cities on
fire
in the
republic of sorrows
cities on
fire
in the land
of the free
cities on
fire
where the
dark horse rises
cities on
fire
far as the
eye can see
we’re
talking London and Chicago
we’re
talking Memphis Tennessee
I got
gasoline in the car
take a ride
with me
cities on
fire
across the
planet
cities on
fire
it’s our
destiny
I guess I’ll tend to my own troubles and you can tend to yours don’t talk to me about feelings I don’t want to talk about my feelings I want to scream and shout about my feelings I want to roll them all up into one vicious ball and ram it down your throat so you can scream about it too we could scream our skeletons loose we could scream ourselves empty we could scream until we are free
your sympathy offends me I’ll have none of that I’m pinned up on a meat hook but I’ll suffer no pity from acquiescent sheep I’d
rather play the devil than earn a
place in heaven I’d like to burn it
down and erase it from my heart I’ve been tyrannised with love for more than long enough I’m
not asking for forgiveness I’m just
not ready yet I don’t want to be blessed if I must be content
tell me brothers and sisters how well do you sleep? do you lie down gently with acquiescent lambs? or run in terror with ravenous wolves? do you follow secret paths known only to your heart? are the thoughts that await you there a burden to your mind? because we abhor what we fear and we fear what we don’t understand that’s ok just don’t think about it avert your gaze hide your eyes bury your fear somewhere deep inside where it will learn your secrets as it festers in the dark the lord of death knows each of us by name he nestles in our sheets as we sleep and we walk with the ghosts and spectres he sends to haunt our dreams
we’ve been to some dark places that’s the topography of life this world is made of fear and death there is love of course but that’s just on the surface deep down we are motivated by fear and our greatest fear is death but if we give it no name perhaps it will go away like a bad dream or a spell of rain it’s
three in the morning we’re wrestling angels and losing again but we’ll keep up the pretence as long as
we can there are burdens enough with
the coming of day we’ll shake off
our shrouds as we roll out of bed in
the land of the living there’s just no room for the dead
poor boy was a loner poor boy was a shadow he’d been banished from the tribe because he had this one weird gimmick you could say it was his calling poor boy used to dig up ghosts he found ghosts everywhere and people didn’t like it the ghosts didn’t like it poor boy didn’t like it either but he was obsessed with his ghosts he was so obsessed he became a ghost too and gradually faded away soon to be forgotten but I’ve seen him by the canal and on the viaduct too in the company of ghosts in the melancholic gloom
the blunt edge of depression rolls across my portion of the sky it’s gonna rain again nobody can gauge when or why somebody help me I’m coming undone we all have secret sorrows I’ve had enough of mine I woke up into a nightmare I might never sleep again some have wounds that do not show but they bleed they bleed from the soul I’m not helpless – I’m hopeless they call it suicidal ideation my life is a burning building I may have to jump it’s burn or dive there is a terror beyond falling the choices here are stark
bipolar distemper is a side effect of living and living is a disease with one
cure and one cure alone I
won’t cry in public I won’t rend my
clothes I’ll weep on the
inside I’ll weep from my soul there’s no comfort to be had no magic pills my soul carries more scars than living tissue this is not sadness sadness will pass like the common
cold this is cancer a cancer of the soul I feel so ashamed to carry this burden I’ve done something wrong something so huge I can’t even comprehend it the devil has hold of my soul and from where I sit now he’s welcome to it
I like to drink but I only with my friends I don’t care to drink with strangers I have to factor in my concentration got to keep my story straight my lies always carried more weight than my truths after all, lies are the common currency truths are rare as diamonds I save the truths for the people I trust what do you say to that? I don’t know what to say myself it’s not my place to say but what do you think? coz I don’t know what to think I never knew what to think I always moved in the wrong direction is that symptomatic of a poor education? I could blame my past but with little conviction I’ve always been the victim of my own machinations I couldn’t care less now but I suffered then nobody suffers like the poor and I was impoverished in spirit I could tell some stories we all could tell some stories life is anecdotal and fifty percent deception but that’s to be expected how could we live with ourselves if it weren’t for our lies?
