FRONTIERS

 

THE MATCH
From the echoes
Of the interstate
I locked the windows
Boarded up the shades

Then I was in the middle
Alone in the river
As we all rushed by

And in our rearranging
We’re the same but always changing
So I shut my eyes

In the silence
Of that holy cell
In all directions
I began to swell

It nearly did my head in
As it rose into the heavens
For it find its worth

And balancing the rising
My feet broke through the tiling
For to feel the earth

I could’ve been an artist
And I could’ve been a saint
Instead I’m gonna the match
And I’m gonna be its flame

And as the roots spread
Something sang so sweet
In a language
That wasn’t meant for me

But even if I had heard
I wouldn’t say a damn word
That’s blasphemy

It’s vicious and it’s vulgar
To tell ‘em what they told ya
In times like these

I could’ve been an artist
And I could’ve been a saint
Instead I’m gonna the match
And I’m gonna be its flame

THE CANYON

It’s a comfort and curse
It’s a crook of the mind
That the better I’m known
The worse I’m behind

There were kids in the break
And there were ghosts on the shore
There was nothing we knew
There was me at the door
And then there was you

Come to the well
That springs from the land
We’ll offer our faces
And offer our hands

Soaked on the cliff
We’ll turn our backs to the shore
And I’ll know you again
But like never before
And then there was you

Come away from the light
It plays tricks on the mind
The path is narrow and steep

There’s only one to know
There’s only one to go
And that’s down in the canyon beneath

So come to yourself
As a stranger this time
Feel for the knots
You’ve meant to untie

Carve up the wood
From your juniper tree
Lay out the kindling
And burn it all up for me
And then there was you

Come away from the light
It plays tricks on the mind
The path is narrow and steep

There’s only one to know
There’s only one to go
And that’s down in the canyon beneath

HIGHLANDS

Last night I dreamt I was in The Highlands
The Highlands of Scotland
Alone in Stonehaven
Just one craven man

There I lived between edges
Of where I’m pledging my allegiance
All the prestigious places
Where my feet can bear to stand

Today we pulled apart the deck and
The old rotten planks and
The planks they would crumble
With the slightest pry

Now all that’s left are just some beams and
Rows of bent rusted nails and
All the cigarette butts
She was hiding all her life

And the echo, it circles around my brain
And I can’t keep hold of its chain
But I know it’s bound to be
Coming back to me

We watched the moss-covered stones breathe
Like they’ve been there forever
But they’re just covering concrete
That was sloppily laid

They say the rain is coming Monday
and that it’s gonna last forever
But I know it’ll end on
The day we’re washed away

And the echo, it circles around my brain
But I can’t keep hold of its chain
And I know it’s bound to be
Coming back to me

I dreamt again I was in The Highlands
This time The Highlands of Iceland
A volcanic desert
Of ice and stone

And in some backwards meditation
I was inhaled by the horizon
And for the first time in ages
I knew I was home

THE WOLF

The work bell calls, from the fall
You hold so still, you wonder where the days go
No letters drawn where words belong, you lost the will
Your options start to narrow

I’ve heard it all before
The wolf is at the door
The money’s in the drawer
Neath the loose boards in the floor

Stirred up hate keeps you up late
Lays you on the royal road to treason
The hammer sails, the final nail
It brings you to the center of the reason

I’ve heard it all before
The wolf is at the door
The money’s in the drawer
Neath the loose board in the floor

I’ve heard it all before
The wolf is at the door
The money’s in the drawer
Neath the loose boards in the floor

PASCAL’S TRIANGLE

I never notice
When the sky retreats at night
I just know how it unfolds you

So I never speak
For I would undermine the light
No, I know better just to hold you

We sat between the earth and sun
Not belonging to either one
We’re just looking for the water’s source
And our patient, she has run her course

But in the morning you were took from me
Took every ounce I had just to breathe
I sat for centuries down that lonesome hall
My hands raised at the western wall

The spirit picked me up and took me in
How your perfect teeth were chattering
And now it’s time for us to find out
What this whole damn thing’s about

I’ve heard it said if you can keep the sight
Of one thing of beauty inside your mind
No hellish hand will ever touch your heart
In our arms, babe, we both have ours

I never notice
When the sky retreats at night
I just know how it unfolds you

So I never speak
For I would undermine the light
No, I know better just to hold you

RISES AND SETS

There was no one beside us
Except for the silence
To see where first you’re drawn

But when you’re pulled from that river
Who gave all it could give ya
Now there’s no place you belong

Gardens and gutters
Your fluency stutters
And the home you’ve known is gone

While every other thing living
Still lives in the rhythm
And they taunt you with their songs

Tear apart the walls, the grass, and the skin
And don’t stop till you can’t recognize a thing

You built enough fences
Dulled all your senses
Now nothing is enough

You’ve always known you were empty
But for the first time tempted
To find just what you’re empty of

