No One Decides Full EP
I Get to Live
The sun hits my head
And the depth of the rainbow
Seems aligned in my eyes
With the head of my shadow
It is a summer afternoon
And I have a handful of time
To walk into stores
And buy what is needed
In the name of the hunger
Which must be defeated
I could have more
The lenses of my sunglasses shine
I hold my wife’s hand
While we move through the darkness
My accounts are in order
But she’d love me regardless
We look in each other’s eyes
And kiss beside the street sign
I get to live
Isn’t it a privilege?
I wasn’t a child in Rafah
Whose innocence was given
Zero consideration
Upon detonation
No one decides
A forecast of rain
And the sky is gunmetal
I’m buying flowers
With red and white petals
The bouquet overflows
I must hold it to the side
Color which dies
Is a compromise with beauty
For we betray the principles
That uphold love truly
In the name of order and empire
Repelling the killing tide
My wife opens the door
Softening the world with a smile
She shears the stems from the roses
In a neat green pile
We talk about November
Upon the couch entwined
I get to live
Life’s a funny proposition
I wasn’t first over a trench
Upon the command of a whistle
Negotiating mustard gas
In a plague mask
I am alive
World War Pain
My body wakes at dawn
Always obeys the first alarm
I do what I’m told these days
Automize to eliminate the doubt
Rehearse the purpose they can't live without
This is the kind of gig that pays
Nobody’s in charge or wants the job
We can’t elect a new god
While still hauling biblical names
World War pain
They teach us to be sane
When I train my sights on you
It’s me being free
World War pain
What’s your favorite game?
If you shoot me through the forehead
Would you wonder what I dreamed?
We’re each other’s targets tonight
Only one will see the sunlight
Seem to bless his lover’s eyes
Soldiers don't question null
Our local car was totally full
Of political hacks parroting lies
Do you also have empty night streets?
Where distant traffic hums sweet relief
From the vengeance born in our minds
World War pain
Has nothing to do with shame
That’s for civilian life, where it is
Essential to forgive
World War pain
Did you cauterize with flame?
I wasted a second wondering
If we’d let each other live
Season of Loss
Last night,
They handed out awards
To the sell-out whores
God, I wish I were one of them
At fading light,
We wandered past stores
With plywood front-doors
And products we had to pretend
Season of loss
Season of tears
Season where seasons
Of the past truly recede
Season of fury
Season of doubt
Season of quantifying
What we can no longer
Live without
Last year,
The unlucky and unsaved
Were dropped in a mass grave
Before an anonymous witness
I could really feel
My coping methods fail
As the Molotov cocktail sailed
Toward my sense of justice
Season of loss
Season of deceit
Season where seasons of
The boom met defeat
Season of pity
Season of rage
Season of the ten-block radius
Feeling like a cage
Yesterday,
A stranger said to burn down my neighborhood
And many good people agreed they should
While old reliable considered buying a gun
I couldn’t say,
Whether I’d die for the reform
For victims and villains unborn
Or if I’m only riding out the storm
Season of loss
Season of faith
Season where seasons
Of action had to hesitate
Season of disaster
Season of strength
Season of being thankful
For your shoes, your pen,
And the pavement
The Part of Hope
Paralyzed
At the crosswalk sign
And it’s telling me to move
In this Balkanized
Corporate paradise
Consciousness is a fool
On my way
To a date
With the anxious apparatus
To plead my case
And amend my mistake
Of writing that ending
Tragic
Do you have an empty feeling?
Can you play the part of hope?
Was their dream worth believing?
When you already had a coat?
Satisfied
By a momentary high
After signing their contract
Unrecognized
Walking the Highline
Alias intact
We were running late
To a play
That was about our lives
We did not know ourselves
Everybody is somebody else
And I still love the way you
Survive
Do you have an empty feeling?
Can you play the part of hope?
Was their dream worth believing?
When you already had a coat?