THE LUMINOUS HEART OF NOWHERE CHALK AND CRIMSON HOW LONG HAVE WE SLEPT SOFTLY? SHIVERING ON DAMP GROUND UNDERNEATH THE SHAPES OF TREES WAITING FOR RESCUE AS WE FADE AWAY KNOWING THAT BLUE WOULD ONE DAY TURN TO GRAY IN THE FORESTS, AND DEEP INTO THE LUNAR SURFACE BUILDING LIFE FROM UNDER SHATTERED SENSE OF PURPOSE BURROWING, CHOKED BY BLACKENED CLOUDS FROM BURNING MEADOWS OUR SECRET SOULS SPEAKING THROUGH SERMONS WRITTEN IN THE AFTERGLOW BEFORE YOU KNEW YOUR CURSE I WONDER WHICH WAS WORSE THE WHISPER OR THE ACT WE SAW YOUR CONSCIENCE CRACKED YOUR FACE CARVED OUT IN WHITE LIMESTONE AND ANTHRACITE SAIL OVER CRIMSON LAKES UNTIL WE CAPSIZE — PETALS IF YOU COULD SEE THE ERRORS OF YOUR WAYS WOULD YOU REPENT FOR 14 DAYS? HAVE YOU DUG IN AND MADE A STAND? BURIED YOUR FLOWER UNDER SAND? I’VE NEVER LEFT YOUR SIDE WITH NO PLACE LEFT TO HIDE THERE’S JUST SO MUCH INTERNAL GUILT THERE’S SO MUCH BLOOD THAT HAS BEEN SPILT I WRAP THIS TOURNIQUET OF SHAME BEFORE YOU EVEN TAKE MY NAME AS LOVERS TO ANOTHER WE HARDLY KNEW EACH OTHER I’VE GOT SO MUCH INCESSANT PAIN I’LL WEAR THIS COAT OF THORNS AND EYES I’VE GOT SOME BLAME TO REDIRECT I’LL FUCKING TAKE THIS BADGE OF HATE THERE ARE SO MANY ROTTING SHIPS I FEEL ANESTHETIZED AND BLIND WHEN PETALS FALL I FALL BEHIND IF YOU COULD FEEL EMOTION ANYMORE WOULD YOU GO BACK TO THINGS YOU FELT BEFORE? IF I COULD SEE A FUTURE IN THIS ACT I’D RISE ABOVE WITH INNOCENCE INTACT THIS BRAIN IS FILLED WITH USELESS LIES EXPERTLY HYPNOTIZED WE LOVE AND LOVE YOU NOT EXIST WITH BAREST THOUGHT WE LOVE AND LOVE YOU NOT I LOVE AND LOVE YOU NOT — YOU LOST ME IGNORE THE PINCH AND LIVE INSIDE THE SUIT THEY FIT YOU IN THE ONLY CITIZEN OF CITIES UNDERNEATH YOUR SKIN YOU FELT SO SINISTER SELF-APPOINTED MINISTER TO THE AGE OF REASON TREASONS YOU HIDE BEHIND A KID’S FACE YOU LOST IT ALL AND TOOK A SPIN JUST LIKE THE ONES YOU FELT ASHAMED FOR TUNNEL INTO MY HEAD AGAIN THAT’S WHERE YOU FELT THAT YOU COULD OWN ME NO ONE KNEW THAT YOU’D GROWN SICK THEY CALLED YOU IN TO TURN A SECOND TRICK SHAPE OF THE DEAD, YOU LOST ME WHEN YOU SAID YOU COULDN’T LIVE ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT THE FIX FED INTO A HOLE YOU FILLED AND DIGGING FURTHER ALL THE WHILE EVERY LIVING BEING WEARS YOUR CROOKED THERMOPLASTIC SMILE SUDDENLY THE HEAT GETS HOTTER AND SUDDENLY WE KNOW WHAT YOU KNEW PRESENTLY WE’RE LED TO SLAUGHTER YOU’RE THE ONE WHO TIGHTENS THE SCREW TINY GIANTS IN THIS TOWN SPARK IT LIKE ARMAGEDDON OPEN EVERY PLACE THEIR BLADE PENETRATES SHARPEN DISTRUST LIKE THEY’D BUILT WEAPONS THEIR MOUTHS DRAW LONG WHEN THEY’VE SAID THEIR LAST GOODBYES WE STARE HOLES THROUGH THE BACKS OF THEIR HEADS FOR THEM — OATH WE ARE CHEMICALS IN ONION SKIN WE FIGHT WARS THAT START AND END WITHIN WEARING OUR PENITENCE THIN IN A FAR FROM ORIGINAL SIN, WE ARE DRAGGED OVER FLAMES MELTING DOWN THROUGH THE ASHES AGAIN FALLEN UNDER THE SOIL AND THE SNOW IT WAS HERE YOU WERE BORN AGAIN WITH THE EYES OF AN ANIMAL YOU WILL LIVE AND WILL DIE HERE ALONE, YOU SOLD OFF YOUR SOUL TO WORSHIP AT ALTARS OF CANNIBALS HAND DOWN THE CROWN, SPIRALING DOWNWARD IN HEARTACHE ONLY REPEATING THE OATH THAT YOU BREAK TRAPPED WITH THESE VISIONS YOU CAN’T SHAKE OF DECLINING FAITH WHEN YOU SEND OUT THE CALL GAMBLE IT ALL WITH A FATE YOU DEADEN AND AMPUTATE CAUTERIZE THE INCISION LIE DOWN IN THE SAND, WASH THROUGH THE GRAVEL THAT BRUISED YOUR FEET ON THE JOURNEY AND LIVE BY THE LOSS, LEAVE WITH THE PROPHECY INCOMPLETE WHEN