Tokens

Time, I knew you when you were young
You had the world by the hem of its dress
Time, I know you now that you’re wan
You have the world lining up to confess
Time, I’ll know you up to the pall
Anthropocene turning cold on the stone
Time, who knows what leads to the fall
Will you end in a crowd, or end all alone?
Time, we might try to pull one on you
Fill up the sky and lessen the sun
Dress you in ice, your lips turning blue
Turn back the wheel, let machinery run
Love, you had me after a fire
You gave me some air and you took me away
Love, I was the head of your choir
You taught me the songs and I learned how to play
Love, the ways that we change over time
Don’t alter the rules or reset the game
Love, who knows when you’re in your prime
Does it come down to feeling, like everyone’s saying
Love, I finally found your last room
All of the tokens that you’ve taken on
Nothing that’s sacred, all is assumed
All of it’s love, and none of it’s wrong

Black Hole

You’re a living black hole, a lesion in the bone
You’re a shivering child denying he’s alone
You’re the worst thing I’ve seen, a famine of the mind
You’re a new disease; there’s nothing of your kind
You’re a masochist’s joke that’s turning tragic halfway through
And we’re turning your words in reverse
You’re abysmal, and I’m hoping that despite the lack of time
We manage to lift your curse
We’ll find your weak heart and sever all its roots
And watch as it starts to sputter and to lose
We’ll fight the malaise that binds us to your kind
We’ll starve you of attention ‘til rage turns you blind
And we’ll pray that your hands have been bound at the wrist
And that all of your cries will be sweet
Despite all of the forces that have lessened the risk
Of you begging for our mercy at our feet
Hatred corrupts, and it purifies, too
It simplifies thoughts just like love can do
Oh, I miss when it was an optional vice
Something you’d choose when fear was the price
But fear is the norm, and a paralyzed doom
Is no way to pass by the time
I’ve gambled on hatred and seen what it does
To lessen the fractures that trouble my mind

Infertile Air

When you tore them from her breast
And you drove home in your car
Did you think you’d get to rest
Without denying who you are
You said you’d clean them from the road
But when she asked where they had gone
You said she didn’t need to know
As if she’d done something wrong
You stalk the law like a jilted love
But when you catch it, you’re aware
You need to make it crueler still
So that you feel something there
Did it take you by surprise
When you took both of her kids
The desperation in her eyes
When you told her what you did
They’d come from north of Culiacán
Tried to buy themselves some time
Before he grew too old and strong
Enough to take the cartel line
You press the law like a branding iron
And when your victims cry in pain
You make them take duloxetine
As if that makes you less insane
You shipped her kids two thousand miles
And they appeared before a judge
And he set them up in Queens
Where they slept among the bugs
And when she saw them at release
It had been over a year
They didn’t recognize her face
They had been run through with fear
You cock the law like a loaded gun
One that you’ve ruined your life to buy
And though you point at everyone
You are the one who’s going to die
And when we find your body there
Amid the desert that has grown
Since you chose such infertile air
We will just mark it with a stone

The Rain

You’re the enemy now
Just how long has it been
Since you tasted the air
And the totals came in
How slowly things change
At the top of the heap
How it blinds you to pain
While you talk in your sleep
Eventually the rain’s gonna come
And when it comes it’ll wash you away
As a kid I was clean
But I’ve seen the dry pool
I have caught the canteen
Played the skeptical fool
You can’t strip away sand
Always more underneath
But some water could stand
Try to coax back the heath
Eventually the rain’s gonna come
And when it comes it’ll wash you away
It can change in a blink
The way one wields power
The wine that one drinks
At the ultimate hour
Did you think you were safe
Since the truth had come out
It’s been all over town
From a sigh to a shout
Eventually the rain’s gonna come
And when it comes it’ll wash you away

Finally Free

Tell me a lie,
It doesn’t have to be the right one
Just a door that I can try
When I’m on the run
When the mail arrives
And it’s full of claims on my soul
Just grant me the delusion
That I’m in control
Feed my hate with your drones
So I can look down on someone below
Take them down to their bones
On clear blue days, when I can see far
And all the kids play
Feed me a line,
It doesn’t have to mean anything
Just buy me precious time
So I can still sing
When the bill is due
And I’ve spent the dollars I saved
Just sell me junk insurance
And call me depraved
Take their food and their clothes
So I can look down on someone below
Privatize everything
So I can sit back, with nothing to lose
I’m finally free

