"When Summer's Over Will We Dream Of Spring"
 
A safe position -- a back against the wall
A simple shrug to shurg the questions off
When there's no action, there's no reaction
Curb the dead, avert the consequence
So if no one moves, and no one speaks a word
We could act OK

(We must standstill -- we must honor the stalemate)
And we must slumber... have we ever been awake?
Have we done a thing?
When summer's over will we dream of spring?
Safety can be disabling
A crippled history as an absentee

A safe position -- turn off the phone
Hang the blankets over the windows
'Cause if no one's home, then there's no one responsible
There's no response for disappointed eyes
To see through you -- well, they can't see you anymore

(We must standstill -- we must honor the stalemate)
Until we're pawned off... have we ever been present?
Are we too past tense?
When summer's over will we face autumn?
Safety is disabling
A crippled history
Crippled history
A crippled history...

Absentee... absentee... You're safe with me
Curb the deed, avert the season
Absentee... absentee... You're safe with me
When summer's over will you dream of your crippled history
Crippled history
Crippled history
Crippled history
Absentee... When summer's over will you dream of your crippled history
Crippled history
Crippled history
Crippled history
Absentee...

"Northern Winds"
 
Northern winds came whistling through evergreens
Like trains
One temper broods until a temperature breaks
And blooms -- smashing and tearing what we've worked toward
One hand will break what the other hand builds
Board the windows up, keep the cellar locked
We'll feign restraint until it's over and settled
Our wills are just as strong as the walls we built for them
I won't rebuild what I have crumbled
I'm tired
Tired

What is faith -- it's been replaced by insurance policies
Once one thing breaks just have it replaced
Like faith... once whistled through the trees
Now so still
One hand will break what the other hand builds

Board the windows up, keep the cellar locked
You never know when little fevers could flare up
For ever day it's calm, there must be be something brewing
There's always something storming through these evergreens
Like trains

Northern winds came...
Northern winds came...
Crashing...
And burning down our wills

"Abscense Makes The Day Go Longer"
 
Please hang my raincoat
I guess that I'll stay a while
While I wait on the return
It seems the distance you've made
Has since lost its meaning
Meanwhile, I've meant to ration my thoughts
To help quicken this sloth driven day
As I wait, my joints slowly stiffen
They're warning me that something is nearing
Disaster...
Disaster...
Hailstorm...

Memories like fireflies
A green hue of imagery
But much too random to see clearly
And I don't recall much between you and me
Grey and cloudy
This tragedy plays itself over again in my mind
What's my line
Where are the cue cards
Memorize my actions, my discourse
Like a discontented fool...
This just won't do
It's no use
These crushing days

Absence made your heart bruise
You're all bruise
You're all bruise

Silver Scooter/Cursive (1999)



1.   Returns And Exchanges
2.   Pulse
3.   Tides Rush In

"Returns And Exchanges"
 
"This is like pulling teeth"
Said the man with the gap-toothed smile
Upon decline
So the silence seeped into
An impatient line
Of returns and exchanges
And the silence brewed
Like a storm
As they brooded over their misfortunes

Some things you can't take
We're all the same
We share a common weakness:
We're all afraid
Of a pointless existence

Still the silence grows
A crescendo of deafening stillness
Silence you just can't speak
Much less repeat
To your lover
Or your mirror

Because such simple words
Can leave us crushed
As we deny that life is
One big mistake

It can't be exchanged

We're all the same
We're loveless liars tonight
We're all ashamed
Of our life
We've been declined
We shouldn't have tried
To fake such existence

"Pulse"
 
I'll never go back there
Don't make me go back there...

Now that god is an atheist
Finally I can sleep at night

In a hotel room with holes in the curtains
I shivered as she slid up my leg
She could convince me a hundred hail mary's
She whispered "dear boy, your god is me"

I'll never go back there
Don't make me go back there...

I...don't...sleep...in this dead cold bed

In a hotel room the color of her skin
Holes in the drapes spray beams of light
Strangling lovers, were we kidding each other
Gasping for breath, in poisonous lies

In a hotel room (it was my second communion)
Is that your blood cleansing my veins
If three little angels (would peak in these curtains)
They'd whisper "dear boy, your mouth was too warm"
Was too warm
Was too warm

"Tides Rush In"
 
The coast is clear
The coast is everywhere
I must have reached the end
Of the year of searching
For meanings in meaning
The coast is clear

Tides rush in
Are we all being tugged by
The same unit force that tugged me in?
That tucks us in with a kiss on those brows
It's something felt, but you can't describe
But we always try
We're always trying

Tides rush in
Fools fall for the undertow

For the chance encounter with something godsend
The gods haven't sent me a thing

Yeah

You don't know and you never will
This epiphany's just a cheap handjob I give myself
I give myself no credit for this
This bastard attempt at a standardized song
It's all I've got

After years of searching for meanings in meaning
The coast is clear
Tides rush in
Pull us farther, undertow

Domestica (2000)



1.   The Casualty
2.   The Martyr
3.   Shallow Means, Deep Ends
4.   Making Friends And Acquaintances
5.   A Red So Deep
6.   The Lament Of Pretty Baby
7.   The Game Of Who Needs Who The Worst
8.   The Radiator Hums
9.   The Night I Lost The Will To Fight

"The Casualty"
 
The night has fallen down the staircase
And I, for one, have felt its bruises
Equilbrium; inebriated
Our social graces have been displaced

As we sink deeper into the drink
The volume increases....
Night time resurrects fault lines
Silent wars -- rumble somewhere below
The surfaces verses...
The surfaces verses...
The shoe is dropped, lungs explode
Shards of words of a shattered voice
And there's still a hole where the phone was thrown

Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah...
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah...

The moon is rising, a revolution
I close my eyes and the room is spinning
You're screaming:

"Sweetie, the moon has raped me --
It has left its seeds like a tomb inside me
So I must learn to abort these feelings
This romance is bleeding..."

Night time triggers the land mines
Bedroom wounds -- lovers like brigadiers
Marching two by two...
Marching two by two...
A soldier's down
Flood gates burst
I've said some things I wish you'd never heard
Like, "There's still a hole where the phone was thrown."
It's growing as we speak
And it's sucking us both in
A vacuum of sorrow to swallow up the day

"The Martyr"
 
And so it's begun
This is year one
The birth of a child in the form of a man
Wrapped in towel
Passed out on the floor
These drunken hours -- graces deflowered
Cast down by an angel
She used to kiss his weeping eyes
Depressed in her bosom
Tears roll off her nipple

Sweet baby, don't cry...
Your tears are only alibis
To prove you still feel --
You only feel sorry for yourself
Well, get on that cross
That's all you're good for...

And thusly it ends
Depression seeps in on a lonely messiah
Now he drinks with the lepers
Losing a limb, his better half
A glass once half full
A head hung half-mast
He claims he's the victim
Strangled by the nine-to-five
And a pattern of stillness
That haunted this still life

Your tears are only alibis
To prove you still feel
You only feel sorry for yourself
And that's how you thrive
Your sorrow's your goldmine
So write some sad song about me
Screaming your agonies, playing the saint

The Martyr...
The Martyr...
The Martyr...
The Martyr...
The Martyr...
Oh....