for h. hesse or rev. harry powell:
we are conjugate, ourselves we separate and brand/
love and hate, wring together like a condemned man's clasped hands/
a dichotomy, on one hand a saint's conquering/
while on the left hand he's being torn, in the jaws of a beast/
twofold, weighed down by lead while we're carryin' gold/
we are twofold, no matter which side we stand we're never feelin' quite whole/
behind your smile, something bares it's fangs and leers/
and my highest ideals are dismantled by an animal fear/
polarity, two of you, two of me/
and each part is hanging half truths from a dead structure's eaves/
and it's twofold, the constant lament of a divided soul/
we are twofold, and bound to words absolute, we will be dragged in their tow/
away from our own shadows we run, and we still claim that we're one/
a bridge burns where failed language divides, on each end lays a cold compromise/
you can say, that we are in love today/
but don't go makin' claims for tomorrow/
through a revolving door, first with a song then a sword/
whim leads and defines joy and sorrow/ and it's twofold, today's sweet embrace is tommorow's stranglehold/
but we're twofold, and the you you are right now loves the me i'm struggling to uphold.

not your average john:

behind the mask of civility, there's a monster waiting/
waiting for a chance to do a midnight dance with you/
beneath the calm of stability, there's a demon rising/
surfacing from the dephs of an inward sea/
just a lonely boy, on a lonely street, looking to find a working girl alone/
he has an eye for transients, noone ever wonders where they went, those free spirits
come and they go/
in a leather attache, the tools of his trade; straight razorblade, gloves and chloroform/
he's not your average john, so don't you trust the calm of his easy smile/ the sparkle in his eyes will charm, behind them he's plotting harm all the while/
just your average working guy; briefcase, suit and tie, new car and house, family of four/
by his wife he is adored, after all she's well provided for by what he's sellin' door to door/
the salesman's wife's only complaint is he's always working late, gone all night,
sometimes till morn/
a secret she does suspect, and she's right in that respect; but it's darker than she
expects, so much more/
he's not your average john, so don't you trust the calm of his easy smile/
clean cut looks will charm, inside he's fantasizing harm all the while/
susan was his first time, novice at passion's crimes, you know he made a sloppy lover/
barely buried underground, she's the only one the cops have found, since her he's been
much carefuller/
older but still having fun; blackjack, lucky twentyone loves, twentyone victims, twentyone unmarked graves/
there was a time he tried to change but this
bloodlust is ingrained, for him there's just no other way/
he's not your average john, so don't you trust the calm of his easy smile/
cash in hand will charm, but you watch his other arm all the while/
he's not your average john, tomorrow you'll be gone, the streets will have one less
worthless whore/
he'll lay your life to waste, and when he shows his secret face you'll know your knocking
on death's door/
miss, you are his wife, can't you see his double life; you know he's bound to bring it home
to you/
the left hand wears a wedding band, but the right holds a kitchen knife; he's going to
steal your life from you/ and you'll become just another number, twentytwo/
twentytwo, he'll steal your life from you.

as we fall:
as we fall further down, all the colors fade into grey/
in the heart's sometime song an echo sounds, from the chamber where the feeling goes
away/
my dear, my dear, i fear that the love is just a cheaply made thing that we have canonized/
it's hanging over our heads, plastic behind glass; looks so good beyond our reach,
touched only by our eyes/
follow me, we'll grow old/
follow me, we'll grow cold/
as the ashes die down the flames/
and like a passage repeating we'll back up and start again/
from a subconscience davy jones locker, deeper than experience
can ever go/
out of still waters, up from the fathoms below/
a spectre appeared whispering of riches untrue/
told you they were held by me, told me they lay within you/
and you followed me, and we grew old/
you followed me, and we grew cold/
again the ashes died down the flames/
with each round it's losing more meaning, the same words said again, again/
and all the stars that shine above are just derelict sattelites/
and the worlds just singin' songs of love so their children can sleep at night/
when all they stars that shined become remote and slowly dying lights/
our learned perception like a drug will dull our fears and blur our sight/
and you will follow me, will o' the wisp it glows/ you can follow me, but searchin' is all
we'll ever know/
it's a rickety solace, and it seems strange i know/
to act a poorly written part, and miscast remain unknown.

