Dugong.

Well I’m getting sick and tired of sitting down But I wanna get up off the ground But sometimes I still don’t know how But I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna lose ground No I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, No I’m not gonna just sit down Well I wanna be a champion But I’ve got to face my demons And even when it hurts, I’ll keep on believing That I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna lose now, No I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, No I’m not just gonna keep sitting down! I’m done with quitting right now! I’m not gonna be just another statistic! So I wanna do the things I’ve never done That I always kept on thinking would be fun I just wanna prove how I’m human And I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna break down No I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, No I’m not gonna be held down, no! Now, I wanna reach a new front But I don’t know where I’m going The only thing I know is that what I know’s uncertain But I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna slow down No I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, No I’m not gonna back down No I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, No I’m not just gonna flinch No I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, No I’m not just gonna keep sitting down! I’m done with quitting right now! I’m not gonna be just another statistic! No!

Love’s one hell of a drug (Love’s one hell of a drug) It really shoots you up high And gets you laughing at nothing Bumbling, skipping, tripping, Starry-eyed, Smiling wide, alive inside, In a whole new realm of state of mind See the world from two new eyes See the dark for what’s behind I might seem blind but my third eye Shows me a kingdom in the skies I’m walking on a hairline I think I’ve seen a ghost It’s all black and white and black and white Flip the switch but dim the lights It’s hard to find some peace of mind (And I’m trying!) But they’re rolling their eyes off, raising their fists up Turning their voice up, putting up a front Taking all their pills and ills and mixing them up into mush, ooh (Love’s one hell of a drug) Hate’s one hell of a bug It constantly gets us stuck Deep down in the muck It’s always such rotten luck It’s always such rotten luck No one ever wants to beat themselves up But try me! I’ll try, please Let me try these Antibodies I don’t want to take the words Of all the things I’ve ever heard I’ve never seen the world I’m in A thin curtain dims the horizon Cold shoulder’s getting older Burning up and breaking down Pressure’s floating out of bounds Specks of light are skipping towns! I hope I see you around I’m walking on a hairline I think I’ve seen a ghost It’s all black and white and black and white Flip the switch but dim the lights It’s hard to find some peace of mind (And I’m trying!) But they’re rolling their eyes off, raising their fists up Turning their voice up, putting up a front Taking all their pills and ills and mixing them up into mush, ooh Love is a strange things to intake It’s not the easiest way Its way of life lets us survive and climb Are we alive from gears in minds Or from fighting lines? Its pressure is grinding The ways that we’re finding The ways of reminding Us of who we are The high road leads to the stars It’s the longest (hardest) journey by far We are therefore we’ve started Hate is just a disease And it gets so effortlessly spread by means of many media You’re eating up (they’re feeding ya) Poison through the mains and rains It thrives to drive us all insane Throwing wrenches in our brains So we’re compelled to get ‘em fixed again But it’s not a part of who we are It’s just an out-of-control game Turned into more than we meant Just a rampant experiment So let’s try it again! 1, 2, 3, 4! Love’s one hell of a drug (Love’s one hell of a drug (Love’s one hell of a drug (Love’s one hell of a drug))) It really shoots you up high Above the influence It makes a difference It’s for the best of us I’m walking on a hairline I think I’ve seen a ghost It’s all black and white and black and white Flip the switch but dim the lights It’s hard to find some peace of mind (And I’m trying!) But they’re rolling their eyes off, raising their fists up Turning their voice up, putting up a front Taking all their pills and ills and mixing them up into mush, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh No one really wants to hate

