Eternal Vigilance

You…
You believed …
You believed in moments none could see
You believed in me

A passionate spirit
Uncompromised
Boundless and open A light in your eyes that
Could end all lies

Broken
Fell at the hands of this moment so that I wouldn’t see
It was you who prayed for me so
What have I done
To be a son to an angel?
What have I done
To be worthy?

Daylight dims leaving cold fluorescence
Difficult to see you in this light
Please forgive this selfish question, but
What am I to say to all these ghouls tonight
She never told a lie,
… well might have told a lie,
But never lived one.

Didn’t have a life
Didn’t have a life
But surely saved one
So I’m alright
Now it’s time for us to let you go.

Listen to the tales and romanticize,
How we follow the path of the hero.
Boast about the day when the rivers overrun.
How we rise to the height of our halo.

Listen to the tales as we all rationalize
Our way into the arms of the savior,
Feigning all the trials and the tribulations;
None of us have actually been there.
Not like you.

Ignorant fibbers in the congregation
Gather around spewing sympathy,
Spare me.
None of them can even hold a candle up to you.
Blinded by choices, hypocrites won’t see.

But, enough about the collective Judas.
Who could deny you were the one who
would have made it, illuminated
You’ll have a piece of the divine.

And this little light of mine, the gift you passed on to me;
I’ll let it shine to guide you safely on your way,
Your way home …

Oh, what are they going to do when the lights go down
Without you to guide them all to Zion?
What are they going to do when the rivers overrun
Other than tremble incessantly?

High as a wave, but I’ll rise on up off the ground.
You were the light and the way, they’ll only read about.
I only pray, Heaven knows when to lift you out.
Ten thousand days in the fire is long enough, you’re going home.

You’re the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fists at the gates saying:
“I have come home now!
Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father.
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It’s time now!
My time now!
Give me my, give me my wings!”

Give me my wings!

You are the light and way, that they will only read about.

Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance,
Burden of proof tossed upon the believers.
You were the witness, my eyes, my evidence,
Judith Marie, unconditional one.

Daylight dims leaving cold fluorescence.
Difficult to see you in this light.
Please forgive this bold suggestion:
Should you see your Maker’s face tonight,
Look Him in the eye, look Him in the eye, and tell Him:
I never lived a lie, never took a life, but surely saved one.
Hallelujah, it’s time for you to bring me home.

Utilizing drugs to pay for secret wars around the world,
Drugs are now your global policy,
Now you police the globe,

I buy my crack, my smack, my bitch,
Right here in Hollywood,

Drug money is used to rig elections,
And train brutal corporate sponsored
Dictators around the world.

-System of a Down

Shroud-ing all the ground around me
Is this holy crow above me.
Black as holes within a memory
And blue as our new second sun.
I stick my hand into his shadow
To pull the pieces from the sand.
Which I attempt to reassemble
To see just who I might have been.
I do not recognize the vessel,
But the eyes seem so familiar.
Like phosphorescent desert buttons
Singing one familiar song…

Think for yourself
Question authority

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening,
terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in
this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the
religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by
giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their
view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and
learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness;
chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.

Think for yourself.
Question authority.

And so once again, my dear Johnny my dear friend
And so once again you are fighting us all
And when I ask you why, you raise your sticks and cry and I fall

Oh, my friend, how did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say I have turned, like the enemies you’ve earned
But I can remember all the good things you are
And so I ask you please, can I help you find the peace and the star

Oh, my friend, what time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist

And so once again, Old America my friend
You are fighting us all
And when we I ask you why, you raise your sticks and cry and I fall

Oh, my friends, how did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say we have turned, like the enemies you’ve earned
But we can remember all the good things you are
And so we ask you please, can we help you find the peace and the star.

Oh, my friend, we have all come
To fear the beating of your drum.