The Receiving End Of Sirens

Lyrics to Bell Book And Candle :
this town:
near-demilitarized.
carrier pigeons
commit ritual suicide.

pleas for pity
and blank responses collide.
tied to their ankles.
tied like tired anchors.

but i know
you drink
like a fish out of water
and your everywhere, everywhere,
without a drop for me.

we were land lovers
together.
or don't you remember?
don't you remember?

and between empties and keys
i know you've fought wars.

but your a regular
Benedict when you wander, like
a derelict,
house to house.
you're a regular
traitor.

we stood and shook red-handed,
burying the hatchet,
even as our legs cried out
to run in different directions.

the innest crowd is throwing up last night's party
on a floor that isn't theirs
'til even their bodies hate their guts.

we've worked this swords to ploughshares
and back until our shared secrets were cannon fodder,
and comforts caused a coup d'etat.

bell, book, and candle.

so are you gonna to drop me like your morals?
you gonna drop me like you promised?
you gonna drop me like our ideals?
gonna drop me like our dreams?
or are you gonna drop me like your concern
for others and being honest?
you gonna drop me like all logic?
beyond reason, there you are.

(you can't draw the bow back and blame the arrow.)

(we stood and shook red handed,
burying the hatchet,
even as our legs cried out to run.)

Lyrics to Shirtsleeves :
words fail her
why bother trying to pass off your offense as a good defense? he says,
"please don't treat me like a lawyer sweetie. . . . . .
there will be time for shouting matches."

so he writes - last option.
keeps him cornered in.
the need for more stays pressing,
but he can't force the pen.
for every blot of ink a word is lost. . .pierced skin/new melody
and if these lines stay blank. . . they'll lead to no where.

she starves for attention.
he has hungry mouths to feed.
dietary habits seen [to her]
as born of apathy.
she starves for attention.
he has hungry mouths to feed.
emaciated, both will dream
of times they felt less empty.

under his breath:
"like guests and presidents,
his words were not welcome where they could not stay."
their arguments plotted concentric circles
ending up bulls-eyes over his ribcage.

he starves for attention.
she has hungry mouths to feed.
dietary habits seen [to him]
as born of apathy.
he starves for attention.
she has hungry mouths to feed.
emaciated, both will dream
of times they felt less empty.

i need to believe in these dripping organs sutured to my sleeves.
I want to scream with every dream [out loud] you'd never dare to breath.
two-four.two-four. i can't breathe.
two-four two-four. (i cannot breathe.)

she starves for attention.
he has hungry mouths to feed.
dietary habits seen [to her]
as born of apathy.
she starves for attention.
he has hungry mouths to feed.
emaciated, both will dream
of times they felt less empty.

Lyrics to Superman :
[Originally by Stereophonics]

You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you
You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you

You look like Jesus on a aeroplane
Ya head's against the window pane
You got opinions but you ain't got news
You got good laughs but when it suits you
You turn it on like a leaking tap
And dripping dropping people drop of a hat
You gotta mouth but you ain't got guts
That drunken mouth you should keep it shut

You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you
You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you

Superman on an aeroplane
Sitting next to Lois Lane
You got that woman but you want her gone
So you can sleep with a teenage blonde
You wear a mask wear an armoured suit
Can't get to you with the gun I shoot
You play your cards close to your chest because ya
Poker face is a dreadry mess

You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you
You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you

You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you
You don't know what it's been like
Meeting someone like you
Meeting someone like you
Meeting someone like you
Meeting someone like you
Meeting someone like you
Meeting someone like you
Meeting someone like ah ah ah aah
Ooh

Superman on an aeroplane
Sitting next to Lois Lane
You got that woman but you want her gone
So you can sleep with a teenage blonde
You turn it on like a leaking tap
And dripping dropping people drop of a hat
You gotta mouth but you ain't got guts
That drunken mouth you should keep it shut

Lyrics to The Afterglow :
I'm the fervor of the fever you can't sweat
I'm the garments drenched and dripping wet
I'm a spring of flowing fume and fret,
I'm the melody stuck in your head

And I don't mind the afterglow
No, I don't mind the afterglow
I don't mind

Lyrics to The Art Of Subversion :
The caravan of camp followers
Castrate clientele on the heels of their father's.
Destined to underachieve.
Never overcome the art of subversion.

You travel around this town.
A billboard scrawled across your face.

He'll buy her and break her.
He'll call her a liar.
You'll know no better.
We'll know no better.
Redefined, unrefined.
If you will madam,
Name your price.
He'll buy her and break her.

