Little Plastic Castle

i'm cradling the softest, warmest part of you in my hands
feels like a little baby bird
fallen from the nest
i think that your body is something i understand
i think that i'm happy
i think that i'm blessed

but i've had a lack of inhabition
i've had a loss of perspective
i've had a little bit to drink
and it's making me think
that i can jump ship and swim
that the ocean will hold me
that there's got to be more
than this boat i'm in

they can call me crazy if i fall
all the chance i need
is one-in-a-million
and they can call me brilliant
if i succeed
gravity is nothing to me
i'm moving at the speed of sound
i'm just gonna get my feet wet
until i drown

i teeter between tired
and really, really tired
i'm wiped out and i'm wired
but i guess that's just as well
cuz i've built my own empire
out of car tires and chicken wire
and now i'm queen of my own compost heap
and i'm getting used to the smell

i've had a lack of information
i've had a little revelation
i'm climbing up on the railing
trying not to look down
i'm going to do my best swan dive
into shark infested waters
i'm going to pull out my tampon
and start splashing around

cuz i don't care if they eat me alive
i've got better things to do than survive
i've got the memory of your warm skin in my hands
and i've got a vision of blue sky and warm land

i'm cradling the hardest, heaviest part of me in my hands
the ship is pitching and heaving
our limbs are bobbing and weaving
i think this is something i understand
i think i need a couple vaccinations
for my far-away vacation
i'm gonna go anhead and go boldly
cuz a little bird told me
that jumping is easy
and falling is fun
right up unitl you hit the sidewalk
shivering and stunned

they can call me crazy if i fall
all the chance i need
is one-in-a-million
and they cal call me brilliant
if i succeed
gravity is nothing to me
i'm moving at the speed of sound
i'm just going to get my feet wet
until i drown

Cold and drizzly night in Chicago's deep dish
Fluorescent light of the bathroom
Shows my hands as they are
See an eyelash on my cheek
Pick it off and make a wish
And walk back out into the bar
Wind at the windows
Neon lights, the pattered pane
The waitress wields the weight
Of her tray around her palm
The doorman cups his hands
And lights his cigarette again
And the rain marches on

(This is only a possibility in a world of possibilities. There are, obviously
there are many possibilities, ranging from small to large, before long there
will be short, before short there was nothing. When there was nothing there
was always the possibility of something, becoming what it is)

Don't even bother trying
To say something clever
Clever is as clever does
No matter what it says
I'm looking for a sign
Says you're for real this time
But I don't trust what's in your head
I walk up to the bar
And point to the top shelf
And then I throw my head back
And laugh at myself
I raise a toast to all our saviors
Each so badly behaved
It's too bad that their world
Is the one that they saved

(Now you got to dance with me, now is when it's gotta be cuz I can't wait for
the dance floor to fill in. If you want to dance with me, I'll show you how
it's gonna be cuz I can't wait for the band to begin)

There's a spider spinning cobwebs
From your elbow to the table
While my eyes ride the crowd
In a secret rodeo
I smile with my mouth
Lift my watch up to the light
Say, oh look I have to go

you crawled into my bed
like some sort of giant insect
and i found myself spellbound
at the sight of you there
cocooned in my room,
beautiful and grotesque and all the rest of that bug stuff
bluffing your way into my mouth
behind my teeth, reaching for my scars
that night we got kicked out of two bars
and laughed our way home

that night you leaned over
and threw up into your hair
and i thought
i would offer you my pulse
if i thought it would be useful
i would give you my breath
except
the problem with death is that you have
some hundred years and then they can
build building on your only bones
100 years and then your grave is not your own
we lie in out beds, and our graves
unable to save ourselves from
the quaint tragedies we invent
and then undo from the stupid circumstances
we slalomed through
and i realized that night that the hall light
which seemed so bright when you turned it on is nothing
compared to the dawn
which is nothing, compared to the light
which seeps from me while you're sleeping beautiful
and grotesque resting cocooned in my room
that night we got kicked out of two bars
and laughed our way home
and i held you there thinking
i would offer you my pulse
i would give you my breath
i would offer you my pulse

