at the outset my plans are misplaced and neglected
and you're bored with the static by the endgame
i fish for context and all the dispatches diminish
though your voice rings through my head just like the first day

but you're so cool and distinguished and you notice all the accidents
you rescue your friends from certain death and find a home for them

i doubt it if this will ever come to pass
i make schematics to interpose between a past

in a fixed array of squares each one coded in notation 
it's illegible in longhand and the loops entangle
this is a process and all are punish-ed for stopping 
disconnected from defeat saving face for falling

but you're so cool and you're seriously [secret source redacted]
i stole from you for ages and the content kept me holding out

i doubt it if this will ever come to pass
i make schematics to interpose between inevitable

sacrifice for progress i don't register that dissonance 
god save the queen give cake to all the peasants

but you're so cool and i'll see it through persistent feedback til you move
and reposition distantly perpetually check in on me

Stale-mate

what will i see out there?
in fishbowl and silver stripes
you didn't look surprised
as you grinned in a red glow beside me

i couldn't climb the walls
face out of focus & shining
'cause i'm glued to the floor
sealed in a maze of the hallways behind me

quarters are close i make everyone nervous
feeling a future that fades as it grows
flipping my ticket thru fingers repeating
& drafted plans spent all over the floor

won't you take me home?

tried to rephrase my fall
unsettled, unsettled, unsettled
& i'm low in a crater
never felt so dumb, but you're a bright summation

sparks from your eyes and my vision is doubled
feeling a future that fades as it grows
& while i wait for the countdown beginning
i jumped the fence, i jumped it again

won't you take me swimming?

Pan Am

expected to spirit away, it's a given
it wasn't apparently
so don't take it so lightly
just remember to fall asleep

on a geological scale it's the smallest flash
how unflattering
as you scramble to lay down apart from me
can't transfigure my apathy
 
i can picture you playing the field, surrounded by lovers
what a party
while i tried to spin gold from my flesh
yeah i was an arrow, but not really circumspect

all the detours were doubled back, slung across sisters & brothers
but not gracefully
fielding cold calls & testing the temperament 
escape in the night with a perfect 10 of a miscreant

expected to spirit away, it's a given
it wasn't apparently
so don't take it so lightly
just remember to fall asleep

If You Try Sometimes, Consider Trying All The Time

split from the source, splayed on a windshield
divorced from intention apparently
strung on a wire, i'm so innocuous i thought you all would have laughed

but i'm serious
& i'm dangerous

do you remember? your parents were screaming 
as neighbors edged up to the peephole
& under the table, you squinted your eyes for the greenish glow of your gameboy

we were hero-less
we were powerless

it gets less shocking but just in perspective 
by passing the hours & minutes
& slowly accepting the gifts that are proffered our hero turns to a villain 

i love it here & the weather gets worse & we regress more
& i love to watch all my television shows but you can't shut up
& i love my vision of what i'll become & you won't let go
& i can't believe that they all disappeared & you shrug:

"our bodies are wasted. don't worry, we'll fix it."

Hugh Grant Always Get What You Want

coastlines scrawled in contour & the shapes
little dukes detached from cables settling
perched within your daisy chains all strewn
grasp for feathers falling all around you

charts all scattered, spent & sleeping sound
cast a net for kestrels in the summertime
played your messages & tapes unspooled
& i don't want to feel your love shake loose

servants they all pray for supper, princes they don't have to wonder

& my eyes were shrouded, & a field of darkness spread
& a shadow slipping & a skyline shimmering 
& lifted by degrees, a captive set free

empty nest, flown & strained my ease
windows blown i felt my limbs receding
baby hang your head & sigh this silver thread 
is tangle-twisted much too tight 

haggardly we rouse & sing it slack
disregard the faces lit by the sunset
i was spent & slain in my mid teens
reluctantly accepting of a long sleep

Kestrels

whenever you leave a voice at the tone
sorta transposed too close & clicking cylinders can channel
unhand me now, would you sit down at a piano

limbered up & towed the shore 
i walked it for a spell, i said very well
swapped & told a different story
keep it parallel, not-so-very-well

mattress my floor & i won't sleep on the stove
official noise, respirating faces falling for ya
& so was, but dontcha ever quote me sober

lingered in the viaducts
i walked them for a spell, i said very well
framed the shot for future fuckups
keep it parallel, not-so-very-well

& one time i turned a corner & i turned another one, i turned it over for some years before i wrote this sentence: you are my friend, you're punctuated again

Comma Splices

bodies are buried
bodies are buried
bodies are buried where you stand

my knees are weak at the sight of your body
your corpse it follows in a dark brown trenchcoat

bones underneath, bones underneath

Family Funeral

closing up the windows in my sleep
invented debts to pay, it's all the same to me
tomorrow, i will mend a waking dream instead

please deliver me, my vision fixed & failing, can't you see?

