modern man (bad religion)

*Favorite Bad Religion song.*

I've got nothing to say
I've got nothing to do
all of my neurons are functioning smoothly
yet still I'm a cyborg just like you
I am one big myoma that thinks
my planet supports only me
I've got this one big problem:
will I live forever?
I've got just a short time you see

modern man
evolutionary betrayer
modern man
ecosystem destroyer
modern man
destroy yourself in shame
modern man
pathetic example of earth's organic heritage

when I look back and think
when I ponder and ask why
I see my ancestors spend with careless abandon
assuming eternal supply
modern man

just a sample of carbon-based wastage
just a fucking tragic epic of you and I.

when you're not here

the questions:

I wouldn't look forward to anything
if I were you
you ought to know better by now
you keep thinking
"someday soon"
but the man on the radio counters,
"someday never comes"
let's face it
your struggle is peculiar
time is fleeting
so why are you rushing it along
the end is nearer every day
there ought to be some hope in that
we are all finite
does that make you feel alright
the spirit of man is like a bird
his flesh is like a cage
break the cage
and the bird will be free
I've been watching you
for a while now
I don't believe you have the answers
how can you possibly believe
the words coming out of your mouth

the answer:

people cry at funerals
people shake their heads
I just wonder why
we pity the dead
we put their bodies in the ground
I wonder why
we don't look for their spirits in the sky
I don't know why
but that's nothing new
I don't know why
when you're not here
I can feel my body
rise off the ground
spirit and flesh fighting
spirit and flesh hastening
the inevitable
when you're not here
I can feel myself wishing
this broken body would disappear.

cold brook

Summer heat
staring out the blazing windows
yesterday
was nothing but rain
today it's just me
holed up here again
it's my fault I don't have any friends
I'm not blaming anyone else
I don't want anyone
to get this disease
another undersocialized, latch-key kid
thrown into the world unprepared
(such an unoriginal story)
another bored little misfit
trying hard not to burn the house down
I've tried many things
for many years
to keep myself buoyant
now I see
that I'm the one
keeping me down

summer heat
summer rain
lightning and thunder
brings it back to me again
there I am
riding my bike as fast as I can
knowing that I won't get home
before the storm overtakes me
knowing that it doesn't matter
no one knows where I am
and no one cares
that's the way it was
that's the way it is
you can contradict me
but you can't argue
with the still and burning air
you can't argue
with what I was
and what I've become
maybe you can find
that part of me
still waiting in the summer heat
for the storm to overcome me.

the progression in three parts

*Ten years ago, this is what I was listening to. 
Inspiring, maybe.  Revolutionary, no.*

snapcase - zombie prescription

No representation
of my voice
your prescription
set to destroy
our persistence
to boycott
silent partners you know we are not
we are the signs
of the changing

perseverance
we've come of age
collective interests to engage
we are the signs
of the changing times
cut you down to size
these are changing
these are changing
these are changing times

your preconceptions
condemning race
and your solutions
they cramp our space
self-sufficience
that is my goal
recognition
of some self-control.

*Now, this is what I listen to.  Inspiring, maybe.  Revolutionary, no.  The metaphor is beautiful, though.*

handsome family - darling, my darling

Darling, my darling,
look at my waving antennae
my barbed jaw and hard red pincers
the stripes running down my spine

darling, my darling,
watch me fly up in spirals
admire the horns ’neath my eyes
the fan of my beautiful wings
I’ll give you everything

darling, my darling,
I bow my leg like a cello
I perch on branches and bellow
while dreaming only of thee
I’ll give you everything

darling, my darling,
down in the dew-dropped rushes
I beat my head in the darkness
and build a fortress of tunnels

darling, my darling,
your snapping fangs don’t scare me
I’ll leap on your spine and love you
'til you gnaw me down to my wings
I’ll give you everything.

*Given this progression, in ten years, this is what I will probably be into.*