they say it takes one to know one that the devil knows his friends and I’m not ready to repent I’m not through sinning yet I don’t care what people say I don’t care what they think if I pour the poison I can bear the shame I’ve often been the villain in other people’s schemes but now I set the agenda we’ll see where that leads I might play the devil I might just steal his clothes I’d rather play the devil than someone you don’t know it can take a little evil to get your business fixed but they say the devil is worldly wise and he knows all the tricks
it’s been a long time now but some things never change you took the road with me with expectations that would tear us apart you knew how to live I knew how to dance I promised you much but I think I lied I don’t believe and I will not serve I’m not afraid of being alone I’m not scared of making mistakes I crawled on broken glass to get where I am now my mistakes are portals to new discoveries I found myself all on my own I drowned in the ocean you placed between us I bled for your lies when you found another but I wished luck in your new adventure god grant you some peace on your journey home
I need a bigger brain none of this shit makes sense I want a long lie down in the cool room on virgin sheets over by the window where I can see the street because something is going wrong somewhere and I’m afraid it’s local there’s more misery in this neighbourhood than can be quantified we’re alive and that’s the problem and it’s quite a problem but it’s nobody’s fault
the living have troubles
that span all dimensions
electrical therapy might see them sorted a zap to the brainpan could do some good it’s said to work wonders for all mental maladies god knows it changed my motivations they
taught me to think straight with
little blasts of lightning they
lit the path to some near nirvana and saw me whole but not quite holy am I
the bad guy now? how does that work?
I cut a solitary figure in this situation but I don’t need a rainy day woman to come and make my bed clean my clothes or serve my daily bread don’t get me wrong I
don’t want to be alone I just need a friend to talk to when I’m stoned I’m
loaded with electrical potential some find that strange they might think I’m mental but I know who I am and that’s pivotal to my way of thinking
I can’t complain though I’ve seen better days today was stillborn dead on arrival dismal as an infant’s funeral bleak as a winter in hell I don’t seem to mind there’s no evil portioned to me I haven’t witnessed before I have always believed that whatever comes my way for good or ill I must have earned it so I will own it quietly en sotto voce I don’t believe in drama or the daily toil and trouble I believe in something spiritual manna spilled from heaven where I trust I’m not forgotten because I still hope for mercy in the kingdom yet to come
I will not take to my bed no, I will not take to my bed I’m sick and tired and I need to sleep but I will not take to my bed the day is dark and sorrowful and my heart has turned to lead I could lie in for a day or two but I will not take to my bed the world has me by the throat I wish that I was dead I’m ready to jack it all in but I will not take to my bed
in the place where you are rooted as you are habitually static do you feel incomplete? is there hunger still in you? have you come very far, in the course of a lifetime? was the journey worthwhile, the way you remember? could you do with a bit more emotional warfare? are you finally done with me, now I’ve surrendered?
to tell you the truth
I saw it coming felt trouble gnawing deep in my entrails maybe that feeling tainted my
actions and I drew trouble to me with dread apprehension battling shadows like a child in the dark was I sowing the seeds of intent? did I walk a crooked path? all prophesy is self fulfilling it’s a law of nature even
I realise that
least said, soonest mended I’ll reserve my judgements for the early hours to reflect in a vacuum the role that I played in this latest
debacle I hold a fascination for the
patterns of disgrace and we were
both disgraced in this episode so I’ll
bury you now but I’ll mark the grave
for later I’m bound to return to the
scene of the crime
we all have needs
some more than others we do
what we have to in order to survive
with egos intact people get hurt and get hurt in the hurting some wounds heal some wounds fester some wounds are licked because we like the flavour there are bittersweet confections that linger in the heart
