Hanging bones like paper dolls
And posing by museum walls
A forest of quotation marks
Where minnows masquerade as sharks
And every line is well rehearsed
And everyone in line is first it's

Chorus:
Almost like you really care
Almost like you really hear
Almost like you're really there
Almost like you're really here

Dressed just like a skeptic
But you tow the party line
You have no dialectic but
You know the secret sign
And every line is well rehearsed
And everyone in line is first it's

Chorus

Outskirts and concentric rings
follow you they follow you
Shallow cuts and childish things
follow you they follow you
Scratch the surface just like this
follow you it followed you
Shadows of a class dismissed
followed you it followed you

While it's no surprise I'll try to be
Kind to your disguise just another
Plot to subdivide passenger
Just waiting for a ride down around the
Corner now they say that you never
Ever saw the train leave without you

Try to place a call to that picture
Hanging on the wall same old message
No one there at all there's no answer
Scripture known by rote by this time there's
Nothing left to quote but your skin a
Scribbled sheet for notes incoherent

Chorus

Charm will steal your time
Just as time will steal your charm

The spotlight found another fool
The crowd has gone away
There's a shabby sunset
At the end of your big day
A joker in your finest hour
With aces up your sleeve
The clock has struck - you're out of luck
And now it's time to leave

Time to rest my clever friend
But first we must take flight
Time to find where jesters nest
When day turns into night
There's a place, if we make haste
Where we can hdie away
Watch our shabby sunset
At the end of our big day

Chorus:
Everything is concrete now
Concrete is the queen whose kingdom crumbles down
In Butchertown
Everything is metal now
Metal is the king whose crown is melted down
In Butchertown

Something in the air down here
Describe it if I could
I don't know what it is
But I know it isn't good

Something in the air down here
I wish could explain
I don't know what it is
But I know it isn't same

Chorus

Sky is overcast
Old man of the sails
Summoning to mass
Terns upon the rails
By some mystic means
Of changing gulls to kings
Old man had a way
So the seagulls sang

Chorus:
Our hoard has been abducted by a common draft

Old craft of mine
And left us on a raft
Goodbye ye kings in the sky
Our stand has been abandoned by the rubes we crossed

Ships in the sky
And left us at a loss
Ye old craft of mine
Our vessel has been boarded by a common craft
Ships in the sky

And left us on a raft

So long ye old craft of mine
Our channels are abandoned and the craft is lost
Ships in the sky

Left with an Albatross

Cursed flock descending
Terns upon the rails
Charmed by instruments and charts
Compasses and scales

Din is overwhelming
Screaming mob will find
So as they have made us deaf
The old man made them blind

By some scheme or sorcery
The ship had taken flight
Capsized by the moon and strewn
Its wreckage through the night

See gulls all the same
Searching for the rails
Summoning in vain
Old man of the sails
Still they dive and sing
Of becoming kings
Old man now they say
Lives far below the waves

Chorus
So long, ye old craft of mine
Good bye, ye ships in the sky

Thought I had a prayer down in this church
Of broken glass
But I awoke
To find myself asleep
And in glass, my soul to keep

Close-up of the floor down in this church
Of broken glass
Somewhere to pray
And spend all night
Strangling all day
So the fire expires this way

I thought I heard your voice down in this church
Of broken glass
So I returned
And the faithful still remained
But of you I heard no trace
But there's thirst to slake
And vows to break
And the fire expires this way
For today

Where were you? We faded out the other day

Make up new wounds to count and contemplate
Hear that lonesome whistle blowin'
Just for you and you alone
Lightning speed to nowhere it's your lucky day

Can't believe the nerve of that proceeding verse

Worse than where you are is that you got there first
Sure you can reverse
Turn a blessing to a curse

Lightning train to nowhere in the universe

Stressing every syllable of your complaint
Can't they tell the difference
Between passengers and freight?
Cursing the conductor then
We try our luck again
Lightning speed to nowhere but oblivion

