Tourniquet

a severed limb
And all the people buy into your deceit
Because you're keeping way too frantic a beat
They said to Bach three hundred years ago
"You work in the church there's something you should know
We hired you to write music that glorifies
But theses toccatas and fugues just simply horrify"
He said, "they're simply notes put together in bars
And why you think that's wrong I just throw up my arms"
Eviscerate words that evoke emetic thoughts
Dissect and discard what speaks of corpses in rot
The leprous stumps of the sick and the lame
The stoning of Stephen, Job's scab covered frame
And John the Baptist – a head on a platter
Remove this gorefest – why should it matter?
You say this pace beckons evil spirits
But I care not what you call it
To me it's two hundred beats per minute
On tablature I scrawled it
If you arrived at the site
Of Calvary's scarlet fright
Would fears have made your feet take flight
And turn away from our Lord's plight

2. Drinking From The Poisoned Well

Fist through a wall – foot through a door
Just another day for me to abhor
There's a wall in my plan for you today
There's a door with your name where it lay
Years of hateful thoughts will get you back; I'll be at peace soon
You think you're punishing me by your anger
But it's you serving the jail sentence
Heart turned to stone suffering all alone
Calibrating how hatred can sink the power of forgiveness
Anger needs a place to be buried
Anger needs a process for its gravestone
The time has come to speak of many things
Not shoes and ships and sealing wax not cabbages and Kings
But the way your raging words and actions
Gouge a monumental chasm between us
If I could only help you to see what I see
As you push away the ones who love you
Your world is closing in on you
The once many friends become the reluctant few
And when the few that remain choose rather to abstain
You'll be left alone with all the pain
And you'll ponder at length how a day turned a year
And the years rolled along till nobody was near
Broken before the One who understands
That it's hard to let go of familiar land
But you've got to leave the safe ground behind
A better place is waiting where there's peace of mind
Now that you've come to realize
That chronic anger has a steep price
Taking more than you can afford to give
Stealing the joy that you need to live

3. Microscopic View Of A Telescopic Realm

Darwinistic Dante's Inferno partially obstructed preconceptions steering the helm
Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm
As the fire's embers faded and wrought their broken, dying ghosts black upon the ground
And the sunlight sets the clouds aflame
Do you not gaze in wonder of how they became?
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
And the grandest of valleys and canyons that are cut with the passing of eons of time
From a wave of the mightiest hand from the giver of life and beauty sublime
When the tufted footfalls of a jungle beast silently slip past your panicking feet
And the soul within you marvels and your praise to Him is cast
Do you really think Mr. Darwin's words and thoughts truly are the last?
Chaos, order
As scaled wings erupt in brilliant colors spectrum's view
When a seed becomes a plant and then a tree then starts anew
Of skeletal frame of fins and flight by chance they do appear by might?
Of atoms protoplasmic start will soon contain a beating heart
Chaos, order
As the sunlight sets the clouds aflame, do you not wonder of how they became?
If the monster lives in the depths of Loch Ness,
And the Yeti prowls the nights in the Northwest
He is their Maker – both the Giver of Life, the quencher of strife
From the world's first dividing cell to the loneliest quarters of hell

4. The Tomb Of Gilgamesh

I ask that you return me
the years I did ignore thee
And with my burden bury
the weight of guilt I carry
And lead me to the well of life
before my soul departs

Now I so clearly see how I have murdered me
and I cannot fake what I tried to make of myself; a God
Please heal me

The halls of countless eriudite teeming with the self deified
cloaked in snuffy habiliments
No need to strive for holiness
When beauty dies she leaves behind the scars of dreams abandoned long ago

Where myriad wonders once repelled the onslaught of decay
now given to the manifold miseries of mortal dismay
And out of joy is sorrow born the stained white halls are now forlorn

Wisdom calls from these halls

Now I so clearly see how I have murdered me and I cannot fake – please heal me

So very wise in their own eyes
The world's great minds will one day find
that for life they studied, worked, and pined
but in wisdom made by man alone that a high IQ with low regard
will be dethroned and from heaven barred

Wisdom calls from these halls

I ask that you return me
the years I did ignore thee
And with my burden bury
the weight of guilt I carry
And lead me to the well of life
before my soul departs

5. Servant Of The Bones

Collect the skeletal remains
Of long dead memories
To line this rotting hole I've made inside me
A scarred and twisted soul is all I've got to show
For this life alone
Among the dead, among the bones

Burn me once
Shame on you
Burn me twice
Shame on me
You'll never get that close
Not while I serve the bones

Upon this anger upon this hatred I feed
These things that somehow nourish will slowly kill me
These talismans remind of pain felt over time
Before this life I chose
Among the dead, among the bones

