Water

He can’t read a roadmap –
now think about that –
he needs a voice to tell him where to go.
He’s got rambling radio podcast opinions
to remind him what he already knows.
And he is very decided
and he gets very excited
by the language on the bumper sticker.
He wants a leader to lead him
but he still wants the feeling
that he’s the one with his hand on the trigger.

Wasting away his whole life
on the electric current.
Pumping the waves through his mind
he’s the conduit.
So easily manipulated
so easily spent.
The human, the human, the human
where the human went?

Admitted to the hospital
preparing for treatment,
he’s got a vial of prescription pills.
He knows he must take them in a specific order
for one creates what the other kills.
And when he runs out of water
that’s when they call in the doctor
and strap him down to his bed.
Then they go around removing
all the lights from their sockets
and screwing them into his head.

The saddest part of it all
was he didn’t know
he was being used.
The rheostat reads his pulse,
his body burns like a fuse.
Lobotomized by his hand
they show him where he signed the papers.
Targeted individual
they were gonna get him sooner or later.

(“We must surely go the way of the waters”)

Collective unconscious
the Shadow-head watches
the flickering torches
upon the cave walls.
Primordial theater
the rhyme and the meter
the chanting repeater
implanting the call.
Your illuminati
the sacrament body
still swaying and rotting
this idol they’ve hung.
Invoked but not spoken
the spell goes unbroken
persisting in twisting
the serpentine tongue.

The whole fantasy conceived
only to prevent you from asking…

“What happens if I lose my soul?”
When the light behind my eyes
and the will to survive
is consumed by it,
entombed by it?

Descending to madness
the paint of the canvas
drips into the chalice
to drink and deform.
The cloak comes unraveled
revealing the jackal
that lifts up the gavel
to judge the unborn.
It’s astral projecting
the spirit bisecting
dimensionless melding
of pleasure and pain
where animals slumber
in unceasing hunger
the mind cast asunder
and smothered in vain.

The message etched
in the hourglass sand
written by the finger
of a phantom hand saying…

The devil within
the clouded eye;
the microchip,
baptismal rite.
Gnashing of teeth,
the fading light;
held beneath,
mark of the Beast.
Take me to the nadir of the cave.
Save me, enslave me.
Take me to the temple you made.
Save me, enslave me.

These faces I borrow
it’s like it’s out of my hands –
I’m drinking where the well
has gone dry.
And I get to worrying
that I’m someone else
so I start thinking up alibis.
Times wear on uncertain
whether I’m dying
or I’m keeping alive.
Just don’t put out
my cigarette
it’s easy when
it’s getting me high.
Woah, it’s easy
when it’s getting me high.

Is it really easier
or is that just what
you’re telling yourself?

Is it easy when
the well’s gone dry?
Looking up at the sun
as it’s burning my eyes
scraping at the earth
as She cried
for just a little drop
of inspiration that
we can provide.
Suckling at Her bosom
for any drop of life
but it took me
on a trip across the ethers
with no spaceship in sight
with no ease to my mind
with no end to the lies
that I’ve been telling myself.
And now I’m fiend out
to an earth bound to die.
Cook it up in a pot
feed it to the masses
in the hopes that it stops
awakening the masses
as the greatest debating
has taken on morbid forms
of misshapen-ing.
What’s happening
my route has become
trauma mapping.
Cyclic revolving
ending right where I start
so I light up a spark
and disappear once again.
Feeling as good as it gets
as the darkness of thoughts
start feeding off my soul
since they don’t see
the light of day no more
inside of my head
as depression has been
dressing me in these
threads of despair.
But I just push and suppress
which just feeds my inner stress.
But I don’t really know
how to care.
Sometimes I just wanna disappear.

This caustic lie told
to pacify the higher state,
a cycle I cannot escape.
Who’s in control?
This empty smile
just a fragment of a broken life,
an image I can hide behind
as I disappear.
This faith you sold out
for the vision that you had of me,
this idol of my vanity
to worship and hate.
This endless night
I projected on the firmament,
seen it through the pinhole
at the bottom of the well.