THE WORDS YOU SAID ONLY DISOWN CARRYING ONLY A HOPE YOU HOLD WHEN YOU FADE IN THE NIGHT AN EMPIRE UNRAVELING AND YOU HIDE FROM THE LIGHT, A SUN THAT EXTINGUISHES WE ARE SHADOWS IN AN EARTHEN CAGE BARREN REMNANTS OF A GOLDEN AGE THAT ONLY INCINERATE BUT THE OATH THAT YOU TAKE IS ERASED WITH THE LIFE THAT YOU BREAK PERMANENTLY SUBMERGED IN THE WAKE WHEN YOU HAND DOWN THE CROWN, SPIRALING DOWNWARD IN HEARTACHE ONLY REPEATING THE OATH THAT YOU BREAK TRAPPED WITH THESE VISIONS YOU CAN’T SHAKE OF DECLINING FAITH WHEN YOU SEND OUT THE CALL GAMBLE IT ALL WITH A FATE YOU DEADEN AND AMPUTATE CAUTERIZE THE INCISION LIE DOWN IN THE SAND, WASH THROUGH THE GRAVEL THAT BRUISED YOUR FEET ON THE JOURNEY AND LIVE BY THE LOSS, LEAVE WITH THE PROPHECY INCOMPLETE WHEN THE WORDS YOU SAID ONLY DISOWN CARRYING ONLY A HOPE YOU HOLD WHEN YOU FADE IN THE NIGHT AN EMPIRE UNRAVELING AND YOU HIDE FROM THE LIGHT, A SUN THAT EXTINGUISHES — SILVER TONGUE SILVER TONGUE, YOU FOUND SOMEONE THE GHOST THAT LAUGHED AT CHANCE VACANT EYES, THE SLOW SURPRISE WE NEVER STOOD A CHANCE FROZEN HEART, YOU PLAYED THE PART YOUR WORDS AS SLING AND ARROW IN THE VAPORS OF OUR PROMISES THEY CUT ME TO THE MARROW YOU ARE THE WISH ON DYING STARS THE GOLD BENEATH THE TREE I’M FOREVER IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS YOU’RE AFRAID OF ENDING UP LIKE ME LEAVE THE GROUND AND FLY OVERHEAD TAKE IT ALL AND FLY OVERHEAD AS I WOKE EVERY MORNING AS SILENCE CHILLED THE AIR LOOKED HEAVENWARDS TO FIND YOU BUT YOU WERE NEVER THERE YOU COULD HAVE NEVER BEEN A PART OF ME YOU COULD HAVE NEVER MET MY EYE I’D ONLY KNOWN THE VANISHING OF TRAILS YOU LEFT ACROSS MY SKY — TRAPPED IN AMBER WE SHED SKIN LIKE REPTILES WE’RE SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES BACK DOWN FROM A DYING CAUSE JUST GOLD DUST STAKING THEIR CLAIMS WE’RE LIKE SITTING TARGETS AND WE HIDE IN CAVES LEAVE BEHIND WHAT WE FOUND THERE TAKE THE REST TO OUR GRAVES WE BEAR DOWN LIKE BEASTS OF PREY AND WE MOVE AS ONE DESPERATION THE BASELINE NOW WE TURN WITH THE SUN CALCULATING THE HALF LIFE A FIVE HOUR EMBRACE JUST TO SEE IT SLIP THROUGH OUR GRASP AND BEAR DOWN UNTIL IT TESTS OUR FAITH WE BARE TEETH LIKE VAMPIRES WHEN WE DEVOURED OUR YOUNG THE SLAVE MADE THE MASTER WE DARED SPEAK IN HIS TONGUE EXPLOSIONS IN THE DISTANCE WE LIGHT FIRES WITHIN COULD BE THE DAWN OF A NEW WORLD AGE OR THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT DEAD END DULL KNIVES SHAKE – WHERE WE STAND IN A VACUUM AND BREAK THIS WANTS TO THREATEN TO STRETCH MY NECK BUT HOW MANY LIVES CAN IT TAKE? WE PRETEND – WE DIG IN WE LOSE TO WIN – ENLIGHTENED A FAILED STATE – LIE IN WAIT THE IRON GATES CLOSE IN AND WE STAND OUTSIDE PICKING SHARDS FROM OUR SKIN — IN EMPTY SPACES JUST SWADDLE YOU IN SUGAR SWEET ILLUSION NO ONE TO PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOU FRAME THE DENIAL KEEP YOU SAFE ENOUGH TO LIVE IN THEIR DELUSION SO CONTENT TO NEVER MOVE A FINGER OVER THE DIAL STAND WEAK-KNEED AND WAIT FOR YOU TO FAIL LIVE WRITING OUT THE STORY OF BETRAYAL NUMBED TOTALLY WITH EVERY SMALL DISTRACTION HOPING YOU WOULD STAY ASLEEP AND MISS THE ACTION FILLED YOU WITH EMPTY SPACES -THERE WERE LIES I NEVER TOLD YOU NOW YOU’RE JUST WORN OUT FACES WITH JUST A STORY THAT THEY SOLD YOU NO ONE BELIEVED IT FOR A MINUTE BUT YOU RED LINES ACROSS A DIRTY WASH OF FICTION TRUST ISSUES IN A COURT OF SWORN ENEMIES PUSHED OUT INTO A DESERT OF CONVICTIONS THEY WROTE THEIR LETTERS ON