Crooked Fingers

Dead in the sun and covered in glue
There is a town where nothing moves
Nobody works and nobody plays
And all of their dreams have melted away
All of their hopes have come and gone
Even the vultures have moved on
They say a hero's coming soon
With ivory lungs like huge balloons

There ain't no moon and there ain't no stars
Over the land of endless scars
Covered in brown and coming undone
We are what we will not become
Only a rundown rusty still
Runs through a town that has no will
But they say a hero's coming soon
He's coming to take a giant breath
Into his lungs and blow away the sun

I saw a vulture swarming up above a dying crowd
Above the villains and the heroes and the down-and-out
To snag the carrion and leeches and to stake their claim
Before the darkness has a chance to wash it all away
And if the evening ever comes maybe it'll set things right
'Cause in the dark even the blind can feel a speck of light
I'm looking for a sign to show but it don't ever come
I'm waiting for the dark to fall and wash away the sun

There ain't no heat and there ain't no light
Only the black hole of our eyes
Caught in an overcrowded room
Waiting for its set and two moves
But out in the distance there's a glow
That nobody sees so nobody knows
Well they say a hero's coming soon
He's coming to take a giant breath of air
Into his lungs and blow away the sun

I saw a vulture swarming up above a dying crowd
Above the villains and the heroes and the down-and-out
To snag the carrion and leeches and to stake their claim
Before the darkness has a chance to wash it all away
'Cause if the evening ever comes maybe it'll set things right
'Cause in the dark even the blind can feel a speck of light
I'm looking for a sign to show but it don't ever come
I'm waiting for the dark to fall and wash away the sun

Don't say a word.
Don't tell me what you heard
There's something tonight,
Thats killing soft and slight.

Here it comes again,
Lining up to place its bid.
To take a little peice of her and throw it away,
'Till there aint anything left.

No need to lie,
Don't tell her that it's allright.
Theres tears in the wine
Now falling down from her eyes
Theres some awful things,
To eachother that we can do.

And that people think that something good can come from them,
Well people then they're just fools.

They say you learn,
The more it burns,
But what good does that do?
If what you learn, don't help to bring,
The one you lost back to you?

There ain't no easy way to lose the heart,
You call your own.
And there aint no easy way to make you feel okay,
But baby you're all that you own.

Don't make a move,
There's nothing now you can do.
Those tears in the wine.
Have burrowed down in her spine.
Here they come again,
Fallin like a driving rain
To take a little peice of her and wash away,
Till nothing left can be saved.

They say you learn,
The more it burns,
But what good does that do?
If what you learn, don't help to bring,
The one you lost, back to you?

There aint no easy way to lose the heart, you called your own.
And there aint no easy way to make you feel okay,
Cuz baby you're all that you own.
And there aint no easy way to make it feel okay,
Cuz baby you're all that you own.

Blue eyes of fire
Sweet desire
Is bitter torture
You are no father's daughter
No man has this much to offer

Skin dark as sin
Soft and when
We took cover
From the rain and the thunder
Under stain glass we did slumber
'Til the sun came out to blind us
So we could not see anything
So we knew at once we were meant to be
And we heard the gods all rise and say
The love we made was no lie

And with thirty years of hopes and fears
Breathing down my neck
Such a sad, sad thing I set you free
'Cause I can't get you back
You are fire, you are water
And when you dance it is torture
And maybe some night by the great light of the dawn
We can meet

Tangled, entwined
We have climbed
We have wrangled
Shiny sequins sparked and spangled
Our hearts iron cuffed and mangled

We spent the night
By the side
Of the water
Past the breakers and the markers
We swam out into the darkness
'Til we could not fell the bottom
'Til we could not feel anything
And the shoreline slowly drifted out of reach
As the moon shown down and the ocean heaved
And darkness gave to the light

And with thirty years of hopes and fears
Breathing down my neck
Such a sad, sad thing I set you free
'Cause I can't get you back
You are fire, you are water
And when you dance it is torture
And maybe someday in the bottom of the ocean
We can meet
But we know if we do we can never leave
'Cause the moment that we turn away
The gods will have seen
The love we made was a lie

