1. |
Saints
02:25
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Worth more than their weight in ash
To don petals for armour on your back
Walk the plank to test the noose
The spectacle is coming soon
Show me the sinners
The upward failing kings
I'll throw the torch if you pile their sheepskins
For Blacksmiths and tailors
and callused hand folks
Cantilevered their burdens
Those secrets still untold
There are fires and other disasters
To worry about than Saints and Backbiters
Half the day spent trying to decipher your delusions
Would it be like chasing the shade of redshift mountain peaks again
Is it logophobia or our sudden thin blood
These armchair theorists
They sure love to sling mud
Quickening the pace to destinations unclear
Please don’t wake me from my dream
I don’t want to end up here
There are fires and other disasters
To worry about than saints and backbiters
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2. |
Impervious
04:06
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Little Leather Jacket Crusader
Are you coming or going
Always loaded up for bear
Are you coming or going
Impervious to the ichor
Fly in orbits just to burn wings
Claim to be the court jester
But never tease the king
You can’t have redemption if you believe yourself to be virtuous
Oh Little Lover I’m still on your side
You can grind your teeth but just get over it
You wrote over another one of those rhymes
You can plant the seeds and learn to shoulder it
I have been bested here at every turn
Incurable writers block is the family curse
The more I try to sleep the less tired I feel
Spent thirty-three years becoming someone I don't want to be
Keep gathering answers to questions you never knew you had
She said don’t worry my son just make the most of what time you have left
Arc fault, fault line, edging porn and close your eyes
it’s the last thirty seconds of the thirty day trial
Starting off real strong, morning hours tick by
Are you coming or going
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3. |
Decay
04:18
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The postcards color has faded
The edges have all frayed
Crammed in a box for so long
You can't quite make out the date
Those cuneiform carvings
Sentimental a bit late
But its value understated
Why else would it be saved
A tree can rot
and concrete will crumble
Rivers run dry
The sun will grow cold
But to a mayfly all of this has always been here and it always will
I’m shedding shelf life and I’m always hearing rumours about
The different states of decay
I'm still finding old tapes
With sepia tone labels
Testing chromium half life
I replay "come what may" fables
Cities can rise
and the Kings will tumble
Scars lost to time
be sure to stay humble
But to a mayfly all of this has always been here and it always will
I’m shedding shelf life and I’m always hearing rumours about
The different states of decay
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4. |
Fog of War
04:20
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Getting back half of what I put in
I'm sick of silence cutting up the room that we're in
Just wanna look you in the eye and explain
When you say sit quiet while you plead your case
You want kids
And I well I never want em
You want to change
I don't really wanna
You say she can be Nebraska Jones
and that she's gonna have my nose
She might inherit my apprehension
Or a list of flaws too endless to even mention
You just want to check off your list
A husband, home, and finally have some children
I just want to get through this gig
Pack the van and blow this town a goodbye kiss
You want kids
And I well I never want em
You think you can change
But I know I'm never gonna change
This is the Fog of War
Coming home to find you shopping for cribs
Here I was thinking that we’d been over this
Now I guess that I am staying with friends
While the Fog of War starts to creep on in
My fear accompanies the chance we’ll make up
Although your calm shepherds certainty that we’re done
You want kids
And I, well I never want em
You think you can change
But I know I'm never gonna
This is the Fog of War
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5. |
Mantle
06:04
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I’ve got a few wires loose
but I'm no worse for wear
My kintsugi wounds
Shattered but repaired
And underneath the moon
We’ll breath the ocean air
I’ll see you again soon
We’ll leave the Mantle there
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6. |
Surfeit
05:28
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I open the very first chapter of the very first book of
The Nauseatingly Verbose Rules and Regulations for Morality
Apparently I'm guilty of sanctimony
I am guilty of empathy for the publicly condemned
I am guilty of wanting to get away from this paradise
I am guilty of not even giving things a second attempt
Do people still go to cold climates to find themselves
If there is Melancholia for the aptly suppressed
Does that mean there is a definition for the souls addiction to yearning
I admire your impeccable penmanship
To deny leniency on this sentence and
The Quicksand stranding us here where all the tension is
Our cataclysm of these cellophane narratives
Are things going well if I have time to check
Do I still go to the door when I think I hear footsteps
The power flickers 12:00
Back to the book Chapter 12 Line One
Make the most of what time you have left to make
the most of what time you have left to make the
most of what time you have left to make the most of it
12:01 put this down- let’s go outside for a bit
Nice to see you again
How the hell have you been
Through the thick and thin
Last year- Not how I envisioned it
Not really worth getting out of bed for
Not really worth getting out of the house for
I’m excessively effusive
Emotionally broke but lucid
Inner demons tamed
I’ve got the battle scars to prove it
I admire your impeccable penmanship
To deny leniency on this sentence and
The quicksand stranding us here where all the tension is
Our cataclysm of these cellophane narratives
I’m reading through extensive footnotes
For an easter egg or some strange typo
I’m taking out all the screws
And checking all the holes for a clue
Some hint that will lead me to conclude
That there’s no cheat code to a surfeit of truth
No mysteries gonna cause a dispute
No there’s no shortcut to a surfeit of truth
No there’s no fast lane to a surfeit of truth
No there’s no doorway to a surfeit of truth
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7. |
Limerance
03:49
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Please forgive my asperities
It’s been a long long time
If memory serves me well
Your vanity it knows no bounds
I'll drink to your health but not your happiness
You left me in the dust to question everything
Did you ever feel love
Or was this limerence
Did you ever feel love
My straightjacket is custom fit
Embroidered as Mr.Hubris
To experts in the carrot and stick
I'm self medicated now and I won't submit
I'll drink to your health but not your happiness
You left me in the dust to question everything
Did you ever feel love or was this limerence
Did you ever feel love
You interrupted my insomnia
With your dreamy eyes
Some fuschia paradise
Pierce my stoic armour at the perfect time
With your dreamy eyes
Yeah, it could be nice
I'm still contemplating clarity
It’s been a long long time
If memory serves me well
Your vanity it knows no bounds
I'll drink to your health but not your happiness
You left me in the dust to question everything
Did you ever feel love or was this limerence
Did you ever feel love
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8. |
When You Were Young
03:41
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I catch you staring down at your dull right arm
Knowing that the last weeks have come
It hurts me just knowing that you'll never hear my songs
And aphasia makes the words come out wrong
All I can do is keep your bedroom warm
And shade you from that wretched sun
I try not to let you hear my tears come down
It’s arduous to face this head on
It’s arduous to face it alone
I read your journals back to you as nightly lullabies
Like a looking glass forming your Mind's Eye
When you were young you were better than me
I'm half your age, and still so much I should be
I waited too long to ask the wrong questions
How the hell did you overcome apprehension
I am at arms length with everyone now
For I will only let them down
There is a jaded son in my reflection
Here on your deathbed, the last words you said
Son, you worry too damn much
Just go out and spread the love while you still can
Don’t count the hour glass sand
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9. |
Windsheilds
04:05
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10. |
Fall Back Plan
05:20
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I wanna be your fall back plan
I wanna be the one the you come to
Whatever you need
I wanna be the one that you can run to
I’m kitted out with baggage
I’m broadsided and I’m backwards
I hear the echoes swell from a long way down
It's your escape plan in the distance
I wanna be your fall back plan
See the coastline for the tide
All the ways you wear the scars with pride
On a lark, you left it all behind
New plans to run a hundred thousand miles
I wanna be the one you can count on
Can I be the one you can count on
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Mike Whissell Toronto, Ontario
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