Black Birds And A Change Of Viewpoint

Spray Painting Doves Black

Everything around me
Please just change
Turn these white walls
Into a familiar shade of grey
Just the monotone

And everything I said wrong
I fear these will all be
Shallow graves before long

Don’t speak to me counselor
Please just go away
Your antiquated cliches
Are more than my patience today

I’d like to say I’m sorry to the world
And I’d like to mean everything I say
Or at least have no one question
The words that compose my phrase

Everything around me
Please just change
If my blood were red
Let it now flow grey
This isn’t the same place
It’s not the same mystique
The mask have been removed
Until I don’t recognize a thing

Like the walls that surround me on all four side
Only they can tell you just what lies within
This is the deception I’ve played my whole life
But now it too grows thin...

The Dishonesty Of Crows

Fake your flight with a looped video of wings fluttering
The jury and I know you’re just running away
Scared of the life you didn’t think you were fit for
You’re just a prophet building false beliefs

How can you believe in me if you don’t believe in yourself

And I’d like to call you a liar
But I know you told the truth
You just left out the part
Where you were to scared to
Your biggest fear is to live your life alone
Well that’s become reality, you worthless fucking crow.

The phone rings to spill your pitiful cliches
Well I’m not listening, to a word you say
You crawl through the empty holes inside your head
The darkened spaces to which your heart has fled

So just fly away on your lead soaked wings
Crash into the ocean and sink.
You never learned to swim
You never learned to dance
Just words weren’t enough
When it came to love like this.

Christmas Eve In A Hotel Room

There's no way to lose track of the time
The alarm clock in my face, a constant reminder
The telephone don't ring, such a shame
It's like people think I want to sit and wallow in my pain

And there's just no place, like a hotel room on Christmas Eve
The only calming factor is the rubbish on TV
The dimly lit rooms, just a haven for the lonely
The sun doesn't rise on this side of the lobby…
There's just no place, for me.

The holidays in a hotel room just aren't the same.
The bed's not as warm and cozy and the one you left behind
With no one to talk to, watching cartoons all the time
Eating microwave lasagna isn't quite what I had in mind.
M&M's and potato chips, there's root beer in the fridge
With complimentary cups for you to pour it in.
With a single-cup coffee maker, and a lamp that swivels to any angle
I ask you just what more could anybody want?

With all these comforts of home, tell me why am I still alone?

My mind wanders to door, but I dare not open it
For fear of going out just seems a shame
I see all these couples walking, hand in hand for the holidays
And all they see is me.

I spend my money like its water, to try to pass the time,
If I tried to count the times I've gone shopping, I'd probably lose my mind.
In a feeble attempt just to appear alive.
Maybe I'll see someone I know, they'll ask me if I'm alright
I'll strike up a conversation, and we'll talk for hours at a time.
Or maybe not.

Maybe I'll just sit, and lose myself in these shows.
Shows that don't mean a thing to me…

All I Got For Christmas Was My Two Front Teeth, Dammit!

What do I do when sorrow drives a stake right through my heart?
Do I cry out loud in pain, clinch my chest and beg for relief?
Or do I just keep on walking like there's nothing bothering me?

You'll never know when it hurts
But when it hurts I want you to know
That I've been through this a thousand times before
Once I pleaded for bleeding or something more
But now that I'm grown and I'm on my way
Lines are just memories, passing away

Tell me, where do I go when heartache's pushing me to the edge of the cliff?
I've already dropped a thousand miles and I'm not sure where it'll go from here
Passion twists the fingers of the decadent messes to bring them to the surface for us all to enjoy
There's nothing like watching your greatest achievements being shattered by a hopeless romantic.

And I'll tie myself to the floor if it'll stop the train from hitting our blushing bride
Because her cheeks are so rosy I'm not sure she could take this all in stride
There's too many people with their minds on only one thing...
Who am I going home with tonight!

Tell me, who am I going home with tonight!

So what I do when compassion is nothing more than sinking cadaver in the middle of a tidal wave?
How do I bring back the chivalry that flourished just yesterday?
I could tell this story a thousand times but it wouldn't help you see the plight of the veterans.
So why not just barricade the door?
I'm not going home until someone shows me where all this love is coming from...
It's not over until somebody gets their way.

House On No Street

In the hell of the earth
Where no man dare go
There stands a house
That only death knows
It's fleeting in form
Withered in shape
And once the door opens
You'll never escape
The windows bleed black
So no one can see in
And peer into the torture
That this house represents

If you've only heard stories
Then consider yourself blessed
Because my tale is like kin
To a novel of death
Skin off the bones
And blood in the raw
Death speaking softly
With a long southern drawl

Now I regret the day
That I stepped foot in
Once the door shuts
There's no happiness again
Your pain can't compare
To what lies inside
You all bleed but know not
What it feels like to die

Hollow of all feeling
Void of all love
Stripped of your soul
Dragged through the mud
No shadow, no reflection
Just darkness in black walls
The stench of destruction
And blood in the halls

