---

Suicide Medicine

A brain that never stops ticking 
sometimes an on-off switch would sure come in handy
a mind that's constantly cutting up and dissecting
looking for answers committing murders along the way
is it the red wire or the blue wire
just pick one and cut 
it just doesn't matter anymore
or did it ever
cause I could never control when the bomb would explode
oh god I love you
I mean forever 
I left my body behind to break the news
looks like it's over 
please remember all of the things I never got a chance to say
like you look smashing in your fourth grade picture the one that we hung by the door
in our house that was so beautiful
there in our little home
if this medication upsets your stomach
take it with crackers bread or a small meal
we understand it won't do shit towards the cure
but if you buy this I promise you're gonna like the way it makes you feel
is it the red wire or the blue wire
 just pick one and cut
it just doesn't matter anymore
 or did it ever
 cause I could never control when the bomb would explode
 oh god I love you
I mean forever
 I left my body behind to break the news
 looks like it's over
 please remember all of the things I never got a chance to say
 like you look smashing in your fourth grade picture the one that we hung by the door
 in our house that was so beautiful
 there in our little home

---

Automatic Rifle

The night I turned 25 it was legos on the floor
it seemed like a safe enough game
for a man to play with his daughter
an automatic rifle and a bullet through the window
and the troops are satisfied that justice had been delivered
that was enough to set the spark of a vision in another
18 years – 18 year old girl – to see herself a martyr
to keep up with the cycle
of an automatic rifle and a bullet through the window
and the troops were satisfied that justice had been delivered
close your eyes to the sun’s blinding light
a three story concrete house and a steady paycheck
cause open eyes will be infected with politics
and even a smart girl can end up with a bomb strapped to her chest

---

Prison is Private Property

The have nots have had enough and now they’re out to kill the king  
of what looks to be an evil empire where short-term
earnings mean everything 
there’s a pressure to deliver here, you’re gonna get hurt
if you don’t play this game
nobody will ever know, just the CEO to the CFO 
if you can work some magic, we can double our paychecks,
so make the numbers look right 
wall street is a ruthless mistress with a quick and painful judgment 
temptation is in deep now, threads of greed run through this fabric 
weaving tapestries over your eyes to
prepare the landscapes for disaster 
anthrax or a plane crash, biochemical, or even nuclear attacks 
integrity is too damn expensive, discount the price but still 
nobody’s buying so come up with the money boys
or you’ll be chocking on a barrel 
and it just might be your own finger squeezing on the trigger 
call in the reinforcements
you’re working hard on a life of your own 
three square meals and a place to call home 
the American dream can be found here if you keep your mouth closed 
but the teeth you keep clinched is what’s killing the chance 
your mouth is watering as you imagine
swallowing each new possession 
it’s building a prison
you’ll think there’s a place where you made it 
you searched for this your whole life 
new answers will satisfy but then you realize it’s never enough 
that’s the slickest marketing I’ve ever seen – a spiraling trap 
with enough ambition and a firm set of rules
you can have anything you want 
you can walk right out into the world and capture and kill god 
in a little box or a little book to be understood 
but no one can argue with the good sense
and strength of a solid foundation 
or with the weakness born when corruption
is the rule and not the exception 
I’m trying hard to forget everything I thought I knew 
you’ve climbed much too high to let the truth stop you now 
or to concern yourself with the investments of lesser honest men 
the ladder’s been brutal but the payoff is just around the corner
call in the reinforcements
you’re working hard on a life of your own 
three square meals and a place to call home 
but you keep getting lost each time you walk out your front door 
me I’ve got a family I know real well what it means 
to make sure there’s enough food on the table each day 
but I’d rather starve than be a whore for an empty living

---

White Daisy Passsing

Please slow it down
 there's a secret magic past world that you only notice when you're looking back at it
 all I wanna do is turn around
 I'm going down to sleep on the bottom of the ocean
 because I couldn't let go when the water hit the setting sun
 passing white daisies taking turns
 close the door walk into the street
 catching raindrops on your tongue
and for a minute it all stops but it won't last man
 it's just a passing moment gone
 please slow it down
 there's a secret place that I know where I could dig a grave out and climb underground for good
 all I want to do is turn around
 I'm going down to sleep on the bottom of the ocean
 because I couldn't let go when the water hit the setting sun
 passing white daisies taking turns
 all those evenings on the back deck of our first apartment
 they meant everything but the wind just carried em off
 and you can't go back now just a passing moment gone

---

Where We Left Off

 There's a hotel in my memory
 Pink Flamingos and light flickering from the TV screen
 come lay down here with me
 your mom and dad are right outside
 so we climbed up here so we can hide from everything
 from all the lies that we've lived beneath
 let's pick up where we left off
 let's string up everything that we've been afraid of
we've been living under, we've been taught to remember
 and let's learn how to love  there's a hotel in your memory
 Pink Flamingos and light flickering from the TV screen
 come hide up here with me thinking it up is making it real - you create the scene
 you've lived in for years - it's scary to think  what some lies will make you believe

---

Lilly White

Christmas parties and all night fights 
I remember you sweet-talking to me beneath the strung up lights 
those days are gone now I know I had everything to do with that
because I've never been afraid of dying, never done much to avoid it 
these memories still keep me up at night 
on my way back from a place of no recovering
bleeding on my knuckles again 
fighting a fight I can't win 
broken teeth and broken nose and ten years at the bottom of a bottle 
will you help me find my way back home
the halls in this place you can hear 'em scream 
'cause they had to watch and listen to the people and the voices of what they'd seen 
I can't hear anything and all I can see 
is a memory of your smile your necklace, pistol locket on a silver chain
hold on too tight, you'll lose everything
on my way back from a place of no recovering 
bleeding on my knuckles again 
fighting a fight I can't win
broken teeth and broken nose and ten years at the bottom of a bottle
 will you help me find my way back home

---

Before You Were Born

If I asked real sweet would you take a ride with me 
we'll drive down streets that no one else has ever seen
in red bucket seats with a stereo from 1953
I knew you before you were born 
and I've seen an ending worth waiting for
under blankets of maps to keep us warm
mile markers made out of rows of white birch trees
lead me to black velvet dressed in silver rings
just like you and me some things are meant to be 
I knew you before you were born 
and I've seen an ending worth waiting for 
under blankets of maps to keep us warm 
the paper moon in the tree branch blue sky is cold and brittle on an October night 
dead weather vines that grew on concrete steam lamp lights 
I knew you before you were born 
and I've seen an ending worth waiting for 
under blankets of maps to keep us warm

---

Without Eyes Still Seeing

Everyday has a song
Some get sung while others go unheard
Take a good look around
It'll never be this way again so try to remember
Dylan, Drake, even Schwarzenbach
How you became heroes I'll never forget
It's not easy to look at your heart
Not many men know how and even fewer speak out
So if you know exactly what the sunset looks like
You'll be lucky if you don't loose your eyes
"To Hell with that"
She said "I'll look deep and hard
It's what my God gave me these eyes for"
I'll look just as hard as her
Hell even harder I'll join her as a miner
Digging deep till I'm blind,
Without eyes still seeing but always singing out