Red Letter Days

There’s three ways out of every box
Fall out the bottom
Or you crawl out the top
There’s three ways
Out of every, every box
But if you can’t find your way out
Then you just burn it
To the ground
Then you’ll disappear
Like smoke
Into the clouds

There’s three ways off a merry-go-round
You either jump
Or you let it slow down
There’s three ways
Off a merry-go, merry-go round
But if you can’t put your foot down
Then you just burn it
To the ground
Then you walk away
Real slow
Back into the crowd

There’s always somebody there for a laugh
Then you’re the only one
That’s left
Now that’s what you get
Left behind in the wreck

There’s three ways off a burning bridge
You pray for rain
Or you learn how to swim
There’s three ways off of every
Burning bridge
But if you can’t find strength
And you quit
Then you can just burn up
And sink
Then you’ll drift away
Real slow
Down into the ground

Well, there is trouble in my mind
There is dark
There’s dark, and there is light.
I lay our hands over my eyes
As I look deep
Through valleys deep and wide
Across the border line
For the Empire in My Mind

You are the reason I don’t sleep
You are the light
That's breaking through the leaves
You know how hard I try
To believe
I have something good inside
Over barricades I climb
For the Empire in My Mind.

I have no love somewhere in time
I’ve been lifted up
I’ve looked honor in the eyes
I have no reason; I have no rhyme
I cannot deny
There’s a darkness that’s inside
I am guilty by design
And now I realize
The temptation’s made me blind
To the Empire in My Mind

There is no order
There is chaos
And there is crime
There is no one home tonight
In the Empire in My Mind

There is no distance that I don’t see
I do have a will
No limit to my reach
I wish I would; I wish I might
See a line tonight
Separating wrong from right
Some are only born to try
And maybe that’s the reason why
I am afraid someday I’ll find
There is no Empire in My Mind

There is trouble in my life
There is trouble in my life

I need a bed
That nobody’s slept in
I need some air
Nobody’s been breathing
I need a thought
That I can believe in
Is this fog
Or is the building really burning
I need you
Much more than ever
I’m making new friends
But none of them matter
Maybe now
We don’t fit together
But you’ve got your arms around
No one but strangers

I feel fine
With the sun in my eyes
The wind in my hair
When I’m falling out of this sky
I’m doing better than I thought I would
But nothing’s ever as good
As when you’re on top

I want to wake up
And just start running
Into a ditch
Or straight up a mountain
I want to get
Where no one been gettin’
Make it deeper than hell
Or make it higher than heaven

I need someone whose price hasn’t been met
When everybody’s disappearing
By the minute
There isn’t anyone left
I haven’t meet yet
Well I remember
When they hadn’t gotten to you yet

[chorus]

Half way up
And over this rainbow
I heard a shot
Fire up from a ghetto
As I drop
I didn’t think you’d follow
Just didn’t know
The sky was this shallow

I need a garden
Where nothing’s forbidden
I need an apple
That no one’s been eatin’
I want to start again
Back at the beginnin’
I had a vision
That this feeling maybe has an ending

That ain’t a parachute
That ain’t a rip cord
That ain’t a body of water
We’re headed for
There’s so little time left
So much to be done
Even you are gonna need someone
That ain’t a trick of light
Or the morning haze
Coming in from the lake
Getting into your eyes
It’s the invisible breath
Of a storm on the rise
That I feel whenever you arrive

Now I may not be quick
Maybe never was
But tell me what the hell it is
That you’ve become

Baby if you never got sick
I wouldn’t get to hold you
Baby if you never got sick
I would never get to hold you

This ain’t a righteous love
Even a good one
These ain’t the kinds of return
That I was thinking of
I’m unbearable now
You ain’t seen nothing yet
You’ll se me dead
Before you see me quit
That ain’t a jug of wine
That you’ve been drinking from
Now lay back now baby
Let your fever come
I will bury you in
Just to dig you out
I haven’t a use
For being proud

[chorus]

I followed you deep into a barren field
There was someone you were running from
When I needed to sleep
That’s when you disappeared
But I did get the impossible done
Now I always knew
There was God inside you
I just never did learn which one

[chorus]

On your mark
Get set let’s go
You got to move on
Before she explodes
Look out the window
Lookout below
Back away from the glass
There she blows
The city’s been leveled
Hills are in flames
Streets cracked open
And they’re pushin’ up clay
Temperature’s dropped
Sky is grey
And it ain’t even over
Here comes drivin’ rain
It ain’t me
That you feel
There’s something moving
Around in here
That’s blood
That’s tears
This ain’t a warning...

Everybody out of the water
Up on dry land
Take what you can
Cause’ you won’t be here again
Everybody out of the water

Now I’m treadin’ high water
To get back to you
Been looking for a low spot
Or something to cling to
There’s too many bodies

There’s not enough room
God help me
And God help you
They say nobody panic
Help is on it’s way
We’re already on it
You’ve got to be brave
If you can fix it now
Then don’t make us wait
Man there ain’t nobody coming
Back away from the gates
That bell
That you hear
That’s hell
Ringing in your ears
I fear
That my dear
This ain’t a warning…

[chorus]

Now I’m looking up
And the shit keeps coming
Like shooting ducks
In a barrel of honey
Got to learn how to pray
Love won’t be enough
Admit it now
Your information sucks
As I slip
Down in
I think of us someplace
High on a mountain
Smoke clears
Fog lifts
Little by little
We rebuild again
Till’ then…

[chorus]

Slow down
You’re breaking up
Use your words
Don’t yell so much
I don’t understand a word
That you’re saying
Now move in
Come up close
You look like
You’ve maybe seen a ghost
Tell me
Has someone gotten to you baby
Now open your arms
Pick up your head
Open your eyes
So you can see
What happens next

You won’t believe
Just how good it can get
We’ll make a lover
Out of you yet

The fog is so thick
I can’t see my hands
It got much worse
Soon as I got in
And I know you’re somewhere
Here in the water
It’s ten feet deep
And the river won’t stop
I’ll tell you what’s in it
When I make it across
You could make it too
If you let someone help you

But you gotta give in
And you gotta let go
Then you can begin
To come up slow
Like a desert rose

[chorus]

Take a deep breath
And hold it in tight
And put your face up
Right into the light
Can’t you feel that full moon
Shining down on you
Help is coming
From the great unknown
Just maybe not
When you needed it most
Cause’ I can see you already
Know that you’re leaving
But I wish you’d stay
And just let me in
Cause’ everything can change
But you gotta be ready
Cause’ you won’t know when

[chorus]