The Gray Race

blacktop pavement cover me
like a chemical reaction or a steam roller
spreading randomly

there's a distant and a low frequency
it tickles my ear, it rumbles under my feet
and it shakes the leaves off of every tree (violently)
what pretension! Everlasting peace
everything must cease

institution on the Hill
like a beacon in the mind of an ancestor
to ignite a people's will

there's a shadowed stain on the west facade
it has spread like decay to enshroud the fraud
and the descendants find oh so odd
(oh so odd)
what pretension! Everlasting peace
everything must cease

grave memorial hewn white stone
like the comforting caress of a mother
or a friend you've always known

it evokes such pain and significance
and the generations pass without recompense
what pretension! Everlasting peace
everything must cease

despite that he saw blatant similarity
he struggled to find a distinctive moiety
all he found was vulgar superficiality
but he focused it to sharpness
and shared it with the others
it signified his anger and misery

them and us
lobbying determined through a mire of disbelievers
them and us
dire perpetuation and incongruous insistence
that there really is a difference
between them and us

hate is a simple manifestation
of the deep-seated self-directed frustration
all it does is promote fear and constrenation
it's the inability
to justify the enemy
and it fills us all with trepidation

them and us
bending the significance to match a whimsied fable
them and us
tumult for the ignorant and purpose for the violence
a confused loose alliance forming
them and us

I heard him say
we can take them all
(but he didn't know who they were,
and he didn't know who we were.
and there wasn't any reason or
motive, or value, to his story,
just allegory, imitation glory,
and a desperate feeble search for a friend)

everwhere you looked there was confusion, violence, drama and drugs
so many righteous revolutionaries spouting utopian love
everyone shrouded in purple haze
then one day they woke up from their dream state
they found themselves no more at peace than before
older, meek, and conformed

empty causes
a bluster for the soul, a fix for their mind
empty causes
cling to everything you find

well, the shots rang out like popcorn and the Chief was hit and rushed out of sight
the mohawk-chain, leather brigade rejoiced maliciously on that night
someone cried out 'fuck the government'
his mates couldn't define what he meant
so no one gave him the time of day
and the scene died away

empty causes
a war for the body, an army in the mind
empty causes
losing steam as time goes by

could it be that everybody selfishly desires their own personal retinue
and that causes are just manifestations of too much time and far to little to do

empty causes
direction for the soul, conviction for the mind
empty causes
cling to everything you find
empty causes
you've got yours and I've got mine

shed a tear for the criminal, give him something to believe
light a fire for the miserable, give the darkness some meaning
closed wounds harbor pestilence, when you lick them from within
charity has a redolence chastity cannot rescind

spirit shine, it's a sign
of a troubled mind (tortured mind)
spirit shine all the time
can render you blind

you can take it all to heart or throw it all away
you can give until you're dry and sucked of all your gleam
you can fake another cry and compromise your dream

cling tight to the parable - let it dominate your life
create a God who's infallible - give your leader some respite
clouds wounds harbor pestilence - when you lick them from within
rosy smiles lose their radience - when you take it on the chin

So you say you gotta know why the world goes 'round
And you can't find the truth in the things you've found
And you're scared shitless 'cuz evil abounds
Come and join us

Well i heard you were looking for a place to fit in
Full of adherent people with the same objective
A family to cling to and call brethren
Come and join us

All we want to do is change your mind
All you need to do is close your eyes

So come and join us
Come and join us
Come and join us

Don't you see the trouble that most people are in
And that they just want you for their own advantage
But i swear to you we're different from all of them
Come and join us
I can tell you are lookin' for a way to live
Where truth is determined by consensus
Full of codified arbitrary directives
Come and join us
All we want to have is your small mind
Turn it into one of our own kind
You can go through life adrift and alone
Desperate, desolate, on your own
But we're lookin' for a few more stalwart clones
So come and join us
Come and join us
Come and join us

We've got spite and dedication as a vehement brew
The world hates us, well we hate them too
But you're exempted of course if you
Come and join us
Independent, self-contented, revolutionary
Intellectual, brave, strong and scholarly
If you're not one of them, you're us already so
Come and join us

parched, cracked mouths, empty swollen guts
sun-baked pavement encroaches on us
haves and have-nots together at last
brutally engaged in mortal combat
10 in 2010

what kind of God orchestrates such a thing?
10 in 2010
ten billion people all suffering
10 in 2010
truth is not an issue just hungry mouths to feed
10 in 2010
forget what you want, scrounge the things you need

happy and content it can't happen to you
10 in 2010
fifteen years we'll think of a solution
10 in 2010
it won't just appear in one day
10 in 2010
for ten in twenty-ten we're well on our way

like piercing ear darts, I heard the news today
10 in 2010
10 billion people...coming your way

the smell of virgin pages wafted through the swinging doors
and the croaking speech he'd heard from countries counselors before
they said 'we all care for you, we know how you suffer
but I know you can succed, I used to have it so much rougher'

there's hope in the words and emotion in the eyes
it's so easy to be misled by the savvy gentle guise
and like fools we trust the delivery
but it's all just drunk sincerity

in maternal family assembly poised regarding the blue tube
the numbers crept up higher and the hawks stayed out of view
then the generals said 'we dont want our boys dead
your sons and your husbands will be coming back heroes soon'

with steam, heat, and rhythm in the back seat of the car
and adolescent perspective projecting life's forecast to the stars
you heard love from the lips and you were rapt by the hips
and the promise was eternal but you couldn't see that far

have you been to the desert?
have you walked with the dead?
there's a hundred thousand children being killed for their bread
and the figures don't lie they speak of human disease
but we do what we want and we think what we please

have you lived the experience?
have you witnessed the plague?
people making babies sometimes just to escape
in this land of competition the compassion is gone
yet we ignore the needy and we keep pushing on
we keep pushing on

this is just a punk rock song
written for the people who can see something's wrong
like ants in a colony we do our share
but there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
and this is just a punk rock song
(like workers in a company we do our share
but there's so many other fuckin' robots out there)

have you visited the quagmire?
have you swam in the shit?
the party conventions and the real politik
the faces always different, the rhetoric the same
but we swallow it, and we see nothing change
nothing has changed...

10 million dollars on a losing campaign
20 million starving and writhing in pain
big strong people unwilling to give
small in vision and perspective
one in five kids below the poverty line
one population runnin' out of time

so you say you gotta know why the world goes 'round
and you can't find the truth in the things you've found
and you're scared shitless 'cuz evil abounds
come and join us

well I heard you were looking for a place to fit in
full of adherent people with the same objective
a family to cling to and call brethren
come and join us

all we want to do is change your mind
all you need to do is close your eyes

so come and join us
come and join us
come and join us

don't you see the trouble that most people are in
and that they just want you for their own advantage
but I swear to you we're different from all of them
come and join us
I can tell you are lookin' for a way to live
where truth is determined by consensus
full of codified arbitrary directives
come and join us
all we want to have is your small mind
turn it into one of our own kind
you can go through life adrift and alone
desperate, desolate, on your own
but we're lookin' for a few more stalwart clones
so come and join us
come and join us
come and join us

we've got spite and dedication as a vehement brew
the world hates us, well we hate them too
but you're exempted of course if you
come and join us
independent, self-contented, revolutionary
intellectual, brave, strong and scholarly
if you're not one of them, you're us already so
come and join us