Esme & Jeremy
INSTRUMENTAL

Lit by Lightning
Crusin’, flyin’ over the ground that you once had your feet on
Good times, good friends, good spirits impair your sense of reason
Bright lights, dilated pupils, and a swerve to the left
Metal meets wood, go meets stop and life meets death

Looks like these days we’re lit by lightning
Bright flashes point out the demons we’re fighting

Just one time, you thought, what harm could come from that
But now you’ve grown a taste for her on her back
And in the end, to keep you, she says a baby’s on the way, yeah
And suicide’s your dream and sleep’s waters try to wash you away

Brother, I can’t say I’d blame you for hiding
Because it’s so much clearer now that we’re lit by lightning

I’ve heard all my life to never give up, to believe in myself
But I know how far I can go, and tested my limits well
Oh well, it’s all too easy to just lose touch
And God has a place for those who believe too much

Fighting automatic sunset over airborne ocean blue
As night falls, the horizon slips away from you
Are those stars or lights on the ground?
What is up? What is down?

Your love in your arms as the plane came crashing down
Your family grieving, a nation weeping, you’re nowhere to be found
What you want and what you get are on the verge of colliding
And it all goes to show we’re all lit by lightning

Bleed
Your silly obfuscation darken the room til I can’t see a thing
Your hurried hesitation knock me down from behind while I’m still in the corner sleeping
I’ll be your puzzle, be your jigsaw, cut your pieces til you bleed
I’ll be your doctor, I'll be your surgeon, I'll sew you up anytime you need

And you can pour me out
Scatter me to the winds, I’ll fly
Without a doubt
I’ll bleed before I cry

Take a taste of absolution, forgiving every fatal fuck-up on your list
That briefcase of sins getting heavier, but I’ve the keys to the handcuff on your wrist
Because I’m that moon lighting up the night sky, though sometimes I swallow the sun
You see them both with your eyes so clearly, but I would bet that you only remember one

You keep spilling out
Scattered dreams to the winds and sighs
You’re learning how
To bleed before you cry

Gather my soul and my sins, gonna sprout some wings and fly
You’re thinking too hard about this one, baby, there’s less to me than meets the eye
Without a doubt in my mind, gonna sprout some wings and fly
You’ll never never see me cry
I’ll never cry

??????

You can tear this man apart
But you will never have my heart
You’ll just watch me bleed

You can pour me out
Scatter me to the winds, I’ll fly
Without a doubt
I’ll bleed before I cry
You can pour me out
C'mon, baby, pour me out
I’ll bleed before I cry

In Distress
This ring don’t shine no more
And it don’t slip up over your knuckle
This ring don’t shine
And I’m hoping that’s not metaphorical
Metal tarnishes much faster than love,
Anyway, who gives a damn if the ring is dull

My baby works so hard
Ain’t nothing ever come to her easy
Ooh, my baby works
But elbow grease ain’t no guarantee
It ain’t taken much effort for her to
Win the love of such as me

Money’s short these days
Shorter than heat from the winter sun
Oh, my money’s short
And you've gotta budget out all your fun
Keepin’ your head above water’s drivin’ you insane
Livin’ this life up on the run under the winter sun

My baby cries herself to sleep
Ain’t nothing going quite her way, I guess
My baby cries
Can’t see a way out of this mess
Well I’ll be her beacon in the knight in shining armor and I’ll save
My little damsel in distress

Ny ring don’t shine no more
And it don’t slip up over my knuckle
My ring don’t shine
And I’m hoping it’s not metaphorical
Well metal tarnishes much faster than love, anyway...

Brilliant
Looking round here, she wears a frown
The corners of her mouth could pull her to her knees
She’s a prophet sold for profit
Knowing the future but unsure what the cost may be
Going crazy, little bit lazy,
Never been committed but maybe she should be

But a madhouse here would be so redundant she’d have to smile
And those stars, they run redder, tongues stuck out and distant while
She runs to catch up, throw herself on the pile

She used to be one of them, people danced in her starlight
She’ll be content orbiting one tonight

Her mood, her story’s oscillatory
But now the ups are weighed down by pain and need
Impact rattles her, again life batters her
And she’s learned to expect every bruise she sees
Feels like yelling, just keeps telling herself
That these sorts of things always come in threes

And not the seven that her count just reached today
It feels like years since some good luck strolled her way
She’d settle for someone to tell her it’ll be okay

She lies awake awaiting words to console her
Look inside you and listen to me, he told her

And she sings
Sometimes I feel calm
Sometimes this place burns out my fuse
Sometimes I see clearly
Sometimes it’s muddy, I’m confused
Sometimes I feel brilliant
Sometimes I can’t believe I can tie my own shoes

Nobody said it’d be easy, but the days, they go by anyway
Nobody said it’d be easy, but baby listen to the rain wash it all away

And the stars are red and oh so far away
But don’t you worry, you’ll outshine them all one day

Angelic
Here, you can borrow my halo
Because you’ve convinced everybody otherwise
Who are you kidding?
It just isn’t fitting
Angelic was never quite your size

You say this is a microcosm, ha
Well, I’m not a symbol of a goddamn thing
And I won’t let go
Of theaw moments that flow
Swirling down the drain while you stand there analyzing

Just depriving
Yourself of here and now
You and your silly alchemy striving for something
More golden than what you found, no

You just need to be cool
You need to be true
You need to show me you’re not the same
You’re not the same train wreck I came running to

And you’ve got everything to fear
Because it’s that time of year again
You rise and now you fall
And I have seen it all

You’re not angelic,
And you’ve never been
I’m not asking you to be
This is hardly heaven

I just need you to be cool
I just need you to be true
I need to be good
I need to be strong
I need you to show me you’re not the same
You’re not the same train wreck I ran screaming from

Sister Vigilante
You need your enemies like you need your friends
And you need world peace like a hole in the head
Salvation, what could be further from heaven sent?
Because God loves a villain, an evil to rail against

Where would all that energy go without somewhere to aim?
Tell me, would we explode without a world to save?