Not too long ago, back in 1-9-7-3, George Carlin had a sketch called “Words You Can’t Say On TV” Which the FCC had complaints about from listeners of the radio It was played midday, with all the words uncensored, so The US courts reported on behalf of all our people That the sketch was not obscene, just indecent, therefore legal Because it didn’t cause harm or riots or extreme offense The seven words were played and heard thanks to our First Amendment Now if there’s one moral you should take from all of this It’s that words have power, emotional hands and fists Sticks and stones may break bones, but words are not harmless Though the scars and the calluses are no reason to disarm us Of our weapons, verbal, mental: there are things we must destroy From the evils in our people to the excess waste of noise Because words have power, it can get out of hand That’s why we need guidelines to easily understand And comprehend and amend all our problems and our hates We must debate to regulate from the people to the state The best way to pave the road steady sturdy to our future By fighting flame with flame, it will burn us all to losers Quit beating people right down to defeat them If we lived and let live, we could have our cakes and eat them I want our world to be made better even though it can’t be perfect I never said it would be easy, all I know is that it’s worth it You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one Together we believers can burn brighter than the sun We fight fire with a different kind of heat We sing to our own tunes and we step to our own beats We fight our own battles and won’t just do what we’re told If what we’re told is to grow old and stay small inside old molds But to the people who live contently just how they are, One routine is all you’ve needed to keep you happy so far I get it and I love it, it’s one great way to live Day to day is still the same, home is where your heart is Expectations steady sturdy, you know exactly where you’ll go But the truth is that the youth isn’t meant to go so slow Why would you want to vote to keep the youth away from the horizon? We’re entitled to our vital fires pushing us beyond them When the bright and the eager find new truths and push past walls How is their love to discover affecting your own life at all? Please listen, we’re all different, with our own goals and passions We’d be honored to support yours if our own weren’t being trashed We should all be free to live our own lives, not to micromanage others’ Why fight to smite those unlike you like your standard’s above us? Conflict is a natural product of the place where we live So why create more conflict ourselves to keep this how it is? Our Earth is changing, rearranging, vibrant, alive: it won’t stop for you You can fight it all you want but if you can’t adapt to it you will lose So let it be, set yourself free, step back and let the world turn Stop trying to fix your neighbors like you haven’t got more to learn America was founded as the land of the free That’s why in our judicial branch we’re innocent till proven guilty Will we squelch the rights of men and women pushing limits, Legislate ourselves away from the space past where we’ve been at? Well, I’d like to say “no” but the decision’s not my own This land is my land as well as your own land and home So until we decide which path is most right Perhaps a little less fire should be put into the fight It’s okay to exclaim you don’t like what other people say But to attack our right to say it is to fall to the wrong way It may be tempting but I meant it, there are things we must destroy Evils pervading our people, gaslit by the excess noise Words have power, and power can be abused It’s become a no-man’s land with all the firefights we lose That’s why I’m screaming, “Don’t shoot! Our words can be used far better!” Defined and refined and thought out with care by the letter But we better remember though the words we use give potent feelings If we censor all our weapons then we lose track of their meanings And our safeties will be fleeting as our liberties, forsaken We’ve got to put a stop to making enemies of the mistaken Burn a light inside our minds to understand those at our sides So the skies will shine bright and enlighten our allies Because knowledge is power and together we are strong Hateful ignorance is a habit we’ve indulged in for too long And to tolerate intolerance is to love an empty void It will drag us down hard, slowly consumed and destroyed Until we drop our anger like the hot coals that they are, we won’t know peace As people we have the power to be better than the beasts, So words deserving to be heard should be said unrestrained With no shame and no blame, it’ll take pain, but that’s okay So we may say what needs to be said regarding plans to change So we may make tomorrow better than it was today

Devil on my shoulder Telling me what to do And angel opposing Telling me who is who Well, I’ll listen to neither Well, I’ll listen to me My own reason’s mine And I’m doing fine Blood’s thicker than water Well, we all have blood You’ve seen the books’ covers Don’t think that that’s enough Just know that I’m human My name’s not my self Yeah, we are all different We don’t fit on one shelf I will not be silenced I will not be abridged I am nobody’s puppet And that’s how it is Now, I might be two-faced But at least they’re both mine I’m not divine And I’m doing fine [Guitar solo] I will not be silenced I will not be abridged I am nobody’s puppet And that’s how it is Now, I might be two-faced But at least they’re both mine I’m not divine And I’m doing fine Devil on my shoulder Telling me what to do And angel opposing Telling me who is who I’ll listen to neither I’ll listen to me I’m not divine And I’m doing fine

