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Odd Man Out
Once
upon a fairy tale a flimsy man wore lavender and lace.
Soon
the lie was gospel.
If
this gospel saves, it's only saving face.
Now
the crop you once mistook for pansies are
all wilted nearly flat
As the earth erodes for want of water
And
you say I'll drink to that.
It's
kill or cure.
That's
how you get the odd man out.
You're
pretty sure you've never met the odd man out, but dear there's one right here.
Won't
someone let the odd man out
Now
the brother you would make a stranger knocks, But
answer comes there none
As you swear
the table set for many has
just room enough for one.
And
there's even talk that God is going to take sides in this debate,
As
he spurns his handi-work and say-
Oh
Christ, what thing did I create?
It's
kill or cure.
That's
how you get the odd man out.
You're
pretty sure you've never met the odd man out, but dear there's one right here.
Won't
someone let the odd man out
Of
two born equal in their soul, one's a fraction, one is whole.
Or
that's how we're taught to see.
What
hurts the most is what's unseen- this
transparent quarantine.
And
we still let it be
It's
kill or cure.
That's
how you get the odd man out.
You're
pretty sure you've never met the odd man out, but dear there's one right here.
Won't
someone let the odd man out
Garbage Turns To Gold
Children
rummage through the decades,
play telephone with half-truths stretched and rolled.
And clutching ot the shreds of Laverne and Shirley costumes-
that is how my garbage turns to gold.
Centuries in whispered trivia questions become the greatest story never told.
We couldn't even kill time- just scarred its face forever.
And that is how my garbage turns to gold.
When history turns to nostalgia it is barely detectable.
My memory warped in a fun house mirror- now it's collectible.
We pay to look at pictures of actors dressed in wheelchairs.
They're fighting cause they're oh so principled.
It touches something in us.
We leave it in the theater.
And that is how my garbage turns to gold.
There goes your past.
It isn't catching up, it's gone way ahead of you.
Your children wave, but they are greeting your reflection instead of you.
We offer no excuses for how we crippled nature.
It seemed just one more item to be sold.
But we can trust the future to make this look like heaven,
and that is how my garbage turns to gold.
I
Don't Love My Guru Anymore
I saw a
special depth of soul in her eyes
As she looked through me and she just passed me by
To glad-hand some minor starlet and I got in my car letting bygones wilt and
die.
It wasn't so much that I caught her in debt,
Or all the things she said I'd rather forget.
But I was thinking of a moment when all she had to show
Meant a faith-enhancing astral pirouette.
Oh no I don't love my guru anymore.
If he won't stop polluting the stream of consciousness.
I don't love my guru anymore.
You wonder why the hand of fate had to fall
On John when it could have been Paul,
But I've got records where he sings equally embarrassing clap-trap falderal.
I gotta tell you that John Doe isn't dead.
He's just become an actor/model instead,
And now the unheard music is feeble
And it's too sick to even cause a semblance if dread.
Total abandon was your theme of attack
As you abandoned everyone in a pack.
When you threw cautions to the wind you spent all the interim trying to get it
back.
And the stillness that appeared to be deep
Was just a tired man who counted on sheep,
Depleted, trying to cash in a soul taht's just a fashion.
And so I'll let this lying dog sleep.
I
Fell From Grace
I was the
one who begged for a promise,
I made a promise that I couldn't keep.
I was the one who swore to be honest.
I made my bed now I lie in my sleep.
Just one little step backward, just one little step back,
And I fell from grace into your arms.
I'm grateful to whoever sent me this angel.
They ought to be sainted or burned at the stake.
My heart from my home -- how did this get arranged?
One little step -- that's all that it takes.
Just one little step backward, just one little step back,
And I fell from grace into your arms.
Suddenly I'm drugged by this new ecstacy,
Suddenly I'm living a cliche,
Suddenly tomorrow is my enemy,
Suddenly your skin is my today.
If there's a record of guilt and evasion
Just put my name at the top of the list.
Add me to those who succumb to temptation.
Add me to those who betray with a kiss.
Just one little step backward, just one little step back,
And I fell from grace into your arms.
Science
Fiction
Here it is
- the march of progress again,
Trying to prove enough is not enough my love.
If you think that'sall, guess again.
You can call it anything but bluff my love.
They call it science.
I call it fiction, when everybody says my love is an affliction.
I just wanted to hold your hand but I'm beginning to understand science fiction.
Now they've got a vanishing act,
Crying "Now you see it, now you don't!" my love.
But they went and classified one fact,
And that's who will stay here and who won't, my love.
Don't
Believe Your Eyes
If you
leave this place there'll be a book written on my face but please don't look.
If you really want to, you can see me cry.
All you have to say is good-bye.
But promise me that you won't believe your eyes when you see through my feeble
thin disguise.
Leave me with my lies and don't belive your eyes.
If you need a laugh, this one's on me 'cause I still belive what we could be.
If you really want to, you can prove me wrong.
All you have to say is so long.
If you leave this place, don't look at my face or you're bound to see
Something crushed and grey and that's not the way to remember me.
If you leave this place, we'll both survive to relate the tale from seperate
lives.
If you really want to be the first to tell,
All you have to say is farewell.
But promise me that you won't believe your eyes.