I need a drop of darkness to help discern the light
And every time I’m wronged, I get that much better at recognizing right
I want to freeze, because melting felt so nice
I got balance and contrast locked within my sights

We’re all rocks bouncing up and down the hill, and the sharp edges fade
With every collision with the ground, we’re closer to perfect, closer to saved

The thief, the terrorist, the murderer, the liar
Slap a target on his back, and crown your new Messiah
No good without evil, no fire without ice
Here’s your sacrificial lamb to save you from your own device

You need cracks to fall through, and you need mountains to climb
Does time heal all wounds, or do wounds just mark the time?

Where would all that energy go without somewhere to aim?
Tell me, would we explode without a world to save?

New Year's Song
He’s had enough pretending this isn’t eating away
As life reverts and pain subverts his psyche
Maybe it shouldn’t be blackening his day
Maybe he should really feel alright

She dashed his hopes, crashed his party
Twenty years now and never so smart, he
Reaches out to be pushed in
A kiss at midnight, some horrible sin

He just wants arms to hold him
As the New Year rings in
He turns the covers over and
Turns himself in
And the ball will drop
And the tears will come
As he prays for a difference
In Two Thousand One

Auld Lang can be a "syne" of wasted time
And he can feel the ill wind of its wings
But fairer is the breath that accompanies the rhyme
As our lonely poet gently sings

If all acquaintance be forgot
Then this is surely all I’ve got and
I can’t believe a beautiful year
Could end with me wanting to disappear

He just wants arms to hold him
As the New Year rings in
He'll turn the covers over and
Turns himself in
And the ball will drop
And the tears will come
As he prays for a difference
In Two Thousand One

He just wanted this to be a holiday
A vacation from every "every other day"
But now the bliss that once was
Leaves him to comfort himself, and nothing does

She dashed his hopes, crashed his party
Twenty years now and never so smart, he
Reaches out to be pushed in
A kiss at midnight, some horrible sin

I just want arms to hold me
As the New Year rings in
I'll turn the covers over and I've
Turned myself in
And the ball will drop
And the tears will come
And I pray for a difference
Yes, I pray for a difference
Oh, I pray for a difference
In Two Thousand One

Life, Replaced by Mineral
Sifting through the ash of all that preceded
Fire cleansed me but kept a few things for itself that I once needed
I need something sturdy, packed in tight, to bury these roots
If I'm gonna weather this weather, I’d better find a rock to anchor to

But if you leave me here long enough
Life, replaced by mineral
And I may become that rock

Don't want to wait for no Messiah to deliver me from evil's hold
Don't want to count on someone else's desire to keep me warm when it’s cold

And if you leave me here long enough
I might just go and save myself
And I might turn that goddamn heater off

And it might go by this awakening mind
That there's more to life than seeking happiness, warmth and light
And I might decide, oh, not to write
It off 'til I've been frozen myself and seen the darker side
And I might decide that I have relied
Too much on everything but me
And I might decide, I might decide
I might decide, or I might not, and just let things be

If you leave me here long enough
Life, replaced by mineral
And I may become that rock

Yields to the Noon
A snail’s removed from his scene
Ripped from his shell and fed caffeine
Splayed on the cement, naked,
Chemically accelerated
To normal speed

A soft vulnerable body that was never ever meant
To hold itself together versus the elements
Forgoing a predilection
Toward security and protection
Taking on the rain with no defense

And it’s more real this way, more real...

But it doesn’t even matter when the salt has reached the wound
And he shrivels to the nothing that he was before
Praying the pounding rains relent soon
Leaving only the question of what the suffering was for
And the turbulent morning, it yields to the noon

Pull back the clouds, bake me on the high-
Way, the sun’s so much hotter when you look her in the eyes
Lay back and speak your mind
Force it feebly into rhyme
And throw these words and feelings into the sky

Twenty-four years gone, how far can I have come
Sittin' in this holding pattern, waiting on the starter’s gun?
Slithering along the ground
But now twitching madly at the sound
That signals it is time for me to run

And I’m more real this way, more real...

And it doesn’t even matter if I jump over the moon
The trip back to Earth would leave me more than sore
Praying for impact's relief to come soon
Leaving only the question of what the suffering was for
And the turbulent morning, it yields to the noon
I should not be beginning anymore
The turbulent morning, it yields to the noon
I should not be beginning...

...anymore
And this choice is so new to me, so new to me
Oh I like what she sees in me
That voice getting through to me, getting through to me
That voice getting through to me, getting through to me, getting through...

And I'm more real this way, more real...

And it doesn’t even matter when the salt has reached the wound
And he shrivels to the nothing that he was before
Praying the pounding rain relents soon
Leaving only the question of what the suffering was for
And the turbulent morning, it yields to the noon
I should not be beginning anymore

Oh, I'm splayed on the pavement, naked Chemically accelerated To normal speed