"Even Victory Brings Loss"

So long we've been fighting this
Going back to the precipice
And retracing
With the hope we'll see the day
When all these ties to terror will release
And these neverending fires cease
In the daylight
How many fighters lay deceased?

We lay in broken pieces
In the aftermath, we can't go back
To the way it was before
We've overcome, but come undone
Our ships burnt at the shore
This ain't Hollywood, there aren't no
Perfect endings anymore
Victory is just defeat that you endure

Life fades, it's a mystery
How it lingers still aloft
In the background gaze
While our semblance fades
Still clinging to that cross
And there's a heartbeat underneath this flesh
Even though the flesh betrays
If we make it to the ending
Will there be something left to save?

We lay in broken pieces
In the aftermath, we can't go back
To the way it was before
We've overcome, but come undone
Our ships burnt at the shore
This ain't Hollywood, there aren't no
Perfect endings anymore
Victory is just defeat that you endure

What we've lost along the way
What we've lost along the way
We've all lost along the way
So stand today

"Defeatist"

You try so hard
At the outset
The beginning of the race
But then lose heart
When the pain sets in
You can't keep up the pace

You make excuses
And they're good ones, that's for sure
But that path is useless
Drawing circles, that's no cure

So you can never know
How far you can go
If you don't test it
Start investing
In the one that you do you control
It's your attitude that dictates where you'll go
Oooh, oooh

When your life's
Depleted
You're at half tank and half mast
But the only thing you're mourning
Is the outcome of the past

You're never quite defeated
Till your own lots, you have cast

So you can never know
How far you can go
If you don't test it
Start investing
In the one that you do you control
It's your attitude that dictates where you'll go
Oooh, oooh
Don't lose hope
Oooh, oooh

You trip and fall
And say "that's all
The strength I have in me."
But you'll lay right there
Going nowhere
If you don't get up on your feet

"Spotlight"

Black and white
Not everything is black and white
But still we divide
Ourselves under the premises of wrong and right

Under a different light
Our problems look the same in time
A different side, and now I'm the enemy
But who is right, oh who is

Run, run away
Into the present, to the future
Run, run into the place where
Light surrounds you
And leave, leave behind
The tattered images engraved into our minds
Hate doesn't deserve a spotlight

Black and white
People are black and white
And everything in between
Though with walls unseen
We seem to be on separate sides

Black and white
The truth isn't always black and white
And there may not be one right way to fix this
But I know we're all guilty that it exists

And so I'll run, run away
Into the present, to the future
Run, running for that place where
Light surrounds you
And leave, leave behind
The tattered images engraved into our minds
Hate doesn't deserve a spotlight

So let's run, run away
From all of this into the future
And see, the ways that we're the same
All one people, many cultures
We need, we need each other
Sometime's the way's unclear and unsure
But I know that hate doesn't deserve a spotlight

"The Witness"

Waking from the dead ain't easy
But it happens all the time
Breaking free from old confines

I've seen chains fall
Where logic dissolves

Man's wisdom
Made undone
Make you second guess your eyes
Bear witness
To all this
Miraculous design

Write down
Don't forget
What you've seen here
What you believe here
In this moment of time
It just might save your life

I've seen chains fall
Where logic dissolves

chorus

"Hold Me Close"

Dropped down on this rock

Given nothing but a mind to question

Is there God in the sky above?

Am I here to learn some lesson?

I was told what I need to know

What's good and bad and black and white

Find out further down the road

That they aren't always right

So hold me up

Hold me close

Because this feeling is all that I know

I'm not alone

So hold me close

I followed this old rope

Down to the end of it and back

Seems like the more of it I tread

The more places I found slack

It didn't add up, filled with plotholes

That were not my own ideas

Seemed like the more of mine I supposed

The more the path ahead came clear

So hold me up

And hold me close

Because this moment is all I know

I'm not alone

I don't know what is home

But just hold me close

"Deadhead"

I came back empty handed
And an empty seat as well
The night was fresh upon me
All alone as I could tell

No I didn't mind the solitude
For the time to clear my head
With an empty slate in front of me
While the midnight streets are dead

And I've heard
That we grow
When we remove the things we know
Replace the dead
That we sew
For something better there instead