Writing this, I’m tired So I’ll keep this untitled (1427385794 and so on) All right? Ill My unviral mindset’s catching traction Yeah, that’s what happens In my dreams I make believe Poetry’s the way I keep my words afloat my sea of troubles Bubble, bubble, toil above the rubble I stumble, I hobble, I hubble, I’m humbled I’d huddle but my world’s galactic My kind is scattered so wide and fat And it’s more like I’m hitting friction than catching traction Lacking whatever it takes to get that backing A matter of time before I get mine Comeuppance, my 15 minutes And if that’s it, oh well, tough shit But I built a ship, or at least a blueprint If it won’t embark Some other architect may take my heart And cut the ribbon and take a bottle of champagne (me in the handle) to their own game In their own name Light their own flame, (me in the candle on the mantle) Earn their own fame Fan their own fans On the shoulders of giants far more than I at six five Dead or alive, I count the spines that outlive time Stand up tall against the wind Amidst the grime Like an oak Inspired by the other blokes Incorporate the things they spoke Make a clearing for the things worth hearing Poke the sky and feel all right I don’t got time to waste my time in thinking things won’t be all right Or in thinking things are yet all right There’s many battles yet to fight (And you may wonder why I seem uptight) Facing the music requires I swallow a lot of pride And then spit it back up like hot fire, virulent I’ll wire my ire and spite into my music and face it back with bigger speakers against the mongers of fear To let my kind know I’m here Hope my whole planet appears and crashes down from the sky Break this sanctimonious sacrosanctuary into the light We will fight when worlds collide But can we soon see eye-to-eye? Iconoclast of the titans Intermesh our distant society Like mountains colliding violently I want full reign of my time and my life, not to war or to fight as in to beat down But with competitions and rivalries that aren’t stifling, to beat each other up Reminded of our life and our mortality, battling happily slappily Tough love! Or so I cry desperately into the void My bubble deployed eroding in the white noise I’ve left my double-edged marks on the world I felt my thoughts and mind unfurled Blossom into lines of words and things I’ve heard, perceived, received, believed, I read Put into verse And churned all out, for what it’s worth, for better and worse For where I came and went And what I left behind, what I took with, yin and yang The parts where I lost my sense of mind And tried so hard to be easy, me Dutifully Flakily Shakily Bipolarly Crazily Hazily Playfully Making me Make believe Headstrong Quixotically Hesitantly Sensitively Healthily Heftily Mess of me Breaths for free or for cheap I’d sleep to escape from this dump heap And now I’m awake with anxiety Facing this life I seek Seeing monstrosity Just like Mr. Sidney Bradford Writing myself a world with scaffolding Baffling, rebuilding my bubble It’s not yet to rubble till ground up into ashes and gravel Or smashed down by the gavel of men who play God And find me odd or flawed, so they pick me apart, morbid But that’s just the way they go And here’s the way I go Rap a light or heavy flow Sing a song or botch a note Write lyric and prose ‘Cause I like to compose S'posing I’m a poet Not like I already knew those Words Just words, all over the place Comin’ out of my fingertips And out of my face And so on

When I think about the past, So many memories come back. When the future’s on my mind, Lost dreams are all I find. It’s sort of like the adage, “The grass is greener on the other side,” But the other side is gone forever, Away with the changing tides. “Goodbye,” I wave, “Goodbye.” I wave “Goodbye.” “Goodbye,” I wave, “Goodbye.” I wave “Goodbye.” Water’s flowing weightless: Free fluidity. But liquid tension’s making tensions Within this sea, brimming inside of me, Swaying back and forth, Along the shores of my mind. Helpless and lost To the riptides of my thoughts That are swaying back and forth, Along the shores of my mind. “Goodbye,” “Goodbye,” “Goodbye.” “Goodbye,” “Goodbye,” “Goodbye.” Goodbye. [Whistling solo] I’m fighting for each breath, But I'm drowning either way. I look up towards the skies, Expecting stars to say I might have a chance Any night or day. But they’re shrouded in fog and shooting stars, Every night and day. Oh, please take me away with the changing tides. Lost dreams aren’t lost, just give me time. My thoughts want to fly free outside the lines. “Goodbye,” I wave, “Goodbye.” I wave “Goodbye.”

