Second Sight

the long knife of the sun rising up the horizon and into our tired eyes

the spell of night is struck down our second sight is bleeding out

anna, can i come and walk you home? i’m not gonna wanna be alone beaten up when the sunlight comes bullied & cut by the clock on the wall

take the morning and the chlorinous light you can have the afternoon, bury the evening too give me gathering calm of the night when the day is done and the rest is coming on

under the pitch and the pull of the moon sweet silver medicine swim in my temples and bring in the shadows to cover our flaws when the pain is gone, and the rest is coming on

you belong out of that uniform out in the streets when everyone else is asleep

see the way the body sways in empty air when there’s nobody there, and you don’t even care if there is

anna can i be to you like that? cover your shame with a shield of black cover your body with my trembling hands have you dancing while i hold them back

hold back the morning and her chlorinous light have at the afternoon, bury the evening too let’s have the gathering calm of the night when the day is done and the rest is coming on

under the pitch and the pull of the moon sweet silver medicine swim in my temples bring in the shadows to cover our wounds when the pain is gone and the rest is coming on

all this hunger and such uncomfortable thirst son be suffering – it’s the song of your birth

sonny singing now – gets me thinking how everybody’s dream is just everybody leaving and while the mama’s setting guilt trips see all the young hearts leaping, singing

i don’t want to go back to that

but all this hunger is always following us out where we survive under poisonous skies we’re dreaming, but nobody’s sleeping just coked hearts speeding, see all their gold teeth gleaming see the young healthy free men just move into nothing

put my body on a wagon and carry me off to the ocean let me float on into the eastern sun out where tomorrow has just begun

where i used to be wild, back in my time but now i just fight to sleep at night so render me up unto the elements lay me in a light that i can trust lay me in the light that i came from

i want to go back to that

come now through all of it, downtown and tenement through dark clouds, all circling our house, like a tourniquet the front door splinters in, you come down the hall, unfaltering your lips licked & shimmering, leaning in and i’m vanishing

i close my eyes and you arrive

but oh it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream but it’s just a dream until you see it happening

in the plaza after work i saw you rise up out of your collared shirts on the horizon there was another world we left the phantom hand and we ran for her

i close my eyes and we’re aligned and that’s a blinding light

but oh it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, but it’s just a dream until you see it happening and then it changes everything

couldn’t we make, couldn’t we make, couldn’t we make it just like we wanted, just like we need it why can’t we, just like a dream?

who says we can’t. who says we can’t, who says we shouldn’t who says we couldn’t, make it just like we love it why can’t we, just like a dream?

it curves in through the weather it’s coming from above and it brought us together it guided us to touch it moves in a rhythm yeah

what tender tailor came and pushed a thread through each of us then he left us alone to walk our length oblivious but our feet fall in a rhythm yeah it’s there if you’re listening

i cant believe it, i think i believe in this

what arrow? at what angle? and what angel? did he wait until we met? in that holy moment oh! did he throw it? to pin our broken bodies here? to see us writhe in a rhythm yeah it’s there if you’re listening

i cant believe it, i think i believe in this

we open the door and we’re in the river but we’re not getting getting wet rush hour comes and we go above their heads we don’t even fold our hands open the door and we’re in the forest y’know we ain’t getting scared bring me the cliff, i’m going over it, let her just reel me in

ye lowlives laughing too much never close your eyes til the suns coming up underslept, overdreamt

my whole life trying to speak but silent with so much beneath it that thick wind under the surface you don’t know me or my purpose or my promise, i got promise

your hands & feet for all of their grief turned out to be only your elbows and knees you go farther, you’re just starting to see

and you see that red pen hover in judgement and that census man get those numbers away from us cause honest, we got nothing in our pockets but thin wrists and promise, we got promise

i’m waking up pull me from my sheets in the dark as if in a dream, lifting off let me feel it shift in my blood let me me feel like i’m rising up out of all the ashes & dust out of all the past- that’s done i don’t need what’s long dead & gone, man

i got promise, i got promise…

when you come to you’re kinda floating the air is full it’s like it’s holding you isn’t it typical? nobody’s noticing all that they’re moving in all that they’re breathing isn’t it beautiful? here in the thick of it? to know that when you fall you’re just afraid to swim?

here it is…

see the arches of paint see the ocean of dust see the colours arranged and hover over us like when we were little kids lifted into our beds didn’t we see it then? before we turned our heads?

here it is its invisible there are no words for it oh i know you feel it though you feel it lifting up, you feel the weights come off and every cell of blood, they suddenly move as one we were denied so much, all their religion all for a science that i never understood they took away my trust, maybe i gave it up just an adolescent shrug, posture as i drop the gloves yeah but that was years ago, i missed so many miracles livin with my eyelids shut, but now i swear that they’re opened up now i swear that they’re opened up!