Don't let yourself be fooled.
Don't let yourself be destroyed.
You travel this town, a billboard scrawled across your face.
No one ever told you it would be this hard.
To see a uniform is nothing but an empty package.
Don't be fooled by the General's coattails'.

He'll buy her and break her.
He'll call her a liar.
You'll know no better.
We'll know no better.
Redefined, unrefined
If you will madam,
Name your price.
He'll buy her and break her.

He'll buy her and break her.
He'll call her a liar, even a faker.
You will know no better.
We will know no better.

Lyrics to The Race :
Second Place to you is the last place I ever thought I'd be
and in this race the selfish survive while the selfless suffocate in suffering
I'm choking on the words that kept us alive
So kiss me and them and all we had goodbye

Where was I?
When they kicked out the lights
and when your world turns black you can't take back
all the lines you've crossed and trust you've lost

So take my hand, no, not to hold
You could use the extra fingers to count your mistakes
because this distance has only lead to deception
a curse for every mile
a lie for every smile

Where was I?
When they kicked out the lights
and when your world turns black you can't take back
all the lines you've crossed and trust you've lost

Drown in your goodbyes, and miss what we had

Foreign tongues are burning above self-righteous heads
you're so dexterous and articulate and i count on too many fingers and friends.
. . .and friends.

if your body is a temple then your roof is on fire

Where was I?
When they kicked out the lights
and when your world turns black you can't take back
all the lines you've crossed and trust you've lost

Drown in your goodbyes, and miss what we had

Lyrics to Vertigo Unconsciousness :
thought about holding my breath last night
until my face turned blue
and waited for my world to turn black as I laid in your arms,
an air deprived suicide

would speak to ears
and break down walls
I never could.
This vertigo unconsciousness.

You let this one slip through your fingertips.
mine turn numb
and there's no point to take back
what was said
when my heart no longer beats
There's only time for your regret and memories
and you cant take back, you cant take back everything you said

and after seeing my face
this farewell scrawled in saline
don't try to recessitate this love
because it will never breathe,
so throw away a million pictures,
disregard all thoughts of me,
don't try to recessitate this boy
with some health class remedy
don't try don't try

You let this one slip through your fingertips.
mine turn numb
and there's no point to take back
what was said
when my heart no longer beats
There's only time for your regret and memories
and you cant take back, you cant take back everything you said

didn't you see my stomach stop moving
did you feel my last breath on your neck

Lyrics to Planning A Prison Break :
Warden's calling for a lockdown, baby
So he'll call on interim inequities
This is the last night in my body;
Assist in the escape

Warden's calling on a jailbreak, baby
So he'll fly like only a jailbird could

Like a felon, he fell into scandals,
Scams, and master plans
To circumvent all circumstances
He thought to his throat,
"We can swallow this key and leave when we please"
Let's hope this stomach disagrees.

"Make a clean getaway," he said,
With his hands outstretched
To nurse her neck
She lured him in with a masochistic kiss
And he wished he could be anywhere but here

(Arm in arm we walk outside so that all we've done was not in vain.)

Somehow, for now, this skin will have to do.

This is the last night in my body.

Lyrics to The Rival Cycle :
Alongside all hearts as they finish with backdrop cities
Like jagged teeth digging deeper
Ripping new wounds for former scars
Stricken with insomnia
Sickened lungs insist on heavy breathing

And the conductor is conducting electrical time signatures
And I fall into rhythm.
My life is a rhythm
And my feet will improvise;
(my feet off beat.)
As I sputter at the knee like a leaking faucet

You'll be undercover, under covers,
Sleeping with the enemy
This is what we like to call internal espionage
Concrete coated gazes in hot pursuit of self-made mazes
Talking circles around each other,
Deserting halos to be
Handcuffed and hogtied with your words

On the search for girls
(Stricken with insomnia)
With milk-carton father figures
My veins are pulsing
(Free-form jazz)
To peninsula extremities
My fingertips tap
Polyrhythms like nervous fragments from a nervous mouth
And these words set the cadence
To the crude interpretation of scripts and codes
Breeding pixels without homes-
Reside in my mind; Resonate in my eyes

So affect this love affliction.
Leave the injured overturned;
Fight for breath with flailing arms,
In vain, to float the bane.

Tentative tastes for those less interesting
Leave the injured overturned.
Fight for breath with flailing arms,
In vain, to float the bane.

Lyrics to The Evidence :
It's the consequence of privileged information.
You can run, you can hide,
But light will find a way
And wither away

Haunted and haunting, we all are followed
By shadows from martyrs and mercenaries
Diseased by information
Plagued by what we know.