I came to the conclusion
As I carved the winding roads
That I can need people
Just as much as I need to be alone

And there's nothing wrong
With needing time
There's so much that happens slow
So give it time

chorus

"Injustice"

There is no justice
There is no fair
There is no justice
Anywhere

Where is the justice
Where is the truth
Destined to carry
This burden of proof

I once knew a man
Who robbed me blind
Didn't listen to reason
Of any kind

But a man's got to eat
A man's got a job
We all earn our keep
Whether we judge or we rob

When truth and injustice
Breathe the same air
There is no justice
Anywhere

"Good at Grace"

I started out afraid, I came to you
You offered up a hand I held onto
But things began to change, the water grew
To take me under

I tried to be a man, to stand my ground
I held onto the cross for as long as I can
But when the arrows come behind and strike your back
Tell me who's on the attack?

You try to deal in grace and lofty words
But you hide behind the Face and I'm still unheard
You may have time to waste, but I'm moving on
When it's clear I don't belong

I left without a trace at break of dawn
And nobody made chase, they carried on
Now the memories replaced with lies enthroned
I could never call this home

chorus

You try to deal in grace and lofty words
But you won't admit mistakes, so eat your words
If you're so good at grace, why don't you take
Yours that I'm so dependent on
To say you're wrong

"Dark"

I know
That the world is cold
It's nothing new, it's nothing old
And I don't have to be told
Of the atrocities
That all unfold

The world is so dark
But I don't want to go there
I want to live in the light
In the light

I've seen
Poisons killing me
Drugs and depression, everything
I know they're only taking
Never giving
I want to breathe

chorus

Above the dim and dark, depraved
I'm thinking maybe I could pave
The world into whatever shape
I want
Above the selfish, lowly games
The desperate clamoring for fame
I want to paint
The world
In light

"Gentrification"

Let me be
The existential
Passionless pacifist
Let me figure it out
I know I'm not alone in this

And don't help me
Unless
You plan to give me your best
It's pointless to continue on
If there's no point in going on

Don't fight me
You could clue me in
Without caving in
I don't need
Another false perception
Clouding my vision

Hard on me
So hard on me
Falling steeper into
Deeper predictabilities
I want to break free
Forgive me for the frequencies
In which I dig a ditch
And pitch your insecurities

Falter for the final time
Ribbed in filtered images
For every fault builds bigger bridges
I can't fight my failures
For much longer

"Bound"

I want to say what's on my mind
What is it
Is it hiding just around the corner
I feel like I've been keeping secrets
And I have
But I don't want to hurt the ones I love
Not any more than I have

And I could keep a half truth
So close to my vest
But at best, still not bulletproof
Am I designed to unwind
And crumble to the floor
I'm not sure
If anyone is waiting
To untangle me

And you were never there
Never there for me
I tried and you pried
Into every aspect of my life
I would have let you come freely
But you won't consider your bounds
Won't consider your boundaries

And so I'm spinning here in circles
Round the same old thoughts again
A few points that I ricochet off
I don't know where to begin

And so I venture where I know
Shifting orbit in degrees
Ghosts of the ellipses I travel
Show you where I've peaked
And tried progressing
Past the ghosts inside
I'm haunted by the fact
That I may be here till I die

"Curve Of the World"

Life on the pavement gets so linear
Two dimensional points of view
I can see the horizon
But can I see further, over

And I feel so stuck
The comfort of my feet upon the street
Take me high above it all
To see
The overarching shape of things
The curve of the world

They tell me that the world is flat
And who am I to doubt
When all I've seen is that
How can I believe in further, over

chorus

And I feel so small
When I'm standing tall
My shadows cast so close to the ground
Take me up
Where I can't touch
The ways I'm rooted down

"Everything Could Go Wrong'

This car
Could swerve
Off of the side of the road
I'd have no time to react
My heart
Could stop
My pulse arrested
Cardiac

Everything
Everything could go wrong
Everything
Everything, I go on

This plane
Could crash
Fall out of the sky
No flying back
My words
Could burn
Down everything I love
Turn it into black

chorus

If it happens or it doesn't
If it was or if it wasn't
Yeah, I could have a heart attack
While everybody gets there fine
Gets there fine
My pulse doesn't decided the guiding line

"Sleepy City"

