Compositions

PERFECT UNION

"We the people" are not free enough to understand

Those three little words

Unity is not means for exploiting the working class

Like stampeding herds

It's not a chain for shackling

The life of an independent man

All minds seek liberty

In order to achieve a plan

    ...And in order to form a more perfect union

We the loving are not brave enough to contemplate

Our own solitude

Loneliness is not a claim upon the love of another heart

No matter how viewed

It's not a cage for capturing

The heart of an independent mind

All need equality

In order to respond in kind

LAWS OF EMOTION

No brave deed to pull a trigger

No brave deed to throw a brick

Early Man could start a fire

Any ape can swing a stick

No brave deed to vanquish foes

By lining them up in unarmed rows

For all the backs they want against the wall

The one in China couldn't hold them all

This is crazy

This is totally insane

Words of fire fan the anger 

Tempers rise to fever pitch

Generations primed for contest

Egos scratch that violent itch

No brave deed to vanquish foes

By lining them up in unarmed rows

For all the backs they want against the wall

The one in China couldn't hold them all

This is crazy

This is way beyond insane

This is no way to live

With access to a brain

chorus (X2):

So tell me the laws of emotion

What do we have a right to feel?

And how do we know our reactions

Are in response to something real?

All these eyes that lash out blindly

All these hearts that hate on sight

There's inter-species rivalry

But in our own can't be right

No brave deed to vanquish foes

By lining them up in unarmed rows

For all the backs they want against the wall

The one in China couldn't hold them all

This is crazy

This is tearing us apart

This is no way to feel

With access to a heart

(chorus)

SUPERVISION

When our children make us proud

It's the values we imbue

But when they shame the family name

There was nothing we could do

We claim credit and control

If they get the right results

Children until they snap and kill

Then we try them as adults

 chorus:

 Our supervision was always somewhat blurry

 It's supervision on the verge of going blind

 No time to focus, adults are in a hurry

 Another problem child far too gone to find

They need our expert guidance

And constant supervision

But when they make a big mistake

It was solely their decision

We oversee their actions

We command them to obey

But claim no voice in their wrong choice

When the trial's underway

 (chorus)

Their growing minds don't know enough

To dress or fix their meals

And yet they're held accountable

For life and death ideals

And haunted by the memory

Of a baby in their lap

You think these model parents would

Even ask to take the rap?

(chorus)

repeat to fade:

Another problem child far too gone to find...

THE DYNAMO

Breathless from the run

We eyed the atmosphere

All above condensing and churning

Two hearts, we flee as one

So freshly driven from

Our prisons of silence and yearning

I can hear the low-pitched hum

Feel the built up momentum

Of the dynamo toiling and turning

The school day flows and nobody knows

Of our brazen truancy

So many ways to release the days'

Pent-up energy

Bounding down the hill

Spirits running high

Pass the ancient mill

Decrepit and run dry

The dead leaves clog the floor

Of the dried up river bed

The foreman's by the door

Of the grey utility shed

She can feel the low-pitched hum

Sense the built up momentum...

chorus:

Our eyes are galvanized

By the gleaming power source

And the music of mechanics

Wields a mighty force

New found energy

Unlimited and free

Applied thermodynamics

Works its worldly course

The old foreman says "The world won't be the same"

As we bid goodbye and brace to brave the rain

Electric flashes charge the skies

In a fusillade of spears

The lightning echoes on her eyes

Then thunder in my ears

Stately power lines

In dynamic pose

Trace our headlong flight

To where the power goes

On the outskirts of the town

The company linemen pause

For a hearty, homespun round

Of rainy day applause

(chorus)

The old foreman sees the price of progress high

And the impact on society so large

Now we market electricity to buy

When the beating of our hearts is free of charge

I can hear the low-pitched hum

Feel the built up momentum…

KEEP YOUR COOL

 All those years and drugs you took

 The schoolyard bullies went off the hook

 Medicate the victims who protest?

 But not the thugs who target and molest?

