An age of silence, dribble on chin
The fate of the universe, a bellyfull end
Floating away, slumped in a grave, floating away
Straight paths, neutral, engraved by the gods
Manic complacent, a stomach fat rub
You look completely brand new

We choose our words like wine and kiss like petty crimes
We chase our parents' sins
And hear their voices in New England highway winds

Let's go and find our new lives down by the jetski junkyard
Let's lull divorcees from their households
You can play my first wife
I can play the paperwork that saves you

You babysat the kids of old executives
You babysat the cars of former movie stars in summers after dark

We've met the children of your now former love
We've combed Rhode Island's coast for your father's ghost
In our winter coats
With fake pearls on your neck and a candy cigarette

We've seen the curtains opened
"Cancer" spelled in blinking lights
We've watched a dead man trace his steps
Backwards through his life
Break out the flood lights
Purify our LAX reddened eyes
Take back our half-lives
Rise up in a subway car
Float over Old Hollywood's buried stars
Let's watch the cities glow
Watch the new millenium come and go

We've found the cure, our work is done
Now North and South are one
So tell our daughters, tell our sons
Our past mistakes have been undone

Take our bloodline public, our family's sins in DNA
Our daughters pen our epitaphs, and theirs will do the same
Turn up your high beams
Pound in morse code on suburban streets:
"The Devil flees in full retreat!"
Raise up the house lights
Take a war plane on a scenic flight
Pull the lifeline from our veins
Watch the new millenium come of age

Take our half lives, open our red eyes
Take the thrones from our Hollywood bloodlines
Pull the lifeline from our veins
Wash away the sins from our DNA
Watch the new millenium come of age

The ashes are glitter, the aftermath gold
The curtain is torn, and the cities made whole
The billboards are fossils kept by the sky
Selling their goods to the ghosts of 1999
The victory broadcast still lingers mid-air:
"Hollywood's orphans are back in her care!"

The alleys are all red carpets tonight
We're kings and we're queens, we're the fallen on high
So raise up the lights, raise up your birthrights
and LA runaways, call your homes tonight

The third world was fragile, the first made of stone
Our fathers would wrestle theirs angels from home
You were my Esau, my brother, my kind
I rode on the pegs of your new two-wheeler bike
I stole your birthright, I stole your life
Now I've come for forgiveness, to reconcile

Celebrity mansion, open your doors
Your latchkey grandchildren are wrinkled and worn

I'm feeling kind of grey, decrepit day
My head is cast in stone on the front page
My song is on the radio
Every note's in tune
And now my hands are gold
My eyes are glazed
Eternal fire's gonna get me today
So I just called to make sure you're okay

LED, is your foreign light immune to me?
Osaka sky, I've lost my shadow in your neon signs
Pass me by, a stranger that I swear I knew in my last life
Pass me by, my hometown in disguise

Osaka's nights are dreamt in black and white
While her kids fall asleep in the black light
Her kids are all falling asleep in the black light

Kyoto grave, will you and I emerge at Heaven's gates?
Strips of white, are your misfourtunes all the same as mine?
Osaka street, I've walked your dotted lines in forgotten dreams
Osaka night, turn off your colored lights

Change the hospital sheets
Keep them as white as Heaven's streets
We'd use our wings to fly us south but we've forgotten how
My date of birth left me on cold New Haven's earth
The radio says Regan's down, and now here's the count

Two parents and one babysitter
Six bullets and one star-crossed killer
Await on my birthday

The family room TV, a blue-eyed TV actor screams,
"Why oh why, my God have you forsaken me?"
My eyes are wide, my nose is bleeding on the hymnal spine
Staring faces I don't recognize just like when I arrived

Adrienne, her death came with the summer's end
It was the same day as Princess Di's, but her's was not televised
My date of birth left me on cold New Haven's earth
The radio says Regan's down, and now here's the count

The storm has moved north, Manhattan drifts south
The country's in ice, the gods underground
But you are still home with your cigarettes
Counting the stars underneath your breath

Above the ash, above the ice
We'll write your name in broken lights
And while Jersey sleeps in violent dreams
We'll see your face light up a screen

Fire rose in May, snow fell in June
Your family fled west, their demons went too
But you are still home waiting for the call
Reading your scene to paintings on the wall

Admirers await in California
These strangers don't know who you are
I remember you in your parents car
Cul-de-sac hides you in its arms
Lies on the telephone don't know where you are

Collect your belt, and come collect your shoes
I wasn't born here, I'm just passing through
Don't speak of death and don't speak 'til you're spoken to

Rehearse your birthdate, and rehearse your name
Sundown Tijuana, sunrise in LA
Turn off the bedroom light for me

Hunt me, Pacific Coast, surround me at SFO
We're birds on the runway, we're lines on the road
Darling, I'll be up late, I'll send word from JFK
They've lost my trail, But I will never lose my way

Old folks are suspects and the kids are crimes
Our legs are scars and our hometowns are knives
With Grandmother's suitcase and your father's hazel eyes

My bags are checked and my crimes are confessed
A kiss on your forehead and sweat on your dress
I won't be coming home tonight

This one went down to marketplace
Consignment rescue mission base
Clothes on the mannequin
Just worn by Adrienne yesterday

Toy baby grands sleep by the wall
Descending decades down the hall
Dust bunnies on the keys
Performing their masterpiece for you and me

A woolen landslide of plaid and stripes
A brandished Ph.D
Now she's your wife to be
But just you wait, just you wait

Cookie crumbs and ashes on the floor
Old crumbling constellations marching to war
Take my girl and take my stature
I'm the only wartime bachelor now left in our hometown

You're attacked by grown-up infantry
I'm attacked by packs of housewives, it's them or me
Can't be wounded, can't be captured
Im the only wartime bachelor now lLeft in our hometown

Forgotten kettle boiled black and blue
Forgotten lungs blackened by my new brand of abuse
Take my girl and take my stature
I'm the only wartime bachelor now left in our hometown

Sign me, seal me, send me
I remain yours truly, yours truly

Cookie crumbs and ashes on the floor
Old crumbling constellations marching to war
Time has slowed but I age faster
I'm the only wartime bachelor now left in our hometown
Darling, I'm underfed, the cats are sick, and the plants are dead

Shake the windows, shake your gifts
A drive-by shooter and a birthday wish
I've lost count, how old are you now?
Potrero is dressed in yellow bows
They say "Do Not Cross" and do not walk alone
We do not walk alone

Young San Francisco, we'll darn your faultlines for you
Young San Francsico, we'll mend your cracked pavement too
You'll never grow old, young San Francisco

Sing, sirens, sing along
We'll wait here 'til the cops are gone
Darling, there's nothing left to see
Just fireworks and fired shots
We fell asleep in the aftershock

Inflated beasts are floating North
The pinata's belly torn
And the gulls direct its ashes to the shore
Bring your coat and bring your youth
Leave your history, and leave your shoes back at home