Your Anthem
Stand and sing your anthem
Hand held in salute
Revel in your paean
Indoctrinate your youth
Heard before the football match
Played before the picture show
Written in a major key
By someone buried long ago
Your anthem is a prayer
Stand and sing your anthem
Got to do your part
Love your inner jingo
Hand above your heart
Stirring martial memories
Sacred standard colors fly
A perfect little melody
For what you want to deify
Your anthem is a prayer
Raise the ensign, start the engine
Feel salvation in the air
Take your triumph or ovation
Put the bay leaves in your hair
Your anthem is a prayer
Stand and sing your anthem
You can count me out
Your anthem is a prayer
Your anthem is a prayer
Your anthem is a prayer
I Am a Number
Ten dollar book filled with twenty cent words
Juxtaposed only to make it absurd
Oh no, tell me where do you go
Carelessly trip your way around diction
Turning your tales from fact into fiction
Oh no, tell me where do you go
How great is your stake in me?
This is all marketing data for sale
How much will you lie to me?
This is all marketing, targeted offering
I am a number
The first dose is free and you never unplug
Mobile alerts are glorious drugs
Oh no, tell me where do you go
Just a few minutes until the next high
Carry around your digital spy
Oh no, tell me where do you go
How great is your stake in me?
This is all marketing data for sale
How much will you lie to me?
This is all marketing, targeted offering
I am a number
How great is your stake in me?
How much will you lie to me?
How great is your stake in me?
How much will you lie to me?
How much will you lie to me?
This is all marketing data for sale
How much will you lie to me?
This is all marketing, targeted offering
I am a number
Anecdote
So you like my profile
That's why you follow me for a mile
Then you put the lights on
You got the gun, you already won
Put my hands behind my back
Swaddle them in carbon steel
Won't give any flak
Dead men don't appeal, no
You are such a liar
Selling us your reasons; we're not buyers
Then you get to frisk me
Shout at my wife, make me fear for my life
Put my hands behind my back
Swaddle them in carbon steel
Won't give any flak
Dead men don't appeal
I know what this is
I know what this is
I know what this is
I know what this
At 18 I was stopped while driving my mom’s truck
What pops told me after the incident really stuck
Why’d he pull me over? I did nothing wrong
Dad said think about it, knowing all along
From the questions I was asked - I was interrogated
Whose car is this? Where you headed? Home, I stated
Right around the corner. Oh, you live over here?
While treated like a foreigner, it became clear
He didn’t think I belonged in this nice neighborhood
Especially not at night in a vehicle this good
In his mind he was thwarting a theft
Cause what’s the odds I stay down the street to the left
Then my own train of thought hit me as it jumped the track
My dad said you get it now, driving while black
That’s why he pulled you over and ran your plates
Took your ID and he made you wait
Put my hands behind my back
Swaddle them in carbon steel
Won't give any flak
Dead men don't appeal, no no no
Never Let Go
When troubles surround us
Anxiety is here again
The worry is simmering now
It crumbles around us
And here we are face to the sky
It feels like we're going to drown
Oh throw your arms around me
Oh never let go
Oh throw your arms around me
Oh never let go
Our stumbles have bound us
Entwined us tied us harried us
No exit from what I can tell
Still crumbles around us
We stand in the dust of our dreams
Let the pieces lay where they fell
Oh throw your arms around me
Oh never let go
Oh throw your arms around me
Oh never let go
Won’t Love You Anymore
I hate this addiction, this overwhelming force
I’m a rowboat in a riptide drifting from my course
Feel the pull of the world around you, around you
Like a magpie in a mistral, spread my wings and soar
The ocean is the unrest my heart was before
You came into my world and turned it around, around
When the stars fall out of the sky
And the moon breaks up with the tide
When the sun goes nova with a deafening roar
That’s when I won’t love you anymore
My hands shake like an earthquake, like a plane in choppy air
I need you completely like a preacher needs prayer
I don’t know what I’d do without you, without you
When the stars fall out of the sky
And the moon breaks up with the tide
When the sun goes nova with a deafening roar
That’s when I won’t love you anymore
There’s nothing that you can say to me now
There’s nothing that you can do
There’s nothing that you can say to me now
There’s no force in the world that can keep me from you
When the stars fall out of the sky
And the moon breaks up with the tide
When the sun goes nova with a deafening roar
That’s when I won’t love you anymore