Bridget
Who
What if
your hair is like the sun? I'm sure you're not the only one.
Then why should I feel like the lights went out like you have done?
It took so long but I found out what everybody knew.
I said Bridget please. You said Bridget who?
And what about that perfect skin some higher power wrapped you in?
I'm sure there's many other packages as porcelain.
But you had all the answers and I never had a clue.
So I said Bridget please. You said Bridget who?
Bridget who? Who let that owl in here? What should I do?
Once almost timid you displayed a jack-o-lantern that you made
but now you've found some other uses for a sharpened blade.
You cut yourself a slice of life but not enough for two.
So I said Bridget please. You said Bridget who?
In dreams of vertigo you call, "I'll be your bridge and you won't
fall"
Then I awake and find my Bridget's not a bridge at all.
So bottomless the chasm whence the echo rings anew.
I said Bridget please. You said Bridget who?
Cold
But Not Over
It's hard
to hear the voice of reason
When it's just a whisper on the wind.
How will we make it through this season
When this uninvited chill is settling in?
It may be cold, but it's not over
So take my coat against the storm and hold my hand.
It may be cold, but it's not over so as the clouds beginn to form,
We'll keep each other warm and we will stand.
Where are the wild and foolish dancers?
No one seemed to noticed where they went.
Where are the pure and simple answers?
These are things that heaven never sent.
Your frightend eyes keep seeing anger-
conspiracy behind each darkened door.
It's easy to respond in anger,
but I swear that's not what we're here for.
New
Old Flame
I
recall your hand in mine like everything was new,
But
no one said forever so if I run into you
Then
you can say, why there's my new old flame.
I've
been replaced at your place now but I can't place the blame.
So
as I mourn the couple that we never quite became
Then
you can say, why, there's my new old flame.
Comrades
in arms but they're not my arms anymore.
I
can't hold that against you. No, I can't hold anything at all
When
that's my name- your new old flame.
So
I'll be civil when I see you roundabout.
I'll
even offer comfort when you blow the next flame out
And
you hear him say,
Why-
that's no one, it's just my new old flame.
Shantytown
Family
dweeling on a twelve inch screen.
Sunlight
on each windowsill.
Now
the motion picture is a still-life scene.
How
did life become so still?
And
I in passing chanced to meet a stranger on my street.
He
told me this whole block's coming down.
He
smiled and crossed a vacant lot.
Somehow
I never thought we'd move to shantytown.
Ghosts
like garbage blowing down the street
Whisper
I remember this:
Planning
more than trying to make both ends meet.
Futures
fading like a kiss.
And
I in passing chanced to meet a neighbor from my street.
He
turned his head and looked at the ground.
I
asked him why he had to go.
He
said he didn't know and left for shantytown.
Who
will mend these broken promises?
Sane
hands weave a crazy quilt.
Open
season for the doubting Thomases.
Houses
jack has never built.
And
now the echo of your feet is fading from my street.
But
please don't wave good-bye too soon
'Cause
I'll be seeing you right here in shantytown.
Always
All
I ever wanted was to set you free,
But it seems I'm best at building jails.
If this word's a prison, it wasn't meant to be- always.
Now the wind is rising or so it seems to me.
Won't you help me learn to make some sails?
Because if we both were sailors
Then this word could be the sea- always.
Here's the odds we've got: maybe, maybe not.
Maybe that's a lot, alway.
I swear my heart is true like foolish people do.
Let me give this to you, always
Clever men will tell you that to love is soon to grieve.
The promise of a promise is to fail.
But is it really better to know better than believe in always?
My
Generation
Even
though you didn't die before you got old,
something
seemed to petrify the more you got old.
Some
dead prophet said somewhere that all you need is love.
But
planning such a plan- it takes a younger man.
Why
so pale and wan my generation?
When
the revolution failed for sure your heart sank.
The
only thing revolving is the door to the bank.
Some
dead prophet told you that the answer's in the wind,
but
the air is still and now you're voice is shrill.
Oh
whither thy goodwill my generation?
Weekend
chemists make it feel so swell.
This
generic no-fault rebel yell.
From
LSD to MTV- oh please my generation.
Your
old slogans seem so quaint and droll in your head.
Is
that an open mind or just a hole in your head?
Some
dead prophet told you that the people have the power,
and
I believe it's true. But what else can you do?
Can
I believe in you my generation?
Or
are we really through my generation?
What
I Meant To Say
Down
in the grey old cellars where we used to play,
I
saw you in a crowded room.
Soon
we were twins.
That's
how it all begins, with promises that we made too soon.
I
said I've yet to make a promise I can't break,
But
darling you know what I really meant to say.
I
love you.
Young
men would sing they hated everything.
Converted,
we would sing along.
Fist
in the wall-
Why
stand when you can crawl, with chemicals where they don't belong?
You
still believed the vow.
I
said no to me, not now,
But
darling you know what I really meant to say.
I
love you.
Our
parents swore in this dirty town
We'd
become addicts and whores.
We
laughed and then we did.
Now
we had seen neglect become routine
As
visions of the future blurred.
Brought
to your knees,
Felled
by this new disease- just asking for a gentle word.
Speechless,
yes I for once had no reply,
But
darling you know what I really meant to say.
I
love you.
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