THE DRIVE WHEN THEY FILLED YOU WITH EMPTY SPACES -THERE WERE LIES I NEVER TOLD YOU NOW YOU’RE JUST WORN OUT FACES WITH JUST A STORY THAT THEY SOLD YOU NO ONE LOOKED BETTER IN THE LIGHT WITH THESE DISTANT TRACES OF ANY REASSURANCE YOU COULD WALL AROUND YOU IN EMPTY SPACES ARE FORGOTTEN WORDS WE ONCE BELIEVED WERE TRUE DEEP SEATED AND CLAWING TO THE SURFACE LOST SEARCH FOR ANY PATH TO VINDICATION THEY LEFT YOU TO LIE DOWN AND TAKE THE CURSES BUT WHEN THEIR SHOW OF INDIGNATION FILLED YOU WITH EMPTY SPACES -THERE WERE LIES I NEVER TOLD YOU NOW YOU’RE JUST WORN OUT FACES WITH JUST A STORY THAT THEY SOLD YOU NO ONE LOOKED BETTER IN THE LIGHT WITH THESE DISTANT TRACES OF ANY REASSURANCE YOU COULD WALL AROUND YOU IN EMPTY SPACES ARE FORGOTTEN WORDS THAT WE USED EMPATHY WAS SOMETHING NEVER SAID TO ME INSINCERE APOLOGIES WERE FED TO ME SAID IT STARVED BUT IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS BLED TO ME UNTIL OUR ONLY DREAM WAS DEAD TO ME — ORBITER/AMARANTH A FLOWER THAT NEVER FADES I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN HOW YOU GREW IN SHADE THAT LIGHT THAT RARELY SHONE ITS FACE COULD SHOW THE PATH TO WHERE A SECOND CHOICE WAS MADE I’VE ONLY KNOWN YOU WHEN THE TIME WAS RIGHT AND I’LL ONLY WAIT FOR YOU FROM DAY THROUGH NIGHT WHEN YOU SEEM CLOSE ENOUGH TO HOLD ON TO TO SEE THROUGH AN ETERNITY AND LIVE THROUGH YOU NOW YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SAW THROUGH THESE EYES OF GOLD WAS YOU DETHRONED – YOU SINK LIKE A STONE DOWN THROUGH 1000 ATMOSPHERES, TO TOUCH DOWN HERE AND FALL AWAY AGAIN IF YOU’VE HELPED ME STAY ALIVE BEFORE TONIGHT I NEED YOUR VOICE TO GUIDE ME TO THE LIGHT BUT MY FEAR IS THAT YOU’LL KNOW THIS PAIN AND IF YOU DO, I KNOW I’LL NEVER WALK WITH YOU AGAIN DOWN THROUGH 1000 ATMOSPHERES, TO TOUCH DOWN HERE AND FALL AWAY AGAIN SOLITARY SEARCH FOR THE PLACE OF OUR REBIRTH YOU TOUCH THE EARTH AND LEAVE HOLES OF SACCHARIN — BREATHE DEEP IN DRIVING RAINS REBUILT FROM WRECKAGE WHEN WRECKAGE WAS THE LOSS AND GAIN ON RAGING SEAS RETURN FROM CHAOS IN COMPLETE IMPOSSIBILITY WHAT GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO STEAL THIS THING FROM ME DID YOU SEE THE LIGHT WHEN THERE WAS NOTHING THERE TO SEE NOW DO PREDICTIONS FAIL THEY THREW YOU OFF THE RAILS SO NOW BREATHE DEEP YOU ARE THE ONE WHO SEARCHES FOR REDEMPTION WHEN YOU LEAVE WITH THIS INTEMPERANCE REMEMBER ME IN YOUR REFLECTION MY NAME WAS INSURRECTION THE HEART OF THE HEARTLESS IN THESE HOURS OF EMERGENCY WHAT GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO STEAL THIS THING FROM ME DID YOU SEE THE LIGHT WHEN THERE WAS NOTHING THERE TO SEE NOW DO PREDICTIONS FAIL THEY THREW YOU OFF THE RAILS SO NOW BREATHE DEEP YOU ARE THE ONE WHO SEARCHES FOR REDEMPTION MELT DOWN THE SKY THERE IS NOTHING LEFT STANDING BUT YOU AND I TURN DOWN THE LIGHT AND REMEMBER THE MOMENT WE GAVE UP THE FIGHT — CARBON BLANK WHEN YOUR HEART STOPS, AND YOUR HEAD’S DONE IN YOU’RE DRAPED IN BLACK AND OVERWROUGHT BEFORE THE THAW TIME UNDERGROUND IT ALL SEEMS LIKE A PICTURE NOW THAT ONLY MEMORY COULD DRAW ETCHED IN PERMANENCE THE BEAUTY IN THIS PASSING GLANCE THE DREAM THAT ONE DAY WE BELIEVE BUT I AM ON THE LEAVES AND ONLY NOW CAN I RECALL THE IMAGE OF THE STEEL AND CLAW THAT LEFT THESE SCARS FIND YOUR SHELTER, MAKE YOUR BED AND TIE IT FAST FORGET THE OVERCAST LOOK OVER FACES THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD NOT SEE THEN LOOK AT ME AND SEE EACH DAY AS IT’S