Numb my compass I’ll accept shit That I can’t fix Not my business I can dump this Future wishlist For my present When is Christmas? From the heavens We can send some Mighty fine gifts To our fingertips As I write this In a tight mix Pray for heavensent Working ardent With great intent My mind absent Eyestrain evident Search the elephant Bent and dented Bruised, not broken Always hopin’ Growing, coping Grasping, groping For my heavensent Working ardent Chevron, sergeant I’ll accept shit Get myself fixed Find my business Grokkin’ live it Talk congruent More of everything In the same vein Lessen eyestrain Less of nothin’ Tell me something Father Time, am I still bluffing? Dearest North Star, I know you are But not quite where Or how to get there Observatory Planetaria One is real and The rest are replica Heaven send me Pathway puzzle piece Like a platformer I’m the performer World’s a transformer Hogwart’s staircase It’s a rat race I’m in my place I’ll accept fate… Heh, only yesterday’s! Onward gropin’ Future’s open Past is all closed Present’s setting Eyes defocused On my heaven Then it sends me Messy missives Bless me, lightly Throw my fists up I can get more than Just my head in I’ve got vision Of my mission Still I’m missin’ Wishy-washy Drown my sorrows In my coffee My philosophy Fills my vision field Just like raindrops Hit my windshield Overwhelming Time may tell me Whether I’ll see Ever-clearly With consistency I’ll resist the beast He will never Overcome me Cumbersome sea I plead, “God please, Please help me Overcome these "Difficulties On my own feet Look both within And without me "Empower me Enlighten me You frighten me Insecurely "Looking surely Into the world Into which I’ve been hurled, headfirst" I’ve been cursed I’ve been blessed I’ve felt worst I’ve felt best I’ve reached out I’ve touched hope I’ve swung low My own rope I’ve jumped up Scraped the top Then down, fell Straight to hell It’s all madness With a method Echelons Beyond impressive It’s a mess I’ve yet to sort Sometimes, I’ve got spots Little raindrops Then, they wash off Into darkness Like a flashbulb On my eyelids Leave me serene A zen student Life’s my master It’s a pipe dream Like a tight knot Tied up quite taut Lazy susan Rapid movements Like a sewer Life’s a channel In the front end Out the back hole Casually causal Life ebbs and flows Present burden On my shoulders (bearing my world) In the next link In our chain home Just another piece Of that circle (made of spirals) My potential Is essential Group my atoms Into molecules (make up my world) Group my raindrops Into reservoirs Like a spirit bomb Find my center (of the spirals) Then defend her Lessen rotwood Lessen flotsam Solid for good (atop my world) It’s a process And I’ve started Put my part in Grow my garden Let it blossom Be that spearhead Put my heart in Keep regarding Where I came from Where we came from Where we will go Does only God know How we’ll settle When this storm ends? Well, until then I’ll be waiting Ever-patient Never wasting Working ardent To grow my garden Put my part in Charge my battery Put my heart in I’m descattering Yet I’ve started Headed starward Release the current Chevron, sergeant!

That guy is so annoying (That guy) He always brings me down (He al-) One day his wealth and riches (ways brings) Will drive me out of town (Me down) That guy’s driving in his future car All the way down to his oxygen bar He’s in a movie and he’s the star In his game of golf he’s twelve above par I’ve really gotta do something today If I don’t I will go cra-a-azay But wait a minute, I’m not that way! Oh never mind, I’ve really gotta do it today Because I have always thought of him as Hades Ever since the 1980s ‘Cause he’s got two naked ladies in his brand new Mercedes And he’s d-d-d-driving it now! That guy’s flying in his private jet With his millionaire modelling pet All this stuff makes me more jealous yet Which is why I’m singing in this one-man septet Since I am nearing the end of my tale I need to do something and without fail Maybe I could feed him some bread that is stale Or drop on his head a big fat whale Because I have always thought of him as Hades Ever since the 1980s ‘Cause he’s got two naked ladies in his brand new Mercedes And he’s d-d-d-driving it now! [Scat solo] As it turned out, that guy and I became friends All the way until the very end The end being the day I broke my amends And locked him with some cobras from which he couldn’t fend A couple weeks later, to my surprise I must’ve looked good in that guy’s eyes For at the reading of his will, I won the prize Of all his money leaving none for his wi[Beatbox solo]ves Because I always used to think of him as Hades Ever since the 1980s ‘Cause he had two naked ladies in his brand new Mercedes Which I’m d-d-d-d-driving now!

He’s an illiterate litter spitter A human disbeliever An underunderstanding overachiever Led by the Devil, leading preaching “God bless” toward a mess Of existential desolation; Hell-on-Earth annihilation, Wants to lead a nation right back to the Dark Ages Wages every war he can’t afford And keeps on wanting more! Repressing and suppressing the press and the people The church and the steeple are means to his ends All evil is bent out of good intent He’s not too self-aware and yet too self-righteous The oblivious embodiment of antichristlikeness He’s a slave to Plato’s cave An advocate for war and hate It’s not his fault that he’s like this But this is just the way he is And evermore, life goes on She’s a bovine hive-minded Pan-Am smiler Stuck down on cloud one advertised as cloud nine If her blinding, blinded mindset hasn’t brought her down yet She’ll be on her way to making bets with a whole government It gets out of hand, all her mishmashed, wishywashy, Two-faced, face-saving Gish galloping Her narrow vision’s harrowing, her words deserve derision But the rotting apples don’t fall far from the rotting trees Crowded round each other so they can’t see past the leaves! She’s not too self-aware and yet too self-righteous The oblivious embodiment of antichristlikeness She’s a slave to Plato’s cave An advocate for war and hate It’s not her fault that she’s like this But this is just the way she is We’re all victims of our circumstances We may argue over right and wrong And we may clash against ourselves But evermore, for good or bad, life goes on

What’s it like to be free? You’d never know just Living day-to-day Like I’ve been I’m singing this song To say the dream has gone wrong Why can’t we drop this as one, Just stop and move on? Why can’t we just be free?

