SELF-MADE MAN
This self-made white man’s standing tall
Ill-gotten gains have bought them all
His toxic waste still fries the air
With empty words he claims to care..
Can you say yeah? Do you say yeah?
Yeah!
He’s seen kids dying on T.V.
He musn’t feel like you and me:
A token coin is all he flings
To aid some bird with broken wings.
Can you say yeah?...
Ah! Watch him now in New Orleans
He weeps a flood plain of his own
Washed out and pale with bitter words.
We save our pity for the lost.
With blinded arrogance he’s tossed –
It’s time to face the crowds at home…
And we say yeah! Yeah!
Yeah!
TORN
‘You can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But what came first is who you really are.‘
D’Angelo Barksdale - The Wire
You know you made me what I am
Just a canker in your womb
A scattered shrapnel wedged in time.
Can’t clutch these pieces now.
All out of luck, all out of line
Won’t you take a step for me?
All out of life, all out of time
Won’t you take a breath for me?
A hundred childhoods gone to waste
A shapeless slurry slipping by
Your fam’ly squandered by this war.
What is your truth today?
All out of luck, all out of line
Won’t you take a step for me?
All out of life, all out of time
Won’t you take a breath for me?
Won’t betray what I’ve become
So I’ll catch the nearest way.
You had patience when I had none,
But who’s gun’s still smoking now?
All out of luck, all out of line
Won’t you take a step for me?
All out of life, all out of time
Won’t you take a breath for me?
DOWN
1.Ask me once and I’ll grab your outstretched hand
Ask me twice and I’ll have to turn away.
Sympathy has become a shallow grave
Treachery is still laughing in my face.
Something large was something small
There’s some beginning to it all.
Other planets spinning round
The cosy hub here on the ground.
Nothing’s ventured, nothing’s gained
So I find I’m kicked again
2. Ask me once and I’ll grab your outstretched hand
Ask me twice and I’ll have to turn away
No way out for the victim of deceit
Hollow notes are the ones I’m left to sound
Something large was something small…….
MARKETPLACE
-
1.Step into the marketplace,
Watching buses leaving here.
Maybe that’s the point.
Almost stifled in the rush,
Endless colours spinning round this hub
Wait to disappear
And I want to see, want to see a miracle
And I want to know…
Yes I want to see, want to see a miracle
So I have to go.
Look into my eyes now,
Sorry there’s no easy answer to your questions
We could be so wise now,
Instead we leave the seeing to the unbelievers,
The unbelievers…
-
2.From the lap of luxury,
Shedding coils of precious stones
Looking for a point.
A feather boa floats to earth,
Swirling in another’s dirt – now cold
Hopelessly detached.
And I…
Look into my eyes now,
Sorry there’s no easy answer to your questions
We could be so wise now,
Instead we leave the seeing to the unbelievers,
The unbelievers…
BRIGHT COMET
A sinew crackles in the dark, electric fragments fall:
A damaged heartstring snaps.
Emotions tweaked on T.V. screens
create their own white noise
Fuzz the contrast in ourselves.
Bright comet trailing in the sky
Will you wave as you pass by?
Bright comet burning up above
Is the Earth too deep for us?
A symbol smashes to the ground, lovingly betrayed:
A distant protest sounds.
World-worn sandals pause for space
upon this holy ground
We’ve lost touch with ourselves.
Bright comet trailing in the sky
Will you wave as you pass by?
Bright comet burning up above
Is the Earth too deep for us?
All songs (C) Sarah Tyler
