Happy New Year, friends!
Dear friends whom I have found
We’ve dug our stakes in holy ground
Traced the river back to our old hometown in the trees

Happy New Year, friends I’ve yet to meet!
We stride towards each other on dusty feet
Where the strange grows familiar, 
Familial and sweet
In our hearts are many rooms, 
Many doors, many keys

While the years grow shorter, 
The time grows sweeter still

Happy New Year, friends
Who know me well
Who held my hand through hell
I’d say our edges are worn but we’re wearing it well
We’ve got scars to compare, we’ve got tales we can tell
While the years grow shorter, the time grows sweeter still
While the years grow shorter, the time grows sweeter still

Happy New Year, 
Friends whom I have failed
I hope that healing may prevail
May the bitter ends be worn right down
and buried in this fertile ground
May they grow into a tree
With shade enough for you and me

‘cause where I go, I am taking you with me
We are blood, you can like it or not,
Now I raise my voice that some dear ones may hear me
Who can’t be here
But will not be forgotten
But here we are,
May we howl at the moon,
May we bend in the breeze,
May we grow toward the light,
May we meet in the trees where the summer has triumphed again
And sing to one more Sunday night!


Sunday Night

Desire has come to find me in my quarters
Asks me why we don’t speak no more
And what I’m really here to prove
She smiles at me, I’m smiling too
She lights a cigarette and shuts the door

Desire wakes me long before the coffee, 
Lulls me long before the dark red wine
She can’t keep her slender fingers off me
Her eyes insist we can take our time 

Oh, the myriad of ways in which I want you
On my arm and on this silver moonlit street
In this song and in my head,
In this photo, dressed in red
In this bed and sighing with me sweet

Desire, be my window onto silence 
Drape like silk across my fragile frame
Be the burning presence of her absence
Scour me with my need,
Strip me of my name

Oh, the myriad of ways in which I want you
On my arm and on this silver, moonlit street
In this song and in my head,
In this photo, dressed in red
In this bed and sighing to me sweet

Desire, you can burn my vain resistance
Light a fiery beacon spelling “more, more, more!”
Hold me to the coals of your insistence
This honey is too thick and sweet to pour

Oh, the myriad of ways in which I want you
On my arm, and on this silver, moonlit street
In this song and in my head,
In this photo, dressed in red...

Desire

Some subtle ghost is reaching back for me
Failing now to hide behind my face
Here he is declaiming with my voice
There you glimpse him standing in my place
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out

Icy fibers knit into my heart,
Beating hard and straining towards the sun
Trembling fingers pull the strands apart,
Light them up like candles one by one
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out 
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out 

We could start over with a different past in mind
Nothing has died here, we can stop time before the light goes out

So let the blood flow back into the wound
Drive the arrow deeper through the tree
Don’t lose your head, bring out your dead, we can make it easy

'Cause I have taken time out of my day
To give the world the finger and be done
And still it seems to go out of its way
To turn each petty curse into song
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out 
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out 

We could start over with a different past in mind…

Do you know where you are?

The Light Goes Out

Oh man, will you not be healed?
Man, will you not be healed?
What is it, to feel all this pain that you feel

Oh man, will you not be whole?
Man, will you not be whole?
What is it, to know all this hell that you know?

I am on your side
I am on your side

What you wanna die for?

"If I could lay my burden down," he whispers,
"I could build a bridge to thee
But if I lay my burden down," he wonders,
"Who will recognize me? Who will I be?"

Oh man, can you hear my voice?
Man, can you hear my voice?
Don't you leave me now, you still have a choice

Oh man, will you not be healed?
Man, will you not be healed?
Won't you miss the sun, don't you know you're real?

I am on your side
I am on your side

What you wanna die for?

So lay down your arms and blunt your swords,
Do you even know what you heart beats for?
Whether you lose or win your war, you leave me

Don't leave

Won't you miss the sun, don't you know you're real?