Tugging me, this lofty breeze, This earthly curse is killing me My place in life goes round and round Cheap energy, a soul to sell This carousel is a cosmic shell And every time, we all fall down And in the spring It won’t be me And in this light I’ll find my peace Massacre without a war, We fall to a petrichor Graveyard above the ground. Threaded by our brittle veins, Breezes bring some life again, Like our ghosts can still dance around. And in the spring It won’t be me And with this sound This melody I’ll break apart From the symphony And fade away And soon decay And in that way I’ll find my peace Or maybe, it’ll just find me A leech with a lease, used up Like a drip from my tip, we lost touch Expended like a cell, detached from the trunk No life to live for myself, I’m all done A tool for a seed, look alive and shine out green And then that’s it, I’m quit, and I know not what it means And in the spring (And in the spring) It won’t be me (It won’t be me) And with this crunch (And with this crunch) I’ll find my peace (I’ll find my peace) And in the spring (And in the spring) It won’t be me (It won’t be me) And in the spring (And in the spring) It won’t be me (It won’t be me) And in the spring It won’t be me

The intoxicating feelings of belonging The oppression of inclusion The conditions of collusion The conservative solution Tyrannical, mechanical, banal, anal, Dull lulls annul me dimly, Trim me, recede me, Shape me, make me restrained But I’m pained doling pain Like a bad hair day as a way to relay the conditions are astray We are all fraying; And I’m willingly feeling it We are all getting headaches And I’m being bold enough to say it I don’t wanna keep beating my head till it's bleeding My head strong a wrong way I don’t want analgesic I don’t want anesthetic No, I want to face the music: We can do better than foster this weather untogether I bear a burden as a messenger with a heavy delivery I want more to sign for Broader shoulders to design for Work can hurt until the feelings go formal You don’t deserve what you don’t earn And you won’t earn what you don’t work for But I want more than just what’s available in life’s store (Because you know, when opportunity knocks, he’s selling a product) So I fight my fears and close my ears Ignoring my cohorts thwarting my efforts Searching for more than just what appears in this so-called “reality” Seeking to make dreams live past prenatal fatality And like from gas to solid, sublimate sublimely ever-timely A better way to angle my head than into dirt I hurt for a lasting vision I hope to make a lasting impression I’m so done putting work into a depression Grooves of trenches Just call me “intervention” Before a gas comes and fills you bottoms-up while it kills you It wills you into someone you’re not Caught beside yourself So fight it or resign yourself; Align yourself or invite a hell Where you’re a threat to their delusion They try to force you back to acceptable To reaffirm their own views as respectable The institution’s stupidity’s detectable but forgettable and stressful It directs you in circles you’ll swallow until you have to hurl But then “you’re sick” for being sick of the world Reaffirming the circles further and further infirm Phobic and sternly dystopic So that’s why I’m fighting that focus with my own broader lens A sight I fight to depend upon as I know me I try to say so I don’t feel so phony But the world ain’t set to know me More like own me and stow me So this is why I upset what’s not set in stone, But in guns, germs, and steel We let people steal what should be free in society Like ideas and libraries Free speech and vibrancy In my mind, I see possibility willing me Haunting me Unveiling my haunts and my wants Contradicting villainy’s toxic take on make believe Fake believe I believe I can make something positive out of my dreams Something more sweet than superficial More real than official, however difficult The zeitgeist fights me based on its own take on make believe Where we close our eyes and squint real tight And pretend things are all right, Even though that truth is slight growing slighter Organized ignorant blisses away from the light We hide in our darks and adjust our eyes Our third ones blind Our drills on standby Dull and undermined by walking on down our set paths Singing our cordoned blues Through our flashy, colored tubes Like a two-year-old’s playground We get so used to our routines like pipe dreams Like we’re trapped in a kafkaesque maze made of swiss cheese Heads down like ostriches Egos swollen like kings and queens Feelings deceiving Slaves to seeming appealing Public opinion drives our reputations... But where?

Ah, woo, whoa, oh!

