Clockwork Angels

"Caravan"

In a world lit only by fire

Long train of flares under piercing stars

I stand watching the steamliners roll by

The caravan thunders onward

To the distant dream of the city

The caravan carries me onward

On my way at last

I can't stop thinking big

On a road lit only by fire

Going where I want, instead of where I should

I peer out at the passing shadows

Carried through the night into the city

Where a young man has a chance of making good

A chance to break from the past

The caravan thunders onward

Stars winking through the canvas hood

On my way at last

"BU2B"

I was brought up to believe

The universe has a plan

We are only human

It's not ours to understand

The universe has a plan

All is for the best

Some will be rewarded

And the devil take the rest

All is for the best

Believe in what we're told

Blind men in the market

Buying what we're sold

Believe in what we're told

Until our final breath

While our loving Watchmaker

Loves us all to death

In a world of cut and thrust

I was always taught to trust

In a world where all must fail

Heaven's justice will prevail

The joy and pain that we receive

Each comes with its own cost

The price of what we're winning

Is the same as what we've lost

Until our final breath

The joy and pain that we receive

Must be what we deserve

I was brought up to believe

"Clockwork Angels"

High above the city square

Globes of light float in mid-air

Higher still, against the night

Clockwork angels bathed in light

You promise every treasure, to the foolish and the wise

Goddesses of mystery, spirits in disguise

Every pleasure, we bow and close our eyes

Clockwork angels, promise every prize

Clockwork angels, spread their arms and sing

Synchronized and graceful, they move like living things

Goddesses of Light, of Sea and Sky and Land

Clockwork angels, the people raise their hands - As if to fly

All around the city square

Power shimmers in the air

People gazing up with love

To those angels high above

Celestial machinery - move through your commands

Goddesses of mystery, so delicate and so grand

Moved to worship, we bow and close our eyes

Clockwork angels, promise every prize

"Lean not upon your own understanding *

Ignorance is well and truly blessed

Trust in perfect love, and perfect planning

Everything will turn out for the best"

Stars aglow like scattered sparks

Span the sky in clockwork arcs

Hint at more than we can see

Spiritual machinery

*Proverbs 3:5 [and In-N-Out milkshake!]

"The Anarchist"

Will there be wor1d enough and time for me to sing that song?

A voice so silent for so long

For all those years I had to get along, they told me I was wrong

I never wanted to belong - I was so strong

I lack their smiles and their diamonds; I lack their happiness and love

I envy them for all those things, I never got my fair share of

The lenses inside of me that paint the world black

The pools of poison, the scarlet mist, that spill over into rage

The things I've always been denied

An early promise that somehow died

A missing part of me that grows around me like a cage

In all your science of the mind, seeking blind through flesh and bone

Find the blood inside this stone

What I know, I've never shown; what I feel, I've always known

I plan my vengeance on my own - and I was always alone

Oh - They tried to get me

Oh - They'll never forget me

"Carnies"

Under the gaze of the angels

A spectacle like he's never seen

Spinning lights and faces

Demon music and gypsy queens

The glint of iron wheels

Bodies spin in a clockwork dance

The smell of flint and steel

A wheel of fate, a game of chance

How I prayed just to get away

To carry me anywhere

Sometimes the angels punish us

By answering our prayers

A face of naked evil

Turns the young boy's blood to ice

Deadly confrontation

Such a dangerous device

Shout to warn the crowd

Accusations ringing loud

A ticking box, in the hand of the innocent

The angry crowd moves toward him with bad intent

"Halo Effect"

What did I see?

Fool that I was

A goddess, with wings on her heels

All my illusions

Projected on her

The ideal, that I wanted to see

What did I know?

Fool that I was

Little by little, I learned

My friends were dismayed

To see my betrayed

But they knew they could never tell me

What did I care?

Fool that I was

Little by little, I burned

Maybe sometimes

There might be a flaw

But how pretty the picture was back then

What did I do?

Fool that I was

To profit from youthful mistakes?

It's shameful to tell

How often I fell

In love with illusions again

So shameful to tell

Just how often I fell

In love with illusions again

A goddess with wings on her heels ...

