How Strange It Is to Be Anything at All

Part 1: Us

1.

Humbled and mumbling and running out of steam,

Whispers of scandals and someone else’s dreams,

Damages, damages and all the words unread,

Figure you’ll get used to it or burn the thoughts unsaid.

2.

See the way the ugly heads get sucked in by the sound,

Push away the morning stink and try to walk around,

Let me go to other places and learn about the scene,

You won’t let me get there til it fits with our routine.

3.

Take me out or shut me out or tell me what I’m worth,

The things I think are all the same and have been since my birth.

Mixed up in the elements and trying to be true,

Slave to conversation and stranded like you.

4.

Try to forget this place, unknow the things you own,

Dispose of all your lovers and resist the weight of home,

Make up stories, set aside the tangents of TV,

Not much there but sing-a-longs and shit you can’t redeem.

5.

Stand beside your brother, he’s not the one to blame,

Misspent dedication and addicted to shame,

Lovers who mean well and hold out through the night,

Coronate their children with the gift of narrow sight.

Part 2: Them

6.

Conquer all the grownups and aspire to be worse,

Find a better trauma and demand to haunt the earth,

Tell me not to suffer and I’ll tell you not to smile,

Gladness is vindictive and it’s going out of style.

7.

Line ‘em up for summer and they’ll all jump in the pool,

I’d like to see them shake their heads, I wish that they’d refuse,

Schedule the righteous man a time to settle down,

He’s just another rumor, another broken noun.

8.

The holy war among us is a sight for God to see,

He’s just around the corner and he likes to brush his teeth,

Worship him in daylight and unwrap him from the shroud,

Bury him in trying and ignore his thorny crown.

9.

Shoelaces in the window of the Yellowbird motel,

Have got me feelin’ pretty bad or maybe pretty well,

There are stories of the devil in an angel’s Tuesday dance,

And a million kinds of subplots that deserve a dying chance.

10.

Campaigns and canopies and a smattering of details,

Cowering to the managers who practice what they fail,

Anthems and morality are washed up in the flood,

Nothing more than posturing for uninspired blood.

Part 3: Coexistence

11.

A certain kind of stop-and-go is typical for me.

A certain kind of answer is what we’re going to need.

Thorough minds and thorough lives are worth the crying for.

All we are has bound us to our love forevermore.