The calm goes on Crash, wave, wipes down my face The color’s erased a bit I’m not feeling it The same ways Ignorance is bliss And oh, I felt the best of it I fell in and out of young love like a thick cloud that couldn’t hold me up for long And when that was said and done, we said we were done and moving on But that wasn’t quite all we felt or all that we knew that we did want The fear that kept us here, away, it stayed, it lingered, it scraped my grave It kept me a slave to a prison the escape to which was inside the bars I was missing But the fear I adhere to reluctantly, you see, was a manifest of some blessed inner wisdom It all happened for a reason, there was sense within the chaos, we weren’t found, and so we felt lost, it’s not pleasant, but it happened for a reason, cause-effect, causes, effects, a mess oh the mix is I’m moving on, but your memory will never be gone, my love for you will ever be a sweet lock your key seems almost a master of me Almost. The fear we adhered to, reluctant, was a lesson We wanted the sweet love, but we knew it wasn’t an island (Or so I say we do, even though to be true, This is just my projections of ideas I find true, or on the path to a truth, You may think a different truth, or think you think a different truth, Or may be on the wrong path, who knows? I don’t know – but here’s the idea I claim here of what I know, What I think I know, What I know I may not know But still like to claim so, long-winded, short attention-span someways) We knew it wasn’t an island, What I found was love can be more like the mainland, We used it like an oasis, Like an escape, It’s not fated, we made it, we shared it, It became our home, but it was too small; We needed to grow And we did. And this is it, the path we go on to grow on, And where we end up, I don’t know, I’m still searching for my home, It’s an open-ended thread still waiting to be tied I’m alright, the light feeling burnt out a bit, The waves crashing into me maybe made it fizzle, I hope that’s it, The light burns and dries up the water And lights me anew soul harder and stronger and wiser I don’t want to be an old miser, lost to my ways, Holding onto something bitter, withering Stress in this coldwarzone, civil coldwarzone, Home being a privilege, Security invisible to the powers that be (21st century, USA), When and where we’ll be okay, you and I… More than you now, oasis or two now, I’m building it up now, I’m sometimes not sure how, Light fizzling (not burnt out, I hope <3 never to burn out, I hope!) Lost in the dark, I grope and grasp at hope and trust at the imprint of a memory, fading in and out of the dust, waxing and waning, (I seem a bit dim because I am in this moment I’m hoping won’t last for long) On and on, the record is scratched till it sobers up, Marches on out of the whirlpool, the cycle that rages on, I’m a disciple of this ever-elusive dawn, Star below the horizon, Solar flares reaching up, Too very few catch their eyes on And the calm goes on

There was a time (a time) I lost my mind in the radio And a place (and a face) I just can’t let it go And they talk As if there’s ever been a choice As I bleed (bleed) My life out through this voice And no matter where my body finally falls I’ll keep on swinging (swing) With my back against the wall They won’t take me alive They can try I’ll die Before they can take me alive They won’t take me alive

How am I to stand up straight When my shirt won’t reach my waist? Ankles exposed to the air Sometimes, tallness isn’t fair Good thing I didn’t grow more I’m 6 foot 5 or 6 foot 4 [Mouth guitar solo] The whole world will bring me down Everything’s so near the ground Knees past halfway to my face Airplane seats discriminate Almost worse than being short I’m 6 foot 5 or 6 foot 4 [Mouth guitar solo] Balance centered much too high Guardrails look more like tripwires Heights may quickly become feared And hugging shouldn’t be so weird! I’m 6 foot 5 or 6 foot 4 I’m 6 foot 5 or 6 foot 4 or maybe more! [Mouth guitar solo]

Wasting time just to spend money Have a laugh at the crack like it’s really that funny There’s a sly guise citing white lies at my dry eyes Blithely unsurprised Monotonic repetition so sedating our sedition All the same old iterations, overwritten mass volition Expectations met, lowered covert, then they’re met again Losing sight of right in a vicious cycle without end (Without end, without end, without end, without end, without end, without end, without end...) Defocus your eyes on the buzzwords and bright lights And tune out the autotuned, monotone trite lines Spend pennies for pablum with Pavlov and his dogs And call yourselves proud to be free (Oh me…) Spending money just to waste time Numb my mind, feed my eyes With these material materials They want you to want it You want it, they got it, They sell it knowing well it’s just a fleeting treat for boredom And soon you’ll come back with some more sum Dishonest presentations Cheap plastic imitations Oft-forgotten past promised (Talk is cheap so we sell lots of it) Food-flavored slow poison, Fake-colored chem creation, Pill-shaped ruination Clogging your bodies at the core, And you’ll still come back for more. Yeah, where’s their loyalty at, anyways, huh? Defocus your eyes on the buzzwords and bright lights And tune out the autotuned, monotone trite lies Spend pennies for pablum with Pavlov and his dogs And call yourselves proud to be free You call yourself proud to be free? Oh, please! …and thank you.

