Faster Faster Faster

Not country.

Most of my life my dreams have been about being chased by an unseen pursuer or rushing frantically to get somewhere on time, with life-altering consequences. They are far more disturbing than it sounds. Any time I remember my dreams, I wake up distressed or terrified or terrifically distressed.

Lyrics

Dark breath behind a heavy door
Shadows creep under, spill across the floor
Hair bristles, stomach churns
Knob rattles, slowly turns

Run and run and run and run and run

Late and getting later all the time
Endless steeper stairwell still to climb
Missing pieces left behind
String of memory unwind

Run and run and run and run and run

Heavy boots
Bare feet
Cold dark
Empty street
Knotted fist
Spattered tears
Missed and missed
And years and years

Run and run and run and run and run
Run and run and run and run and run
Run and run and run and run and run

Pale dawn under wooden blinds
Daylight dimly memory unwinds
Tangled sweaty sheets
Every night repeats

Run and run and run and run and run

Strikes

Great big storm behind the mountain
See a flash, start counting
Feel the fire, crackling breeze
Thunder rumbles right up to your knees
Lightning

Flash so bright you lose the sky
Feels like Armageddon’s nigh
Push down, move faster
Driving down the throat of disaster
Lightning

High voltage electrical whine
Into my ears through the telephone line
I hear the words, feel the frisson
You talked, I didn’t listen
Lightning

Tires rip the dark wet road
Under-thinking overload
A hundred miles in nothing flat
Never let you go like that
Lightning

Great big storm behind the mountain
Thunder rumbles right to your knees
Great big storm behind the mountain
Thunder rumbles right to your knees
Great big storm behind the mountain
Thunder rumbles right to your knees
Great big storm behind the mountain
Thunder rumbles right to your knees
Lightning

Breathing

whaletale

He drove the harpoon into its great white head
Over and over and it still wasn’t dead
Tangled in the lines as the beast went down
If he didn’t kill it now he was gonna drown

Maniacal hatred for he great white whale
The end of its life was the end of his tale

What if the whale had loved Ahab?
It’d never submerge
If the whale had loved Ahab
It’d give up the deep
So Ahab could keep—
If the whale had loved Ahab
Been able to purge
The notions that surge and flood
In the blood
If the whale had loved Ahab
We’d be on the verge
Might take the leap
Maybe we’d all keep
Breathing

Life and death for the captain and crew
It was life and death for the great whale, too
It wasn’t a hunt to fill any need
It was vengeance, it was anger, it was lust, it was greed

He vowed to hunt it to the end of the sea
And now it’s life and death for you and me

What if the whale had loved Ahab?
It’d never submerge
If the whale had loved Ahab
It’d give up the deep
So Ahab could keep—
If the whale had loved Ahab
Been able to purge
The notions that surge and flood
In the blood
If the whale had loved Ahab
We’d be on the verge
Might take the leap
Maybe we’d all keep
Breathing