The World’s A Madhouse
Broken wood on empty stages blizzard brimstone churns and rages
Turn the torn and muddy pages that’s the order of the ages
Drifting through those walls of cages gone the way of fools and sages
Hand of god has got your wages that’s the order of the ages
I go to bed and I try to sleep but it doesn’t seem to fit
There’s psychic forces here at work I’m in the thick of it
So I get back up and I count my coins and there seems to be enough
I’ll cruise downtown and I’ll drink some beer meditate on love
The walk is cold so I get there quick liquidate my savings
Feel the breath of a guy who thinks I love to hear his ravings
The band is hot my beer is cold but the atmosphere is cool
So maybe I’ll go and I’ll kill myself guess I’ll shoot some pool
What can I say if my luck is gone the show is over but my life goes on
Got a beer and some cigarettes too what the hell else do you want me to do
What the hell else do you want me to do…
I’m still awake and I’d love to dance but there’s no girls here I know
I shouldn’t stay here hanging out but there’s no place left to go
And I’d like to blow myself away but there’s no rope that I can find
And I’d like to lead a better life but there’s no hope for my mind
So what if I can’t sleep at night I do my best when I know what’s right
Don’t care if I’m clean and pure the world’s a madhouse I’ll endure
The world’s a madhouse I’ll endure…
Broken wood on empty stages blizzard brimstone churns and rages
Turn the torn and muddy pages that’s the order of the ages
Drifting through those walls of cages gone the way of fools and sages
Hand of god has got your wages that’s the order of the ages…
Wash Away
Diving through my thoughts
Without a rope without a net
With only current’s pull to carry me along
River smooth away the bleeding edges
Leave me drowsy in the sunny
Misted murmur of your song
Downward bound swift waterway running
Wearing loose the rocks of ages
Drowning in my dreams
Without a hope without a breath
Without a candle burning bright beside my bed
Wake to world and work
And walk hypnotic in the footsteps
Simply seeking not the truth but just the end
Downward bound swift waterway running
Wearing loose the rocks of ages
Tumble off into forever
Turn the torn charred and muddy page
Birds in flocks sweeping ashes cold as sunlight mocking calling
Swirling black as smoke and flat as glass
Grey moon worn broom warm room same tune gotta find a way to wash away
High above stars spill out no new message only questions
Mystery in the spray upon my face
Grey moon worn broom warm room same tune gotta find a way to wash away…
Diving through my thoughts
Without a rope without a net
With only current’s pull to carry me along
River smooth away the bleeding edges
Leave me drowsy in the sunny
Misted murmur of your song
Downward bound swift waterway running
Wearing loose the rocks of ages
Tumble off into forever
Turn the torn charred and muddy page
Golden tadpoles skin like paper wordless cries to croak despair
Washed away and gone without a trace
Grey moon worn broom warm room same tune gotta find a way to wash away
Velvet violet radiating leafy bowl to catch the rain
Glowing like a moth with moonlit wings
Grey moon worn broom warm room same tune gotta find a way to wash away…
Success
Exceed, evade, enhance perceptions
The precipice is only half a block
Dispel, despoil, display your trophies
Push the bird back in the clock
Your secret wish, not on your task list
What you cannot ask
Achieve your failure, aspire to fail
Smash your head against the painted glass
You’d best conserve your effort level
Trust the latest hot- fix hitherto
Manage executive expectations
Fear is how you keep the edge in view
Your sisters dropped you into the dust
Their mindless chatter drifting back
Expect, accept, prepare and believe
Your wheel will crack and jump the track
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash…
Don’t ever dare to risk a smile
Appearance counts for ninety points at least
Protect your data, know your backups
Rearrange your people, keep them on a leash
Compliance will be monitored
By a software agent in your head
Your soul constricted, dreams demented
Imagination dead
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash…
So stop worrying, the worst has happened
Activate encryption from afar
It’s just a rock come tumbling heaven
Better not to wish upon that star
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash…
Dark Roses
I heard the drone of plastic wax
Behind a wall of lights
Took the alleyway instead
I’d rather face the night
Glass and neon are the omens
Asphalt are the streets
You’d think it’s not too much to ask
A little quiet peace
Slipping through a cemetery
Slinking in the rain
Crazy fires with noxious smoke
Burning in my brain
Scrambling up a churchyard wall
To sanctuary inside
Idle prayers to an unconscious god
Dark roses at my side…
Iron cyclops on the line
Old railroad yards at rest
I’d hop a box if I could decide
Between the east and west
A stray cat wants to climb my jeans
