A Garden In The Cave

You stay in one spot ‘til one day you take off
And then all that’s left is what you touched
Leaving behind a whole time in your life
Makes it look much better than it was

    But don’t let your eyes be mesmerized 
    Staring at shadows inside the cave
    Run towards the light, fight for your life
    Burn a little brighter everyday

You run off alone on a path overgrown
Until all that's left is what you touched
Feeling your way through the terrible cave
Your eyes blind, your fingers growing numb

    But don't let your hands be idle now
    Even though the darkness blocks your way
    Digging at thoughts, clawing at rocks
    Trying to plant a garden in the cave

    And don't let your eyes be mesmerized 
    Staring at shadows under the moon
    Run towards the light, fight for your life
    Everything is happening so soon
    So soon

So take your memories and bury them in stone
And under the surface something beautiful will grow
Keep digging down until the shell is stripped away     
And hope some days you'll find a garden in the cave

And it's always there
Even when the silence that surrounds you 
Leaves you fighting back the waves
Be brave
Set fire to the cave
And in the ashes that remain 
You know there's always a garden in its place
Be brave
There's a garden in the cave

The Allegory of the Bus

It's just an ordinary day, aboard the 67A
People get off and some get on, then we get going once again
A man is talking to himself and we all act like we can't tell
As hot air blows around my head the smell of diesel fuel and sweat

    Though the farebox states the driver won't make change
    Something did and I began to feel quite strange
    Like everything was rearranged

The next part I could not believe, but I'm surrounded by circus geeks
A man with tentacles for arms casually bends an iron bar
A juggling lady shakes her beard to my enthusiastic cheers
But most impressively of all, an ape half-snake and three feet tall

    And the ringmaster pulls me aside and begs
    "Stay on the bus with us and live without regrets,
    Just having fun and saying yes!"

        But is it always fun and games?
        Or does it all start to feel the same?
        When my stop comes should I remain
        And let the driver just take me anywhere?
        So I sit right there
        Then I pull the cord and run right down the stairs

Now I'm just wondering what it means, is there something underneath
    Is there something that I need to be saving?
Maybe it's reality lies in practicalities 
    and trivialities, maybe...
Or maybe though we're breathing, we're really half-asleep and
    We only see the truth when we're dreaming
All we really know is there's a bus and people on it
    And we ride a while and then we'll be leaving    

The bus speeds off with squealing tires, and quickly swerves into a tree
And all the clowns run out on fire, they swat their flames and wait for me
 

The Sound of a Dream

I am lying in bed in 2003
And I'm floating far away in a dream so real
I'm seeing places that I've never been, but always known
And hearing perfect songs that write themselves

    But then the light hits my eyes
    My temperature rises
    The visions are chased underground
    And the alarm's all I hear now
    Still struggling to recall 
    The sights, the sounds, of a dream

I am leaving the house, it's now 7:15
And I'm driving and the world seems so unreal
I see the people that I've always seen, but never known
And try to focus on the task at hand

    But then my mind starts to wander
    And vaguely remembers
    A vision that's perfect and true 
    And I see your mouth as it's moving
    But all that I hear is
    The sound of a dream

But as the day turns to evening
The song I was dreaming 
Gets lost forever to my memory

So hold on tight to every meaningless dream 
You can't go back to where you thought you would be 
The only way for me to find some truth or honesty
Is to calm myself, surround myself
With the sound of a dream
In peace harmonically

When Summer Breaks

Ask me how we'd fill the days
When we were kids on summer break
We could find a million ways
When everything was fun and games

Walkie talkies crackling
Secret codes for secret things
Super soakers aiming close
Loaded from a garden hose

You just like to take it slow
In basements playing Mario 
I keep moving Sonic fast
On my Sega Genesis

Teachers always ask you things
And you're stuck with answering
You just want to feel the air
Mouth agape you sit and stare

     But no one ever asks you how
     You felt when you best friend left town
     Can't quite name that feeling
     Don't quite know it's real yet

     So you never understood
     Just why you felt the way you did
     Think I'll stay inside now
     Feeling pretty quiet now
     Innocence can never be replaced
     And it can never be repaired when summer breaks

Watching baseball games for fun
Bleacher seats in baking sun
Sparklers coming out at night
Be careful you'll burn out your eyes

Drive to town for frozen treats
Freezies cutting tender checks
Playing with the neighbor kids
Til someone gets mad and quits

You could never hope to take
A DDT from Jake the Snake
But you sound so menacing
Talking like the Macho King

