Don't be hiding in sorrow   
or clinging to the past   
with your beauty so precious   
and the season so fast   
no matter how cold the horizon appear   
or how far the first night   
when I held you near   
we're gonna rise from these ashes   
like a bird of flame   
take my hand   
we're gonna go where we can shine   

For all that we struggle   
for all we pretend   
it don't come down to nothing   
except love in the end   
and ours is a road   
that is strewn with goodbyes   
but as it unfolds   
as it all unwinds   
remember your soul is the one thing   
you can't compromise   
step out of the shadow   
we're gonna go where we can shine   

(and look, and look)   
Through the windows of midnight   
moonfoam and silver   
  
   

2. A Century Ends  
Cast your eyes into the distance  
try to focus on it all  
find a spirit of resistance  
instead of pride before the fall  
forge some opposition  
from disparate strands  
it ain't the prettiest position  
as a century ends  

Unstable situation  
faces made of wax  
streams of melting glass  
sheets of butchered facts  
the roar of the machine  
hooded hearts and jewelled hands  
and anger spilling out like gasoline  
as a century ends  

Everything I seen, everything that I heard  
it ain't even the tip of the iceberg  
fire down memory lane  
so pass me my rose tinted glasses again  

Through a fog of contradiction  
out to the lake of tears  
see society admiring its own reflection  
chase a light that shines and disappears  
careful what you say, 'cause reality offends  
just sit back and let your soul decay  
as a century ends  

And it's easy to get weary  
as you fight to get it done  
'gainst a popular theory  
that it's over 'fore it's even begun  
strain the limit of compassion  
tend a wound that never mends  
and honesty still out of fashion  
as a century ends  

3. Debauchery    
Drunken ferry boat woman  
swayin' on your your sea  
if I turn on the gasfire  
by the rain rattled window  
won't you sail over to me  

chorus:  
The hail storm tumbles  
the rail line rumbles  
you move in the porch with me  
on an overcast day  
the pale winter city  
an afternoon's debauchery  

Your blouse your skirt  
undo them so gently  
with beautiful care  
I'm a lonely man  
with five bottles of wine  
I'd like you to share  

repeat chorus  

Orange street light  
afternoon becomes night  
you drink your wine from a mug  
there's cats at the backdoor  
the snow is two inches  
you roll down your tights on the rug  

repeat chorus  

4. Let the Truth Sting   
The hour is out of joint  
black sun has risen  
and the river of words  
is flowing on through  
the cages of tradition  
they're handing out emptiness  
we'll take it, 'cause it's given  
free with this plastic innocence  
and these standards of living  

Questions, lighted questions  
burnin' holes into my head  
hanging like shadows o'er the sun  
staring out like the eyes of the dead  
and sometimes my soul flickers  
as the wind of change blows cold  
over the mire of repetition  
down the corridors of rigmarole  

What I say, what I think  
What I put down in ink  
I'm only tryin' to find a way to understand  
and I mean no harm  
I'm just searching for calm  
in the storm of mankind  

Do you find it there  
in the sea of faces  
that drowns you every day  
or in the silence and rubble and empty spaces  
where children and rottweilers play  
is it buried in the praise  
given so cheap  
with a meaningless movement of the jaws  
in the looking glass  
that flatters you  
or in the rattle of hollow applause  

Blind circle, moon and sun  
body willing, mind undone  
one pain ending while another begins  
lies, ruin, disease  
into wounds like these  
let the truth sting  

From the hub to the limit  
through the urban hollows  
out into the poles of the extreme  
to echo through the numbness  
of these godless minutes  
in the shadow of delustion's regime  

But here watching the night  
as it opens like a flower  
and the day starts to rust  
feeling time pound  
like a silent hammer  
on this empire of dust  
and I'm thinking 'bout the bullet  
and the TV screen, the dollar, and the clenched fist  
and if we're searching for peace  
how come we believe  
in hatred as the catalyst  

Through the borderline  
in front and behine  
down the road of thorns  
between the barbwire and the soul  
bitters and chains  
is all that remains  
where the wheel has rolled  

I feel it from the pit of my stomach  
into the ditch of my mind  
inside the chambers of my heart  
as I stare half blind  
at these walls of cardboard  
at this space that I've rented  
at your beauty that is crumbling  
though you have tried so hard to prevent it  

On and on  
body willing, mind undone  
one pain ending while another begins  
lies, ruin, disease  
into wounds like these  
let the truth sting  
 

