Rishloo

tlety - denied
Save them - or don't save us
for the skin that we steal in the name of your willing god
what are you, an asshole that can breathe without any air?
drinking the tears of parasites, are you satisfied?
Ooh! there's a carving on the wall
the affair is a piece of the estranged, do you see?
I am aware of the signs, the lapses in space and time
I am a fingertip away - I may...
Bonjour, just a few remaining words...
caught up in a mouthful-full of innuen-du-monde, adieu
our manic missive manifest of modern mystery
weigh the weightfulness of mighty-fine conceit
we are allowed, allowed, allowed to weep
we know right where they'll drown their vendettas in wine
so where do we, where do we, where do we sign?
take it all...


2. Landmines


This may be Where the Sidewalk Ends
far below me are shimmering surfaces
water-I need water
I've killed everyone here except for my daughter

she had sixteen points to make
five were heads-the other ten were snakes
chasing their tails, bringing her father down
what does it say?
what does it say? Whether you're better than them?
Whether it's a matter of sliding out over?
Slave to the limit-goodbye my friends
I'm beginning to bond with what I lost sight of

safe to crawl across this tin-can-tightrope walk
I want to crawl across
I want to crawl across this footprint dialogue fog
I want to crawl, crawl
I don’t think we should all, we should all, we should
forget a bit about it
mnemonic man, mnemonic man, do you recall
when you pushed a little further?

we’re just here to burn your cities down
caught a lot of love-heard a lot of empty voices
got a lot to learn to overcome my motives
and then move beyond those ordinary ways
we have seen the naked, automated cabaret
and we’ve moved, we’ve moved on
so move us on…

I’ve had enough of idle reverie, I for one can only see
what dreams may come for us
we’ve had enough of flight and gravity
spill me out evolved and screaming:
I’m not meaningless

Left up to you I’d drown in the desert
Left up to you I’d use up forever
choking down your plastic water…


3. Dead Rope Machine


When your Dead Rope Machine grows cold
I'll make you another one out of gold
oh, and when we die - a beast like everyone
we'll find you and remind you
you shined once
C'est la vie, la vie
what may be has already been - it's all the same
and you dance your magic dance
and you try so hard you try
to retie all those bitter ends and push them back inside
here's my halo...
I don't think I'll need that
There's a Stranger at the door
He cuts with frayed incisions on the rope we hold
oh and when we die - a beast in all of us
will find you and remind you
you shined once
C'est la vie, la vie
what may be has already been - it's all the same
and you dance your frantic dance
and you try so hard you try
to retie all those wicked skins and push them back inside
here's my halo
I don't think I'll need that
And I...
wherever I will go
wherever I go
I wear that coiled fear
and in a way the riddle ends
when we can but only, and always doubt
so let it all out, let it all out
you and I will cut our nooses loose
you and I will draw a course
if you and I can find a few more minutes
to find a way to find a road
you and I will never be alone


4. Dark Charade


I've been dredgin' the lake of my soul for a place I've never been
scattering the last of my thoughts to capture a whim
filled my lungs to limit
found why we stay in denial
on this unclimbed stairway
watching life go by
I'll make it easier on those of us who don't know that I am still here
imagining dial tone schemes
When I lost myself in the Dark Charade...
but I promise: my performance was flawless
I lost myself in the Dark Charade
and I swear I'm far more crazy than the rumors make me out to be
crazy...
crazier than me...

all we are is all we are
featureless with inside scars
we sink through walls and float right through it all
if all we are is what they say
we'll become them along the way
who were we before we were ashamed?
don't tell them the cause between fragments of all of us
still the rain to rhyme the reason
takes some time to find the One
to find the soul to make me god enough
that I could save us all
and do you love me now that I can save us all?
do you love me now?

if you'll just stand over here we'll find a place where you can waste away
sorry it's not what you sought, but superstition is all we brought today
I'll return you to the Wind for circumstantial assurances, Love
sold the sea to buy the ship...I think I may have fucked up things again
found a way to make your soul alive, to make you Slide...
so who will be the first in line?
this was all an unfortunate mistake
do you recall a little bit of innocence, a time when we could still forgive and forget?
I remember plastic pills and crystal balls within syringes filled, filling up with
algorithms, circuitry - this fluid frame has shown me things
I fear, I know, I believe
so who will be the first in line?

they're not there, they're not there
don't look at them...
don't look: STARE with your menacing cinder eyes
at the least of us who've given their lives
where the sanguine ought to be we pale in the light we bend
oh, enough said.
Where's the love, you liar?