Birthday parties at the mall
Chicken nuggets, laughing clowns
There was not a future then
We ate cake with all our friends

     You can't enjoy the candy bar
     You stole from the convience store
     Feeling like a liar
     Zubaz catching fire

     No one ever told you when
     The last time you're with all your friends
     Don't know 'til it's over
     As the fire smolders
     Innocence can never be replaced
     And it can never be repaired when summer breaks

Honey Sweet (Ode To Type 1)

The first time that I met her
You know she made me float up so high
And I wanted to look my best for her
So I lost all kinds of weight
She didn't care how much I ate
She really had my number
I didn't know at the time she'd
Be my little honey sweet

When we finally got together
You know she always kept me up at night
She always wanted some attention
And I didn't know what to do
To make her temper cool
She's like a rollercoaster
But if we're way up high or down low
She's still my honey sweet

Cuz our love it runs deeper
Sometimes I swear I feel her in my blood
She still makes my heart race
Like every single day
She's got something more to say
It's like a great adventure
I swear she'd love me to death
Cuz she's my little honey sweet

    And I know she'd never leave me
    She wouldn't do that
    It's not like that
    We're different from other loves
    You don’t understand that
    When she beats me
    It’s alright cuz
    It's only just because she loves me oh so much

You know she made me get a pager
It's pretty bad the way it looks on me
But it's better than the old days
When she’d poke me in the ribs
In restaurants in front of kids
Oh she is such a stickler
But now the pager plays songs so
She's still my little honey sweet

And as we look into the future
I see me growing old by her side
And I hope I keep her happy
Cuz she’s always on my mind
Even when she is unkind 
She’s my one and only
Cuz every day is a gift when 
You’re living with your honey sweet

Don’t take it for granted
Being with your honey sweet

I’m just glad I’m around to be here
With my honey sweet

 
Lisa Wonders

She was born at 3 am
With a paintbrush in her hand
Or so the story went when she was young
She would draw the world she saw
And it made her parents proud
Her pictures hanging all around the house
And how her mind would always wander
It was fitting that her name was Lisa Wonders

Now Lisa’s grown and moved away
She works at night and paints all day
And she fights to stay inspired and awake
Until one day a vision comes, and it’s huge
Something she was meant to do 
So she makes a dozen sketches every day
Now when she wakes up in the morning
She springs out of bed cuz oh, her days are burning

               Lisa Wonders, can it stay this way forever?
               In the moment when it all comes rushing through
               Lisa Wonders, how can everything be simple
               And complicated all at once and still be true?
      Then Lisa smiles, and everything's wonderful 

Now days begin to pass her by 
She's working slowly trying to get it all out right
It's always better in her mind
The further in the more she doubts what she saw
In ideas impossible to pull off
On a canvas dead against a wall
And as she looks on her creation 
It's a shadow of the true one she imagined

    Lisa Wonders, will it ever feel completed?
    Or is this painting so beloved beyond repair 
    Lisa Wonders, what's the use of so much struggle?
    If nobody even notices or cares
    And Lisa's crying, and biting her fingernails

        Then one day when she was painting
        It was more than she could take
        So she grabbed a book of matches
        And she set her love ablaze
        She couldn't stand the way it looked at her
        It reminded her of everything she hates
        Oh, what a change

Now Lisa's staring at the flames
And as the fire fades away
It's like everything is ashes on the floor
She grabs a broom and sweeps them up
Then falls to pieces on the ground
Yelling where'd I go wrong, 
There's supposed to be so much more

    Lisa Wonders, is it time to stop pretending?
    But it's hard when you don’t know what else to do
    And though the painting's gone, she still has all her brushes
    Lisa Wonders, is it time to start anew?

Uncanny Valley

I woke up in the morning lying
Face down on a desert road
I stood up with confusion
To be in this grave scenario
I saw visions on the side of the road
I thought I wasn't alone
But there was no one around
So I walk in the sun 
'Til the evening comes
And I know I'll never be found

    I'm going down                                 (If I could just reach the mountains)
    To Uncanny Valley                          (If I could only reach the mountains)
    And something's wrong              (If I could just reach the mountains)
    Because this road is going nowhere
    Please wake me from this nightmare

In the distance there were figures
Marching in a strange processional
So as not to catch their eye
I thought it best to act professional
But the group began to get so close
Until they swallowed me whole
And we were marching in sync
So I just played along 
And I banged on a drum
And I didn't quite know what to think

