cape your oppressor - trangress your transgressor
Turn it upside down

Why blame me when you don't get your way
The glass house where you live is just a stones throw away
It's easy to point the finger and look away from yourself
So you

Color me - change the black from white
Color me - use any hue you like
Paint the picture but stay within the lines
Escape your oppressor - trangress your transgressor
Turn it upside down

Your masterpiece complete; but you left out one formality
You can paint till fingers bleed but you'll never change reality

How does it feel to sculpt the world, to your plan?
Draw me the villain if you don't get your demands
Now your out in the rain and the colors are washing away
Still you

Color me - change the black from white
Color me - use any hue you like
Paint the picture but stay within the lines
Escape your oppressor - trangress your transgressor
Turn it upside down


Rough Draft
Why do we loan ourselves to things by which we will never be repaid
And feel consoled by tomorrow when today has been profaned?

Confused by choices ... or blind to cause-and-effect and a future gravestone

Today's a draft of your epitaph
Keep changing it, 'til you meet the grave
Update your draft of your epitaph
'Till you crash and break like a wave

I'll hope to file away my account today, and see in it some value
And appreciate all that I've had, before I quit this venue

Confused by choices ... but alive to cause-and-effect and a eventual gravestone

Today's a draft of your epitaph
Keep changing it, 'til you meet the grave
Update your draft of your epitaph
'Till you crash and break like a wave

Something about someone with a hood and a scythe ...
Something about a date you just can't ... cancel
Eulogies, memories, services, tombstones, flowers, candles, tears and regrets
If I ask myself, every day, 'is today the day?'
Then one day, it will be ... my final draft
Lost in today ...

Confused by choices ... or blind to cause-and-effect ...
And a future gravestone, an eventual gravestone ...
Today's a draft

Today's a draft of your epitaph
Keep changing it, 'til you meet the grave
Update your draft of your epitaph
'Till you crash and break like a wave


What to Say
The look in her eyes as if to say she fears nothing
All knowing smile as if nothing has changed
She thinks I'm asleep while at night she goes on trembling
She thinks I don't know how her life's been rearranged

Can't move my arms, can't move my legs
Can barely move my eyes
To take in the last view I'll ever see
It's on the stand beside my bed a picture of my son
It's constantly staring back at me
Want to tell him that I swear that if I can I'll be there
Watching over him and every step he takes
How do I say soon comes the day when I must go away
What would adhear to a seven-year-old ear?
Words that would make it clear

I hope that you don't forget me
Don't let my memory fade
It's my greatest fear

My back is numb, my feet are cold
I fear that it's only a matter of time now
There's just one thing
I've got to muster the strenght to say

Know that my love is forever
Know that and try to remember
Don't let my memory fade...


Bite My Tongue
I think I bit my tongue today
No sign of blood
But this taste won't go away
Even if awound does heal
Its scar might never fade

unwelcome words can pierce
and drain the soul
like aphids on the blossoms leave a hole

Sometimes the heart and mind won't work together
And one gets left behind
While the other pulls ahead
Naive of where it treads

The residue of harmful words outlasts a seeming pardon
Little can undo the work of aphids in the garden

I can't believe that I hurt You with the words I've said
I can't conceive how I fooled my heart and lost my head
But as I watched with wonder as your jaw seem to hit the ground
I realized that I stuck my foot right in my mouth
And what a big foot it is ...

I wish that I could turn back time
Alter memory or pay some kind of fine
Anything to make amends
Fix this break to where it bends

The residue of harmful words outlasts a seeming pardon
Little can undo the work of aphids in the garden

I can't believe that I hurt You with the words I've said
I can't conceive how I fooled my heart and lost my head
But as I watched with wonder as your jaw seem to hit the ground
I realized that I stuck my foot right in my mouth

These words are fugitives
Too harsh or too honest
A little pain will gain
If I bite my tongue for your sake

Colors Fade
The gray light of the morning, the blue-green of the sea
A leaf splashed with color, falling from a tree
The sparkle in a diamond, the fire of the sun
They all seemed much brighter, am I the only one
To see them slowly slip away
Something changes a little, day by day

Gazing at a rainbow, a brilliant vast array
Staggered by it's beauty, saddened by it's modest stay
Taken all for granted or innocence betrayed
A lesson in mortality, eventually, every color fades

The blush of a woman, the wamth of a touch
The novelty of love, feelings within my clutch
I try to savor but it doesn't taste the same
Senses numbed and jaded a little day by day

Gazing at a rainbow, a brilliant vast array
Staggered by it's beauty, saddened by it's modest stay
Taken all for granted or innocence betrayed
A lesson in mortality, eventually, every color...

...fades away slowly but surely as if it were the setting sun
A child comes of age, gains life experience
Time gathers innocence and trades it in for wisdom

Like walking through the snow its purity is stained
Like a shooting star across the sky never meant to remain...

