Sleep in the crook of my arm
Beautiful girl
Dream through the fire alarms
My beautiful girl
The world isn’t all that it seems
It’s full of motorcycle cops and marines

Tug at that tenuous curl
Dutiful girl
Smile as you conquer the world
Immutable, girl
Your brow furrows
Your fingers entwine
Your eyes are oceans
Bluer than the sky
Truer than the light
Deeper than the night

Bathe in the light that adores you
Beautiful girl
The days, ah, they stretch out before you
Beautiful Girl
So bright when you open your eyes
You reign in a kingdom of pure light
A thousand satellites
Will sing your name tonight

But if you pack it in
For a colder town
And you cry like you did when
Though your older now
I’ll be with you again
And I won’t lay down…

Till the towns, the streets, the banners all unfurl
And they say of my beautiful girl
She came and she painted the world
Beautiful

Oh Caroline,
I feel defeated
My hammerhead heart
Beats hollow and tight

You wrote the note
But I had to read it
Your phrases explode
Sentences ignite

Like slivers of light
Stinging behind my glistening eyes

Down in the street
Free from the feeling
I’m surfin’ the crowd
Anonymous fool

But back in my room
Beleagueredly bleeding
There’s nowhere to hide
The sad stabbing truth

The slivers ignite
They shimmer as bright as the light of the dying
A river of white
Unending night

When slivers ignite
You kick and you fight while the light leaves you dying
A trick of the light that invites you to dive in
To rivers of white
Slivers of light

Brother blue broken bottle born unbound
When you sing it’s a tender tortured sound
You’ve got wings but they only weigh you down

When the tracks in the vinyl howl and moan
And the cracks in the sidewalk feel like home
And the sweat on your fingers taste like chrome

It’s a slap in the face
A ringing bright electric sting
Like floating in space
A million miles from anything

You’re the ghost with a thousand lonely names
You’re the host of the saddest party games
Here’s a toast to the sadness and the shame

Seven more rounds
Reflect the mirrors and the smoke
Send in the clowns
This must be some foul fucking joke

Breathe in breathe out
Like the record of a birth becomes the path
To the record of a death, becomes you now
In the spaces that she left
You spacing out

You’re chrome

You’re back in that place
The one who loves you loves you not
Your floating in space
A cold crestfallen cosmonaut
There’s chrome.. in your heart
You’re chrome

Little sister don’t you weep
Hunted halfway into your sleep
Haunted by those sticks and stones
Drop the flag and carry my bones

Brother, brother, righteous one
Nothing hides from the eye of the sun
Fitful sleeping, dreaming alone
Bloody knuckles bleachin’ the bones
Bleachin’ the bones

Runnin’ for your life
This time they’ve got you runnin’ for your life
This time they’ve got you runnin’

Ghetto birds flash light off the stone
Shake the trees and rattle my bones
Rattle my bones

Bite the hand that thrills ya
Give that ghost another round
Take it till it kills you
Gravity’s a long way down
Just bum a little powder
When everything is all you’ve got to say
And hum a little louder
Make those vivid voices go away

Lazy little lover
Sex is only one way out
Dying is another
At least I’m pretty sure about that
So jab that dirty arrow
And bite my bottom lip until it bleeds
We’re cashin’ in this crime scene
We’re tradin’ in the forest for the trees

And if you should fall, you should fall… stay down
And if you should fall, you should fall, you should fall
Stay down

If nothing really matters
Then every day is every bit the same
A beautiful cadaver
The emperor of empty alleyways

A tisket and a tasket
A brittle broken bird a bitter bind
A kiss and then a casket
I’ll miss you when you’re gone
Goodbye… goodbye

The sun blows kisses to the far end of your room
Like the first sweet tender mornings of the world
Good morning girl

Evening drains the youthful beauty from your face
Dark demolition dances you embrace
Like mourning girls

With eyes like stones
Monochrome
You walk alone
In this city of lies

When this grey city comes alive
Its pitiful acolytes
Stand shivering in the light
Vaguely whispering “I wanna die tonight”

And when history comes to call
All the world will be sleeping
It comes brandishing a sword
With a shadow like a steeple
When something wicked this way comes
Something horrid, something lethal
Will we turn our backs again?
Will we hang our heads in shame?
Or will we fall?
Rise or fall?
Will we rise?
From this city of lies

Hey hey… Little Red Rum
Dazed by the drag and the strum
Of days spent twiddling your thumbs
And the urge to reverse but you’re cursed if you do
And damned if you don’t
Just another soul in the house of the damned
Damned if you do and doomed if you won’t
Just another bucket in a leaky boat