taxidermied love:
wind your needles through my skin, trade my insides for dry cotton/
with glassy eyes, i'm the moments prize/
that's your taxidermied love/
on your mantle display me, prop me up with your other trophies/
the testaments of your morbid hobby/ that's your taxidermied love/
i could have been your only pet, if i survived the trap you set/
but you refused to need something you have to feed/
so i became your taxidermied love/
i could have been your only pet, if i survived the vivisect/
for me at least you chose the most flattering pose/
to seal, our taxidermied love/
so make a stole from what remains of me, a sometime fashion accessory/
and if i match your clothes and the weathers cold/
i can be your taxidermied love.

crusader song:
let's get to the heart of things, this discontent is so bourgeois/
each day feels like a dreary tea party with baudelaire or leautremont/
let's get to the heart of things, the veneers shining so dull and cheap/
i want to strip it down to bare meanings, where untamed nature, naked sleeps/
they said that they found the heart, but they're still wheeling their oxcarts, spreading
seeds unreal/
they think that they've found the heart, a falsehood from which they impart,
and to whom they kneel/
let's get to the heart of things, a religion for the modern man/
from eden's tree we'll cut the timber, and build new temples with modern hands/
and there i think we'll find the heart, it's the sum of all the parts, yeah it's corporeal/
i think we might just find the heart, and from it's riches we will start a new ideal/
with starry eyes, we smile and say/
it's okay, yeah it's alright/
we can sieze the day, it's in sight/
on a voyage to the heart of things, your ship was strayed by a siren's song/
in a trance you set your anchor down, determined i sailed on/
on a lone course set for the heart of things, over the earths edge my sails due/
now i'm gazing into the abyss, and i'm battlin' monsters too/ i
think i've finally found the heart, but the treasure chambers stark,
there's nothing for us here to steal/
i'll leave empty handed and accursed, the desolation leaves me worse,
i know there's noone to appeal/
don't you, don't you dare say/
it's okay, don't you tell me it's alright/
don't tell me we can sieze the day, from here on it's all night/
from down here in the heart of things, you're hard to hear over the tempest's swell/
above your singin' me a love song, from down here you sound just like a braying animal/
and your still looking for the heart, i'll hide your compass and your charts,
i'll break your wheel/
now that i have found the heart, best to keep it in the dark,
like a wound concealed.

shadowplay:
i've learned my former self by rote, and like a parrot i haved crooned/
a sweet but obsolete mirage of notes to mask what's out of tune/
desperation grows when i fear that you know there is a black hole in my head/
take away my petty sins and what remains seems little more than dead/
read some color into grey, i'm only what your mind assumes/
i'll come to life just like a shadowplay, when a cloud crawls across the moon/
well you're thinkin' you're walkin' alongside me, it's just a shadow by your side/
well you're thinkin' you're seein' my true face, it's just a reflection that you spy/
there's a ripple in the water, and what stirs below is not the one you think/
and this shadows distorted, in the dark stretched out but under light's scrutiny will shrink
into nothing.

black:
roy orbison, johnny cash, leonard cohen
those troubled troubadors they know where it's at/
birds on a wire, candy clowns and rings of fire called down from ringmasters
all dressed in black/
and those satanist dudes with danzig skull tattoos,
on a bookstore receipt in blood they make a pact/
if you hear someone say a quote from anton lavey
chances are they'll be all dressed in black/
in black, in black black, in blackest black/
the government spooks keep a close watch on you,
behind aviator shades they're eyes never relax/
by secret radio, they report you to main control
on transmittors sewed into they're suits of black/
and in the goth club scene, eurotrash disco blitzkriegs
the soundtrack to the mating dance of vampire bats/
unless you're dressin' black to the core,
they won't let you on the dance floor and not just your shirt
i'm talkin' head to toe in black/
in black, in black black, in blackest black/
role players spend they're friday nights tossin' twenty sided dice,
and in elvish argue the hit points from the attack/
ain't it a shame my favorite colors given a bad name
by ponytailed fanboys in thriftstore trenchcoats of black/
in black, in black black, in blackest black/
so as far as fashion goes, villains and antiheroes
all agree it's slimming and it's sexy, that's a fact/
so make me monochrome, an instant mysterioso,
so cool and detached all dressed in black/
in black, in black black in blackest black.

all words copyright 2004 Ray B. Reed