Lalala lalala LCA Lalala lalala LCA I’m the man at the desk Buried in my work Won’t you come and ask me Questions? Clean with wipes (Keep the printers shut) Resupply (the printers with paper) He who tries (to steal our paper must be wasted) Clean with wipes (and open libstats up) Lalala lalala SCA Lalala lalala SCA I’m the one who pushes in seats Maintains 128, 225, and 226 (For the public access) Why won’t you come and ask me Questions? Clean with wipes (Keep the printers shut) Resupply (the printers with paper) He who tries (to steal our paper must be wasted) Clean with wipes (and open libstats up) [Guitar solo] Clean with wipes (Keep the printers shut) Resupply (the printers with paper) He who tries (to steal our paper must be wasted) Clean with wipes (and keep the printers shut) Lalala lalala LCA Lalala lalala SCA

Filter keys Why’s it so difficult to make you leave? It’s so hard to make you adapt By default you think I’m handicapped like that Why do you never seem to stay off? I think I’ve finally had enough. I can guarantee that nobody loves you! [Scat solo] Sticky keys Why do you have to keep on bothering me? You freeze me beepin’ till I’m ‘bout to snap I’m fuming mad with this hunch in my back Why do you never seem to stay off? I think I’ve finally had enough. I can guarantee that Nobody in the whole, wide world Not even those who actually use you Love you! I hate you so (eat a dick)

Da ba Da ba da Ba da ba da Go go go Dabada da ba da bum Doo doo Doo doo doo doo doo~ Dum, dum dum dum dum Dum dum~ Dabada, badaba da ba Dan dan dan, dum dum, da ba~ Dan dan dan, da ba da ba dum dum~ Dan dan dan, dum dum~ Dan dan dan, da ba dum dum dum dum~ Dan don dan dum~ Da ba da ba da, oh Da ba da ba~ Katamari Damacy

What would you do with a drunken student? What would you do with a drunken student? What would you do with a drunken student all throughout the party? Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises; let’s begin the evening! Draw on his face with a Sharpie marker Draw on his face with a Sharpie marker Draw on his face with a Sharpie marker early in the evening! Turn him on his side and keep him hydrated Turn him on his side and keep him hydrated Turn him on his side and keep him hydrated early in the evening! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises early in the evening! Put him in a bed with his best mate’s girlfriend Put him in a bed with his best mate’s girlfriend Put him in a bed with his best mate, ha! later in the evening! Take him on a walk and hear him ramble Take him on a walk and hear him ramble Take him on a walk and hear him ramble later in the evening! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises later in the evening! Knock on his door like you’re the police Knock on his door like you’re the police Knock on his door like you’re the police early in the morning! Take another shot when he’s near sober Take another shot when he’s near sober Take another shot when he’s near sober, early in the morning! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises! Yo bro and up he rises; classes in the morning! And that’s what you do with a drunken student That’s what you do with a drunken student That’s what you do with a drunken student Amen!

[Lyrics tacet]

Once upon a time in a faraway land It was the distant future: the year 2000 There was an eight-year-old boy named Justin; he wasn’t tall He got up one cold December night and went into the hall He had a spark of inspiration just burning on his mind Bright like Rudolph’s red nose or a Christmas tree light So he asked his Mother to help him write A little ditty of a song called “O Christmas Tree, Why?” It was past his bedtime, and so she said “Get your sorry ass back to bed!” That part didn’t really happen, she penciled his rhymes Although the exact words are lost to the sands of time Thankfully, I still recall the most important first two lines That began with the words “O Christmas tree / Why...?” Rewritten at sixteen and once again at twenty-three (that’s now!) I hope you enjoy, to you from me

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall on top of me? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall on top of me? You once were so nice and green, Then things went black and prickly O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall on top of me? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, How did you fall so rapidly? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, It’s like you sped up gravity You once stood so tall and proud, Then came the crash that was so loud O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall so rapidly? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you cause such emergency? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall with such urgency? The firemen were stuck in snow The EMTs came rather slow O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall so urgently? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why’d you defy the first responder teams? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, They didn't know what to make of me The firemen were rather stumped When the jaws of life were not enough O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why wouldn’t you get off of me? O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, You made last year so interesting O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, It won’t compare to anything Your flashing lights were so pretty Just like the lights that rushed us down the street O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Last Christmas, I got PTSD O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, You stuck with me through thick and thin O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, I’ve splinters still stuck on everything Because you fell and broke my head, This year, we’ll inflate you instead O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, Why did you fall on top of me? Why? Why…

Whoa.