"Seven Cities of Gold"

A man can lose his past, in a country like this

Wandering aimless

Parched and nameless

A Man could lose his way, in a country like this

Canyons and cactus

Endless and trackless

Searching through grim eternity

Sculptured by prehistoric sea

Seven Cities of Gold

Stories that fired my imagination

Seven Cities of Gold

A splendid mirage in this desolation

Seven Cities of Gold

Glowing in my dreams, like hallucinations

Glitter in the sun like a revelation

Distant as a comet or a constellation

A man can lose himself, in a country like this

Rewrite the story

Recapture the glory

A man could lose his life, in a country like this

Sunblind and friendless

Frozen and endless

The nights grow longer, the father I go

Wake to aching cold, and a deep Sahara of snow

That gleam in the distance could be heaven's gate

A long-awaited treasure at the end of my cruel fate

"The Wreckers"

The breakers roar on an unseen shore

In the teeth of a hurricane

We struggle in vain

A hellish night - a ghostly light

Appears trough the driving rain

Salvation in human chain

All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary

Of a miracle too good to be true

All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary

Everything in life you thought you knew

All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary

'Cause sometimes the target is you

Driven aground, with that awful sound

Drowned by the cheer from ashore

We wonder what for

The people swarm through the darkling storm

Gather everything the can score

'Til their backs won't bear any more

The breakers roar on an unseen shore

In the teeth of an icy grave

The human chain leaves a bloody stain

Washed away in the pounding waves

All I know is that memory can be too much to carry

Striking down like a bolt from the blue

"Headlong Flight"

All the journeys of this great adventure

It didn't always feel that way

I wouldn't trade them because I made them

The best I could, and that's enough to say

Some days were dark

I wish that I could live it all again

Some nights were bright

I wish that I could live it all again

All the highlights of that headlong flight

Holding on with all my might

To what I felt back then

I wish that I could live it all again

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steer the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love and learned to feel

Oh I wish that I could live it all again

All the treasures, the gold and glory

It didn't always feel that way

I don't regret it - I'll never forget it

I wouldn't trade tomorrow for today

Some days were dark

I wish that I could live it all again

Some nights were bright

I wish that I could live it all again

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steer the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love and learned to feel

Oh I wish that I could live it all again

The days were dark

And the nights were bright

Hey man...

I would never trade tomorrow for today

All the highlights of that headlong flight

Holding on with all my might

Some days were dark

I wish that I could live it all again

Some nights were bright

I wish that I could live it all again

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steer the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love and learned to feel

Oh I wish that I could live it all again

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steer the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love and learned to steal

Oh I wish that I could...

Oh I wish that I could live it all again

"BU2B2"

I was brought up to believe

Belief has failed me now

The bright glow of optimism

Abandoned me somehow

Belief has failed me now

Life goes from bad to worse

No philosophy consoles me

In a clockwork universe

Life goes from bad to worse

I still choose to live

Find a measure of love and laughter

And another measure to give

I still choose to live

And give, even while I grieve

Though the balance tilts against me

I was brought up to believe

"Wish Them Well"

All that you can do is wish them well

Spirits turned bitter by the poison of envy

Always angry and dissatisfied

Even the lost ones, the frightened and mean ones

Even the ones with a devil inside

Thank your stars you're not that way

Turn your back and walk away

Don't even pause and ask them why

Turn around and say goodbye

People who judge without a measure of mercy

All the victims who will never learn

Even the lost ones, you can only give up on

Even the ones who make you burn

The ones who've done you wrong

The ones who pretended to be so strong

The grudges you've held for so long

It's not worth singing that same sad song

Even though you're going through hell

Just keep on going

Let the demons dwell

Just wish them well

"The Garden"

In this one of many possible worlds, all for the best, or some bizarre test?

It is what it is - and whatever

Time is still the infinite jest

The arrow files when you dream, the hours tick away - the cells tick away

The Watchmaker keeps to his schemes

The hours tick away - they tick away

The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect

So hard to earn, so easily burned

In the fullness of time

A garden to nurture and protect

In the rise and the set of the sun

'Til the stars go spinning - spinning 'round the night

It is what it is - and forever

Each moment a memory in flight

The arrow flies while you breathe, the hours tick away - the cells tick away

The Watchmaker has time up his sleeve

The hours tick away - they tick away

The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect

The way you live, the gifts that you give

In the fullness of time

Its the only return that you expect

The future disappears into memory

With only a moment between

Forever dwells in that moment

Hope is what remains to be seen