1. |
Chess
04:18
|
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across the board she sits
chivalry suggests
I use my wits
my opening move
a backwards endgame
and my wrists play slit
in panzer formation
we defend our art
I may be expendable
but I have no robotic heart
so it shall be done
flustered as I look for square one
I know I will always be
a pawn in your eyes
as I run the gauntlet
I don't need to win, don't want it
I know I will always be
a pawn in your eyes
the sheepish stratagem
she tears my gambits
from me limb by limb
there's only so many
hiding places on a board
with an eight-square trim
dear Lady MacBeth
I have no thoughts of regicide
I just want to kiss your crown
without tasting your cyanide
so it shall be done
flustered as I look for square one
I know I will always be
a pawn in your eyes
as I run the gauntlet
I don't need to win, don't want it
I know I will always be
a pawn in your eyes
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2. |
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natatorium, bubbles rise
confiscating sighs
round like zeroes
my wishes fly up to you
from the bottom
of the deep end
of the blue abyss
sonar songs ascend
to resonate against your heels
how long do I have to hold my breath?
I lie and count your toes
silently breathing
ripples you receive
at these depths
darkness prevails
but I know your silhouette so well
lunar songs ascend
to resonate against your heels
how long do I have to hold my breath?
how long do I have to hold my breath?
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3. |
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cotton moonlight
falling beside me
your mane of beauty, beauty hair
covers all but what I want to see
beautiful obsession
forgive my transgressions
I've just got one question
or will it never begin?
darkness gas-lit covers us
this night's getting shallow and thin
convoluted epiphany focused
outside, magnified within
daydream obsession
embrace my transgressions
answer the question
send the moon flooding in
the sweetest whispers growing hollow
your voice fades into shadows
it's four decibels and falling
and still I imagine you calling
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4. |
Slalom
05:03
|
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nitrogen blood apathy
and film-negative stares
my flowers grow through your bedroom
and you charge them thoroughfare
I've tried to be a good role model
flesh and bone exposed
you used to cower with me
now I usually erode alone
I wish you could see
how desperately I've tried to be
the friend who didn't usurp
your share of the empathy
don't knight me with a God complex
I've chipped away at too
just believe that I'm achieving
half the world for you
I'll never steal first
I'm not the family curse
you support me with twisted columns
you built yourself this slalom
molds of petty insults
dusty cracks in the cheap shots
I still remember everything
you said and then forgot
I'm an amnesty proponent
I wish you felt the same
the combination lock on your heart
still bears my name
I want to be your equal
not through forced psychology
and our elders' mediation
will not cure antipathy
you've built the better labyrinth
if that's what it's about
I congratulate you fully
now will you let me help you out?
I'll never steal first
I'm not the family curse
support me with twisted columns
you built yourself this slalom
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5. |
Mandarin
03:47
|
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mandarin, I don't know how it feels
to be pried with fingers
that aren't yours
by the time I tasted you
you were bruised and overripe
having straddled fences
that I believe
were only miniseries' inventions
eventually, you burst
little pulpy pieces
stuck between my teeth
droplets of juice
collecting under my chin
the rancid intermingling with the pure
but still, your seed reaches the ground
and this amazes me
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6. |
White Willow
01:19
|
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7. |
The Teddy Bear's Rampage
04:43
|
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nameless girl
her face makes a great impression
healthy, happy homestead
you should be so lucky
yet skeletons
of pale-faced madonnas
lace her dreams
in the somewhere near-future tense
he comes crashing
through the door at night
with his bloodshot clouds
and his daughter in his sights
she leaves a trail
of broken fingernails
as she is dragged from her slumber
post-haste, face-first
involuntary peripheral vision
as the room's six sides
blend into one
and all she sees
is the blindness
that brings out his eyes
and all she smells
is the acid from the alcohol
there are no monsters
in the closet
when there's a monster
in the next-door bedroom
he's left-handed
he's left-handed
you wouldn't know
you've never seen the scars
seated round the table
at the evening meal
the proverbial game
of mental battleship
he stares
into cracked porcelain eyes
and lectures
on her skin texture
if anyone ever questions you
on the pitch-perfect harmony
of our family tree
as far as anyone knows
you fell out of the treehouse
don't want our names in the paper
because your name
is my name is your name
he's left-handed
he's left-handed
you wouldn't know
you've never seen the scars
he sings off-key
in all his violent pleasantry
teaches her backwards ABCs
with a charred doll on his knee
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8. |
S Plus Seven
03:50
|
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one hand
can't convince the other
stranded foot
expectant mother
wine, corks and candles
sir, is this a burial?