planted on the couch & losing steam
& claiming all the waste, i pool my winnings so weak
scrapes that i can mend, but hold your hands up for me

please remember me, the distance fixed & lengthy, & i retreat

it was sometime, maybe this time, when i would fight you in my sleep
i was strung out, i was bored, i had everything
& gravity & the constant speed of light in its particle form
it repeated & it folded, i was gone

spring suspension weighted to the street
i never felt the weight til it was time to leave
but if we ever mend, that'll be our wedding

& please bury me, & darlin' don't you shake me, dead or asleep

Please Do Not Sleepwalk

mistakes! yknow i've made a few
but i'm only human

so i kept making mistakes
i watched everything break down
i fell with my face down

It Feels Alright

take precedence, and influence
acknowledge factual dependence
patiently - no despondency
fuzz and static sinking still
mixes melts and caves in laughing
endlessly 

kids they play down in the weeds
clothing mended, love forever improvised
monkey paws up in the trees 
celestial, feast and fatal, time you take it, no more waiting

arc across a skyline swinging
come confess a crippled summer
floundering, just not remembering
chains go slack the body sprawling
seamless theft of all your thoughts
left to me

kids they sing their songs so high
clothing mended love forever improvised
saturdays have all run dry
celestial, feast and fatal, time you take it, no more waiting

the results are so bountiful
i superadd material
exit with the lights turned down
and i will never break at all
monolith stands on the ground 
devil eye reflected always
elaborate paths to nowhere
and i will never break at all
exit with the lights turned down
wither until further notice
exit with the lights turned down
wither til you call

recede and let it slip away
villians propagate in me
so shamelessly - no despondency
permanent dissent for always
crawling is a shade above
fatality

kids they can't see past the summer
clothing mended love forever improvised
but i just cannot see past you
celestial, feast and fatal, time you take it, no more waiting

Superadd The Youth!

smile and waste
miles of idiots, won't you count them out or down?
wasted lake, traced and finished
but not laid out so far

i like things that you wrote down
even when it broke me clean
you stand on a tiny mountaintop
i'm buried in leaves

i can't sleep with shit decisions
and i can't even shut my eyes
i will walk down back alleys and
smile

overgrown, overcast today
folded foxtail bending low
horns they ring, cymbals shake
and the neighbors shut their doors

skeleton, overhanging
brittle branches hasten, now
salty seas, away and in me are
weightless, floating, gone

i can't see for losing lately i
worship warmth and solid shapes
send the message, leave the response
blank

but understand that i will
be the first and last to fall
words get spun, before it's done
i'll hang on

Salty Seas & Wasted Lakes

walk down to the sea, dig a hole for nothing
the waves bring you what you need to survive
tonight, i will sleep down by the water
tonight i will remember why i'm alive

i take my meals when i can get them
i take the company i find
they'll never convict me of all these little thefts
still lock me up, for god knows why

and i see visions in the sky every night
the sun won't set til i look him in the eye
and some will say that i have grown wild in my age
but they still look at me just like a child

there's a low voice, overwhelms you with sorrow
there's a middle voice that's ringing so hollow
cast your fears on the rocks, let them die
when you awake alone down on the shore, you will rise

Happy As Kings/Drink Lots of Water

there's nothing much i could give of myself
any time any place any anything else
i had a head start & shut my eyes
i had a weak heart & lost a prize

i tried to sink into the slowness
but it wasn't that impressive
it was fun til it was aching
& each to each, beloved stations

am i safe or not safe
pass by all your secret graves
fashionably bright & blown out 
& all these front yards full of flowers

Little Pink Houses

in streets & towns & states away, subdued
stalled fates & filaments, removing absolutes
try to do the best thing, but you only stand to lose
what belongs to me, i’m asking

own a feeling, ignore the distance, list lifeless without resistance knock me down on saturday & drive me home much later

do it for yr unborn children falling in their slumber
& when you stop taking in food still drinking yr self under
given into tangles & shaded into graves
what belongs to me, i’m asking

hold an idea, shake recursion, resuscitate an old diversion
pick me up along the way for no apparent purpose

when the spark won’t fly, but sink & burrow in to
intentions that you don’t intend to try
& it guilts you into thinking that maybe for a while you’d be mine

a ritual will kill you but then no one is to blame
beliefs not cancelled by the disbelievers
let yr hair grow long again or fake it til it’s true
what belongs to me i’m asking

Possession/Propriety

build a silhouette & strings & swell/decay
& stupid haircut-shaded eyes expiring
how many mothers? how many lunches?
& we’re all lovers, & we’re all trouble

& we all got sunk
we all got corrupt
still faith in everyone everyone
couldn’t stand my face
what a waste, what a waste
still faith in everyone everyone

when will the children come home?
phone catch phone fall phone slip phone
fray the ends & blameless flailing: affect a pose
lying or better: lieutenant or mayor
always in trouble! giving up loving

with a failing body
& a shitty story
still faith in everyone everyone
& yr written off
sleepless disembark
still faith in everyone everyone

Woody Allen's 115th Haircut

billy = guitar and vox
phil = drums
lewis = guitar and keys
courtney = bass

Bachelor Paradise

Popular tracks