Early Sunday morning
See the boats, they leave their trails
V-shaped marks split the deepest parts
The sailors raise their sails

And the city's all laid out
In neat and tidy little squares
People live their lives in boxes
Just to live there

And some people dream
And some people have their own routine
And some people follow
And some people lead
And nobody's wrong
For trying to be free
Though we stumble along here
Crumbling

I pass over the ocean
Seeing isolated lands
You could call them private kingdoms
Or exiled contrabands

Are our worlds so disconnected
We forget to understand
We're all as desperate as a desert
Dry, dependent grains of sand

chorus

And the city is asleep but I'm awake
On wings I fly above its flooded gates
Building tops and limitations
Are concepts far from me
I just want to be free
We all want to be free

"Cockeyed Idealist"

I see the good
I see the good in everyone
I see the good
I see the good in everything

But don't think I don't know about injustice
Don't think I ain't seen the shattered sky
Don't tell me to see with eyes wide open
When every day I try

I see the fire
That burns beneath our feet
I see the fire
About to spread and reign deceit

I'm not a liar
But my words get blown off course
Guess I'm a liar
I'm my own destructive force

chorus

And you can search the world and find
Every evil intermingled with divine

"Intense and Dense"

Wade through the sound
Between the notes and what is found
Truth doesn't always come clear
In the brightest of notes

Because hope can be
A groan or a melody
And sometimes we make our own
Out of anything we can find

So don't you worry
If the words don't come out right
Every moment you are building
Every moment is a fight

Wake to the sound of
A heart that has half-given up
And lift one leg right after the other
The weight to start the day

Because home can be
A place that's hard to reach
So find hope in the moment
Don't let it slow your pace

chorus

"Melatonin"

Sleep now
Don't try to fight it
Oceans are rising
To carry you

Sleep now
In your burrow hiding
Nestle deep inside and
Let it enfold you

And in waves
Across your face
Like a sheet of satin
Pull you to that place
Embrace
The pond of grace
You are sinking
Slowly, soundly

Deep down
Feeling even lighter
In the hearth the fire
Is quietly smoldering

And the dying light
So small inside
See the single strand
Of smoke float to the sky

chorus

"Adrenaline"

I wake with the sun
It's starting a fire in me
Feet on the floor
Start my engine running

Awake in the dawn
I need your light
Alive in the wake
Of the fading midnight

And my pulse
And my heart
The cadence is set
From the place I restart

Break through my gray
Show me that spark
Light the torch in my eyes
To protrude through the dark

And the trees
Start their arc
Succumb to the wind
Of the morning star
In waves
Rush through my heart
Flooding my blood
At the day's start

"Shapeshifter"

I could put on a face
I could be so many things for you
Try to replace
Who I am with what I think is true

I make mistakes
And know I'm not defined by them
Still it's a race
To run away and not become

Me
Me
I'd be anything but me
Me

They could size you up
Lay you out in different pieces and
Tack you down
To segment and examine them

Simplified
To hide what they don't understand
Break you down
Till the last thing that you want to be is

You
You
Turn you into something new
You

For all our flaws
The only thing I want to be is me
Because
Everyone is flawed
And if you can have an impact
Then maybe I am making one as well
It's not a loss
To be myself, however flawed

Shapeshifter
Are you sifting through the sands
Trying to find your own hands again
You never really know who you are
Because you've drifted so far
Shapeshifter
Like a fading star

"BLM"

Red and blue
A terror down your spine
You don't know how this will end
But you've heard
Of horror stories, black and white
Is peace an enemy or friend

And you shouldn't have to second guess
If you're more or less
Or how to dress
But see in time
We could leave it all behind
Progress isn't always common sense
Not always present tense
But we could leave it all behind

Flashing lights
Like a lighthouse on a hill
It could wreck or save your soul
Open eyes
And follow side to side
Surrender your control

And do they see the fear behind them
Does the terror there remind them

And you shouldn't have to second guess
If you're more or less
Or how to dress
But see in time
We could leave it all behind
Progress isn't always common sense
Not always present tense
But we could leave it all behind

The fear it strikes
A wicked chord
And you never know
Quite how it might ring out
Do you hold your doubt
Or hold your ground
When clarity may barely make a sound