YOUR LAST YOU AWAKEN IN THE CARBON OF THE NIGHT AND YOU FEEL AGAIN, THOUGH DARKNESS STEALS YOUR SIGHT NOW EVERYONE’S INVISIBLE BLANK STARES FROM EYES OF ETHER MARKED AS TRUE BELIEVERS WRAITHS TEN KINGS And now we play lay the blame Cast out the perfect line to paint you from the frame This is our way And now we pretend our ears are sewn But we hear the whispers of pretenders to the throne In wide-eyed disbelief We still fell to our knees and broke bread with the thief And died inside And when our lungs collapsed with the weight of every lie The breaking of a promise under cold black skies This is our world war Everything we ever felt before is all undone The words spattered on every wall And all i know When we take cover and then we run, they fire at will And take aim at the heart that’s beating still And we try to drown the fear The ice blue oceans bury different hemispheres And choke the sun Ten kings and a pauper on the sinking sands Towed under with lions and with lambs This is our world war Everything we ever felt before is all undone The words spattered on every wall And all i know When we take cover and then we run, they fire at will And take aim at the heart that’s beating still — MASKS Give me one of those worn-out names And I’ll know that your story and mine are the same I want to see you break straws when you’re out the other end of this game We’re starving horses in an estuary We’re painted mallards missing eyes We’re on the rise when no one walked out of the flames You took it on yourself to be the reflector I would have followed you across that line But you turned out as just another defector Now that mask is in tatters next to mine We turned our eyes up to the sky While we withered on the vine When no one spoke our names and we died another thousand times And this was theatre without a director No voice could keep the eye on the prize And what we offered back was only conjecture The only difference: the bitter goodbyes I know you thought it was all ok But it’s really never been better this way There’s nothing for us even after today And it’s sad like a bastard You took it on yourself to be the reflector I would have followed you across that line But you turned out as just another defector Now that mask is in tatters next to mine — CORPSE Forgive yourself – you are the bed you make And everything you do winds up the same mistake Your lake of severed limbs, crowned in exhausted hymns Creates the place to lie in states and live with sins When your humility is liability It’s up to you to settle everything You’ll learn about simplicity and silence here This is the first and coldest day of the year You’d leave it all – did you believe that it would fade? This trail of ash led from the place you were betrayed And followed you down from the cradle to the grave Stuck on the yards, you live at one extreme Now that you’re bruised to the teeth you can feed on your pain The frozen dawn, the barren strain The resting place of beasts we claimed we’d slain Erase your guilt, inside the labyrinth you built And when the promises go unfulfilled The words in your head, how they remained unsaid The spark inside of your heart that was killed Stranded another day out on the shoal Just leave a thought and a trace of your soul A new eternity stared through a hole Don’t stay in the cold — YOUR COLLAPSE If the summer’s not gone And if the winter won’t stop, then we just might die