They're Never Coming Back

The angels passed overhead long before the silence was broken

The mirror shattered in your face long before the reflection was shown

You imagine a world of ants and elephants

Taking their time to cross the street and

Stopping traffic and hearts

Take a number and my hand and we'll start all over again

In this distended garden of dreams

My effigy, the last song for so long

That no one will know or care when I'm gone

The imagination broadens your horizons to include the things I never said

The trees still sway as the wind blows the leaves and my life away

The stars still shine in all the sky but after these nights

Even that long dead light has faded from my eyes

We shutter windows and lock doors and stop the shores from eroding

To the overpowering waves of light we've filled these oceans with

Stepping away from the painting takes the details from my view

But for the first time in a long time I can now see the truth

Dressed in blood and ancient love

I kiss the world with lips long devoid of emotion

And stay so far away from anything that could be considered real

This movie plays on long after the tape has ended

And I'm sleeping in the projector's booth

Waiting for the last to leave before I am removed

Prosecuted and prostituted to a meaningless god

That never did anything to stop this

And the rain still falls and I'm still surrounded

By the bare walls of this empty tomb

And the harder I press against the lid of my casket

The more it tightens and fights to keep me in

Freedom was never the gift you thought it was, she says

Leaving was never an option before you turned to dust

She insists I stay 'til morning, I persist in ignoring her warnings

The only gift I ask for now is buried in dust from miles of misuse and mistrust

Those eyes could never be gray like mine

So full of the ash and embers of time, but a fire will mark the moment I return to life

This ressurrection a sin against the oppresive order of my captors

The divisive borders of my coffin, the incisors that dig into my skin

I will feed you, and you will eat well, and you will fall and swear I am poison

I remark on days long spent, remember who came and went

Time was never of any importance before I was left to my own devices

Now I scratch out days into the walls of my prison, each mark a maze

Of blood and splinters, the fall and winter of all we've come to resent

This sand was just sand 'til it ran through your fingers

And out of your hands, now what do you have left to represent

The trials and tribulations and straight paths with undulations

That have forever set us askew of all it was that we were aiming for in you

Now you sleep in a room of apparitions and phantoms

Communicate quietly through whispers and hand signals

Do not wake the demon, do not disturb the silence

We placate our greatest evils, through a symphony of violence

The angels passed overhead long before the silence was broken

And they whispered death, and pointed swords

And through filtered breath, we choked out our words

And in days spent, I found this breath

And held it in, 'til it burned in my chest

And all that is given, is taken away

All that we live in is the remains of the day

Whose fires are bold, and whose shadows are fearful

Whose darkness brings not cold, but in absentia of a clear view

We shiver and shoulder our weights

We're bitter and fading away

Impatiently bloodying fingers tapping on the shoulders of statues

Who never turn, and we'll never learn

Their figures, we steal pictures to carry with us long past the fall of Apollo

Who drove his chariot straight through our souls

And here I am dressed in fire

Here I am tied to the cross

Here I am burning alive, and I love the sound and scent of it all

A power that even these four stone walls dare not turn to face

Dare not attempt to dissuade me, for even the darkest soul

Would be overexposed by these dancing

Devils, these fingers of the soul who reach out and grasp every willing victim

Who comes near this hold, who stands close and bold

Through the wind and the cold, and wonders to themselves

Where the warmth in their bones springs forth from

Where the hope in their souls has snuck out of

A crack in the facade of the face of the gods

Whose voice would echo throughout the minds of the weak and strong

Alike, this night is the fire that burns brightest, this life is the pyre that eats at the flesh

Have you no innocence left, then come to hell where you shall be welcomed in

Dressed in the light of heaven, and made to sin

Persuaded to corrupt the purity of passion

With the surety of the flame, who feeds and frees

Who bleeds out this heat, to those whose flesh is already clothed in death

Those who wouldn't turn to ash, just yet

But last a moment, I've come, to open up the walls that close you in

To melt down to razor-edged blades the chains at your wrists

I have come, to free you, to expel every breath in your lungs

To dispel every myth you've held of lust

And show you who I truly am, the dawn of the devil you've tasted

Only precedes the midday heat, who is chased by the relief of evening

Before you sleep, in the vast spaces of true awakening

The angels passed overhead, long before the silence was broken

And they're never coming back, yet the twin devils of freedom and passion

Are everpresent and everwilling, to feed your darkest desires again.