cognitive toxin flypaper

calling all charlatans
I'm seeking a wise one
that peddles the answers
and deflates my muse
I'm haunted by conquests
unwritten by angels
come sell me a new light
to relight my fuse.

Anvil and Kite

she thinks i'm a kite
I'm more like an anvil
wrong end of a magnet
more still than tranquil
turned off and shut out
kicked out of the posse
the lanterns and showcase
has ridden the landscape
the perfect proportion
of one hidden handshake
of tree bark and statues
can opener handguns
one reason too many
and serious standoff
no bridges left spanning
no comic book torture
toll roads drained empty
from premature rapture
rat trap collapture

Weight Of Line and Intersection Lyrics

New Album lyrics


I TOLD YOU TO GO

Were you willing to bet?

You could outrun those cells

You lost the race

I saw you wasted away

Saw you lying in bed

Learned that it doesn't get

Much prettier

You know it took out my knees

I told you to go,

I told you to go

And I have never felt strange about that.

No time to prepare

Or remain unaware

I have my strength

I can put it away

My crying is done

I can help everyone

Just form a line

We comfort this way

I don't miss you anymore than I did then

if I forget you it will trouble me, trouble me no end.


EVAPORATE

never thought id see

the jealous coach in me

you got your crowd on hold

they all do what they're told

how would it be?

she takes your picture for free

she and your webhost don't agree

hey, careful what you say

they'll evaporate, they'll evaporate

your charming currency

is wearing thin with me

so good at blowing smoke

your fire's needing stoked

she tires of you

you lament and rue

at least the songs you write come true

stickers on our car

tell us just how far

we think apart

that's not my fault

ill try to be

open to a degree

today it just doesn't feel like me



WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

every thought a clue

every mood a door darling

let the newsmen go

toward the age of defeat

in a landscape of war

every hug is a lie

if my hands weren't tied

I would

will the rope come down

a familiar road to a new burning place

troubled by the disconnected

and the discontented spans

of a borrowed day

and I just have to say

Where do we go from here

why do we always fail this

what have we learned from this

what of it was worth saving?

autumn's walk takes a toll

cause my mind's on a roll- I'm reading

quotes from my noteworthy friends

colored calendar shells

every woman I've faced

It's a room built for one

in a lifetime of two people

thoughts get mixed on the floor

alphabetical drawers, every lover needs space


MYTH TO STRUGGLE WITH

you said go ahead

and get it over with

is it just a myth that I struggle with?

how on earth could I juggle all of this?

seems so petty now I'm ashamed

I'm like a little kid

crying over cake

you can't take me anywhere

my eyes are everywhere it's punitive

sometimes the talks don't work

I can't get rid of it

the moon looks the same in other time zones

A luxury I can't afford to miss

I don't often get myself mixed up in other worldliness

have you seen the deus ex machina?

is that what you want for your dénouement

words can't measure out the time we drifted

miles speak only to the tires tread

success has always been a hidden metric

slung on wired fallout that the hurtful said

headlamps light the interstate

Taillights fall away to outer space.


BURN OUT THE LAMPPOSTS

I don't burn out the lampposts like I used to do

I don't paint the town any other hue

I don't bring the seasons any kind of joy

Don't kung fu grip me like your other toys

took my chucks for a walk and kicked a can or two

need a friend right now to kick the time change blues

I'm like the Yukon not a province yet

you're my Alaska now the sun won't set

Last Sunday

I fired a flare toward you

it read:

Do you find me in any private thoughts?

instead

of the one who makes you happy?

the one good reason to keep this to myself

NOTHING DOING TODAY

Nothing doing today needs done

Unplugging the ocean, unplugging the sun

You're gonna die trying

It's still trying to wake

It's too icy a season to be comfortably safe

Barricaded by the past

It's a naked jib across your mast

You answer to no one

You're accomplice to none

You're the worst kept secret on everyone's tongue

days are brighter now than they ever had to be

Sometimes forgotten scenes are the best part of the scenery

Like snowflakes in the sand, they drift away

Tortured tourist in the cracking storm

Tattered cases weathered, worn

Guitars are tougher than guns, and nothing's tougher than drums

I can feel the new season on the tips of my thumbs


NOTE THE WINDSHIELD CAUGHT

It's time to write the songs,

when no one's biting on the west coast

the right shows come along

a pile of demos headed for the thrift store

Its time to fix the van

and ask ourselves the harder questions,

is it time to change the plan?

we're going broke paying for the sessions

there's daylight on the bench seat,

a strange indifferent parking lot

the waitress has found your keys,

a note that the windshield caught

the one thing we forgot

its time to check the map

find another road around the mountain,

a reoccurring theme

the smell of gasoline and soda fountain

time to change your strings,

It's the grime that builds and breaks the next one,

a temporary chime

that breaks the weight of line and intersection

no one's volunteered to jumpstart our career

we'll drive on have no fear. Have no fear

is this our new home?

steel plywood and foam?

the only seed we've sown, the only way that we've known

all that money owed, waiting to be towed

its time to write the songs

'Cause no one is biting


APOLOGY

Sorry we fought--how are your injuries?

I know that you got a face full of inquiries

I know that it's not a good apology

accepting day

I'd buy you a bike

so you could ride away

and get us some smokes

but that was Saturday

and Sundays need strokes

and Monday

just needs some encouraging

but if you see to it that I am paroled

I'll see you to your easy chair when we're old

now I'm out of work let me boss you around

there's pictures of us there on the window sill

I'm taller than you -your heart is bigger still

apartments outside pink in the morning sun

there's hardly a tree in Ballard

now I'm out of work let me boss you around

now you need some time and you're kicking me out

but if you see to it that I am paroled

I am paroled--- I am paroled


ROY ORBISON (Bob Reed, Overwhelming Colorfast)

Sixteen years of anger

Seven more of pain

Leave it all behind you

In the falling rain

And I know how it feels to be the lonely one

Its not just me, you could take it from Roy Orbison

Was it ever worth it?

Always wanting more

Saw myself in pictures

Falling on the floor.

And you can't see for the teardrops falling down

And you think there's something wrong

You know it probably is

Could you stop to believe

It will all work out?


END OF ALL THINGS

Never bought into the goodbyes but rather

lived in those moments

now the moment has left me and wiped out my interests

feels like the end of all things

Feels like the end, feels like the end of all things

she has the kind of smile that hides all things

the kind of smile that hides all things
from her toes to her barbed wire strings
from the fleshy part of the winter
to that skinny part of the spring
we were picked on and pulled to pieces
it felt like the end of all things