Tear apart the walls, the grass, and the skin
And don’t stop till you can’t recognize a thing

Instead of an answer
You’re handed a hammer
Like some promise to be kept

The only job that you’ve got now
Is to silently watch how
The sun, it rises and sets

SIDE ROADS

The sirens, stood in silence
A sign there’s nothing more
Except the rhythm of the waves
Upon the rocks beside their shore

And I was somewhere on the side roads
It was sometime after dark
Your voice came in a-calling
And I was split apart

And it called me home again

There’ve been lions on this sidewalk
For a hundred seven years
And my brother he was born
About sixty blocks from here

But now I can’t stand these mornings
As I lean against the door
And I trace the English ivy
That reach the 82nd floor

And it calls me home again

We planted out some aspens
To have a place to hide
Half of them might make it
Half already died

So meet on the side roads
Sometime after dark
Sing to me again
And split the rest of me apart

And call me home again

THE DAWN

Hot coals on the road
Of apostles who told us
Salvation was coming someday

They seared my feet black
Grooved ‘em to a track
That delivers me miles away

I’m not asking for much
Not a break, not a crutch
Just a strip of dry land on the plains

There’s no room for rejoicing
There’s already poison
That’s coursing through my veins

And the road sinks low
With no signs it’s going to slow
Lord will I see that sky again

Oh, it dims the heart
But the most ruthless part
Is not forgetting the feel of the dawn’s early mist
It’s forgetting dawn even exists

I was damned and convicted
Just as predicted
Before I was given a name

I was charged with perverting
The King James Version
Twisting me up in these chains

It’s not the destruction
Diseases, consumption
Or the horrors we’re forced to commit

No, it’s the vandals that rise
With the blood in their eyes
And the mud still on their lips

And the road sinks low
With no signs it’s going to slow
Lord will I see that sky again

Oh, it dims the heart
But the most ruthless part
Is not forgetting the feel of the dawn’s early mist
It’s forgetting dawn even exist

WAITING ON YOU

You haven’t seen it
And you know you never should
‘Cause the water reaches further
Than the light ever could
And I’m waiting on you

Something there’s been kindled
There, in your unknowing
As the empty space collapses
The whole world starts to growing
And I’m waiting on you

In the hunger and the howl of empty time
Is a patch of path that’ll catch you down the line
It’ll see you through
I’m waiting on you

You hold the railing
The staircase starts its shaking
Your home becomes the ocean
And off you set a-sailing
And I’m waiting on you

And how the waves are wild
Pure and unrelenting
You know there was a start
But not if there is an ending
And I’m waiting on you

In the hunger and the howl of empty time
Is a patch of path that’ll catch you down the line
It’ll see you through
I’m waiting on you

Suddenly your feet
are caught by newfound soil
Your dread and your blood
Start slowly to uncoil
And I’m waiting on you

And now you are awake
And now the soil’s cracked
Though everything’s still hidden
Nothing holds you back
And I’m waiting on you

GOLDEN LIGHT

When your eyes drift up
To the molding, painted gold
And you stir your second drink
And the parlor’s getting cold

Will you take another sip
To dull the boredom of the day
As every friend in the room
Is reading from a separate play

I’ll be marching up the rocks
With my bare, bleeding feet
Don’t you cry for me

It was easy to hide
All I had to do was shout
And never shut my eyes
And never once breathe out

But I grew tired of the shaking
And all my lights turning blue
All my dread burning white
It must be getting old for you

I tore the door from its hinge
To feel the wind and its teeth
Don’t you cry for me

When you pick your coat up at the door
And you tell the host it isn’t real
Will you revel in the lie
And the truth that it reveals

Will you keep that golden light
Will you let it guide you home
Will you hold it through the night
To keep from feeling so alone

I’m nothing and I’m no one
And I’m everything
Don’t you cry for me

DAMNATION TO BEASTS

Between the fall of Saul
And July of ‘45
I swam from Elah Valley
To the Marshall Island lights

That’s where I met Jesse’s youngest
And Julius’s oldest one
And they handed me a stone as hot
As a thousand burning suns

And though I knew they were mistaken
I knew I was not their man
I still held it, out of deference
Till it burned right through my hand

It’s either madness or minutiae or some messiah
But it’s shaken up my mind
And it takes me and it breaks me and remakes me
Every goddamn time

Juvenal relinquished
His circus, bread, and life
In a trade for Charon’s Obol
Which he stapled to his eyes

So he’ll sail forever blinded
To the ember and its spark
Still he hold his bows assuredly
The archer in the dark

It’s either madness or minutiae or some messiah
But it’s shaken up my mind
And it takes me and it breaks me and remakes me
Every goddamn time

The wealth of Ignatius
Is in the fire that he finds
Far from the vile maxim
Of the masters of mankind

So let’s plant ourselves a garden
And clear the noise out of our heads
And when they feed us to the lions
At least we’ll all have been well fed