Burn the evidence; It's enough to make a case
It's enough to incriminate

Down the empty corridor to the coroner
It's clear, you've got what they want, and they'll find you
Haunted and haunting, we are followed by shadows
Plagued by what we know

It's just a matter of time before they find out.
It's just a matter of time, young man.

Lyrics to The War Of All Against All :
Look alive, gentlemen
Or fake your deaths; your wounds undressed beneath your costumes.
Some are so well rehearsed
For hearses it hurts, always the first to wave the white flag
And barricade themselves
In false pretenses, fox holed in trenches.
Forged casualties with casual pleas,
Dying to please the enemy
We die to stay alive, We kill to survive

We are the corps of corpses,
We are up in arms and armed
Bring all the king's horses and all the king's men

Push on, plod on, these legs like pistons pumping forward motion.
Convalescent men in uniform.
We have fallen to friendly fire, shrapnel freckles our spine.
Still our feet fall one by one.

We were led to lead lovers, while marching to the beat.
We were led to lead lovers, we kissed so well.

The cannon's calling our name,
I hear her singing to me
In morse code,
"This is our revolution!
To arms! To arms!
This is a revolution!"

We are the corps of corpses,
We are up in arms and armed.

Lyrics to ...then I Defy You, Stars :
The apparitions tango to the sound of their heels tapping.
A procession of prosthetic limbs and mannequins.
They're all perfect models of imperfection,
With marrow made of cellophane.

Strap on your ballroom best.
Breathe in and don't exhale.
Oh, Juliet! Oh, Juliet! Deny your name, your father.

Rearrange the cells that form my skin.
See them through kaleidoscope eyes.
Because everybody feigns sometimes.

Blur your eyes,
Romeo.
Bend the lines,
Romeo.
Do you like what you see?
Oh, Romeo

Where art thou?
I've dressed up this canvas skin; Painted something colorful just for you.
Self-inflicted surgery is now routine.
It erases all traces of faces we have all known; We have all owned.

Stretch me over this two-by-four skeleton.

Lyrics to This Armistice :
Your gross fabrication of pretense could bore,
Yet still I fall victim to syntax omitted,
Just shy of something I could understand.
So blissful, I press on to the sound of the organs
Playing their most convincing tunes
As they serenade to the parade of paid-off parts.

And now the only thing left to discuss is
The details of this armistice.
We've come to this agreement...

Check my vitals.
The truth is vile, but vital to this cause.
I've been held hostage;
A captive of this passive shell.
Give me gravity, give me clarity, give me something to rely on.

Tell me who's pulling the strings;
Tell me who's that you move for.
We're all puppets;
We're all marionettes.

These body parts are parts of plans,
Passed by my hands. My hands shake through handshakes,
Forsaken by my limbs.
My limbs sing the hymns; The hymns of a tyrant
In a crumbling pantheon
As inhabitants will raise their fists and bid him to disarm.

Tell me who's pulling the strings;
Tell me who's that you move for.
We're all puppets;
We're all marionettes.

Oh, how I've been teething
In light of your misleading.
You've caused this collapse
Between the heart and the synapse.

Lyrics to Flee The Factory :
One hoped they'd break the patent when they die cast me in stride.
(One hoped they'd break the mold.)
Just a simple steel specimen, truly empty down inside.
With copper-core wound veins, a pumping cold hydraulic heart,
Bellows cycle air on rhythms, rhythms fixed within my code.

It's easier to bow than keep these knees locked tight;
Tight like the rivets in my skin.
My pulse reverberates through this malleable shell,
With scars from shaping.

My insides grind their gears.
Abrasive churning, I'm so conductive.
It's always been a task with such low impedance.
My tendons tend to rust with time while wires misplace their currents
So I will flee the factory, and pray you to dismantle me.

Someone find my maker; I'm coming apart at the seams.
I'll cauterize myself back together again.

Lyrics to Dead Men Tell No Tales :
I'll be the salt that resides from the water that drains from your eyes;
The sting that burns your open wounds.
I'll flood the ground. I swear on your grave, I'll bury this town,
But not for me, no never for me.

We have tested the buoyancy of loyalty.
You left our lungs for canteens.
You left our ankles for anchors.
We thought your arms were tied behind your back,
But elastic bands tied your hands.
You swim with reckless abandon.

Abandon ship! Mayday! Mayday!
Swim toward shore!
Our captain is overboard!
He punctured holes in the floorboards
To flood the bow just in time to bow out.
He's over bored and overboard.

Left in the wake, we man our own driftwood orphanage,
A second-hand sailor's fleet to flee.
But in the wake, we man our own driftwood orphanage.
Captain is over bored and overboard.
Captain is calling.