Gazing at a rainbow, a brilliant vast array
Staggered by it's beauty, saddened by it's modest stay
Taken all for granted or innocence betrayed
A lesson in mortality, eventually, every color fades


Juggling Knives
Cornered again, i've backed my self in and i'm fresh out of time
Too much to deal with lately i feel like i'm juggling knives

I'm predisposed to be composed
But not of late and no time soon
My list it grows by rows and rows
And leads me to an early tomb

Light in my eyes, i'm paralyzed
I've had all i can take
If we get one more drop of rain
This levy's gonna break

I've arranged my priorities
Conversely to what i need
In haste i grab a plate
And fill it with things i hate

Cornered again; i back myself in and i'm fresh out of time
Too much to deal with lataly i fell like i'm juggling knives

I'm burning midnight oil or wicks but at both ends
And now the choice is juggling nine or dropping ten

Cornered again; i back myself in and i'm fresh out of time
Too much to deal with lataly i fell like i'm juggling knive


Black Eyes & Broken Glass
How long can this anger last
Unenlightened with fist tightened
Expolde and i run from the blast
My ears ringing, my face stinging

And you push and pull me, beat me and bruise me
'Till i'm aching
And you take and use me, just abuse me
'Till i'm breaking

Too strong when you come unglued
Owerpowered 'till i'm devoured
No absolution till i'm black and black
But it's too late
Hope you feel great

And you push and pull me, beat me and bruise me
'Till i'm aching
And you take and use me, just abuse me
'Till i'm breaking

Just around the bend we willh have to brake
Careening over the edge, no other road to take

Up against the ropes again, our daily regimen
Cursing then hurting, apologize then console
Of course it's problematic with an aggression addict
Needing me bleeding is taking its toll

And you push and pull me, beat me and bruise me
'Till i'm aching
And you take and use me, just abuse me
'Till i'm breaking

And you push and pull me, beat me and bruise me
'Till i'm aching
And you take and use me, just abuse me
'Till i'm breaking

Hang a picture over the hole in the wall
Try to sweep up this broken glass
Hide my face so i don't need to explain
And hope that these things too shall pass


Elyse
Oh to see the moon through her eyes and to feel the sun the first time
No preconceptions
She looks at me and smiles as she stands
While clutching my sandpaper hands
No imperfection

She elates and illuminates
Every strangers face
She sets free, moentarily
Everyone she sees

So this is what they've talked about
So bountiful that you never run out
A love unmeasured i feel her pain, i feel her delight
I feel removed from myself in her sight
An infinite treasure

She elates and illuminates
Every strangers face
She sets free, moentarily
Everyone she sees

I count the days till she looks at me
And saysthe words that she' heard so repeatedly
Then again i wish time would slow down
Because i want to savor a while
Her innocent eyes an untainted smile

She elates and illuminates
Every strangers face
She sets free, moentarily
Everyone she sees

Every day a new revelation


Shell of a Man
Woke up all alone, a bed that's cold and sterile
With nothing of my own
Bombarded and explored by faces unfamiliar
Intrusions uncondoned

Cruel thoughts in breif but lucid moments
I'm losing all i've gathered all my years
I wonder why these strangers look so sullen
I wonder what i've done to cause their tears

Swirling in my head, scenes and reandom memories
Things i might have said
Some of them are clear but none of them involving
Those beside my bed

I thought the golden years were for reflecting
I thought i'd teach my grandson how to cast
I thought i'd be the fireside storyteller
I thought that i would revel in my past

Waking only to see the shell of a man i used to be
Save me i don't want to be a shell of a man

Comfidence autonomy taken for granted till they leave
Serenity i counted on was mine for a moment now it's gone

Today i'm not alone
She sparks a distant memory
Someone i might have known

She fills me in on things we did together
She says she's loved me since that day we met
She says that even if i don't remember
That she will never let herself forget

Waking only to see the shell of a man i used to be
Save me i don't want to be a shell of a man


Broken Wave
Beyond the broken waves, she walked the shore
Thoughts diving down the ocean-floor...
'The ocean flows like life: just like life...

Hope is not a thing that she inclines to take into confidence
For another disappointment, there can be no recompense
Like the vastness of the world, bad luck does not make sense
Yet, in this disappointment, the sea can give her sustenance

She cast her worries into the tidal pools
The wishing wells for lovers and fools
'The ocean flows like life: just like life...

Hope is not a thing that she inclines to take into confidence
For another disappointment, there can be no recompense
Like the vastness of the world, bad luck does not make sense
Yet, in this disappointment, the sea can give her sustenance

Paint another picture of the world
Sketch another image of yourself
Re-arrange all the contours and the lines


Traces
A sense of place, a sense of waste, don't know how this can be...
The silence that envelops me, whispers something, subtly
Exhale and change the atmosphere
They've left a trace of their fear...

How could something like this have happened in a place like this?
Such mindless violence..
The surroundings hold their secrets
How could something like this have happened in a place like this?
A new day is here, but there's a trace of yesterday

Here the trees can speak, in voices weak that suggest a tale of pain
Of tears shed in the pouring rain...
But at that, they halt their sad refrain
Look up, at the vault of starts and the calming harvest moon
A witness to the unspeakable, and easily repeatable
Cry out to change the atmosphere
Some kind of presence is here...

How could something like this have happened in a place like this?
Such mindless violence..
The surroundings hold their secrets
How could something like this have happened in a place like this?
A new day is here, but there's a trace of yesterday

Red wine spilled on the carpet - we can clean it up
Tracks left on the beach that the tides wash away
Footprints dug deep in the snow - they'll melt away
But what can wash the stain away from this place?
A new day is here
There are traces of yesterday
This place is stained - what will it take to wash them away


Know That
Know that i tried to stay with you much longer
Know i tried to be at better man
Know that the pain of flesh is now behind me
Know that the pain of leaving you still remains
Know that my love is forever
Know that and try to remember
Know that...