Don't you know, there's a bad man coming?
Creeping down through the spanish moss, and trees.
Rising up hear the black heart pounding.
Through the dark as you drift gently in deep sleep.
Oh here he comes by the light of the dull grey 'morn.
Brave men talk but a brave man has no use.
A hero is only a lucky fool, you see.
And lately your luck has been as bad as bad can be.
It seems like we've seen him come before,
It seems like we've seen him go.
And just when you think, that you've seen them all,
Another bad man shows.
Up killing what you adore,
There's no telling what's in store,
Just sit tight, there aint nothin you can do.
Cuz tonight, tonight a bad man is coming for you.
Yes tonight, little darling a bad man is coming for you.
Yes tonight tonight a bad man is coming for you.

I lifted you up,
You pulled me down.
You turned into some sacred cow.
Unchanging, you froze in the dark,
I threw you fire,
You threw a spark.
I found a way to let you go,
You light the fuse,
And I explode.
Your broken heart pressed on my back,
So weak the way that you react.
You never finish anything,
Too scared to fail, to want to leave
Your heart too weak to try again,
[unintelligible line]

And every day you cling to your walls,
It's your little world that is remaining small.
So don't you go claiming how I did you wrong,
When you were the one doing nothing at all.

So out of range, so out of reach,
You cleaned my shackles out with bleach.
I make you off as you send an old lord.
And I found a way to let you go.
You kept your pleasure in my sleeve,
And blamed your failure all on me.
Your broken heart leeched on my back,
So sad the weak way you react.
You never build a goddamn thing,
To scared to fail, to walk, to weep.
Your heart too weak to try again,
Yes I will build them dark and dim.

And every day, you cling to your walls,
It's your little world that is remaining small,
So don't go claiming how I did you wrong,
When you were the one doing nothing at all.
And every day, you cling to your walls,
It's your little world that is becoming small.
So don't you go claiming how I did you wrong
When you were the one who did nothing at all.

Drinking sparkling wine,
And sniffing glue.
I've been looking for some soft abuse.
Maybe your big brother,
He dont see it that way.
But he aint the one, who tonight I'm gonna meet.
Cuz tonight, tonight, I swear, I'm heading down to make my stand.
With that other boy, you call your new man.
Way up from the bottom, I'm gonna hit the street.
And scare that child so hard, till he's out of your reach.
So you and I can leave now, while your other love's away.
I know you would never cheat with anyone but me.
Its easy now for you,
Cuz you dont have to choose,
And there aint no way that he can touch you now.

My Sweet Marie.
My Sweet Marie.

You and I can go down where nobody else will be,
I know you will never cheat with anyone but me
Theres nothing left to do
We're hidden out of view
And there aint no way that they can reach us now.

Drinking sparkling wine and cheap perfume,
I've been lookin for some soft abuse.
Baby your new boy, he dont see it that way.
But tonight, I swear, I'm gonna set that pussy bastard straight.
So you can I can leave now while your other love's away.
I know you could never cheat now with anyone but me.
Its easy now for you, cuz you dont have to choose,
And there aint no way that you can touch him now.

My Sweet Marie.
My Sweet Marie.
My Sweet Marie.
My Sweet Marie.

Angelina, out of reach there's no reason now for you to run.
Angelina, there's no meaning to all the bad things that were done.

There's just a meanness that's creeping, as you lie there sleeping, that's sneaking around in the dark.
So in the morning you'll wake to a pounding that could break your weak brittle world all apart.

There's no reason there for you to know.
There ain't no reason why they always walk away.
No good reason they seize you, disease you, then leave you undone.
So Angelina don't think for one moment you've done something wrong.

Angelina, as you weep in your sleep there's an ivory glow.
And Angelina, you can choose win or lose where your new heart will go.

There will be empty spaces where holes fill the places that your sad eyes want youse to see.
And in the mirror you traces lines you can not erase when your life that you used to lead.

There are good things now coming your way,
And the good things now are gonna stay,
And the good things that stay will all shine as you walk in the sun.

Oh Angelina, what you think is over is only begun.
Angelina, what you think is over is only begun.

