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We are caged animals We are caged animals Ears flat, lip curled back A blind attack waiting to happen We are savage nemeses We are holy warriors Red-eyed, throat clutched tight A ringside cheer in a dirty fight We are brazen animals We enrage our enemies With rousing elegies Forthright, head held high Shining knight in a losing battle We are noble meddlers We are gory foreigners Newborn, careworn Shorthorns in uniform We are a fearsome pedigree (And now we have a reason to howl, bound together, muzzle to jowl Blood is thicker than desire, and the tide is rising.)

The imperfect is our paradise Note that, in this bitterness, delight Since the imperfect is so hot in us Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds —Wallace Stevens, The Poems of Our Climate Nothing more here Flowers in a bowl Snow outside the window You here, in the hall Searching for the ceiling Nothing more here Clean and snowy air White flowers Nothing more Wheeling out to greet them: One more for the road? One more for the road? Still, one could want a little more Still, one could need a little more Still, one could want a little more Still, one could need so much more Nothing more here Newly fallen snow A simple bowl of flowers Perfectly composed Flawed words Stubborn sounds Searching for the ceiling One more for the road? One more?

The vanishing point is on me. One blinking island—a light In the darkness there’s a sign, the vanishing line is mine I cannot reach tomorrow, see your face or breach your sorrow There, in the corner of the sky, a waving hand takes flight The vanishing point is on me Clear the orchard, clear the rise A line vanishing, a line vanishing Clear the airport, clear the sky A line vanishing, lines vanishing Clear the table, close the door Speak your name, step toward—

If we can’t rely on one another, might as well climb down from the ledge and wait for sunrise, then try again tomorrow. Throw open that window wide. You won’t find us waiting here for sunrise to remind us. If we can’t rescue you, then what do we do? Turn out the light. Bring on the night. Turn up the sky. Turn it up If we can’t believe in one another, might as well concede defeat and lock the shutters, wait for sunrise to cauterize our sorrow. Step back from the window. See the outline to your own redaction flanked by sunbeams. If we can’t rescue you, then what do we do? Turn out the light. Bring on the night. Turn up the sky. Turn it up. Let the bird sing

My best friend, her name is Carmen She likes me more than all those Dirty rotten bastard kids Ever did Me and Carmen, we don’t need ‘em Together we go arm in arm Wherever we go Me and Carmen Every morning on the way to school They torment us and call us names (they’re mean And rude), but me and Carmen We will show them All night we are as free as owls Flying high above the trees and houses Hunting mice and squirrels Together When we’re twenty-three, me and Carmen We’ll live in houses side by each with one big garden And no one else Just me and Carmen There’ll be no one else, just me and Carmen And the squirrels and the mice And the houses and the garden The trees and the other owls But no one else Just me and Carmen

In memory of Faron Hall The swimmer is gasping for shore He has no more to say Don’t chase him back under the bridge Forgive his mistake He saved those he could— If you can, then you should. Carry on By the banks of the river we belong You are not alone. The world is your home Everywhere you go, you’ll always ring clear to me This current’s so desperate to feed On our emptiness Shopping carts running aground In the muddy depths Stung by the heat of our failure Sink into place The swimmer is swimming away You are not alone. The world is your home Everywhere you go, you’ll always ring clear to me

Frail cocoon, don’t stir too soon, winter’s nearly over An interior life is a superior life, the best that you can hope for Don’t wrestle out, unfurl your wings and flutter out of sight Those branches lie thick with webs to snare you in midflight Moonlight, find me Draw me from the deep I long to be Released Leave the porch light on tonight, the moths will surely gather Confused and frantic, wild and blind, forever ever after Don’t wrestle out, unfurl your wings and flutter out of sight The owls will swoop and pluck you straight out of the sky— Moonlight, guide me Keep me in your reach I live to be Complete Frail cocoon don’t stir too soon, winter’s nearly over An interior life is a superior life, the best that you can hope for