And there's nothing you can do when water ruins the maps we drew.
Mayday! Mayday! Save us from this drowning vessel!

Lyrics to Venona :
Men are waiting patiently;
Remove me from the scene,
A sea of faceless souls in suits.
A sight for eyes, like thumbs;
Sore, crooked, and bow and foul relief.

You have been exposed.

Your eyes speak well of you.
They sing the requiem to
A closed-casket burial.
Your conspiracy;
Conspiring to deliver me to the authorities.
I have been betrayed so graciously.

My bloodhounds are hooked on a trail of ink
Which led me to the words you scribbled down;
An obituary dedicated to me.

Your fingers are star-crossed lovers that can't seem to get enough of each other.
This pantomime dialect doesn't practice what you preach.

I might as well be blind with isolated eyes like mine.

Lyrics to Epilogue :
Somehow, for now, this skin will have to do.
This is the last night in my body.

Lyrics to [untitled] :
Oh, how I've been teething
In light of your misleading
You've caused this collapse
Between the heart and the synapse

Tell me who's pulling the strings
Tell me who's that you move for

We're all puppets
We're all marionettes

Lyrics to Swallow People Whole :
From the manager to the morgue,
Strangers are born and reborn
Giving birth to the wages of sin...
and claiming it came from within

Within me there's a gaping hole
And it seems I'm last to know
And no one, or thing, can fill this empty space
that I've been pacing in

I fell in love with and empty place
But I want change
But I won't change

I can't feel a thing
The pins and needles sing...

"I can it
But it wont mean a thing
Because I know you'll fall for
Each and every pretty word I sing."

Spirits spin me around once more
Sin if you sing the overture
The lulls me back to sleep
I swear I'm yours to keep
Consumed with consuming
And soon I'll swallow people whole
I'll have back what strangers stole

If I can't find my happiness
I'll soon devour yours
I'll sing your weary head to rest
With my overture
Because I fell in love with that empty place
But I want yours
But I wan't yours

For it I fell
For it I fell so fast
For it I fell
For it I fell so hard
For it I fell
For it I fell so fast
I fell for it, I fell for it

We lose ourselves once more

Lyrics to Oubliette (Disappear) :
I watched you steal away
A man's best years
With the drumming of his fingers
With the kicking of his heals

I watched you put away
Your sweetest sins
I watched tempters satisfy
With the sweetest taste
of wasted time

Don't let me disappear
Don't let me let me fall apart
Don't lead me to the wayside
Just don't let me go
Don't let me fade away

I watched him travel down
A steady road
With no milestones
Just a gentle slope

Soft underfoot,
No sudden turns to warn of sliding
down that safe and sound
But all too familiar road
This is all too familiar

Don't let me disappear
Don't let me let me fall apart
Don't lead me to the wayside
Just don't let me go
Don't let me fade away

Just keep this off my mind
Anything or not a thing will do

I watched you steal away
A man's best years
With the drumming of his fingers
With the kicking of his heals

With out a twinkle in his eye
I watched him beg and plead with his moving lips
and bended knees
Just to have you back

Be numb my heart
O' nothingness

Don't let me disappear
Don't let me let me fall apart
Don't lead me to the wayside
Just don't let me go
Don't let me fade away

They've got you wrapped around their fingers
Because anything or not a thing will do
(A DEAD FIRE IN A COLD ROOM)

Lyrics to The Crop And The Pest :
Come away,
Come away with me.
You perfect, perfect shell.
You nautilus, nautilus.

I will treat you so well,
I'll take you up from this hell.
My gracious host,
You're my lover,
Won't you be my concubine?

The pleasure's all mine,
Your pleasures are all mine.
To twist and turn around,
In figure eights and out of place.
Refuse the bounty of his right for the hunger of his left hand.

A barren spring of fume and fret is coursing it's way,
(I'm the fervor of the fever you can't sweat.)
Through everything inside of me.
(I'm the garments stuck to your skin,)
And I know what won't ever sink,
(Drenched and dripping wet.)
Will slowly swim to the bottom.
(I'm a spring of flowing fume and fret.)

Just promise not to see me as I am (Or what I'll become),
A pestilential scab,
The scarlet of sunburned skin.
I will stick to you like a wet cloth (You just can't shed).
I will cling to you like a child to his mother's breast.
You fertile crop, I won't be shed.

I saw my shining shield and armor rust,
I felt my posture bow and fall to dust.
But all the vigils, and the stakes I claimed,
Couldn't take the sting from out my shame,
Couldn't take the color from the stain that I became.
The stain that I became.