am I invited
to go down with you?
don't want to keep you
in my memory
where can a face
be put away, on display
one hand
can't convince the other
stranded foot
expectant mother
carry it out
with ferric candles
carry it out
with a big cigar
carry it out
like intrinsic vandals
weep on me
and call me brother
|
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9. |
Jaws and Muzzles
03:47
|
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undressing heart
and flexing cervix
turning pathos to forensics
hear those flat fifths
the symphony rescinds
white-downed doves downed
exposed as cyborgs
they understand
circles lock
embrace and join arms
symbol of infinite lukewarm
centrifuging night
the stars diffuse
you lose your foresight
the invisible barcode
where it wherever you want
metaphors aside
this picture's worth a thousand words
words that all rhyme
and sound the same
typical, but somewhere
somewhere in the background noise
there sounds the off-key strains
of a burning piano
strings snapping
tangling and welding together
pine knots in wood
smoking, falling out, unplugging
ebony, entropy, ivory, cacophony
silence with nothing more to offer
|
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10. |
Zero's Willow
01:53
|
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11. |
Playing the Skulls
06:38
|
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odd how a family of circles
could reproduce a square
an apple that falls from the tree
straight up in the air
second-guess my failings as knots
in this mortal coil
I'm the spoils of the spoiled
now my endeavors spoil
a recorder in mortar, a sorter
attention deficit disorder
a recorder in mortar, a sorter
attention deficit disorder
I'm handed down warm apathy
to fix me in the dirt
but apathy's secret, cryogenics
lies in its comfort
they were passed a recessive gene
that doubles as a tumor
and a lack of comprehension
of self-depreciative humor
a recorder in mortar, a sorter
attention deficit disorder
a recorder in mortar, a sorter
attention deficit disorder
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12. |
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lactose intolerance
kick me in the ass
smash your face
and you're a large-mouthed bass
the unimpeachable velocity of myrrh
stay up 'til two a.m.
and your mind is a blur
[unintelligible]
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13. |
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your precious winebottles smile
I witness the error of trial
your personal Nile
of guile defiles
all of your eloquent slurs
reflect motion blurs
your eyes vaudeville
you're not sure who's not sure
thought is inhibition
your logic sucks submission
your sweet head is a spiderweb
with coats of lubrication, a web
autonomy is grieving
and the swirling ceiling
is plastered with excuses
'cause seeing is make-believing
thought is inhibition
your logic sucks submission
your sweet head is a spiderweb
with coats of lubrication, a web
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14. |
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the grass is always greener
on the other side of the moat
and as the king departs
she'll just have empty hope
from your split-head streaming
hollow splinter echoes float
and as my wrists they throb
all I can do is mope
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15. |
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who's gay, who's straight, who's bi
who's black, who's white, who's proud
I don't care
who smokes, who drinks, who fucks
who bleeds, who cries, who's stuck
I don't care
who's atheist, who's Christian
who is an agnostic
who's Jewish, who's a Mormon
who's a Satanist, I don't care
xenophobic, homophobic
hard-core religious-addict
racist Nazi bastards
can kiss my ass, I have no preference
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16. |
Prelude [bonus track]
05:41
|
Claude's Dog Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Claud Cubbage is walking his greyhound Jackie when he meets Rummins, an unpleasant farmer who lives nearby.
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