A north wind sinks the fence around a lot full of debris Near the corner of Memorial and me Where resurrected brick and drywall leap back into place Theres a terrified reflection of my face All alone at the gleaming knife display in the Army Surplus Sales As the dusk descends and my inspiration fails And ghosts fill discount parkas, sleeping bags Peer at me from the crumpled dark Inky bruises punched into the sky by bolts of light And then leak across the body of tonight While rain and thunder drop and roll then stop short of a storm Leave the air stuck with this waiting to be born As I stand before an unresponsive automatic door Just another door that wont open for me anymore The exit red gets brighter, then blinks off Presses me into the crumpled dark Theres a billboard by the highway But no sign to show you when you go away And our demolitions punctuate All we mean to save then leave too late So Ill make my shaky exclamation mark With a hand full of The crumpled dark

Everyone we leave behind, pennies tossed in fountains, the casual accumulations of our calcified desires. We breach in narrow pools of daylight, hulls shot through with wavelight. Wind sighing, hearts full sail, never dreaming we could fail Waterfall, waterfall, who will heed your thunderous call? This ever-changing rearrangement of prickling devotions, calving off and rising up from the glacial divide. Every crystalline persuasion hangs frozen for a moment, before our noisy clatter breaks the silence and its thrall Waterfall, waterfall, who will heed your thunderous call? Waterfall, waterfall, pouring out into the sea

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept, Untroubling and untroubled where I lie, The grass below; above, the vaulted sky. –John Clare, I Am! Stamp out the fire, circle the plough. Comb through the ashes. Squint at the clouds. Mother, my daughter, sister and me, in a hurry. We’re seeds from a catalogue tossed in the mail, spilling from rental car, subway, and air. We sprout from the windows, grow through the stairs. We worry Let me lie. Open up the door Let me lie. Don’t need you no more Untroubling, untroubled where I lie Shake me awake when I slacken the reins. Sing to me sweetly past cornfields and trains. Trail on together, forever, forever. Circle our wagons. Gather in tight. Follow each other through darkness and night. Lift up our rifles, squeeze in between the hedges Let me lie. Open up the door Let me lie. Don’t need you no more Untroubling, untroubled where I lie

If I take the medication. If I lose my hair. If the slightest hesitation takes me anywhere, let it pour. Let it be forgotten If you dare to wish me well and I disappear. If your reckless second-guesses drive me out of here, let me pour. Let me be forgotten Crawl through the gaps in the curtains. Howl through the night. Sail down the hallway out of sight If I offer up my body. If I dare to lose. I can take the shape of anything they want me to

High-tops, flip flops Three tall girls, school uniforms in blue Yellow, green, multiplied, strangers Underground Out of focus, out of frame Three tall girls, gum snapping, cut the line Divided, multiplied, strangers Underground The day’s grown old, the fainting sun They hold hands, make plans Map the middle distances and yawn Divisible by one, strangers Underground The day’s grown old, the fainting sun The day’s grown old, the fainting sun

The lyrics for this song have yet to be transcribed

Originally Performed By: Propagandhi Written By : Chris Hannah and John K. Sampson Published By : Who Gives A Fuck? Productions

If we never Met I´d be drunk waking up in someone else´s bed. I´d be lost in a crowed room with fake friends. I wouldn´t even know what love is. If we never me What if I never started singing? What if you never told your family you were leaving? When you felt the pressure. Theirs a million different reasons we shouldn´t be together but when I put it all together It all comes back to you, you, you. I love it when the only light is me, you and the moon. And baby when I close my eyes I´m thinking about what What if we never met. I´d be drunk waking up in someone else´e bed. I´d be lost in a crowded room of fake friends. I wouldn´t even know what love is If we never met What if I never left Nashville? What if you never called me back when I asked you?? Something stupid about the weather. it all happened for a reason cause you put me back together and when I put it all together it all comes back to you, you, you. I love it when the only light is me, you and the moon. And baby when I close my eyes I´m thinking about what if we never me. Id be drunk waking up in someone else´s bed. I´d be lost in a crowded room of fake friends. I wouldn´t even know what love is. If we never met

How we dont know how to sing I can barely play this thing But you never seem to mind When you tell me to fuck off When I need somebody to How you make me laugh so hard How whole years refuse to stay Where we told them to, bad dog Locked up whining in a word Or a misplaced souvenir How the past chews on your shoes And these memories lick my ear I know You might roll your eyes at this But Im so Glad that you exist How we waste our precious time Marching in the picket lines That surround those striking hearts And the time is never now And we know who we should love But were never certain how I know You might roll your eyes at this But Im so Glad that you exist