Stole my time, all my time  
spend my time for you  

Pale winter sun  
is beatin' the ground  
why'm I throwin' away  
the best thing that I've found  
my young heart's in tatters and I'm sure  
that it will be a long time healing  
it's so hard to see what I'm doing this for  
when loneliness is all that I'm feleing  

Stole my time, all my time  
spend my time for you  

chorus:  
Now the wind it is blowing  
blowing leaves from the trees  
I've got no use knowing  
that with time it'll ease  
I don't know where I'm going  
hope I get there soon  
'cause my soul is hollow  
as the sorrowful moon  

repeat chorus  

The night is raining on my weary head  
taking me back  

See the sun spread its wings of gold  
as the dawn unfurls  
hear the song that the moon sings  
to the darkened world  
feel the fire lighting  
in the bitter cold  
it's like the light that shines  
through the windows of your soul  

6. Wisdom  
chorus:  
Time no good  
wisdom no good  
patience no good  
to me anymore  

Now night has fallen on the stair   
some things you do you can never repair  
seems I'm always pretending  
things aren't there when they are  

And the leaves are neatly off the trees  
the traffic thick past yellow windows  
and I'm lost inside the frozen headlights  
thinking of you  

repeat chorus  

And the trees are looking like bones  
and the afternoon's filled with storm and rain  
I'm staring out of this metal train  
thinking of you  
and the trees are looking like bones  
the afternoon filled with rain and storm   
and I'm tangled up in memory's thorns  
no way through  

repeat chorus  

Trees like bones, yellow windows  
memories, thorns, oh and you  

repeat chorus  
  
7. Lead Me Upstairs  
I care little for my body she said  
I couldn't care less about my soul  
and as she led me upstairs in whispers  
my whole summer turned cold  

chorus:  
I'll lead you upstairs  
I'll lead you upstairs  
if you've got no worries  
than I've got no cares  
I'll lead you upstairs  

I told her people had been talking  
about how dark she was inside  
she said my hopes are buried in the soil  
deep in the earth outside  
and with one twist of the world  
she brought me to her side  
she asked me for the truth one time  
and all I did was lied  

repeat chorus  

8. Living Room  
My good friends speak  
like they did last year  
last night's just a blur  
through a head full of beer  
my good friends speak  
like jthey did last year  
and last year's just a blur  
through a head full of beer  

chorus:  
Where's your wisdom  
put that broken bottle down  
let the wind ini your sails  
take you out of this town  
so sad I think I'm dying  
And if life's just a living room  
then I'm in the hall and I'm glad  
if life's just a living room  
I'm in the hall and I'm glad  
Oh I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad  

Now the dawn it hase broke  
still the night don't clear  
memories falling in the mornin' rain  
I'm up too close to see it clear  
and last year's just a blur  
through a head full of beer  

repeat chorus  

9. Birds Without Wings Tabulature   
Wishing that something would happen  
a change in this place  
'cause I'm tearing off the fancy wrapping  
find an empty package  

Take for a while  
your trumpet from your lip  
loosen your hold, loosen your grip  
on your old ways  
that have fallen out of step  
in a changing time  
hoist a new flag  
hoist a new flag  

Angry sun burn down  
judging us all  
guilty of neglect and disrespect  
and thinking small  

And death by boredom  
and death by greed  
if we can't stop taking  
more than we need  

Across the fractured the landscape  
I see the same things  
tired ideas  
birds without wings  

Birds without wings  
birds without wings  

But these are just thoughts  
on lackluster times  
and I've no interest  
in excuses you can find  

Like you've had a hard day  
now you're too tired to care  
now you're too tired to care  
you've had a hard day  

Well across the fractured landscape  
I see the same things  
tired ideas, broken values  
many with the notion  
that to share is to lose  
a hollow people bound by a lack  
of imagination and too much looking back  
without the courage  
to give a new thing a chance  
grounded by this ignorance  

When the cat comes  
we're just  
birds without wings  

Birds without wings  
birds without wings  

10. It's All Over   
In the bitter violet night  
the stars wear sour grins  
in the vastness of the black sky  
I'm cradled in your arms  
unbridled by alarm  
'cause I know the end is nigh  

chorus  
It's all over by the shoutin'  
one thing for sure  
it's all over now  
it's all over now  

Confusion wanders in  
strides the evening like a king  
'chaos and turmoil prevail  
bedlam reigns, hope is drowned  
ah but strangely we settle down  
resigned to the sinking ship on which we stand  

repeat chorus  

Our love's just smithereens  
too much beer in my head  
another night is getting late  
and I don't know where to go  
there's just this long white road  
and I can't think straight  
no I can't think straight  

repeat chorus