Crowned in chrome I took a ride in the wrong direction
Severing the one bind you could tie on me
Darkness froze as all the hooks have been connected
Butchered underneath a broken light
There comes a time a man just cannot trust his freedom
Shaking with the hand that wants to cheat him
Pissing on the ones who help him float away
In his darkest hour

So down we go into a twisted dark dissension
Scavenging the loose change off your mind
And doused in gold behind a thin shroud of deception
You're covering the one thing you can't hide from me
There comes a time a man has nothing to believe in
Betting with a hand that will defeat him
Spitting in the eyes that helped you look away
From your darkest hour

Crowned in chrome I took a ride in the wrong direction
Severing the one bind you could tie on me
Darkness froze as all the hooks got disconnected
Throwing sparks into a starless sky
There comes a time a man just cannot trust his freedom
Leeching off a host that will disease him
Shining up the shoes that send you on your way
Into your darkest hour

Would you try--
Could you buy a new drink for the old drunk
It's no crime to resign misery with a bottle
You walked into town without making a sound
And you slipped and you slammed your face into the crowd
As you tried to forget all the words that were said
To deny all the things that you keep in your head

When you came you were new but today you're much older
You were spent so you went to get used in the corner
Where they kicked you around like a rodeo clown
And it echoed through town they were beating you down
And as they spread the word that you liked how it hurt
All at once you were cause for a pitiful cure

Hours pass by half forgotten
Night turns black cause it's rotten
And we slide right to the bottom
Our tongues made out of cotton
Eyes seal shut in a slumber
Til we hear someone mumble
Could you spare from the tumbler
A new drink for the old drunk

Now you waste all your days in the dark in the corner
Without light without grace where you wait for the slaughter
Where they spit in your face as the hours grow late
And they laugh as they lie and then seal up your fate
And you cringe as you binge to forget how you hate
All the doom in this pitiful room you create

Hours pass by half forgotten
Night turns black cause it's rotten
And we slide right to the bottom
Our tongues made out of cotton
Eyes seal shut in a slumber
Til we hear someone mumble
Could you spare from the tumbler
A new drink for the old drunk

Make way for the pigeon kicker
Splattering the city wall
Nothing ever seemed so pretty
Nothing ever seemed so dull
Past the line of cigarette trees
Crooked cons and seminal thieves
Fools and traitors and misfit saviors
In full stride to rot away

Sick with style and doused in bitters
We'll be waiting drunk at noon
We could never leave this city
We can't even leave our rooms
The drunken waste of rowdy wankers
Slit your throat then spit your face
Our fortune teller has gone insane
In full stride to rot away

You say that you're slipping away
As you turn from the hand that could save you
You fell like a drunk down a well
Like a dog into Hell you were sinking
And you took it all in as a joke
As if you didn't know you were broken
Hiding out in the rain you stood soaking

Breathing in the glass to your last lung
All blackened and cracking and blue
Creeping through the slums of your old world
Where nothing about you is new
They laughed and as they turned their backs
You slid into a crack no one saw
And stayed there for a very long time
Dying of nothing at all
Though you went to the doctor to cope
And he sold you the new antidote
And he told you that you had been broken

They say you gave yourself away for a moment
But no one would take you
You said, I'm alive, but you're dead
Cause nothing about you is new
Even though you had been diagnosed
And were given the new antidote
And were numb to the rain and the soaking
You have been and always will be broken

I got a phone call from a friend the other day
Says he got into some trouble says he's got to go away
Says he's been wasting time making up his mind
Says it's so hard to take a stand when you're a broken man

Dig yourself into a deeper hole
Deeper than the the deepest hole you know
You put your money on the line just to blow it every time
You're always dealt a dirty hand when you're a broken man

Wipe the sleep out of your eyes
No trick, half joke, or lie
No truth true and tried
Hours creeping thick and sure
How can you be so pure
So shiny and new

So never lend a broken man a broken hand
Or talk the kind of lip nobody understands
The truth is true and tried but so are all your lies
A lie can be the truth--the truth just in disguise

I got a phone call from a friend the other day
Says he got into some trouble says he's got to go away
He says he needed money but for him I got no money
Cause it's so hard to give a damn when you're a broken man

