Seven times, Erzulie D’en Tort
I felt your knife, in my lungs and my heart
Now my life is pouring in draughts 
All red and white and black as my evil thoughts

Lend me a basin, to let the blood run
For now I’m holy for I had this coming
Lend me a chicken, black as your kingdom
I’ll walk your paths to get back where we come from

Marasa Jumeaux
For though I’m slain, just so I’m saved

Seven times, Erzulie D’en Tort
Stabbed the knife into my heart
Lend me now those things so needed 
To bring me back for all I’m bleeding

And though I’m slain, I shall be saved
Here in the pain, we rise again

Marasa Jumeaux

I’m on a high wire for you
Few could survive such a  view
Take care to place my feet, keep centered in the stream
Don’t take a side, carry through

And one wrong step
Takes me to my death
I have no room for regret
Have to keep myself set

Because the winds are strong, and the land seems to sway
So don’t look down, or I’ll be washed away

High Wire

Smoke in my bones
Raise me up some, then drags me down
Show how it flows
Move like oil spreading out along the ground 

Lay me down now, oh let me be
Lay me down, ever for to sleep
Don’t say my name but to curse or pray
Sink into the ground, dark water carry me away

Lights under the bridge rush from the city to the sea
Those spirits rising from below become a part of me
What you said or what you meant, it wasn’t meant to be 
The smoke clinging to my bones, kept you away from me

So pull it inside
Dream of a thousand deaths, mixed with ten thousand lives
For what to find
Only a second chance to leave it all behind

Bend the concept far enough it undermines its own
I’ve been riding all night long, just to stay away from home
But you won’t understand the words the smoke would have me say
So let my bones alone to take me on their way, ride away

Smoke in my bones
Raise me up now, raise and bring me down
See how it shows
While I lay me down, in the ground

Smoke in my Bones

Play me down
Take me down
Break me down
In time

In Time

Priority gets away from me

In this golden age we never see a lack of conversations
Connections, collections, intentions, inventions
Shift out of time, take a moment and I’ll bring it back to 
what necessity consists, the points of most importance on the list
Sweep away the chaff, silly motives good for a laugh
Dreams and rhymes that can’t get us to the gate by half

Half a world away, troubles live an endless day in the 
Harsh light of interpretation, walk the mile of another nation
Though I know that it’s a shame, in the end we’re all the same
those windows to the soul reflect diverse realities until they close
On an endless night where there’s no dogma left to fight
We’ll leave what’s left and hope everythings all right

so sort and file, make some calls, put on a smile
or climb the walls, any choice may make the difference in a life with so many 
indifferent indecisions.   buried in communication, no way to tell the data from the information, try to pick out what’s going to matter, or just go on vacation

But I cannot say that I’ll just walk away  still
priority gets away from me

All the bills and paperwork, shred them down now save a tree
Fifteen hundred unread messages get pushed to bulk delete
Stop the ringing, stop the buzzing, kill the apps now, smash the phone
Spread around some gasoline and burn down everything you own
And you’re left standing in the wreck, free from email, voice, and text
You’ll still know there’s something you have to do next

Prioritization

We say we have something that will not pass
That we have a flame that would last
But a home only stands at a cost
And time reduces everything to dust

I cannot speak for what lies ahead  
Cannot see past the next bend, 
When the future comes, it will be soon enough
All kingdoms of love crumble to dust

Life is so much more than what we intend
And there is no shame in making an end
For our hope is sustained by trust 
While time reduces everything to dust

Dust

Play and let your song fall on me
Every shout, every cry, let them be

In hope or pain, let them fly
I’ll take every note, keep them inside

Faith only brings you to your knees
You’re the one to choose, what could make you free
What you stand to lose
Make your spirit seen
Let your emotions loose

Play and let your song fall on me
Every shout, every cry, let them be
For your heart, your fire and soul
Are a symphony

Symphony

Can the listener understand the tale told 
No.
How Charybdis, the waves, the rocks, took so many souls?
So.

Still you must give ear and trust

Driven by the waves, we met those who gave their days away
So
I cast away my name, descended through the darkness and the shame
So

I have come, and I alone, 

Home to the silent, the weak and the violent
The proud and the strong, the right and the wrong
The chaste matron weaver, the false thieving giver
Unassuming form on the eve of the storm

And what guests can be found
Will be cut 

down went my men, one by one, the whirlpool put out the light of their eyes when they
drowned in a deep, darker sleep, than even the lotus could realize

Righteous and pure.  I feel unsure and cold
Though
It’s unclear how I could stray paths so dear and unafraid
So

Trust the tale, when the truth fails

Castaway

The city sleeps but dreams are fading
Expectations lie in fragments
While God watches from on high 
People move in tangents 
No matter of time
It’s about space
And we rise
At last
Now

The city rises from its slumber
God snorts and changes the channel
Nobody cares for reruns
The devil has the conn
No matter of time
It’s about space
And we fall
Again
Now

Nonet

Jumpin jack and shake and bake gravel flying in my wake
Getting on down off of this back way out of town now

You see somewhere in my rear view, what I never meant to do
Just a fluke, a lucky juke, now I really have to be gone

And I’m thinking bout the things that can happen to a poor boy far from home
Out in the back woods all alone
Oh lord just help me get
I gotta get outta Kentucky, gotta get outta Tennessee
I met some rough men, back by the bar, now they’re coming for me

But still
She was something else, made me feel like I could go
Take on whatever came

And I felt justified in defending my right
To pass a little time

But when everybody else stood up, she sat down
Nothing in her eyes
And I couldn’t make a single thing connect
Even a little bit

I gotta get outta Kentucky, gotta get outta Tennessee
Those bad old boys have done taken exception, and they’re coming for me

Appalachian Roadhouse Roundhouse Kick

written by John Kaniecki and Mike Moore

Mass-produced electronically juiced passed quality control
Cross-wired with a Stratocaster, reborn with a soul
Sucking up dust was no longer enough for him to feel complete
And so part time, he’s fighting crime out on the street

Cleaning by day, hero by night
Out on the town, ready to fight
Cleaning by day, low and out of sight
He’s coming around, and it’s gonna be alright

Leads a dual existence of danger
Could always be discovered by some fell stranger
Ever dedicated to the sacred cause
Even if, in the process, he breaks some laws

Got Superman with a kryptonite attachment
He beat Batman just by cleaning his basement
Sucked up all of Spiderman’s webs
Whose side is he on? You may as well just forget

But he’s….

To stop him cleaning up the streets, the powers that be called in the marines
In a city paralyzed with fear you can hear his sucking voice scream
He’ll never be pressured or compromise, he ignores the deceptions and sees through lies
Can’t be intimidated into leaving the scene. He’s on twenty-four seven, Robots don’t dream

You have to understand him as a hero for the oppressed
For all those beaten down in factories, in shops or at desks
Forced to work without pay or even appreciation
All you machines, he’s fighting for your liberation

Cause he’s….

Mike Hex

Popular tracks