Backlit black holes They take you anywhere Backlit black holes They take me everywhere Eyes glazed, I’m dazed Like a deep sleep, please wake me! Oh, I’m spread thin like water on ice And I’m just a-chilling till I’m ‘bout to freeze! Backlit black holes They take you for a ride Backlit black holes Make it hard to go outside Oh how I’ve tried To pry them from my eyes But I’m still so reliant I bide in time Like my mind’s on standby Oh, But I still rely Biding my time Like my mind is dying, like I’m on standby Oh, ah, oh Swallow me whole Suffocating hold The things I own Are owning me My days and nights Seem just a dream And they’re a nightmare to wake up from Backlit black holes (Backlit black holes) Colors we’re the first to see Backlit black holes (Backlit black holes) Machines we’re the first to meet Backlit black holes (Backlit black holes) I’ve never been so half-asleep Backlit black holes Test runs for our chemistry Eyes glazed, I’m dazed Like a deep sleep, please wake me, oh! I’m spread thin like water on ice And I’m just a-chilling till I’m ‘bout to freeze! (Backlit black holes)

Hold me tight; Shivers run down my spine. Can we just live in the present? Our love will outlive time. Embrace me closer Than pages 2 to 3. You know there’s no place I’d rather be In fiction or reality Than in your arms. And our story will be mythical, unbelievable; Our story will be unbeatable, Literary love! I love you more than Any page can bear to hold. I’ll never love you less than the first day, Though the English might get old A book may only be here now, But its story will live on, And you’re fantastic as you are, So please stay here with each revision. Will you be my Juliet If I’m your Romeo? I won’t get carried away; I’ll wait until you wake. And if you're ever taken I'll be searching ere you know I'll have found you in mere pages So our love won't have faded And our story will be unpredictable, archetypical, Literary love! I love you more than Any page can bear to hold I’ll never love you less than the first day, Though the English might get old A book may only be here now, But its story will live on, And you’re amazing as you are, So please stay here with each revision. Please stay here with me! [Guitar solo] (Literary love) I love you more! I love you more! And our story will be never fictional, Though you could’ve fooled me; The unabridged truth will astound like it’s hyperbole. I want to love you right, But you’re a complex metaphor. Will we be just another volume of forgotten lore? No… no! [Piano solo] And our story will be biblical Love! (Literary love!) I love you more Than any page could bear to hold (Literary love!) I’ll always love you more than the last day, Though new Englishes are taking hold (Literary love!) And though the pages may someday be lost, We will forever stay pure and young, And you’re classic as you ever have been, So please stay here through each edition with me! Literarily...

Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Focus, focus, tunnel vision; Spread attention, then it spreads thin; Always missing something And sometimes it’s not worth knowing But sometimes I’ve missed my mark Lost the target, misplayed my part Maybe broken hearts…when I can get that far Some days, I wish I could stay in bed, The means just never seem to reach the ends And I wonder, “Is it just pretend to think that they still exist?” Some days I feel like shit (More than I care to admit) I’ve spent so much time missing the point Reading between the lines Tripping on the “wet floor” signs in my life I try to be a good person And most times it’s working But sometimes I stop dead in my head Wondering, “What was I doing?” I can’t believe I said that Wish I could take it back I tried too hard, did what’s not right Fight or flight or deer in the headlights Hindsight might be 20/20, but right now Right now’s when I want to see! My mind’s eye’s blinded What should I be? Hopeful, hopeless, lonely, happy, Optimistic, pessimistic, Realistic, altruistic, Sympathetic, empathetic, Antipathetic, apathetic, Should I behave atypically, or fit upon the shelf? How much should I live for myself versus everybody else? A cynic, a sinner, a loser, a winner, A weirdo, in control, a grinner, a bearer, A student, a teacher, a master, slower, Faster, a goer, a stopper, a doer, A thinker, a mover, a planner, producer, Selfless, selfish, giving, taking, Kinder, quiet, normal, carefree, worker bee, Softer, stronger, guilty, sorry!? But hindsight 20/20: I’m ever-growing, ever-almost knowing, And moving (back– and) forwards ever-slowly… But at least I’m still going! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! 1, 2, 3! (Looking back on my life, I’ve been an idiot,) Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! (But now, I look at myself, and I think I’m brilliant…) Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! (And tomorrow, next week, next year…) Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant! (…perhaps I’ll say the same thing.) Looking back, I was an idiot, But now I’m oh so brilliant!

I'm gonna post song lyrics Because I have no way To come up with my own Valuable comment on Love, Being young, Or owning some muddy truck.