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Sounding the Depths

awaken my will

cry "rebel" aloud

there are giants in the clouds

a new heaven and a new earth

another boring dirge

for the death of innocence

no recompense

doesn't make sense

this is my penance

dementia

I like to spend my off days

sleepwalking around

trying to feel my way out

but the labyrinth always wins

cry "extrication"

cry "ascension"

cry "redemption"

but the world always wins

these are the gory days

Gardens of the Lost, Sheol

Nether Regions, USA

I like to spend my off days

rafting Acheron

like it was the Shenandoah

sounding the depths until

up jumps Leviathan

smiling "come out and play"

"no, you're the devil - go away"

these are the gory days..

…yes, I know I'm babbling

I thought I heard yesterday

staring at the waves

whispered words in the wind

saying I was saved

saying that they've called off the holocaust

and everything's okay

maybe someday I can

come back out to play

maybe someday…

A Crack in the Sky

saw the first sign in the red dawn

spreading overhead

how black the green things looked

as I crept out of the bed

beside you with your golden blade

and absently caressed

the bloodless wound you'd freshly made

still stinging of your arsenic kiss

and I feel it's time

to examine all the signs

how rose tinted wishes never hide

the crack that's creeping up the sky

and all your singing won't drown

the distant rumbling sound

of faraway oceans boiling

and unseen

mountains crumbing down

the next time it was like a wasp

crawling on the sun

on the day the last snows had passed

and the world's rebirth begun

the way I looked at you and wondered

if I'd ever see the summer

I didn't know then

I still don't now

Statistics

sometimes I feel like you cursed me

though I know intellectually

that was never your intention

must just be my invention

no matter how hard I leap

I always just seem to keep

falling short

of other people's doorsteps

I don't mean to keep

turning this into some sort of drama

when the truth is

nothing could be more mundane

everyone in this town gets married

it's just one of those things

statistics say

it usually ends this way

and all the voices sing

let the sunshine in

god, where do I begin?

when everyone you'd call a friend

just asks me to pretend

pretend I haven't seen the end

staring back at me with cold black eyes

saying "Surprise!"

"is it as grim as you'd imagined?"

"maybe just a little less poetic"

I always reply

"no", I tell my friends

"I'm fine"

whining again

I thought I'd gotten way beyond that

statistics say

all cats are grey

say it one more time

it couldn't be any more true

I do this to myself

it was never you

surveys say

I'll never break away

statistics say

I'll always be this way

god, I've turned my head away

from so many gruesome sights

I don't know how to look straight

at anything

anymore

just keep on walking

keep my head down

eyes to the ground

I need to get out of this town

write it on a billboard

everyone sing along

all together now

I need to get out of this town

get out before I drown

statistics say

take your pills and go to bed

just rest your tired head

forget the things they said

statistics say things without thinking

statistics read between the lines

say what everyone else is feeling

statistics say what's on their mind

statistics say prayers for me sometimes

statistics should know better

'cause I'm fine

she looked like me

Hex

one night

could stretch across aeons

one candle's light

could reach across oceans

your body

could be made of wood

your body

could be made of satin

your bride died

before she made the altar

your groom is too weak

to stand beside you now

so who's to blame

when glory's flame

burns

the temple down

the war is over

the bad guys won

but we sure had a lot of fun

right?

and who's to blame

when glory's flame

burns

heaven down