2024 Singles Series

Oh, sweet dark-haired nixie
I remember trudging home exhausted
To our little apartment
And I swear
Something in your air
Could breathe me through the portal.
Made it seem immortal
When I was looking up at you
Through iridescent light —
The movement of water
And my blurry sight.
Now I’m rubbing my eyes
Only to realize
I haven’t slept in nine years
Not one single night.

Now, when it’s all over
And there are no pieces left to gather
I know you’re the one
That got away.
Persephone
Why didn’t you make me stay,
Bound and tied my legs
To the bottom of the lake
Never to wake?

Do you think I haven’t tried
Writing a letter like this,
One without a single lie
Then thinking better of it?
This whole persona
And this tape recorder —
Just a doomed attempt
To return and reorder
Every night since the one
We fell asleep in the tub.
Red wine imbibed
With promises of new love.
Every time I’ve tried the same
With another
Your ghost calls me back
And wants to hold me under.
I want you to hold me under.
Promise to hold me under.

Is that a lantern in the window
Shining through the date palm trees?
It’s been eons without rain
And the glass-stained panels
Are glowing purple
Glowing orange
Glowing green…

No, I must be mistaken.
I’ve been fooled by mirages before.
In fact, it’s been so many times
I don’t even trust my own damn eyes
To stop and want
For the oases
Anymore.

Me and my camel
Looking for the
Girl of the Desert.
I knew her once when I was just a boy.
She gifted me the earth and clouds I could carry
But I went hunting treasure
That was never buried,
That was never there.

She could make me laugh with complete abandon
As we danced with the children in the town.
And later on when it was just each other
We’d take turns tracing lines with our fingers
In the cooled sand
After the sun went down.

A voice in the drift played on my fears
That I wasn’t worthy yet of such heights.
A traveler came through with tales of gold
And when he started pulling out ancient scrolls
I set out
To find an empty,
Starless night.

Now the map is a picture in my pocket,
And the compass is a great big magnetic sky.
And though I still can’t trust what I see
What revealed itself eventually was
Illusions
Are part of the design.

Have you been encased in amber?
No, you’ve been off fighting demons too.
I can tell just by the images conjured
The heights that were climbed within you.

And even our skin has disseminated
We’re beings entirely new
Than the ones that joined in the courtyard
When the world was bright and troubles were few.

Princess was imbued with wisdom
It was her eternal birthright
But Hero of Time had to undo his mind
And learn notes that turned day into night.

And only through forest and fire and water
Could he gain the gift of sight
A lens of truth through the walls of youth
And a mirror reflecting light.

Maybe you’ve been in the Temple
Collecting gemstones out of the earth
And maybe each time the sword is drawn
We experience some form of rebirth.

But it’s all just a story I’ve come to believe,
Though the way has seemed so long
Back to the one that gave me this flute
And taught me my very first song.

Mathematical assertion,
The numbers harmonizing in a proof.
So seemingly perfect,
Who could resist calling it
The truth?

Something is happening though…

Claims in opposition,
Illogical recursions now emerge.
Facts in contradiction,
Strange loops willing straight lines
Into curves.

The paradox is breeding,
Expanding,
Computing.
Integral,
Dialectical,
Transcending.
Hegelian “aufheben.”
It grows to reaches unfathomable
And then the camera zooms out
And it restarts,
Again.

Incompleteness,
Mortal weakness,
Math that hides us
In cold half-truths.

Even if I can make
All the terms agree
Was it only to satisfy
The scheme
Or the schema
That wrote the program
Into me?

This place we call the present,
Fixed point on the line
Flowing through,
A universe in motion
A mote, a molecule,
A drop of dew
Within the simulation,
Oh it’s all the simulation
That’s what they say
So watch me kill the simulation
Because if that’s all there is
Then I’ll want to break the math
With you.
I don’t care what’s foretold,
If it’s been poured into a mold.
Can’t we will and still decide
To meet life and death besides
Even if we don’t have an answer?

Something is happening though…
Think I found the reason
OMFG LMAO
Think I found the solution inside…
The answer’s in the question!

Thunderclap inside my head
A voodoo doll you wanted dead
Stabbing me with little pins
Like nails for my every sin.
But revenge was imperfect,
Only karma could correct the flaw,
And your sincerity like poison
From a higher Law.