baby in the basket i saw you reaching out your hand i saw you grasping at the wind i knew exactly what you meant

i was sitting on the last train it was dragging me home to all of that mess and pulled over the tracks sitting still felt more like falling back

and out come the hands out comes the rug from underneath and everything seems so real til you’re waking up here at the wheel

after all you’ve given up every crumb they took from your tongue after all your bitter luck you’re done, you’re saying ‘enough is enough’

i know its a hard world we’re given to cling to the easier path but this is a wrong turn feeling that fear is the only way past

so do not be hemmed in do not by dollar, nor doctrine, nor snow, no don’t think of small things turn your eye to the neon beyond!

no after all you’ve given up every crumb they took from your tongue after all your bitter luck all your silently swallowing’s done after all you’ve given up all your drowned and runaway sons now you ought to be speaking up saying ‘enough is enough’ but is ‘enough is enough’ enough?

find the sapling sand it smooth sharpen the stone edge feather the grooves make it sure, make it true, before you let it loose

feel the moment see the moves calm and focused as you notch the wood you put everything in, then you let go of it all that you did, just let go of it yeah that’s how it is, you let go of it

oh we were looking back we were looking down but we’re looking up we’re looking out now! look at us! looking up!

bring that summer on your shoulders bring that summer when i first saw you and that first kiss coming, lets just freeze the frame your blue eyes closing as mine were opening

on into the gold river oh but i was alone come winter

oh stand in front of me, open your eyes, like you know me

oh like you can see inside of me lay your healers hands upon me and bring that summer sun

see us stood akimbo, ever cavalier and cold raised on pixels, in they come in they come in they pour like poison all their lies and fantasy but i want your faults aley, i want the real thing!

on into the gold river oh, where the rocks’ll wreck you oh, but then rocks’ll save you the hands will help you up

oh stand in front of me, open your eyes, like you know me

oh see inside of me, lay the heels of your hands upon me and let your fingers fall

bless the broken bowl make it whole, make it better than it was before make it better than it was before

oh stand in front of me painted gold, coming on home and bring that summer sun

and that’s when the shadow came, and darkened your china face the dancers still shook and swayed, but i couldn’t look away

they were all in their chemicals, a hundred cars up an icy hill and we were stood under them, grim and quietly grimacing

and you spoke with that voice i love, and love awoke in my boilin blood where death sat a sec before, the road is lit and i’m going home

there will be no caving in, no suicide note, no pills & gin i’ll hear your voice again, and it stirs me like a pealing bell echoed by everything, everywhere, by every fraught fibre, by every cell, hear em telling you:

you’re not the only one feeling this stuff you’re one of us

and thats when the shadow lifts and the camera reveals her lips and the lava under your skin – you gotta always remember it

and try not to talk at all, and say all of that common stuff no just let the lava come and all the love you been holding off

yeah that’s when we’re rising up – feel the elevator pull your guts each floor’s like the medicine drops – the only fear is the fear it’ll stop

but it won’t because cause its in your blood you’re one of us

yeah that’s when we’re rising up, out of the ashes and plastic cups arm and arm on a dirty rug, where they’re all dancing to jungle love

i don’t care if a shadow comes, and covers us like a shovel of rocks the party’s still going on, and i heard cathedral bells

i stood helpless to the threat of a heavy lid i’ll never lift

and when the gavel hit the desk metal shut around me, marshalls at my wrist

led me down the longest hall down the darkest throat of the hardest animal

where i just listen to the wind wailing like the wounded over the lincoln highway bridge

down in the valley or in the street don’t let the ad men fool you – you got everything you need!

out in your sheets beside your love recognize the instant – memorize the pose

despite all the hatred i held for you despite all the violence i could do just beyond, there is love

and when i’m alone with only my thoughts and as you might know, i’m alone a lot it’s the love i’m thinking of

out in that city like a dream see the breezes go around you – see the long grasses yield

be out there exiting the bars at the finest hour of morning, nearly lost, but not

be warm and steady in the wind and your soft, imperfect body – do not cover it

through the hem of evening into the flesh of the night you step out to receive them in the bruising light

you leave your bed of novels you leave your hovering crown you leave your wit & your mettle and you come down

but it’s only a minute then til the hole in the canvas spreads and it grows til there’s nothing left

so if you even remember me after all that will come think of all i intended not what i’ve done

see me like an arrow still upon the bow set to the heart of the target hanging bright above

but its only a minute then til the shot is released & sent and lost to the shifting wind

oh they don’t know you, not like i do, not like us, harriet but they would love you, just like i do, if they could, harriet cause what you are, and what you want, are so far apart, and they’re travelling off oh what you are, is staggering drunk, but i’ll pick you up , and i’ll carry you home oh they don’t know you, not like i know you, not like us, harriet but they would love you, just like i love you, if they could, harriet

take your hands your mother’s hands and fold them in your dress

all the time i’ve known you’ve had them out flashed about and helping where you can

oh you give & give you give & give you give & give you give & give & it’s time to rest

and now you need to breathe it in i want you to receive and go to sleep

i will watch over you nothing will go wrong i won’t sit until you’re strong

i’ve got lots to give i’ve got all you’ve given to me

all you’ve given to me breathe it in and mama go to sleep.