Ah hah… sweet little slave
Pushin’ that pen up a page
And diggin’ discreet little graves
For you and everyone that you know
Ah, but time, no it ain’t on your side
It yawns and the chasm is wide
From applause to sweet suicide
The deafening din of denial
Crampin’ your style
Ah, you cover your ears
Snuff another candle while the fading years slip away
Your sliding along
Surfin’ on the rhythm of the drag and strum
Surfin’ on the drag and strum

It’s like steel strings up your spine
You’re underpaid, working overtime
And that chord’s ringin’ all the while
It’s saying’ stand and deliver
Through the shock and the shiver child

Hey hey… why must you always be such a d-i-p-s-h-i-t ?
Was it mom? Is it god, or philosophy?
Or did Darwin leave you back on the shore?
Holding that oar
And hummin’ that song
Strum another version of the same old one
‘Bout a stone, ‘bout an old dead dog
Hum a little tune for the hollow haunted ones
That hallowed old hum
Buzzin’ with the rhythm of the drag and strum
Slip away… you’re sliding along
Buzzin’ with the rhythm of the drag and strum

Set aside all this harmony
All things die eventually
We all fly away

Faces, facing south-southeast
Waiting for daylight to come

To come crashing
To shine down on the chosen ones
They’re like Sunflowers
They turn straight to the sun

But you and I
We burrow, barricade
A wasteland
You’re wasted now

But don’t waste your time
You can’t buy back the polaroids
They still haunt you
They cry out in your voice

Will you be wailing in the lonely dark hours?
Or waving in a field of sunflowers?
Will you be dialing down the dirty dog hours?
Or sailing on a sea of sunshowers

Waiting to believe in Sunflowers

So don’t waste your time
There’s no prize for the darkest one
Sunflowers
They turn straight to the sun

Well it’s a sweet, sweet simple life
Tales of defeat at the edge of the knife
It’s a long, hard road
Well it’s a dark, dank dirty street
You may get out if you’re light on your feet
If you dance in the depths of your soul

So you cut the lights (and you cut the cards)
I’ll lose the fight (and I’ll kiss the scars)
We’ll treat the night like a round of applause

Well it’s a sweet, sweet simple life
No one gets out of this place alive
But the saints and the clowns and the crows

Well you take The Six (and you take the wrap)
I’ll plead the fifth (ah c’mon, cut the crap)
You know that I know you better than that

Keep in mind what every wiseman said
‘Bout what becomes of the fortunes of the naked and the dead
We’ve been down this old grey path before
Baseball bats and cold water flats and uncivil wars

So you be the light (and you be the sun)
I’ll be the bullet (and I’ll be the gun)
You make ‘em quake (and you make ‘em run)
Well, I’ve made mistakes (and I forgive ‘em son)
We’ll cut the brakes and we’ll ride till it’s done

You gotta write a little song
You got a fix a little hole, gotta right a little wrong
You gotta take a little time
You gotta make a little love in the sweet sunshine
You gotta find a little pearl
You gotta count ’em on your fingers with a ten speed girl

You gotta take a little time
You gotta hold a little hand, gotta rhyme a little rhyme
You gotta hum a little tune
You gotta scream it to the sun, gotta bark it to the moon

You gotta take your little heart
You gotta stretch it till you feel like it’s gonna come apart
You gotta sew a little seed
You gotta grow a little rose
Gotta dig a little weed

You’re gonna cry a little bit
You’re gonna lose a little sleep, gonna shoot a little shit
You’re gonna hear a little word
It’s gonna stab you in the heart man
And boy it’s gonna hurt
You’re living in a blur
You just might survive the weekend with a ten speed girl

She’ll ring her bell
She’ll take you home
She’ll kick your tires
And she’ll leave you on the curb

Leaning trees
And shooting stars
Limbs entwined in handle bars
She shouts your name at the passing cars
You strip your gears
And the wheels are coming off

Accidents occur
But life’s an endless summer with a ten speed girl
You better hold on to her
No time for training wheels she’s a ten speed girl

Don’t let it break your heart
Don’t let it leave you cold
Don’t let it drag you down
Don’t let it fuck you up

Tonight they’ve letter-boxed the sky
The stars recline across your eyes
The city gathers in her kin
And you feel her closing in but…

Don’t let it break your will
Don’t be a martyr now
Don’t you dare play along
Don’t you ever take that pill

Cause there’s a sweeter suicide
Where all the consolations shine
A million miles, a million miles
Above the tracks and turnstiles

That spit, sputter and sparkle
And serenade all your darker needs
Above the reticent rooftops
Pinwheel lights like scattered seeds
Blink stoic and silent
Heroic, defiant… dreams

So, don’t worry, don’t lay awake at night
Don’t worry about that now
Don’t worry, just don’t look down
Don’t worry,
Don’t worry I am here