I'm the fervor of the fever you can't sweat.
I'm the garments stuck to your skin,
Drenched and dripping wet.
I'm a spring of flowing fume and fret,
I'm the melody stuck inside your head.

What have I become?

Lyrics to The Salesman, The Husband, The Lover :
Baby boy had a big ol' heart,
Large enough to tear apart
And split evenly in two
Evenly in two

Mom and Dad had a rocky start
Too much head to little heart
Soon one turned into two
One two

Dirty hands made separate beds
And folded sheets in which they slept
Oh what's a boy to do?
What's a boy to do?

When daddy finds ten dollar whores
And liquor stores
Can offer more
Than his family
More than his friends
More than a woman that he needed

"O no. What a shameful seed I've sown."

Then one day daddy walked away
From his wife and child they had made
It must have been too much
It must have been too much

Mommy tried her best to pay
The bills so that her son could stay
In this house that he was raised
The sons fight the father's war

You shadow, you ghost
Look how crooked I've grown
What a shameful seed you've sown
What a seed you've sown

The place where love grew too old
Too old and broken to appraise

Court ordered visits meant weekends with his Dad
Where he had learned his share of lessons on how to drink like his old man

Back home his mother packed her bags and their dreams
that she watched down
For a single room apartment in the seedy part of town

Baby boy became the dad
His family had always lacked
A spitting image of the man
Down to the way he turned his back

He inherited his cheating; an heir to his drunken breath
His father willed him arrogance and passed down his empty chest

"Be a lightbulb"
I'm a wishbone
"Be a rifle; a telephone"
I'm Just here for you yo use
I've got nothing left to loose
I'm the wardship battle
I'm the remains of precious metals that weigh you down
both down
We are so heavied o' so heavy
We are heavied o' so heavy

Lyrics to Smoke And Mirrors :
The wolves wear the wool
Of the sheep the have fooled
And preach their code of conduct:
"You've gotta push that, push that product"
We'll live in fear, for coats they may sheer
The fleecing of a fleeting flock
You may have my wool
You may have my locks
But my voice you have not
My voice you have not
We're sitting ducks, with feathers plucked

You hide your fangs so cleverly dear
You sing your songs so prettily

I'll never fall for the
Hook line and sinker
Your smoke and mirrors
I wont ever take the bait
I'll never fall for those
Formats and figures
Your greedy fingers
Won't ever get their hands on me

Hey boy, you best look out
"Ooh, we'll have you."
Pay mind to those greedy people climbers
They're licking their lips at you
They'll crush and they'll claw
Their way to the top
Your legs are just ladders to them
Your head's just another step man
On you like a rash
On you like a rash

I'll never fall for the
Hook line and sinker
Your smoke and mirrors
I wont ever take the bait
I'll never fall for those
Formats and figures
Your greedy fingers
Won't ever get their hands on me

Even though you hide your fangs so cleverly dear
You sing you songs so prettily dear
Your most gentle call
Your most soothing song won't lead this sheep astray

All these suits with big black lives
Can't put me on the company's dime
I won't be bought
No I won't be sold

All these greasy palms and greedy hands
All my supply all your demand
I'm not you whore
And I won't be your Babylon

Lyrics to A Realization Of The Ear :
Don't you love me
Don't you dare care for me
I will only bring you pain
All the Pleasure you can gather in this place
Will just amount to shame
All the bright colors I've ever loved will learn to fade
So bring back the womb O' God
Oh bring on the grave

So this is what it's like
What it is like to disappear
With the music of the spheres still ringing in my ear

How will I find my way out of this?

Lyrics to Saturnus :
I've got this little itch that I never learned to scratch
It seems that even if I had, I'd rather itch than not
When the pleasure is the lesser and it's giving to the pressure
Of an ever growing lust and an always present want

All this is yours so here's your piece of it, your part in it
Clench your jaws
With claws, you'll strangle it, you'll smother it
Damn right, I want nothing to do with this
No part of it

Fight to death to keep it
This mere fondling is mine
(It's the subtlest of snares)
I've cared so much with proving that I've lost all love for proof
An ever growing craving for a quickly fading feel
(It's the subtlest of snares)
I'd trade my soul for a great big hole and a heart too hard to heal

All this is yours so here's your piece of it, your part in it
Clench your jaws
With claws, you'll strangle it, you'll smother it
Damn right, I want nothing to do with this
No part of it
Keep locked your jaws
I hope you choke on it

The craving grows
Fiercer and fiercer it grows

My heart is ringing out of tune
My heart is ringing out of tune
My heart is calling out for you

I'm first to thirst and the last to drink
Of the words I've heard but rarely think
Forget my heart has gone to hell
I have found the well and it's mine, all mine