till dawn If there’s no fire to melt this darkness on And if the water won’t flow And if there’s never been a way we could protect our home in the shallows Then i’m content to read this as it’s drawn If we don’t say what we mean And if the best that we can do is make a show of the American Dream Can we make sense of living in this machine Where all these people with knives surround you Wait in the weeds below the waters that drown you Your collapse they tried to shade their success to – Does it mean nothing that it couldn’t possess you? All these places with no names you feel you must have seen before But you can’t be sure there was a reason to remember Stamp out the embers for the cure When you were cold and alone You felt the isolation through your bones And in the weeds and the leaves You knew that you were deceived You crawled from under the stone And you were barely holding on You were barely alive, but you were always alive i know All these people with knives surround you Wait in the weeds below the waters that drown you Your collapse they tried to shade their success to – Did it mean nothing that it couldn’t possess you? All these places with no names you feel you must have seen before But you can’t be sure there was a reason to remember Stamp out the embers for the cure And if the water won’t flow, and if the winter won’t go, then we all need cures — STRIKE GOLD When you prayed to stay through the end Lain by the wayside you could not pretend Under the wreckage from flames that you fed You got what you wanted but still you left fallow and spent Led astray, now burned on the stake Drift in the wind where you bend til you break Caught in the crossfire gone under the knife The sands through your fingers that count down your life Strike gold now, tear off the crown Now and again, you play for the win, but can’t live this down You survive to tell – when your lie broke the spell And you’re scorned, and you dwell on the slide I’ve been free while you’ve been tied Your parched and desperate guise Slow down by the roadside and kneel at the shrine Become what you despise And you strike gold now – tear off the crown And cry in the dark to anyone left that you don’t know how You can wear this face, when you stare to retrace When you sold off the space with the honor & grace of a swine — UNNAMED BLOOD This shard of truth cuts through the threads that steal our youth That drain the soul inside and sharp the wolfen tooth This neutered frame, hardened in the wind and washed in rain Cover the crimes face down, hid when they swung the noose When comes the flood to rise, another river dries We play a black charade and crawl beside the flies Unnamed blood that’s on the hands of all who sign this covenant This game of shells steals back the liberty it sells A storm is reaching as it swells You’ll be secure again I’m sure we’ll see this when those fortress walls stop closing in Crawled through the mud and stone, worn down like acetone They watch this slow castration / guilty by association Unnamed blood that’s in the words we never stopped to hear These days of tears and of rage Never erase the angry lines from the page And when they starved us to the bone that was dry The only word we never thought we would say was goodbye They killed him and stared through his eyes In the fire and the snow Silenced and slaughtered us at every plateau As the deaf and the blind Begging for crumbs the