I’d rather she’d chase mice
I’d kick her away but she might come back
I’d hate to ask her twice
Imagine the invalid anarchist
Who aches to do something real
That unshaven wino dead in the shadows
Looks the way I feel…
Oblivious
God might have led me to that boy
But look at him he’s oblivious
His eyes are so black and serious
Burning through the data stream
He’s like a wolf without a cube
To smoky flickers abandoned
Florescent shadows at random
Complexion’s only faintly green
That boy is so intense
There’s monsters in his head
His gaze turns inside not out
I could stare at him all day
Catch my breath and blink away
He’s a mission in my soul
Madman singing in the choir…
Sent an IM just to flirt
Hundreds of lines were his answer
On wi fi waves causing cancer
And toxic carpet fumes on his skin
Standing in line at taco bell
He never noticed me waving
Burritos can never save his soul
He needs me more than I need him
That boy is so intense
There’s monsters in his head
His gaze turns inside not out
I could stare at him all day
Catch my breath and blink away
He’s a mission in my soul
Madman singing in the choir…
Paper
Got my bluetooth headset masking my face
Yeah look like an alien on the bus line
So maybe I’m at the lower end of the pay scale
My taste in devices is radically sublime
Fifth floor’s wireless gadgets are set to stun
I duck every time I walk by the transceiver
Our network file server just crapped a core dump
Temptation to waver the believers
Still that intern I thinks got a crush on me
Makes me nervous with those piercing blues
She waves maniacally while I’m ordering tacos
She must think I’m some kind of major dude
Gotta show her my tattoo
Paper tons of paper
I’m drowning in paper
Paper in my drawers
On my desk in my briefcase
Paper tons of paper
Tell me I don’t have
Cuts all over my hands and face…
Frantic execs slither by in the hallway
Contributing lies to the general chaos
Keep my head down appearances productive
I’m no volunteer for the next round of layoffs
Cubicles steaming IT despairing
Everybody’s writing their emails by hand
Tokens disables net cash flow negated
Circuits reduced to stone and sand
We’re all walking time bombs
Yesterday you were at the top of your game
It’s all downhill from now on
Rise and shine it’s prison time in paradise
Paper tons of paper
I’m drowning in paper
Paper in my drawers
On my desk in my briefcase
Paper tons of paper
Tell me I’m part
Of an evolved enlightened human race…
Energy sink hidden virus executable
That girl sometimes twitches while she talks
Think I’m the impostor here to sabotage the team
I’ve never been trained to think outside the box
Counter productive performance appraisal
I’m solely defined as my own state of mind
I’m only the depth of my own set of functions
Deranged schizophrenic deaf dumb and blind
Make just one mistake and you’re obsolete
So how long can you dance that tightrope
Listen to the voices in your head you dope
You need me much more than I need you
Oblivious boy you must know by now
We’re all walking time bombs
Yesterday you were at the top of your game
It’s all downhill from now on
Rise and shine it’s prison time in paradise
We’re all walking time bombs
Yesterday you were at the top of your game
It’s all downhill from now on
Rise and shine it’s prison time in paradise
Paper tons of paper
I’m drowning in paper
Paper in my drawers
On my desk in my briefcase
Paper tons of paper
Tell me I’m part of
An evolved enlightened human race…
Make just one mistake and you’re obsolete
So how long can you dance that tightrope
Listen to the voices in your head you dope
You need me much more than I need you
Oblivious boy you must know by now…
Success Again
Impede implode implant your data
Interpose apocalyptic fear
The dead are whispering wise advice
But somehow you cannot hear
The watchers know your search behavior
All your favorite sites for girls and guns
Computer eye unblinking at you
Compiling all your deeds undone
So god led you down into the shadows
Trapped in hidden mechanism gears
Step on the gas pedestrians scatter
Trade your life and dreams for a career
Secure your bunker disguise your weapons
Nervous laughter edged with helpless rage
Drooling gibberish and senseless babble
Push the bird back in the cage
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash…
Your stardust wand that disney crap
Match it with your sleek stiletto blade
Spiced up spaced out packing heat
Jitter jagged and all frayed
That swirling flock of black birds
Flat and dreadful as a falling pane of glass
Heartbeat and breath and warmth and sleep
For what you cannot ask
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash…
Impede implode implant your data
Interpose apocalyptic fear
The dead are whispering wise advice
But somehow you cannot hear
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Feeling way too fine that’s the sign
You’re about to crash
Go to bed and I try to sleep but it doesn’t seem to fit
There’s psychic forces here at work and I’m in the thick of it
In the thick of it….