They were digging a new foudation in manhattan
And they discovered a slave cemetary there
May their souls rest easy
Now that lynching is frowned upon
And we've moved on to the electric chair
And i wonder who's gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dummer?
And who's gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer?
Howabout we put up a wall between houses and the highway
And you can go your way , and i can go my may

Except all the radios agree with all the tvs
And all the magazines agree with all the radios
And i keep hearing that same damn song everywhere i go
Maybe i should put a bucket over my head
And a marshmallow in each ear
And stumble around for
Another dumb- dumb waiting for another hit song to appear

People used to make records
As in a record of an event
The event of people playing music in a room
Now everything is cross-marketing
Its about sunglasses and shoes
Or guns and drugs
You choose
We got it rehashed
We got it half-assed
We're digging up all the graves
And we're spitting on the past
And you can choose between the colors
Of the lipstick on the whores
Cause we know the difference between
The font of 20% more
And the font of teriakiyi
You tell me
How does it...make you feel?

You tell me
What's ...real?
And they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics
Even when they're as dry as my lips for years
Even when they're stranded on a small desert island
With no place within 2,000 miles to buy beer
And i wonder
Is he different?
Is he different?
Has he changed? what's he about?...
Or is he just a liar with nothing to lie about?

Am i headed for the same brick wall
Is there anything i can do about
Anything at all?
Except go back to that corner in manhattan
And dig deeper, dig deeper this time
Down beneath the impossible pain of our history
Beneath unknown bones
Beneath the bedrock of the mystery
Beneath the sewage systems and the path drain
Beneath the cobblestones and the water mains
Beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals
Beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels
Beneath everything i can think of to think about
Beneath it all, beneath all get out
Beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel

There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel
There's a fire just waiting for fuel

We drove the car
To the top of the parking ramp
4th of July
Sat out on the hood
With a couple of warm beers
And watched the fireworks
Explode in the sky
There was an exodus of birds from the trees
Cuz they didn't know
We were only pretending
And the people all looked up and looked pleased
And the birds flew around
Like the whole world was ending

I don't think war is noble
And I don't like to think love is like war
But I got a big hot cherry bomb
And I wanna slip it through the mail slot
Of your front door

You can't leave me here
I got your back now
You'd better have mine
Cuz you say the coast is clear
But you say that all the time

So many sheep I quit counting
Sleepless and embarassed
About the way that I feel
Trying to make mole hills out of mountains
Building base camp at the bottom
Of a really big deal
Did I ever tell you how I stopped eating
When you stopped calling me
I was cramped up
And shifting rivers for weeks
And pretending that I was finally free

You can't leave me here
I got your back now
You'd better have mine
Cuz you say the coast is clear
But you say that all the time

We drove the car
To the top of the parking ramp
4th of July
I planted my dusty boots on the bumper
Sat out on the hood
And looked up at the sky

sitting in my glass house
while your ghost is sleeping down the hall
watching the little birds fly
kamikaze missions into the walls
think i'm going to stay in today
sit on the couch and watch them fall

life keeps getting harder
and it just keeps getting harder to hide
the darker it is around me
the easier it is to see inside
outside the glass
the whole world is magnified
and it's half an inch
from here to the other side

i guess that push has come to this
so i guess this must be shove
but before you throw those stones at me
tell me, what is your house made of?
and if you think you know what i'm doing wrong
you're gonna have to get in line
but for the purposes of this song
let's just say i'm doing fine
i guess i'm doing fine

trapped in my glass house
a crowd has been gathering outside since dawn
i make a pot of coffee
while catastrophe awaits me out on the lawn
think i'm going to stay in today
and pretend like i don't know what's going on

yeah, i guess that push has come to this
so i guess this must be shove
but before you throw those stones at me
tell me, what is your house made of?
and if you think you know what i'm doing wrong
you're gonna half to get in line
but for the purposes of this song
let's just say i'm doing fine
i think i'm doing fine