O the road is weary of the pilgrims Never asking her for her blessing Giving all their moments to reflections in the heat Mother is the left foot and father is the right They carry their devotion like the love of a child She's cried countless times on the bodies that they leave behind Those she sees recoil hear only snakes Hiding in their lands and rattling When will they learn? When will they hear her placing all her stones before their feet in a language that reads as a plea for peace? In the gown of sand that they make her She rises in the wind like a savior She tries to dust their eyes Like in stories that she's heard at firesides In the night, as they teach each other what peace feels like

(scratching and fluttering in the walls) Nesting I am nesting Safe where I was before In the grave I carve my days into Omen from before Wooden eyes open scored What do you want from where you land? What do you get from where you land? It’s a similar theme There is never a dream That’ll let me sleep No room to breathe In the walls Omen from before Wooden eyes open scorching What do you want from where you land? What do you get from where you choose to fall? Through the plaster Digging faster A stag, a diaspora, a flock of birds, I’m recalling every word I stayed too long then they came crawling asking “what comes after?” I am kindling to the flame I pick up the weapon and I carve my way out of my bed in the earth Starting with the knots in the floor Omen from before

After the unbearable task of overthrowing the old overthrower came to pass, the clarity set in. It had gotten too hard to participate, stay in place, brace himself from flooring it at every red light - so lying awake one night, arms spread wide, he finally realized his crucifixion: Pressing the thorns deeper into his head, gripping the nails deeper into his hands, never forgetting a single little word that they said, and counting every second passing - rest never came, so why should night? After the unbearable feat of gathering many men in the name of loathing and defense, the clarity set in. They would assemble themselves as parts into a locomotive to keep them safe, stay in place, brace themselves against an age and save their wives and children for fuel so they would never need a revolution. And he was conductor, from overhead, reaching above to hold time in his hands, never once shying away from the sky as he claimed for the world what it wanted, counting every second until it was daylight all the time. And with the broken bodies he built structure And from the blood and filth he pulled the ink And on our new-won land he wrote the law And dried the words under the sun of a new day Held In Place. You think you’re above the law? You think you can climb high enough to touch me? You are not allowed to look down and see the world as it should be As it should be As it should be It has to be this way it has to be this way it has to be this way it has to be this way Not small now, broader than ever My burden crowns my fatherhood As it should be As it should be You think you’re above the law You think you can fly high enough to touch You think of the old overthrower Who overthrew the one before and the one before and the one before and the You’re too small now, stay away forever I’ll melt your wings I’ll make you see things As they should be As they should be As they should be After the unbearable certainty that everything had been a gamble to distract me from time ticking by the clarity set in. Every Body Had To Go Love, give me the muck. Smear me in your name. Paint thick Love, over my blisters, so I am not seen as the same. Love I pulled and pulled and pulled and found that I am not one of a kind. I beseech you to give me strength to hold the sun in the sky. Love, become my mantle, I will ascend the throne. But all of my subjects were betrayers, so don’t leave me alone. Love father man master please god don’t tell them. Whatever fate you have in store please Love, let it not be one where they know. You think I am just like you You think you can see into my eyes I’m the only one who can do it Just please don’t leave me oh god It’s unbearable, and all mine, and there will be a time When I lose alone When I lose alone When I lose, alone

(when I lose alone) I killed the flame, and could not pick up the weapon So I made it that only you could And I became the stone the sword sits in Waiting on the one who would I knew when you burst into more I'd had a good run, but did not want to stop and When you came into my world Everything I loved had turned into rot, so Hero, take my hand. Wield me as best you can And know that I was once like you And you could be like me I was once like you And you could be like me I was once like you And you could be like me