Ex-Meadows

burning up outside
so I'm screaming at the sun
running for your life
you almost killed someone
The skin is black on the back of his neck
the stars are swelling up
they're coming off their tracks

I don't wanna die
I don't wanna die like this
please forgive them
they don't know what they did

Your friends are dead
there's nothing to trace
that look of panic
coming cross your face
your things are gone
there's nothing to protect
the last thing you see
is the sun go out


Cicadas

For my false true love

They came down
down in droves
into our windows
in our homes
and they filled my mouth
for I could not scream

They flew off
off with my girl
to eat through her eyes
I had to shoot her
I had to shoot her back down
I had to bury her deep

I could not stand
I could not stand their terrible sound

Churches filled with half eaten corpses
they dropped cars on our houses
and I'm overcome
gnash out your teeth
bite off your tongue

they crawled up into the women
and the unborn were consumed

They flew off
off with my girl
I had to shoot her back down
I had to shoot her

they made ominous shapes
in the sky

piss on the prophets
and the good book too


Post-War Pop

The flames
drove
the bats
from
their tower
they fled
for to fill
the trees
to flap
scratch
and
scream

the city
died out
below
abandoned
or sold
what's lost
is lost

It's time to build
the fountains
It's time
for monuments


Gypster

I fear I've lived here
too long

lately the feeling
is less a swelling
than a sinking

If brother Jack were here
as I recall him
words and all
the haunted things
that laid upon him
when he dressed
to his best
to go to bed
with the burdens left
now he can hardly move


S. Gallatin

I know I've had enough
when Gallatin
would offer it up

Oh, come consolation
stable circumstance