Pictures play in place all day
They never leave their wall
They stand against it
And when they talk
They do so it can hear
For they know
That their wall has ears
All ears, all ears

Swatting at the smoke rings in the dining car

Speculation station is that where we are?
Plenty Of Conjecture
Would you like to give a lecture?
Lightning train to anywhere but very far

Lightning Speed to nowhere but obscurity
Only destination is the scenery
Hear that lonesome whistle blowin'
Just for you and you alone
Lightning train illusion of Velocity

Sing us a song, a song called how did it all go wrong
Sing even though we havn't spoken for oh so long
Sing for tongues are encumbered by their own eyes
And weary of leering, twisting and winding from side to side

Pray give us fields with bountiful yields for the coming frost
Teach us to toil, the lore of the soil that we have lost
Spare us alas for our seasons have sown only great expectations and rust
Only in labor and sun-beaten backs can we place our trust

Show us the field and weapons to wield for the coming war
Let us redress celestial sentence we've waited for
Trenches or furrows, soldier or harvester, sword or ploughshare
A field and a summer, one or another, we're buried there

Spin us a yarn of common place charm oh so far away
Rustic emotion, artless devotion, naiveté
Give us a game, the rules and the fools who refuse to play
Smash our defenses with endless editions of yesterday

A makeshift parlour game
Of treachery and shame
A nest of sin and vice
Informant's paradise
All ears and all the same
The rat's assembly line

We work in shifts then rest
Our ears are always fresh

For every bird a song
Sure as your life is long
A bird for every jail
For every rat his tale
Some friends of yours we met
Have echoed our request
The table has been set
And you're the honored guest

Article 128 could hardly be more clear
By order of the council you are always welcome here

You remind me of the wine
Not running out tonight
No need to check the time
No difference day or night
Judgment has her kiln and justice her baton
The people have their will and truth her blindfold on

Article 128 could hardly be more clear
By order of the council you are always welcome here

Windows are nothing but glass, so easily shattered
Shutters are nothing but wood, so easily cut
Walls are but plaster and lath, no match for a hammer
Spirits are nothing but fires, so easily snuffed
All ears and all the time
The rat's assembly line
We work in shifts then rest
Our ears are always fresh
Some friends of yours we met
Have echoed our request
The table has been set
And you're the honored guest

Article 128 could hardly be more clear
By order of the council you are always welcomed here
Long as you're still breathing you can sign the questionnaire
Surely your rendition will be more extraordinaire

Walking 'round
Eyes upon the ground
For something might be found
Always looking down
Look around
It's one big lost and found
So I'm always looking down
Eyes upon the ground

Chorus:
Fearlessness is careless unless
You've got nothing left to lose
Or leave behind
Your noblesse oblige
Is neither wise nor kind
Casual indifference is
My rational self interest
I'm your shadow now
And what is yours is mine

Worms we live like
In the dirt
For worms we have become
Thin and on the run
We the parasites
Will always follow you
We'll never be untrue
For what else can we do?

Rats we live like
In the wells
Or hiding underground
Fearful of the sound
Those who fly
Own the sky
But they're always looking down
Eyes upon the ground

Chorus

Burn
Beneath a disgraced moon
Before it's May it's June
It is too late too soon

Freeze
Beneath a silent sun
(Don't look so stunned)
The deal is raw
The numbers are well done

The planes are well-adjusted as you type into the field
Hoods and shackles, sterile wings of steel
Soon a silver bird will come with rapture in its clause
To spirit and deposit you abroad

The models are corrected but the currency is strange
Nothing's different, everything has changed
They that trap themselves between the fields and the sea
Pray in vapors they can barely breathe

Burn
Beneath a disgraced moon
Before it's May it's June
It is too late too soon

Freeze
Beneath a silent sun
(Don't look so stunned)
The deal is raw
The numbers are well done