5. Salutations


These are only words and artificial tones
we're just skin and bones playing telephone with things that were probably never said at all
this World is stitched with schemes
where once there was reality
it's hard to reach across the unbelievable distances
between what we really are and who we claim to be
and the Irony Engine isn't lost on me
the shame is that we saw it coming
in the faces of the young among us on crayon and paper drawings
the clearest writing on the wall we could ever ask for
what do they believe?
where are all their fathers? where are all their mothers?
who left them there alone with a television remote like some Philosopher's Stone
figure it out on your own, child
if I still have anything to say, I'll try to make it plain
contrivance is a luxury I don't have in the time that's left before the madness overtakes me
I'm a voice among the voices
the roar of whispers closes in
the point seems to be pointless
and I've forgotten who I am...


6. Radio


It's enough
spirits spill from my lungs
sympatico, villainy, betrayed by my tongues
who wants to be worthless?
apparently, I do
change your life and smile a lot
they're takin' you, so give 'em all that you've got
just to prove it's you
down, down, Apocalypse Submarine
I'm sure I read somewhere
It's safe to get out and go swimming
called her home to weather her veins
and who should we blame for these shivering pains?
maybe we die, oh, simply to reach?
out of the confines, out of phase
to ready love to relieve at least all of it
unafraid to know you're through
down, down, Apocalypse Submarine
I'm sure I read somewhere
it's safe to get out and go swimming
see them worry
it couldn't be-oh brother, I know
you realize in the waiting room
all I have today I owe to the Road
hey man, don't be afraid ever
I am on the ride of my life
through the land none of us ever walk at ease
I walk alone
I'm sorry I left without saying
I should have said...


7. Winslow


Raven found herself a skinny skin stiletto
in the middle of a crowd she needs a number
fabricating passion for her painted fellows
in the middle of a crowd she needs a lover
I want to know...
why are we breaking bottles when this well is running dry?
drunk on Aerosol Shithole Paradise
keep them guessing
make them sweat it out all at once
we've always been
I think I'm better than them
spirits thick as thieves the building speaks in riddles
in the middle of a crowd it needs a number
sharpening its teeth the spirits weeping widows
in the middle of a crowd there are no others
I want to know...
why are we breaking bottles when this well is running dry?
it's The Great Subliminal Entertainment Device
With Teeth, Building Living Ghosts
be calm, be calm, you Riders on The Storm
see it for the shadowbox cannibal dance distraction
see it for the tired smoke-and-mirror display
see it for the crimson neon stained glass refraction
see it for what it is, not what you want it to be
leave a little leather-bound miranda in the doorway so she won't say a thing
make a little miserable scene out of her
I thought we were
I thought we had gone
oh - spare the din your chloroform refrain
pack away those old Euphoria Grenades
look at all of them reaching, look at all those hands
pulling, grabbing, pushing in the interest of an understanding wasteland
Winslow! Oh, Winslow...
don't look away now!


8. Just A Ride


Wickered wishes hold the flames at bay;
No water for the martyr? Oh, what a shame...
Progress is a litter of delays,
Serendipitously... arranged.
Watch embers wither into grey,
And the filament fade…
Oh, and the filament fade…

It is the cause from causing choruses
To erupt in front of stages in the dark.
It is the cure between the words and what we thought we heard as such;
Cleverness, and sleight of tongue…

Ordinarily, we’d find a better fit,
And organize the messages’ intent
With words and scenes – insinuations –
Emotional manipulation, throughout.
For no good reason, I’d deceive you all,
Just to get the point across…

And I have been a hypocrite,
And I am certain I have lied!
And I have been to nothingness,
And barely bothered to survive!
I laughed when your levee broke, too;
shed tears when nobody rose to say:
‘It’s just a ride!’

Wearing the weight of the words we never spoke of,
Turning the weathered sign to read their bones.
The trap that was set was flawed, at best.
The trap that was set was flawed –
Programmed to make ghosts of all of us.

Oh, Time –
gathering us with open arms
To feed these hungry birds of war!
Splitting the line between two sides;
But I am neither one!

Usher the wind, blown into silos; dead.
Treated like cattle, we’ll listen for what’s next.
Secretly, we’ll take its pulse, dropping from the eaves;
Tourniquet the pace as the rhythm bleeds…

Oh, Time –
Flattering us to see ourselves
As something more than we define.
Where does it leave us when we crawl?
It’s not any skin of mine!

Only locked in these days, as our wonder dissipates;
How did we wait so long to call out!?

Hello…?
Don’t you know we know you know…?
Don’t you know…!?

You were brave, with a free-talking mind,
And a voice that is still a-cry for life!
And no matter what we want, we want to be loved!
Yes, we were here – we were afraid!
We paid them for the right to commit our own ego’s suicide.

But I believe it’s just a ride…!'