Insomnia
A bitter elixir flows through my veins
A malaise and restlessness that I lack the words to explain
Resign myself to this disaster again
Suffer in silence and try not to dwell on the pain
Head on my pillow, eyes closed in vain
Anxious inventions and fictions run through my brain
Sounds of the neighborhood drive me insane
The dog barking nearby, the grumbling 1:30 train
Maybe just maybe I shouldn't complain
The nightmare I lose makes up for the strength I would gain
The nightmare I lose makes up for the strength I would gain
She Speaks in Metaphor
I am the night
Dark and brooding but I
Dissolve when drenched by dawn
Now dripping light
Till the gloaming dries me
This is what she said
She speaks in metaphor
It’s getting out of hand
She speaks in metaphor
I don’t understand
We are the stars
Fueled by fusion and we
Collapse under the gravity of
Our avatars
Till the ones and zeros reboot
This is what she said
She speaks in metaphor
It’s getting out of hand
She speaks in metaphor
I don’t understand
She speaks in metaphor
Her wish is my command
She speaks in metaphor
I don’t understand
Run to You
You are my bright light
Watching me when I nose dive
Can’t disappear into the night
Even my tomb is no place to hide
You search me through and through
Drop it all
Run to you
Run to you
There isn’t much my soul knows
Except how to be tired down to my bones
But I see it when the wind blows
Wonderful work from ages ago
Help me find a clue
I’ll turn around
Run to you
Run to you
Don’t you know my broken heart?
Don’t you know my anxious thoughts?
These awful dreams that ring so true
I wake up and run to you
Run to you
Run to you
Promise
Where oh where did my potential go?
Or was it ever even here?
Used to hang out with my aptitude
Before we saw them disappear
Put me under oath
And I swear on my honor as a sinner
And I swear that I’ll never make the same mistake again
And I swear on my fragile human nature
That I’ll only let you down when the words come back around on me
Once you said you thought the world of me
Or was that something you would feign?
Used to think I had ability
Before I poured it down the drain
Put me under oath
And I swear on my honor as a sinner
And I swear that I’ll never make the same mistake again
And I swear on my fragile human nature
That I’ll only let you down when the words come back around on me
And I swear on my honor as a sinner
And I swear that I’ll never make the same mistake again
And I swear on my fragile human nature
That I’ll only let you down when the words come back around
And I swear on my honor as a sinner
And I swear that I’ll never make the same mistake again
And I swear on my fragile human nature
That I’ll only let you down when the words come back around
Yeah, I’ll only let you down when the words come back around on me
On me
Beg Taxi
I raise my hand
Such a volunteer I am
Alone I stand
Suffer like the fool I am
And for the life of me I cannot seem to get clear
Turn on the light for me quiet the voices I hear
Lay me down gently
Lay me down with a reminder to breathe
Let me breathe deeply
Let me leave peacefully
I’ll pay the fare
Charge me double if you dare
This is the end
Close my eyes and count to ten
And for the life of me I cannot seem to get clear
Turn on the light for me quiet the voices I hear
Lay me down gently
Lay me down with a reminder to breathe
Let me breathe deeply
Let me leave peacefully
Lay me down gently
Lay me down gently
Lay me down gently
Let me leave
Lay me down gently
Lay me down with a reminder to breathe
Let me breathe deeply
Let me leave peacefully
Goodbye
Say hello to the Badlands
Prairie dogs and Minuteman
Needles in the Black Hills
Porcupines with their quills
Turn toward the setting sun
Goodbye means God be with you
God be with you as you go
Goodbye is temporary
Just until the next hello
Say hello to the big bird
So majestic on his perch
Say hello to the Badlands
Prairie dogs and Minuteman
Turn toward the setting sun
Goodbye means God be with you
God be with you as you go
Goodbye is temporary
Just until the next hello
Turn toward the setting sun
Turn toward the setting sun
Goodbye means God be with you
God be with you as you go
Goodbye is temporary
Just until the next hello
Paterfamilias
All the poor choices
Observed over years
Nobody’s perfect at hiding the fear
Too many words have been wasted on me
Take them away describe what you see
All is forgiven
Teenage angst can only last so long
Am I forgiven for being wrong
All the life lessons
Observed over years
Keep your friends closer and be more sincere
Mountains of pride have been wasted on me
Talk of your faith describe what you see
All is forgiven
Teenage angst can only last so long
Am I forgiven for being wrong
All is forgiven
The future is the past before too long
Am I forgiven for being wrong