it lie, where it lies
As it already should be placed.

To tear asunder what must be shorn.
Wear things down that should be worn.
Try to act correctly in every situation.

Like spirits crash in dead December,
There are three day feasts in the womb of summer.
All men sigh, but pass the wine in due time.

To run full-tilt in youthful fires,
Stepping down when age requires.
Try to act correctly in every situation.

Carry hammers, carry feathers,
Sing together, on forever.


6. TREADMILL

Awaken, you're christened, alive with a mission.
Sit down beside us. We'll spell it our for you:
A simple incision, a needle insertion.
Release of a waiver and claims of coercion.

Here begins the program catered to your body.
Here begins the payment plan for living fact as fiction.
The numbing hum you're hearing is the sound of sweet incisors
As they take apart the calm and make a wreck of spent desire.

Walk with your virus,
The pattern you're given.
Yesterday's promise
Meets tomorrow's conditions.

Awaken, you're christened, so crack yourself open.
Work as you vanish with footsteps of poison.
Bring to fruition the failure of victory.
Stand here before us : the champion of failure.

Walk with your virus,
The pattern you're given.
Yesterday's promise
Is tomorrow's perdition.

Left foot, right foot.


7. BLOOD IS GOLD

Beware and prepare for vampires.
Both without and within
Your house and your skin
They feed.
Pulling wealth from the work of the
Gone and voiceless,
Like a walking disease.
Look hard, don't let them be forgotten :
The mightiest of thieves.

Beware and prepare for vampires.
With smiles and with face paint,
No shame and no restraint they feed.

As they piss in the mouths of their own supporters
I claw at my own eyes.
Water takes the land apart
And fires rape the sky.

We still dance with empty pockets.
You smile, say, "It's alright,
Because they're never gonna get it,
And if they ever got it,
You know they'd never get it right.

Truth be told, blood's not red, it's gold