Wipe the sleep out of your eyes
No trick, half joke, or lie
No truth true and tried
Hours creeping thick and sure
How can you be so pure
So shiny and new

Standing in a sea of sleaze
Devils come to bury me
Half way dead and half alive
Sickness never felt so right
And every year a few feet more
Creeping up the ocean floor

Crawling up the ocean floor
Crawling slowly to the shore
Evil lurks an evil pure
Rising up with an evel cure
To swallow every living thing
Evil evil entropy

Drifting drowning death came pounding
Over under rape and plunder
And I can't swim and I can't breathe
Drowning on this drunken sea
Black black ocean creeping tide
Rise over me and then leave me to die

Hanging off the levee brink
I fell in with a crowd of freaks
Half were dead and half alive
Half would kill you the other half would try
Hooked and baited lined and weighted
Thrown in with the shit and brine

So when the Devil's time is due
And this Devil swallows you
When half a truth is half a lie
And sickness never felt so right
Shame throws down a deathly notion
Creeping up over black black ocean

Drifting drowning death came pounding
Over under rape and plunder
And I can't swim and I can't breathe
Drowning on this drunken sea
Black black ocean creeping tide
Wash over me and then leave me to die

Juliette your cigarette has burned right through your face
Through your skin and through your skull and up into your brain
It doesn't seem that you will reach the fountain from where you are
And possibly this might just leave a really bad, bad scar
And you're lying on the living room floor
Lying like you've done at least on hundrend times before
Burning with a radiant glow

Juliette the fire has crept down and your chest's aflame
Smoldering an even ring around your torso frame
And moving slow the amber glow does flicker clear and clean
It's as if someone has doused you in white gasoline
With your ashes on the living room floor
Scattered like they've been at least one hundred times before
Burning off a skin that you have come to abhor

And spreading now the crackling sound
Down to your hips and waist
Traveling past your legs at last a slow but steady pace
The smell of dead skin burning lingers sickly in the air
Oh Juliette oh Juliette you don't look like you care
Though the smoldering has reached down to your knees
Moving down your shins over your ankles and your feet
Burning with a radiant glow
Swallowing devouring the tips of your toes

Set me on fire white liquor girl
Come burning down my throat pristine and pure
We have been slaving all day long
Among these neon lit half slums
Toasting our false hurray
The late night favors drinking itself numb

Come out tonight white liquor girl
One million stars can't heat such a cold cold world
One million distant vacant lights
All glaring down on you tonight
Lighting a distant vacant sky
One million distant vacant lies

Under sad stars in dingy bars
We turn away we tear apart
One drop of grace distant and safe
They cannot touch you where you are
Cold shafts of rain falling dark gray
Falling so far they can't be saved
They cannot hurt you anymore
Here underneath these sad sad stars

So turn out the light white liquor girl
One shot could set you free from your troubled coil
You have been burning bright in vain
Here underneath the sad sad rain
Painting the town as black as sin
Begging to get done wrong again

Under sad stars in dingy bars
We turn away we tear apart
One drop of grace distant and safe
They cannot touch you where you are
Cold shafts of rain falling dark gray
Falling so far they can't be saved
They cannot hurt you anymore
Here underneath these sad sad stars

Under sad stars in dingy bars
We turn away we tear apart
One drop of grace distant and safe
They cannot touch you where you are
Cold shafts of rain falling dark gray
Falling so far they can't be saved
They cannot hurt you anymore
Here underneath these sad sad stars

You say you came to save the day
But now it's evening
And all your victims have gone home

You claimed to take nothing away
But you kept stealing
These things you could never own

Last night I drove to go nowhere at all
And came to the saddest thing I ever saw
A pretty girl all strapped up in an ugly car
Driving through a shady crowd of criminals

Truth comes in waves leaving no trace
Or any meaning
To all the bad things we've done

True hate won't wait and love comes too late
Into this evening
Into this night so dark and cold

Last night I drove to go nowhere at all
And came to the saddest thing I ever saw
Another pretty girl inside an ugly car
Driving through a shady crowd of criminals

A little bleeding
A sinking feeling
The victim I would never know