Slow at first and subtle
The agent slipping in,
I didn’t know what concoction
I was ingesting then.
Night terrors
Dark mirrors,
Reviving what was gone,
Awaking to convulsions
And complete delirium.

It’s not fair of you
To use your love potion on me.
It’s not fair of you to use your love.

Fate is laying hands
Speaking spells and incantations,
Spirit wind
Moving through the fingers
Of my personal shaman.
This priestess face
Concealed behind
An animalic mask,
She’s wrapped around me now
With her claws inside my back.

I’m burning up,
She’s turning me
With unconscious control.
Fever dream magic
And my splintering soul.
My hands can’t hold the phial,
Bring the philter to my lips,
Even if it kills me
Please draw out the sickness.

It’s not fair of you
To use your love potion on me.
It’s not fair of you to use your love.

Though I deserve it
Because I used the same drug
It’s still not fair of you to use your love.

I’ll use the same chords
Transposed that they’ve played
Since the beginning of time to
Tell this story
A signal I send electric
Flickering spark
But if I lose patience
It falls apart

Oh god it’s like I’m helpless
I cant move, I can’t say
Everything in my heart
Or else I’ll throw it away
So I can only offer a vision
And hope the
Transmission
Gets to you

An ocean separates
Me from your form
Your scent
And yet your voice is
Traveling on airwaves
Piercing the noise
Surrounding
And guiding me through
Whatever brings me to you

Innocence is patiently waiting
What have I learned out here
If not to endure?
And though I’ve been a criminal before
I’ve paid for it
And I’ll gladly pay for more
So long as it gets me to you.
So long as it brings me to you.
So long as it takes me to you.
So long as it leads me to you.

If this is only a means
Of making it to the other side
Of something I cannot yet see
And the fire has left nothing standing
Then I’ll resign to the tide
And let the waves take me
But in the meantime,
I have to believe that…

Made up words all mean the same,
they depend only on a frame of mind.
I got reminded by love that words themselves
are all made up, just signs.
Expressions of a message
with a meaning that’s way too big to hold
by commas, lines, and letters.
Maybe I’ll know what I’m trying to say
if I lay it on down in an simpler way
and put some chords and colors to it.

Let’s hit the road and pack it in,
got guitar, paint, and medicine,
from Her.
She said do it when the world
is still a stranger.
Camping trips and skinny dips,
I’ll check your whole body for ticks
and look in the places
you have trouble reaching.
So what if we made a little baby too?
I mean, really, what was I supposed to do,
pull out?
Well, I guess, yeah, when you put it like that…
It’s funny to me how easy it flows,
almost like the pen already knows
how to move
when it’s carving out your picture
in smiling dreams and fantasies.
Do you want to be
in each other’s movies for life?
It’s not too late,
they’re still showing trailers.

Art galleries and museums,
I want to watch the way you see ‘em,
enthralled with a finger on your chin like.
Lighthouse ferryboats
dunes of sand,
Electric Forests
and Burning Man’s
tripping balls,
or we could not go at all, who cares?
Rather hit the renaissance fair.
Turkey legs and jousting.
I want your heart and your sketchpad,
morning breath and your bedhead,
goddamn, am I weird
because I liked you kinda scuzzy?
Let’s dip our toes in every sea
and return home with groceries
and cat food.
It’s your turn to change the litter.
No, on Tuesday I changed the litter.
Aw shit, alright I’ll change the litter.
The gatos like when I change the litter.
But you’re the one who feeds them.

Anything you got,
everything you are,
from the photos
and canned vegetables
to the gas in your car,
better put it in the bag.
put it in the bag with your honey.
everything that can fit.
you got a one-way ticket out.
mama…

There aint no going back,
Going back for no milk.

Anyone you find out here,
You can assume they aint been faithful.
Cause what we do to stay alive,
will only sound distasteful
to the ones who haven’t fed…
and most of them
at this point
are already dead.
So just leave ‘em.
Gonna have to leave ‘em behind.
But before you do,
be sure to grab their shoes
and put ’em in the bag.

Shot out of a cannon.

David Uffner:

• Vocals, guitars, bass, piano, synths, beats
• Songwriting, lyrics

Matt Simoncavage:

• Drums and percussion
• Production, mixing and mastering
• Artwork