I am on your side
I am on your side
I am on your side

On Your Side

Listen, she’s coming
Up the furrows where the tanks drove
Past the ruins, past the graveyard
In the raiment of a widow
Listen, she’s coming
Like a flash-flood without warning
To wash those shallow roots away 
And swell the banks by morning

Yeah, she’s comin, 
Put your pistol down

Listen, she’s closer, 
She’s rattling the windows
With her wake spread wide behind her
Just as blackened as the meadow
Oh listen, don’t fight it, 
Y’know she only wants to hold you
You can mock her name, but don’t dare
Say she never warned you

Yes, she’s comin,
Better light a candle
She come back to dance atop the temple,
Feed you a little piece of your shadow,
Colorin’ daylight black,

Welcome, daughter of night,
Welcome, nothing is left,
Welcome, bringer of light,
Welcome, Mother of Death

I know you know it’s time,
I know you know it’s right,
Make straight the way, don’t be left behind

Listen, she’s here now
She’s oh, so pleased to see you
Don’t you get no big ideas, boy
You’re just a lung for her to breathe through
Oh, listen, she’s comin’,
She’s doin’ what she pleases
She may wrap you in her arms
Or tear you into pieces

Yes, she’s comin,
Better light a candle
She come back to dance atop the temple,
Callin' all bullets back to the barrel,
Colorin’ the daylight black,

Welcome, daughter of night,
Welcome, nothing is left,
Welcome, bringer of light,
Welcome, Mother of Death

Mother Of Death

“Oh distant father, ancient father,
Why have you forsaken me?
I can't see my jailer's faces, 
Would someone turn the lights on…:

She wears these prayers like ashes
Like her only children, 
And says "Be still,
They’re only sleeping"

But when she sleeps,
She dreams she hears some ancient voice cry
“Lazarus, come forth!”

And in this dream she feels her shaky fingers
Tear her bones up from the earth

there is a light that shines in darkness,
a plea from the infirmary
the nurses hide their faces
they’ve got a brand new skin on

you gotta get it out past the wall
the truth ain’t safe from the law
but out where the desert flower grows,
the child is waking

But when she sleeps,
She dreams she hears some ancient voice cry
“Lazarus, come forth!”

And in this dream she feels her shaky fingers
Tear her bones up from the earth

They say “Kill the queen, the queen is dead,
Long live the king, long live the king!”

Perhaps the child is waking, perhaps the child is sleeping,
Perhaps the child is crying
Perhaps the child is waking,
Perhaps the child is sleeping,
Perhaps the child is dying

But when she sleeps,
She dreams she hears some ancient voice cry
“Lazarus, come forth!”

And in this dream she feels her shaky fingers
Tear her bones up from the earth

Lazarus, Come Forth!

Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay

He was born in a capsule
Miles from the schoolyard
When his mama died they say he never grieved
Wouldn’t steal from his employers but he’d lie right to a child
“For their own good,” he solemnly believed

He got mostly passing grades, the occasional raise,
Neither handsome nor too tough on the eyes
He was rather well-behaved,
Not noticeably brave,
Nothing that would warrant a disguise

But Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
Simple pleasures, sleight of hand,
Middling height, the anti-man
Made the history books today

Where he came from the only rule was “never say you’re sorry. 
Don't own up to a fault unless it pays”.
When the hurricane came heavy
He put money on the levy,
Drank a whisky while he watched it wash away
They found him at the embassy, took him into custody
He didn't have a damn word to say 
But "There's a curious kind of honor
In the algebra of slaughter,
We're equal in the waters of decay"

And Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
Simple pleasures, sleight of hand,
Middling height, the anti-man
Made the history books today

So the newsmen filled the blanks in
The generals moved the tanks 
Across a border no one even knew was there
And the door swung open to a cell
That fit the warden very well
The fingerprints rose into the air

The last man’s name is Legion,
We all are of his body,
Cut the head off and another will arise
Covered in his father’s ashes,
Followed by his laughter,
Cut the head off but the laughter never dies

The laughter never dies

Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
Simple pleasures, sleight of hand,
Middling height, the antiman
Made the history books today,
Go to sleep, now!
Silas made the history books today

Silas

The theater is closing again and the lights burn low
On two hearts suspended in time in the center row
Behind the curtain is a stage, 
And behind that stage is a brilliant light

Tell me your improbable stories, 
And let me tell my own
Tell me the one about those rebel hearts who found their way back home
By the glowing of a coal lit by unknown hands in an unsung life
Behind the curtain is a stage,
And behind that stage is a brilliant light

Come and wipe the blood from my face,
I'm just glad you're home
Come and carve your tale next to mine in the margins of my bones
And I tell you, we will make them true 
When we learn how to tell them right
Behind the veil is a face, 
And behind that face is a brilliant light

Sounds of Oliver Franklin

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