Picture this picture
Framed in gilded oak
The men of 3rd battalion
Company K
Their packs and rifles
Loaded with great ideas
Marching in a field overgrown with weeds
While bombed out houses
Overlook frozen and muddy creeks
See here
How they pave the way
Their boots like bricks
Marking the way of the road
See here
How it and they
Stretch out for miles
In neat and orderly rows
See here
How it and they
Are paved with good intentions
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They came at last to a place of darkness
Where many millions of wires and cables hummed unseen
And they dared not move for fear of things that screamed at them in the dark
One, her name was Goldie, wanted to strangle her children
Because the wires told her to
Another, his name was Aaron, wanted to pull his cock out
And slice it with a knife
And rub the blood in his eyes
Because the wires told him to
And so on and so on
Until the door slammed shut
All of its own accord
Or maybe not
Maybe it was providence
Who knows or cares
They got away intact
That’s what matters
That they walked away
While the cables
And the wires
Still hummed.
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Old Grandma has been circling that stone
for the better part of 5 centuries
You see,
Underneath is her granddaughter, crushed by accident
But Grandma doesn’t care. She’s got enough time
And today might finally be the day
When the groove she’s worn,
With her outstretched hand,
goes deep enough,
and the stone breaks in half
and she can rescue the pile of bones
that used to ask for juice and say
“Mamaw.”
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51 men in the desert
with hammond organs and leslie speakers
D major chords over G major chords
But the dry dry air has gotten sick
of the pretty swirling sounds
5000 drummers
in the mountains of china
with drums large enough to shake miles of stone walls
but the stones have been pushed
far enough, thank you very much
and they don’t care very much at all
999,999
is the number of headstocks
you could count on a california beach
untuned and unamplifed
because the ocean is saying SHH!
it’s nap thirty
pacific standard time
We lost count of the voices
that were singing in this cave
the bats all flew away
and the ceiling collapsed
at least it’s always a balmy 52°
The truth is
there were always more lives than notes
more voices than parts
and someone has to do it
but everyone was too nice
so we put an upturned palm in the face
of every pretty mouth
of every nimble hand
and the shushing still isn’t done
30:1
is the ratio you’re familiar with
if you read that book
with the monkeys and the monolith
the movie was better however
because the music was minimal
and the child was silent
in the end
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Faces in the foam
falling off the crest of the wave
old forgotten bodies
that want to know your name
Arms in the spray
tumbling down the water
dismembered endings
with memories of their daughters
Words in the current
Drifting in off the wind
hateful little numbers
they want you to get in.
“Please,” they beg.
“Please get in and swim.”
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Off to the east, there’s a black spot
Where there used to be a sun
It covers the horizon
A giant airborne cancer
Don’t think
Just run
We have to leave right now
Grab the kids and the dog
The wind is blowing and the light is dying
Don’t think
Just run
We can’t stop to rest now
Safety may not be in reach
The rain is making lakes of our lives
Don’t think
Just run
40,000 miles above our heads
The sun is shining brightly
Five feet away the wind is stripping trees of bark
The thunder is yelling our fears
Don’t think
Just run
There’s a storm cloud hanging low over the horizon
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(verse 1)
Move the lights down
Move the lights down now
We don’t wanna see too far tonight
Turn the bass up
Turn the bass up now
We don’t wanna hear outside tonight
Bring the beat back
Bring the beat back now
We’re gonna dance till we fly tonight
(Pre-chorus)
Take the count
and multiply by four
All of that doubt
Isn’t there anymore
It was all replaced
By an empty space
Behind our eyes
(chorus)
We just want to dance
We just want to sing
Just give us the bass
Just give us the beat
(verse 2)
Bring the beat back
Bring the beat back now
We’re gonna dance till we fly tonight
Kill the DJ
Or let the DJ kill
We don’t have to worry tonight
It’s all the same
It’s all the same now
And we don’t really even care tonight
(bridge)
It may be raining outside
But our skin feels completely dry
Those nerves aren’t transmitting
We’ve got them submitting
To a smoke filled ceiling
And an emptiness
Behind our eyes
(pre-chorus)
(chorus)
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12:30 a.m.
76 degrees with low humidity
June 13th 1954
Everything is going well
For our midnight drive
1:45 a.m.
We’re taking the back-roads tonight
Patsy’s on the radio
The lightning bugs are almost more than the headlights
The crickets, almost louder than the engine
The wind is sweet and cool
For our midnight drive
2:30 a.m.
On a turn in near the swamps
The headlights go off
The moon stays on
The trunk pops open
The plastic tarp moves slowly up down
Just over his mouth
Just over his eyes
Now that we’ve stopped
Our midnight drive.
4:15 a.m.
80 degrees and balmy
The chains are locked around his waist
The cinderblocks are holding him in place
When the blood starts to leak
The gators come to feed
All in all
All went well
For our midnight drive
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THE CASTLE
Every day, the young boy awoke and stared
At the castle on the horizon
He would watch as the sun arose behind it
And slowly lit up the old gray stones
He would dream of traveling
To the castle on the horizon
He would watch as midday passed
And the birds flew around the parapets
He would think of all the majesty
In the castle on the horizon
He would gaze with the sun low behind him
At the crumbling stones of the walls
And wonder how that ever happened
To the castle on the horizon
He would study the towers’ decay
And wonder how long they’d been there
How long had it been since there was life
How long had it been since men guarded the gates
How long since a king sat in the throne
Of the castle on the horizon
He did this day after day, year after year
Until at last his youth left him
And he was faced with a choice
He could sit and stare and die alone
Or he could walk and hope and die alone
He could try with all of the fading life inside of him
To reach the castle on the horizon
He could stalk the walls
He could guard the gates
He could climb the towers
He could claim the throne
He could be the king
Of the castle on the horizon
So he started walking as an old man
He walked for one year and his beard reached his neck
But the castle did not grow larger in the distance
So he walked for ten more years and his beard reached his chest
But the castle did not grow larger in the distance
So he walked for twenty more years and his beard reached his knees
But the castle did not grow larger in the distance
So he walked for thirty more years and his beard reached his feet
But the castle did not grow larger in the distance.
Then one day, he tripped and became hurt so that he could not walk
From that day on crawled
Towards the castle on the horizon
At last his body gave and he was forced to stop
He stayed in that spot, never taking his eyes off
Of the castle on the horizon
His body decayed over time
His bones turned to dust and scattered
Far, far away
From the castle on the horizon
Then one day, a strong and powerful wind blew from the east
It took many many years for this wind to reach the dust
Of the old man’s decayed body
But it did
And it picked it up and carried it
For one thousand years
All the way to the castle on the horizon
The wind finally died down
when it reached the throne room
Of the castle on the horizon
It crawled into the massive forgotten court
Moving countless centuries of ancient dust
Dropping the old man’s final remains
Right on the seat of the throne
where he would be king forever
Of the castle around him
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THE NEED TO SING
Conducted with bones on rotting tombstones
Death has a melody in A minor
Sung by a choir with dirt for a home
It pulls and beckons with hints of Wagner
They sing of long sleep; eternal nightfall
The words imply the need to be absolved
Notes climb to the third, C major recalled
Their voices entice and the chords resolve
Now comes the refrain, the key shifts to F
A single alto sings alone, only
She makes a request with her endless breath
“Please come sing with us. We are so lonely.”
When you hear this, count to twenty and turn
The singing dead have flesh that always burns
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