 "Someone show the latest chump

 Our psychological garbage dump

 Make sure our new friend gets the royal tour

 Let's see how much their psyche can endure"

 chorus 1:

 Character assassins mixed within our ranks

 Won't let the little misfits play

  The epitome of cool but they can't realize

 "The bully" is an old cliche

 Voodoo doll of the spirit -

 The cool kids curse - the misfits fear it -

 Separate the ones who've had enough

 "It's just some insignificant kid's stuff"

 All year long they wear the tags

 Of psychological punching bags

 Analyze the ones about to snap

 "The guidance counselor's fed up with your crap"

  (chorus 1)

  chorus 2:

  Character assassins mixed within our ranks

  Won't let the little misfits play

  The epitome of cool but they can't realize

 "The bully" is a dead cliche

  "The bully" is a dead cliche

  "The bully" is a dead...

   Keep your cool

   I don't want to learn that in school

   I don't want to learn that in school

   I don't want to learn...

   Keep your cool

   And if I have to learn that in school

   If I have to learn that in school

   Then I don't want to learn...

  tag verse:

  And we'll never call on ourselves

  And we'll never open our eyes

 Until the "gun" word shows up on a list

 Of back-to-school supplies

 abrupt fade out line:

 Character assassins mixed within our ranks...

makeituntrue.com

Somehow I knew in the cold cyber night

One day I'd visit a grave site...

Cast in a cold light

Eyes that evade

Trapped in a cruel world

Faults on parade

Somehow I knew...

Somehow I knew...

Exiled spirit

Troubled outcast

Future in doubt

Long and tortured past

Somehow I knew...

Somehow I knew...

chorus:

No sailing off into the cyber sea

No editing of your icon

No hyperlink from reality

No makeituntrue.com

Somehow I knew in the cold cyber night

One day I'd visit a grave site...

Cold-hearted people

Eyes that find fault

Relentless laughter

Daily assault

Somehow I knew...

Somehow I knew...

Broken and battered

Spirit war-torn

Raging inside

Like a North Sea storm

Somehow I knew...

Somehow I knew...

(chorus)

bridge:

It's a haunted message board

You're a frozen cyber ghost

Sometimes I return

And reread your final post

Searching for a clue

That would have made it all untrue...

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

  Senses at the ready to pick up all

  That is significant and influential

  Consciousness selecting the appropriate

  Thought on which to focus

  Subconscious retrieval of excess environmental stimuli

  Vibrant intelligence eager to assess and identify

   chorus:

   Well hey!....it's the nervous system... 

   I say!....such a complex system...  

  Let's play!....with the nervous system of consciousness

Muscles tense but steady to respond to

Encroaching danger or press advantage

Fight or flight decisions

Excite chemical signals into action

Accumulation of data our sensory awareness has caught

Pulled by the greater of gravitational forces in competing thought

ONLINE SUNSHINE

Some days should be shut down

Before they even boot up

Held by the scruff of the neck

Like a feisty newborn pup

Images cropped to wound the heart

Tweets to hurt the head

A love in danger of deletion

Like a what-the-fuck?  forum thread

Such an online

Ray of sunshine

chorus 1:

Doesn't matter who you are or method of transmission

No one has to take your shit or digital derision

You can text it, you can phone it, you can fling it online

Over wifi, over 5G, in a fucking FaceTime

You're still not getting through

Sunshine

Try to have a digital life 

On this or that social site

Keep a low profile so

A web of drama won't ignite

Click-bait for the hungry trolls

Out to have me for dessert

Every post erupts in flames

The whole site now on alert 

Such an online

Ray of sunshine

(chorus 1)

breakdown: (crackled and whispered phoned message)

Login, upload

From home or road

My little smartphone warrior

It's digital euphoria

Delete, resend

It's half pretend

My little message courier

The lines are getting blurrier

chorus 2:

Doesn't matter who you are or method of transmission

No one has to take your shit or digital derision

You can text it, you can phone it, you can fling it online

Over wifi, over 5G, in a fucking FaceTime

You're still not getting through

Remember who you're talking to

You still got work to do

On you

Sunshine

Sunshine

Sunshine

Sunshine