Execute/Trip To The Vet
At the conference table under sweaty palms rayon folds start losing their crease
Desperate thoughts of all the afflicted fix on the door for sweet release
The run in her hose tears longer she tugs her skirt stuck to the chair
Her hair lies limp across her brow eyes darting everywhere
They’ll look at each other the suits and the skirts they know the lines well there are no absolutes
Their clothes reveal something beyond all dispute bracelets and ties the heels and the boots
Her hair lies limp across her brow eyes still darting everywhere
In buzzing flickering brilliance from above silk knots cutting flow to the brain
They’ll fidget and blink their eyes unsteady roll with the fat their belts restrain
The wing tips an anchor sheer torture her wedding ring’s become a calloused sore
And under the gaze of dull thickness surging pheremones explore
They’ll glance at each other the suits and the skirts all blush with the fancies their minds pervert
To tear it away and reach the fleshy fruit to plan and to scheme then to execute
And under the gaze of dull thickness surging pheremones explore
To plan and to scheme then to execute plan scheme execute….
They found her in her camry her cat in the carrier on the seat beside her
In the carport at her condo carbon monoxide poisoning the row of town homes
Day minder in her lap her to do list was her note
No post it saying end it all just weekly report due 9 AM
She once threw a three hole punch three stitches in my head testify
She screamed and ranted at staff meetings her clothes too flamboyant
She cornered me in the cafeteria line and told me she was depressed
I had to tell her no you’ve got the diagnosis wrong
You’re narcissistic borderline paranoid psychopathic
You’re an expression of all my fears
As the gas took life out of her lungs boss from hell found her way home
I dreamt they placed a rock on her grave inscriptions told of her life
Words begun at birth cry and every breath every cough every moan every sigh
Words never spoken in life again but on the stone just hazy letters
Like reading it through bubble wrap the red moon a ball in shadow eclipsed
We all had to go to the service and sitting in that unforgiving church
Felt no sorrow for her but fell apart to think of that cat
Trying to claw her way out of that carrier box a trip to heaven is like a trip to the vet
And I started to sob I just couldn’t help it someone passed me a Starbucks napkin or two
Then Oblivious boy came to me sorry for your loss hah he’s clueless
Told me I look good in black as if I don’t wear black every day to the office
Then he took me to Starbucks it was almost like a date except the whole department tagged along
Narcissistic borderline paranoid psychopathic expression of all my fears
Impede implode implant data Dispel despoil display data
Exceed evade enhance data Expect accept prepare data
So what if I cant sleep at night do my best when I know what’s right
Dont care if I’m clean and pure the world’s a madhouse I’ll endure
Plan scheme execute…
Hidden Falls
Black eyed rain drops an earthly warning
Through the dusty blanket scattered
Pearls of oily smoke and mud and spite
Moon shine winks down a careless pathway
Up the trail a bend and hiding
Through the tangled brush the tumbling falls
Streaming down I can stand behind it
Safe inside the wall she tells me
Fables wild at heart and strange of mind
Here a crook I can crouch upon it
Water falls in sheets before me
Surging down the rocks hide me away
Cold stain old pain black rain
Wash it away…
Easy rolls over hills and valleys
Coaxing thoughts of tripping falling
Hear the fables wild and brave of mind
Splashing whirling coursing surging
Colder now just like my bloodstream
Heart beats in the stream pump it away
Hills fall wet wall bird call Wash it away
Cold dark rain feeds the river yawning
Under swirling skies sharp lines drawn
Cross the setting sun to wash away
Here I’ll bring all my lonely sadness
Tired despair and dark self hatred
Float down hidden falls and wash away
Cold stain old pain black rain
Wash it away…
All lyrics by John S Bowers and CP Butchvarov
Copyright 2007, all rights reserved