To The Teeth

The sun is settin on the century
And we are armed to the teeth
We are all working together now
To make our lives mercifully brief
Schoolkids keep trying to teach us
What guns are all about
Confuse liberty with weaponry
And watch your kids act it out
Every year now like christmas
Some boy gets the mildfed surburban blues
Reaches for the avaliable aresenal
And saunters off to make the news
And women in the middle
Are learning what poor women have always known
That the edge is closer than you think
When your men bring the guns home

Look at where the profits are
That's how you'll find the source
Of the big lie that you and i
Both know so well
It the time it takes this cultural
Death wish to run its course
They're gonna make a pretty penny
And then they're all going to hell
He said the chickens all come home to roost
Yeah, malcom forecasted this flood
Are we really gonna sleep through another century
While the rich profir off our blood?
True, it may take some doing
To see this undoing done
But in my humble opinion
Here's what i suggest we do:

Open fire on hollywood
Open fire on mtv
Open fire on nbc
And cbs and abc
Open fire on the nra
And all the lies they told us
Along the way
Open fire on each weapons manufacturer
While he's giving head
To some republician senator

And if i hear one more time
About fool's rights
To his tools of rage
I'm gonna take all my friends
And i'm gonna move to canada
And we're gonna die of old age

I don't keep much stuff around
I value my portability
But i will say that i have saved
Every letter you ever wrote to me
The one you left on my windsheild
Outside of that little motel
Is in the pocket of my old gigbag
From back when life was more soft shelled

Letters littered with little lewd pictures
Drawn by the ghost of woddy guthrie
Who would use your big thick hand
Just to draw one two for me

And i think of your letters as love letters
Which is how i think of songs
In that it is the writing of them
That tend to carry us along
And i dance to one of your old tunes
With my true love on our wedding day
And your voice sang the way my heart would sing
If it finally knew just what to say

Two people pulled over on the same night
To look up at the same stars
They both found their wheels were spinning
In a soft shoulder
When they got back into their cars
And they missed fate's appointed rendezvous
And then a whole lotta time went by
And finally they were done
Worshipping the landscape
And they put down their hands
And moved into the sky

And they had barely said hello
And it was time to say goodbye
Goodbye ............

Who knew
At this party that i
Would walk in and i'd see you.
I guess now
We could just get drunk
Yeah, that could be our excuse
You could slip
From out of nowhere
I could be there to catch your fall
We could laugh
At ourselves
And the writing that's on the wall

It's a narrow margin
Just room enough for regret
In the inch and a half between
Hey, how ya been?
And
Can i kiss you yet?
So we talk, like
Nervous neighbors over a tall fence
True love, but for the lack of providence

But i just got one more
Thing to tell you

'cuz words are vitamins
And life is short
And i know when we get up
To the front office
We're gonna have to fill out
A full report
And the first question will be
What were you thinking?
And the next question will be
What did you say?
Then they're gonna check to see
If the answers to one and two
Matched up much
Along the way

In the interest of poetry
And the cowboy movie
That's you and me
I'm back on the horse now
And i am riding
I am striding so effortlessly
What i mean is
It's late
Much to late for us
And i'm fixing to go home
With just my conscious
And a bitter sense of irony
As my chaperone

True love, but for the lack of providence.

Hold me down
I am floating away
In to the overcast skies
Over my hometown
On election day

What is it about birmingham?
What is it about buffalo?
That the hate-filled wanna build bunkers
In your beautiful red earth
They wanna build them
In our shiny white snow

Now i've drawn closed the curtain
In this little booth where the truth has no place
To stand
And i'm feeling oh so powerless
In this stupid booth with this useless
Little lever in my hand
And outside my city is bracing
For the next killing thing
Standing by the bridge and praying
For the next doctor
Martin
Luther
King

It was just one shot
Through the kitchen window
It was just one or two miles from here
If you fly like a crow
A bullet came to visit a doctor
In his one safe place
A bullet insuring the right to life
Whizzed past his kid and his wife
And knocked his glasses
Right off of his face

And the blood poured off the pulpit
The blood poured off the picket line
Yeah, the hatred was immediate
And the vengance was divine
So they went and stuff god
Down the barrel of a gun
And after him
They stuffed his only son

Hello birmingham
It's buffalo
I heard you had some trouble
Down there again
And i'm just calling to let you know
That somebody understands

I was once escorted
Through the doors of a clinic
By a man in a bulletproof vest
And no bombs went off that day
So i am still here to say
Birmingham
I'm wishing you all of my best
Oh birmingham
I'm wishing you all of my best
Birmingham
I'm wishing you all of my best
On this election day

Back back back in the back of your mind
Are you learning an angry language,
Tell me boy boy boy are you tending to your joy
Or are you just letting it vanquish
Back back back in the dark of your mind
Where the eyes of your demons are gleamin
Are you mad mad mad
About the life you never had
Even when you are dreaming.

Who are these old old people
In these nursing homes
Scowling away at nothing
Like big rag dolls just cursing at the walls
And pulling out all of their stuffing
Every day is a door leading back to the core
Yes, old age will distill you
An dif you're this this this full of bitterness now
Some day it will just fill you

When you sit righ tdown in the middle of yourself
You're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair
So renovate your soul before you get too old
Cuz you'r egonna be housebound there
When you're old you fold up like an envelope
And you mail yourself right inside
And there's nowhere to go
Except out real slow
Are you ready, boy, for that ride?

Your arrogance is gaining on you
And so is eternity
You better practice happiness
You better practice humility
You took the air, you took the time
You were fed and you were free
Now you'd better put some beauty back
While you got the energy
You'd better put some beauty back, boy
While you got the energy

I've been wondering what you meant when you asked
Do you have a light?
I've been wondering where you went when you left
That party that night
Cloud blood smudge smeared on the sky
It's dawn's roadkill
I've been driving since midnight
And i'm driving still

Stop on the top of the ridge just to feel the wind
On my rand mcnally
Then i feel the air go cold as i drift in
To the first blue of the valley
You're wondering how far down you are
On my call back list
But you don't realize everytime i find i'm by a phone
The landscape shifts

Every other song someone's trying to write angels
Into the wrold
Every grace, every ace every near miss
Every decent kiss by a pretty girl
She was an angel
She looked like an angel
And all of the angels did sing
The angels were watching
And the angels were listening
And the angels were on hand
To stand in for everything

You can call it magic
When a man pulls a rabbit out of a hat
But the reason i don't call is cuz i wonder
If there isn't a better word than that
And you can call me crazy
But i think you're as lazy
As white paint on a wall
And i know you'll only speak to me in dial tones
If i call

It's been way too long
Since i've been behind the wheel
Headlights guiding me through the dark i feel
Dry eyed trying hard to resist
Sleep's first kill
Everytime i have time to think
I think of this