So keep your distance
Or end up like me
Dead and alone
In the house on no street

Escaping Hunterville

"It was terribly warm for that time of year...
          A humid October air stuck to my skin, leaving my clothes glued to my body, wet from the sweat and humidity. I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I looked on into the sunset, the only thing I could come to find beautiful at the time. For 10 years I sat on the steps of our house on Beachwood Street, and for 10 years I wanted to leave.                                                
          Don't get me wrong, I loved the neighborhood, all of our neighbors couldn't be any nicer to me; but it's not the surroundings that plagued me, it's what was going on right there in my own house.
          For 10 goddamned years the screaming, the yelling, the atmosphere itself had been the reason I spent my nights alone sitting right there on those steps. Sometimes I didn't even go inside to sleep at night, I'd just curl up on the bench on our porch and drift into a worried sleep. I always found myself hoping that the next day would be different, but it never was. Luckily, I had my school to escape from that hell, but it's always there leering in the back of my mind. When I got home, I'd spend my time outside with my guitar, pouring into it the emotions that I could confide in no one else...
          She'd call me in for dinner, and that's when it usually began...something didn't taste good, or dinner wasn't on time, or the house was dirty...something always pushed him over the edge. I'd absorb myself into my food, staring at it like it was mesmerizing me. But in the background, it was there. I tried so intently to block out the sound of his fist landing on her face; her hands pummeling him as fierce as they could. But it was no use…
          I'd finish my food as quickly as possible, and then slowly slip outside to just get away. In a few hours, the cries would die down, but I refused to go inside. I still remember the day I finally decided I hated both of them, and I despised even living with them. Even their hugs in the morning before I went off to school disgusted me. I didn't want them touching me with the same hands they used in anger the night before.
          Then came the night that it was somehow different, the screaming was worse, the blows rained down faster and harder than ever before. Oh God, then the gunshots…
          I knew what had happened; I just dropped my head into my hands and began to cry…
          The neighbors obviously heard what had gone on, because the next thing I knew, the lady next door was shaking me, asking me if I was okay. But I didn't answer her, I knew they were both dead. All I could do was cry…that's all I wanted to do…"
          I turned and look into the eyes of my wife, they were covered in tears; and I pulled her close to me, and kiss her forehead, and said "It's okay…I have you now, and you are all I could ever need…I love you." I returned my gaze to that house that tortured me 8 years ago. I watched as the wrecking ball smashed through the roof, then through the walls. I felt myself let out a little smile as it suddenly collapsed. I heard my wife whisper into my ear "I love you", and I turned and hugged her tightly, then said
          "Let's get outta here…"
          We took one last look at the now pile of rubble that used to be that fucking house. Then, we walked away, to never return again…

Ghost Never Die

The Ghost Of Epic Heroes (Put Myself To Rest)

Well here I go again, and my screams

They just sound like TV static

The absence and void of being

The descent of fatal flaw...

O' heart, you've never felt so deadly...

I draw back with all my might...

But yet my sword draws no blood

Yet my blade brings no scar

How do I fight when I'm useless

A beggar in warrior skin...

Strung up from gallows I helped construct...

Call me a thief

Call me a liar

Use the only words you know

Force-feed me your diet

Of broken promises

Your poison soup

For my tortured soul...

O' heart, you've never failed me so...

Rain down, and flash black, so none but us can see

The Ghost Of Those In Panic (Forest Of Sleeping Giants)

I'm wide awake watching

This whole world sleeping in...

What do I do?

How do I warn them,

If we follow the path of these ways

Then there's no way we can ever leave this hell

Am I the only one here,

Who sees the tragedy,

That we are about to unfold?

So keep the door shut

Open the window instead

And crawl out to the back alley

Before someone finds us dead...

And we are all just messengers

With a warning that we share

First we must realize our position

Before we take on the burden we bear

Scream at the top of your lungs

"Those who are now sleeping,

Everybody, Please wake up!"

The Ghost Of Painful Memories (A House Under Dreary Skies)

There is no home here now

Just a building that I can see

The grass has died and faded

And the walls are cracked and worn

The photos that once hung on the wall

Have now crashed to the floor

There's no home here now

There's no place to lay my head

The silence feels so hollow

Like emptiness and death

This is not the place I learned to

Walk, and talk, and live

It seems like a ghost of

A past that never happened...

I can forget the screams

I've learned how to forgive

But as I look around, I can tell

There is no home here now,

And this is no place I want to live...

Throne To Dogs

Well tell the wolves and their kings to stop howling
I'm just trying to get some sleep on this most solemn of nights
Laying down my armor at the foot of my bed
I never wear want to be the killer again.
No, I never want to see that side of things.

Forty long years.
Dragging my sword through the mud and muck
Forty long years
Just trying to keep myself clean from the blood

And I'll be damned if I'll be a warrior again the next time they beckon.
Because I've had my fair share of close calls and I think it's time to close the book.
Tomorrow I will burn these things, and you'll never see me kill again.

I'm done
Forty long years
Dragging their bodies through the dirt and dust
Forty long years
I'll be lucky just to see the kids of my kids.

Soldier,
No longer.
Have the old me thrown to the dogs to devour whole before he rises from slumber
Warrior,
No more.
I fought your wars for forty years and now I am through.