    (Chorus)

But you remember those times on the fourth of July
And the feelings you got in the evening time
We'd walk through the park as the sky grew dark
And the fireworks went off
But you can't see them now

     (Chorus)

When the road has reached its end
You find you're back where you began
The tiny mountains in the distance
Might as well have not existed
 

Bridges

You were once so innocent
Back in the beginning
And you've lost so much
That you had before
    But that's okay
    If all you'll make 
    Can fill in its place

In the winter's chill
You long for July
When the summer comes
You just stay inside
    But when you resent
    The present tense
    That's no way to live
    Never content
    You're jumping off bridges
    And hoping you'll float in the wind
    Just hoping you'll float in the wind

        But I know the world is hard
        And tangled webs are always trapping you inside
        The more you fight, the worse it gets
        Just let yourself go and forget all your regrets
        And let those feelings lie
        Let moments catch you by surprise
        Stop trying to stop the world from spinning and
        Stop jumping from bridges
        And hoping you'll float in the wind
        Just hoping you'll float in the wind

At the carnival
We walked late at night
Riding roller coasters
And losing our minds
    But it's not okay
    To stop the ride
    When you're not in control
    And it's not alright
    To plant a seed
    And not let it grow

Dragonfly

I've been living underwater for so long
The sunlight barely reaches me at all
And I can't wait to spread my wings in the summer breeze
And leave my body lying in the weeds
But until that day
In the depths I'll stay

I've been hunting everyday to stay alive
And when I come around everyone hides
'Til someone bigger and badder swims up on me
Then I'm the fastest bugger you'll ever see
But all the while
I dream of flying
Right through the air
So I say this prayer

    That even when the waves wash me away
    Even when I feel I can't be saved
    Even when all hope has been erased
    I will wait for that day
    And even though the water's all I've known
    Every day I'll keep on growing 
    ‘Til my wings are strong and lithe
    Until then, I'll look to the sky

Then, one day, I know the time has come
Soft, and slow, I crawl up towards the sun
My skin, it cracks, and falls away
My wings emerge, and everything feels brand new
Oh, the air across my back

These days you'll find me flying all the time
My body sparkles in the summer light
And when I pass I leave a trailing vestige
Like a skywriter who's sending you a message
And to you it says
Remember that

    Even when the waves washed me away
    Even when I felt I couldn't be saved
    Even when all hope had been erased
    I kept waiting for that day
    And even though the water was all I'd known 
    Every day I kept on growing 
    ‘Til my wings were strong and lithe
    And that day, I took to the sky 
 

On A Good Day

Sometimes life is so beautiful
It sends chills all down my spine
When dreams unfold unto you
It can open up your eyes
And it can be quite frightening
To realize that you're on a path
But you don't know where you're going
But I know things will be alright
As long as I am still alive
If only I could duplicate 
The way I feel on a good day

        Something happens deep inside         It's been a good day    
        New connections in my mind               And I feel okay
        It's all the way you see it                           Such a sunny day
        It's always clear on a good day              Filled with rain

In the garden, colors bloom
Hear the singing of the birds
As they pass you by in flight
They speak to you without a word
But it can be so tiring
When you're always moving fast
And you don't know why you do it
But I know nothing ever lasts
I've studied how the seasons pass
Winter always leads to spring
I feel its heat on a good day

        (Chorus)

And I see the clouds forming overhead
The birds all scattered
The colors fading
But I know the rain falling on my head
Will soak into the ground
And the garden grows again

        (Chorus x2)

Fingerprints

There's something in the air at night you feel but never see
It floats around the houses and it whispers through the leaves
And it's everywhere, and it's always there
It's everywhere, and it's always there

It's in the smallest molecules and in every thought you think
It's in the greatest galaxies and in everyone you meet
It's everywhere, and it's always there
It's everywhere, and it's always there

    Though you're feeling small and lonely
    And it's all an accident
    There's a million lunar landscapes
    Hidden in your fingerprints
    And it's evidence that miracles exist

It wept inside the hammer when at first the blood was shed
And one day it will call the stars back and the world will end
But it's everywhere, and it's always there
It's everywhere, and it's always there

    Though you're feeling small and lonely
    And it's all an accident
    There's a million lunar landscapes
    Hidden in your fingerprints
    To be anything is so miraculous

It flashes in the garden with its beauty on display
It's even in the shadows when you're stranded in the cave
It's everywhere, and it's always there
It's everywhere, and it's always there