Through the porthole window,
steal another look at my love.
Feet in the grass,
sun on my back
Oh God, what have I done?
Red alarm blares
and a voice on the intercom:
“Blast shields down!”
If only to return
to die in your womb,
if only to drown.

I’m gonna miss you
if I ever knew you at all.
What I’d give to kiss you
but I never could give you my heart.
I’m gonna miss you
if I ever knew you at all
but I let go.

The aliens we became
spotted our shuttle by satellite.
They asked no questions,
no warning,
they weren’t looking for a fight.
We were headed for Mars
and from there the stars
with schemes disguised in dreams
and when the laser beam hit,
and the ship’s hull split,
my last thought
in the final scene was…

The lighter on the nightstand.
Your jacket on the chair.
Your earrings ‘neath the window,
just another symbol
of what was never there.
An empty phrase repeating.
A humming through the floor.
The cycle of your breathing,
your swollen eyes are reaching
somewhere through the door.

Baby, is it worth it?
Would you even know?
Baby, do you want this
or is it time I go?
I barely remember,
the way that world was
when every sin and stain
was washed out by the rain
so we prayed for the flood.
Does it even matter
what we said back then?
What use is the past
it doesn’t even last
so why even begin?

Does it even matter?
Doesn’t even matter
so why even begin.

I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.

Please don’t let me go
now’s the time that I need you most.
It’s cold and lonely
and we’re just settling in.

I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.
and I know the last five minutes
have felt like one hundred years.
We’ll, I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.

We could’ve run it back,
played it cool instead of
going on the attack.
We could’ve run it back,
played it cool instead of
going on the attack
but would we really have
done it any differently?
Maybe this is how
it has to be.
I don’t know, you tell me.

I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.
and I know the morning dewdrops
feel just like fallen tears.
Well, I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.

Darling we mighta seen it
if we’d kept our eyes wide
but the stars were too bright
even though it was night.
I promise not to miss
the meteor shower again.
So long as I’m with you
I’m done with the questioning.
I’ve only got time for truth.
That’s why I say…

I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.
and I know the coming noontide
has never felt so near.
Well, I’m not sure how we got here
but we’re here.

Is someone gonna take the water?
Someone gonna turn off the faucet?
When they do, when they do, when they do
Gonna find out who’s thirsty.
Gonna need a drink.

Can feel it moving through my body.
Let it go and flow.
Don’t get in your own way, brother
your body already knows.
Just need some hands to pick up the water
and pour it down.

What you do when it’s taken away?
All those things you used to say.
Thought you needed money,
thought you needed world,
thought you needed next day.
Now my lips are too dry to speak,
I can’t afford to die or even to bleed.

Standing on the bridge
toes over the ledge
of the rushing river.
I only wanted to tell
what I saw when I fell
entering the water.
The current was pulling me under
I didn’t fight it
I could swim in the water.
The darkness was taking me in
I closed my eyes
I could live in the water.

Is someone gonna take the water?
When they do, when they do, when they do…

This empty room.
My memories laid bare.
The last sight of you
from atop the stairs.
Rumpled white linen.
your scent on the pillow.
The old silver Hudson
rolling past my window.
I wish I’d held you close, dear,
so long as time was willing
and never spoke
those frigid words
that melted with your leaving.
Within your air
retracing steps
back to the place
your soul was left
imprinted on cracked
wooden lines
a hollow form
for me to find.
So if I while the day away
reaching for your silent ghost
‘twas just to live
one moment more
in prayer and dreams
huddled close.