leading lady and lord leave behind How many more ways can we die? Slaves were all that was left We were the last ones with no gods on our breath The end of everything in tides and in waves If we had listened to the warning we might have been saved The war for the home of the brave It’s all thrown away Compassion’s evergreen is earthbound and gray With eyes that were knives We gave a gift unto the ones who would squash out our lives How many more ways can we die? — YOU’RE A VORTEX I want to know you, but you’re a vortex And we’ve been living in permanent shipwrecks And that’s how we’ve saved rooms for no one You and I have got claws You and I are black shadows of past hurrahs And you and I have got bleached in sun After charades we played Now you and I are like platters of hand grenades We’re spun out and now we live life under the gun You’re a vortex – you’re a wheel on fire And you and I are like stone on a wire You’re the lie that hasn’t yet been told Why can’t you wait until the body’s cold? You’re the chinese wall You and I clutch straws when we go it alone And now we go it alone We should have known this was a war before Now how do we keep score? We’ve lost rock hard faith in humanity I’ve gladly bled through you And I’d do it again and again, and that’s true Until i left just a shell in shreds Now this dies with me Treading fire in a dance with legacy Or does that go without saying? You’re a vortex – you’re a wheel on fire And you and I are like stone on a wire You’re the lie that hasn’t yet been told Why can’t you wait until the body’s cold? You’re the chinese wall You and I clutch straws when we go it alone And now we go it alone — MILLIONS OF CITIES These are times of emptiness and blight In the silence and I’m inside a wilderness of night It’s never been quite like those summer afternoons When we stared at the clouds til we gazed at the moon These are times of loneliness and spite But I’ve lost you so many times, I’ve finally lost the will to try If being alone is the only way, and I have been bled dry, And there’ll never be a you and me, Why do I write this endlessly? How can I find a way to let this die These are days of helplessness and pain, once again The night before i only laughed and cried, and prayed to the satellites Because the smoke in your eyes is inside of me And there’s a fire in your voice that has taken me You were a light in the dark like i can’t believe And i was caught inside Millions of people in millions of cities feel this let down But if i ever felt that i needed you, it’s twice as much this time And you’re closer to me than you’ll ever be, But you’re still light years away from me, And I’d love to break your heart like you broke mine — SATAN AND DAPHNE I am talking without speaking On this lost and angry night I am seeing without vision As you drag me from the light And i am tired now, and i am worn I have summoned every shred of will And stood up through the storm Up through the storm There is a path that I had weathered Through obsession and debris And forever I’d been shackled To the hope you stole from me And every night, when bells would ring I felt them from within Trapped in this room with you This womb with you As parasitic twins Could you have been the one who made me want to live? It seems so simple now to hide away this gift I risked it all to be with you Envenomed in our sacrament But if this saves my skin, I will leave you