6. Erratic Palpitations Of The Human Spirit

Surprised by such an evil thought
Where did this thing come from?
I thought I cast it far away
But it's creepin back to me some
My spirit's willing – flesh is weak
Humility again I seek
I had my heart in His command
But soldiers fall when they proudly stand
Another day again I pray that I may find the narrow way
And like the camel trying to find that eye of the needle
So aimlessly I search around with now answer that's real
Other Gods have come and gone one's left standing on the throne
There is only one who's blameless only one who's love sustains us
Expunge at will on matters whether Gods exist to love proficient
Setting out to prove He's false you ended up in foreign missions
Analytic, pathogenic, supercalafragilistic
Cut it up and let it stand the theologic test
You'll see a faith that wavers not – others crumble, waste and rot
Freedom, Freedom, Freedom
When you think that you've arrived thousands more you have to drive
Like a hand springing from the carnal six foot soil
Buried many years ago never more again recoil
When you think you stand alone you will fall despite your toil
Freedom, Freedom, Freedom
Seek not your life form any other
His power alone is sufficient for you
His love and His grace they will see you through
The poisonous well has been purified
The scars on your heart have been sanctified
The Father above has been glorified
When it seems life is a miserable place to be
Remember the words that He gave you and me
Believe in your heart and you will be set free

7. Martyr's Pose

You've lived your whole life in this role
Father checked out prematurely, mother drank away her soul
You became the whipping boy for an angry, bitter man
When you see this much this young you learn to cope as best you can

The trick's to look remorseful, but never shoulder any blame
Condition their responses, that's the way to play the game

Crocodile tears stream from your eyes
Shoot an anguished look up at the sky
Then it's arms outstretched, and a southbound nose
Your defensive stance
Your martyr's pose

It's now your nature, it fits you like a second skin
You adopt your tortured posture when you feel their patience wearing thin
Tell me how much alienation
How much bitterness have you tasted
How many years were wasted trying to turn dead roses red
You typecast yourself in this role – your martyr's pose

8. Immunity Vector

(Instrumental)

9. Indulgence By Proxy

It's not me, it's not mine
Without this shadow my life would shine
Get this monkey off my back
Then I'll choose a better tack
Parameters set far too narrow
Pavement turns to broken gravel
Ten commandments become suggestions
My ordered life starts to unravel
The square is always equal to the sum of the hypotenuse
When you don't believe that what you reap is what you sow – you lose
Indulgence by proxy a rope wound seven times, climb the stairs, drop the
Platform, brings an end to my crimes
The gavel fell with such a force
I found my soul in much remorse
The monkey died a bitter death
The shadow faded then egressed
Peeling back the ludicrous thought patterns of my past
Trying to find some meaning try to make it really last
Cerebellum traps a thought and holds it for eternity
Pays me back in broken hearted and binds up their wounds
An alibi is what I need
I hope and pray I find one
The Holy Grail of bitterness
The goblet of grace undone
The shadow returned but this time white
No more my skin does crawl
Into my world the shadow invite
Sadness left earth's ancient fall
Cerebellum traps a thought and holds it for eternity
Pays me back in broken dreams till I let go that part of me
Indulgence by proxy a broken rope of seven
White shadows glowing hand reaches down from heaven

10. Caixa De Raiva

No morning cup of coffee
That stuff just puts me right to sleep
I'd rather see what's in this box
Amusing bits of fiction
Historical revision
Misinformation for all the world to see
Thinly veiled animosity
Unbridled hostility
You're lashing out at me

Nobody told me this was meant to be a contest of popularity
For supremacy
Why do you think you're better than me?
It's not what you achieve
It's what you believe and who you place your trust in
That ultimately gives you legitamacy

This tiny little box echoes with your rage

Not since poor old pandora has so much venom been unleashed
By simply opening a box
Your take gets more embellished
I truly think you relish the chance at another swing at me

You wear your poker face:
Big smile, every hair in place
But you can't mask your rage
Thinly veiled animosity
Unbridled hostility
You're lashing out at me

Your mouth's like a ship with no rudder
Why'd I ever call you a brother
Don't greet me with a kiss
This relationship doesn't need that twist
The past is just that
Let it die, let sleeping dogs lie
Six years and counting why don't you let go of your rage

11. The Skeezix Dilemma Part II (The Improbable Testimony Of The Pipsisewah)

I. The Suffering
Skeezix bloated in petulance from the night's debauch
Wields his mutated feline frame down from his arboreal watch
Space 109 is always occupied by the countless faces who tried and tried
Bruises from an unseen source as a chronic abuser runs his course
There is no remorse
Sinewy limbs reach through the bars to collect the carcasses of souls
Given over to the deeds of infamy, Skeezix took his toll
The ungainly truncated form of the docile Pipsisewah
Subtle in demeanor yet with powers that beggar description
They call him by different names
Some call him Gilgamesh, the man who has never tasted death
The size of the room is half as large cause your fears became your vice

II. The Battle
Tormentor underestimating the power of the Pipsisewah
Confrontation on the grandest scale the outcome already known
The child whose humble prayer set the battle of ages
Torment no more

III. The Victory
We call him Jehovah who's always near
And you can win the battle when you pray without fear
The weak are victorious when the strong reaches down
And the ones who bring sadness will bow to the Crown