God and Satan walked hand-in-hand
along the promenade
taking turns and laughing
for the fools they would save.
God said, “Lucy, don’t ever leave.
I don’t know what I’d do.”
Satan smiled and shook His head,
and said, “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

They wandered through the forest
and glimpsed a girl beneath a tree.
The Devil said, “Do you want this one
or are you leaving her for me?”
The Good Lord stretched out His hand
and plucked an apple from a bough
and sent it toppling through the leaves
unto the girl below.

They strolled along the water’s edge
and spied a man building a boat.
Satan said, “This river’s gone red.
Let’s see how well they float.”
His arms flailed a violent storm,
His eyes, torrential rain
and when it was finished,
God turned to Him and said,
“Man, I’d have done the same.”

They walked along an arid path
amidst the sand and stone
and saw a man upon the cliffs,
weary and alone.
“He looks emaciated,” said God.
“I doubt he’ll last the night.”
But before the words had left His lips,
the Devil had taken flight.
He met the man upon the rocks
and offered him some bread.
When the man refused,
Satan bid His angels come
carry him off instead.
The man just sighed,
and the Devil thought,
“I know what I’ll do.
Here’s one that requires reason,”
and He brought the world into view.
The man looked on and saw beyond
mirrors and locked doors.
Satan said, “Now don’t forget, son,
this place was already yours.”
Then they departed
as the man descended
the jagged desert slope.
The Devil said, “Maybe that did something.”
God just said, “I hope.”

Years had passed
when next they saw him
speaking to some friends.
No one seemed to notice
that things were winding to an end.
Lucifer waved towards him
God gave him a wink
then they caught sight of a tavern
and stopped in for a drink.
The Devil ordered something tasty;
God ordered something strong
and a drunken Roman soldier
joined them in a toast,
“To being wrong!”
Then stumbling out
a crowd had gathered,
a holy man had died.
The townsfolk gathered their weapons
and the two of them
just went back inside.

God and Satan walk hand-in-hand
down a grassy moonlit heath
taking turns and laughing
for the souls that they will meet.
God says, “Lucy, don’t ever leave.
I don’t know what I’d do.
Satan smiles and shakes His head
and says, “Friend,
that goes double for you.”

Weathervane glinting like a sword
spinning on top of the world.
Have I been here before?
Because I swear
ya’ll look familiar.
We might’ve got the names
mixed up.
We might’ve rearranged
parts of the story
so it wouldn’t get boring
but it was us all along.
There’s a stitch in the sky
and for those of you
who ask why
there may be
an answer found.

Big storm coming down
but my sun is shining out.
Pretty soon we’ll see a rainbow.
Gonna see a rainbow
real soon.

Anvil cloud billows on the plain
casting over its shadow.
From below it’s easy to forget
it’s just a tool of the blacksmith.
And if our iron hearts are flawed
are they forged by the arm
of a god when the fire
was necessary to make us
what we are?
Smelting, folding of the blade
and to those who see
what’s yet unmade
we’ll keep singing
when that hammer comes
swinging around.

Ghosts occupy material spaces.
The archetypes flood up
in your dreams
and they seek to commune
through the walls of your room
to reveal what the future self sees.

Remember me?
I saw you there,
a ceremony in the air
and I felt it,
could feel it working
as we shared a single breath.
Blue mountains
to the surf.
A fissure broke
across the earth
and something,
something was stirring,
burning from within.
Like that old story said,
we didn’t crawl
out of that crack in the head.
No, we were laughing,
we were dancing right
out of the ground.

David Uffner:

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

Matt Simoncavage:

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

Additional musicians:

• Rose Daniels — additional vocals (tracks 1, 3, 10), lyrics (track 3)
• Theresa Uffner — additional vocals (tracks 2, 10)
• Francine Roussel — additional vocals (tracks 2, 10)
• Sam O’Connell — additional vocals (tracks 6, 10)
• Anna O’Connell — additional vocals (tracks 6, 10)
• Jin Mitsui — saxophone (track 8), additional vocals (track 10)
• Kevin Kaminski — pots and pans (track 10)