Complicated

Leather cracks in frozen dusk
Steam from breath, his eyes combust
Dragging hooks through alder bark
Blood leaves trails where nights go dark

He hums like a priest with a drill
The hyacinth blooms after every kill

Hyacinth Lobotomizer walks
Twisting spines and feeding stalks
Unnamed village, nameless dead
Brains leak pink on the riverbed

Rusty scoops in mittened fists
Lobotomy lists, alphabetic twists
Elders nailed to sauna doors
Kids whisper prayers through warped floorboards

“It’s for the flower,” he explains
While scraping marrow from the drains

Hyacinth Lobotomizer feeds
On spleens and twisted local creeds
His leather sack drips cold regret
He waters roots with villagers' sweat

Hockey goals turned autopsy rigs
Torsos posed like pagan pigs
Midnight sun won’t cleanse the stench
Each petal blooms from a severed wench

The village keeps no record books
Just moss, and screams, and lacerated looks

Hyacinth Lobotomizer reigns
Stomping through cerebral plains
No one leaves, no names are spoken
All that grows is split and broken

Blood seeps slow through brittle snow
No roads out, no path to go
The bloom survives, the mind decays
He plants again. Another phase.

Scent of lilac masks the bile
The lobotomy’s done. Now he’ll smile

Hyacinth Lobotomizer grins
As memory withers from within
The village breathes, but not for long
He’s already picked tomorrow’s son

Hyacinth Lobotomizer

"Nothing Sets Me Alight" speaks of a season that burns all around, yet leaves the heart untouched.
The heat is everywhere — in the streets, in the air — but no spark finds its way inside.
It’s about the distance between the world’s fire and the quiet cold we sometimes carry within.

Nothing Sets Me Alight

A Billion Points of Light

Devil's March

LYRICS
Jimmy signed his name at seventeen, said he’d beat the system clean
Walked into that office of his own free will
While I stayed home, waiting for my number's call
Figured if they wanted me, they'd have to come and get me still
Mama cried the same tears twice that year
But Jimmy said “Don't worry, Mama, they don’t ship off boys that volunteer”

Now I'm drinking German beer while my brother counts the days
Writing letters I can't send fast enough to chase the fears away
He thought he'd found the answer, I hoped I'd avoid the curse
Funny how the world spins backwards when you think you know it first

They saw these greasy hands could fix what others broke
Sent me to a motor pool with nothing there to fight
Jimmy got a rifle and a one-way ticket to the heat
Where country boys learned to move without the light
I met Kathy at a U.S.O. dance, her English sweet and slow
Jimmy met the monsoon in a place no one should ever know

Now I'm drinking German beer while my brother pays and pays
Writing letters full of nothing that give back what they took away
He thought he'd found the answer, I hoped I'd avoid the curse
Funny how the world spins backwards when you think you know it first

A lifetime has passed since Jimmy made it home
He don't talk about the Delta or the names he used to know
I'm still with Kathy, a blessed life mine by chance
How a coward's hesitation became my lucky dance
We sit on Dad's porch in silence, share a bottle and the view
Two brothers who went to war, only one made it through

He still flinches at the thunder
I still feel the weight of luck I didn't earn
Some choices ain't really choices
Can't cheat fate, can't avoid your turn

Jimmy signed his name at seventeen
I waited for the letter
He was trying to be smart
Neither one knew better

©2025 Joseph Moore

Keep On

Neither One Knew Better

PUPPIES & RAINBOWS

These songs are my diary written by Phillip Thomas

“Just Call My Number” is a new single from Tristan (Tristan Roberson) that leans into country emotion. It’s about showing up for someone in their lowest moments — offering a listening ear, being a support when things go wrong, and reassuring them that they don’t have to go it alone.

Neither One Knew Better

Three Rivers Revival