Fate’s Ghost

Fate’s ghost swimming down an unfamiliar road
Lined with houses with a single room alight
As she wonders where the seventh chapter goes
Something answers from the only one that’s bright
Satire sleeping in a stall as dark as pitch
In denial of the world that is gone
Out of nowhere someone reaches for the switch
And he wakes up and he puts his blinders on
Suddenly it’s clearer than it’s ever been
How fragile all the sinews are
How simply they can fall away
The riders try to stitch things back together
Hoping manically they’ll weather all the
Coming storms that hit the bay
Decadence is heavy as it struggles with the speed
Sometimes I look up and I see fear in its eyes
And I look across and I see the other steeds
And they’re moving just as fast as they can fly
Where are we going, I shout into the void
Do you feel powerless there, or is it beyond any word
One looks over at me, as if half annoyed
You shouldn’t be here, it says
You’re not a member of this herd

When I’ve Been Born (I’ll Love You)

The present is prosaic, the future a disgrace
We can’t just look away now; it stares us in the face
But not just fools are hopeful that things could turn around
Your face can feel the current when your legs are in the ground
It might be hard to fathom, but I’m surer every day
And not just from religion—I was never one to pray
It’s just that as things worsen, I see familiar signs
The pendulum is peaking, according to design
When I get my prize, I’ll love you
As the oceans rise, I’ll love you
When the air gets thin, I’ll love you
If the fascists win, I’ll love you
Call me sentimental, there was a time I’d mind
But that time’s a memory lingering long behind
Afraid to be my father like it was some mistake
Rather than a byway that takes some time to take
If my memory goes, I’ll love you
When my movement slows, I’ll love you
When the time grows nigh, I’ll love you
After I’ve died, I’ll love you
If limbo waits, I’ll love you
When shirking fate, I’ll love you
As the fires burn bright, I’ll love you
When I lose my sight, I’ll love you
When the walls go up, I’ll love you
If time corrupts, I’ll love you
My past life shorn, I’ll love you
When I’ve been born, I’ll love you

River of Silver

River of silver, current of gold
What does your power mean if it’s on fire
What does the meadow become when you’re old?
Flooding and famine, desert and mire
The thread has a needle you can’t help but pull
The gloss of the dye is compelling it through
Spearing through cloth that was salvageable
And you are the desperate one steering it true
Chasing the glimmer that isn’t conceived
A promising future that needs to be won
Itinerant mothers who won’t be bereaved
Simmering ocean and billowing sun
Columns of water, towers of stone
That you’ll make to keep out the wandering night
What is survival when you are alone
The way your voice carries when everything’s quiet
And as for the rest of us, what do we have?
Look at my face and say that it’s not real
I look in your eyes and I see you’re alive
It’s something to covet, it’s something to steal

Venus

I look at Venus with keys in my hand
It’s taken an organ from me
I wish I knew when it had set off from land
But everything goes to the sea
The sea in the ocean the sea in the sky
There won’t be a difference for long
I’ve seen how the coward refuses to die
And the heroes march into their song
Oh what will you do when your money’s no good
Like everyone’s, dried in the sand
Will you follow the water right into the wood
And into what once was the strand
The sea in the ocean, the sea in the sky
There won’t be a difference for long
I’ve seen how the druid refuses to die
And the fools march into their song

Stillness

If you listen closer than you ever have before
With renewed attention, the kind hard to ignore
In between the signal and the gulf of present noise
Maybe there’s a sign, maybe there’s a sign
Maybe there’s a sign we can’t avoid
There’s a single fissure on the pane of glass between
The people who are helpless and the ones who can’t be seen
Just a little pressure and the fracture stands to burst
Maybe there’s a way, maybe there’s a way
Maybe there’s a way we can be first
I know that it is harder to believe than it has been
The window’s getting darker but the light keeps getting in
It can feel static, like a track without a turn
But in the end, but in the end
But in the end we’re gonna learn