The End of Suffering
(c) 2009 Incurable Eclectic Records
All lyrics by Ken Flagg

- Pieces -

after the bars close you walk home
usually with friends but this time alone
past the dark cars
and your old scars are flaring up
you’d have stayed in if only you’d known

falling asleep now takes so long
you keep wondering what went wrong
and your memories whisper gently
like a choir of children humming you songs

someone’s gonna steal away when you’re not looking
someone’s gonna tell you a lie
someone’s gonna make you bleed before they say goodbye
someone’s gonna test your will, see what you’re made of
someone’s gonna take you apart
and leave them lying on the ground: the pieces of your heart

- Mountain Girl –

hey mountain girl come out to play
you know I want to love you, show me the way
I think about you night and day
I don’t go to church but you make me pray

your body is a mountain I want to climb
a gorgeous porcelain edifice, your peaks sublime
I want you with me all the time
gonna scale you with no safety
gonna make you mine

I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you smile
six feet in stilettos, face like a child
you tall-ass bitch, you drive me wild
hey mountain girl, let’s get defiled

- Merced -

if it were up to me, the sky would always be clear
if it were up to me, we would not be living here
but I guess the rain goes
I guess the rain goes
I guess the rain goes where it wants to
and it wants to be with me and you

if I had money to burn I would buy a car so fine
and I would pick you up and we’d drive down the 99
but I’m a poor man
I do what I can
and I’d walk anywhere to please you
that’s the best that I can do

i had a dream that we were walking down the orchard rows
flowers of white and pink dropped their petals on our toes
and we were happy
and certain that we had a future to look forward to
but time has worn me down
in this dead and empty town
I wish that I had done more for you
I wish that I had done more for you

- Those Socks Have Secrets -

claustrophobia and scented sheets
minor victories and small defeats
the weight of you is like the shifting sand
the shadows tremble as you touch my hand

those socks have secrets

beneath a canopy of long brown hair
my body’s present but I am not there
trapped in the amber of a silent sin
the morning quivers like a theremin

those socks have secrets

a pile of laundry and a stack of books
a silence peppered with accusing looks
a hasty exit on my naked feet
a small reminder of the evening’s heat

they have secrets
those socks have secrets
hush.

- Brightest Day –

softly take flight light as a butterfly
you’re with me all night
sometimes I wonder why you’ve stayed so long

I am wet clay and you are the spinning wheel
see what you’ve made of wounds that I couldn’t heal

you’ve made me stronger in every way
and every morning I wake up to the brightest day
I don’t feel lonely anymore

sometimes you cry and I want to fall apart
I would prefer to die rather than break your heart
my only love

wake me before you go so I can look at your face
like an angel in a picture show framed there in your place

so high above me where you should stay
and shine down on me on this
my brightest day
’cause I’m not lonely anymore

- Funeral –

please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
a funeral for somebody I do not even know
the barest of acquaintances but still I need to go

please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
the mother’s fractured face will be too much for me to bear
the rain will rest like diamonds in the mourners’ matted hair

please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
I hope the husband’s eulogy is eloquent and strong
I hope nobody sees me I don’t think that I’ll belong

please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
please don’t rob me I’m going to a funeral
one day perhaps someone will hold a funeral for me
a spectacle for strangers is all I will ever be

please don’t rob me

- Blinded –

everybody’s asking about you, I know where you’ve been
trapped between your memories and the wires on your skin
you’re coming home to find your love has gone
you’re on your own and blinded by the dawn

you’ve been slipping up, babe, but it comes as no surprise
I can see you’re drowning from the shadows in your eyes
you’re feeling slow and nothing’s standing still
you’ll grab ahold, babe, I know you will

everything’s the same as it was when you were broken
we will call your name and one day the doors will open

I know you feel set back and it’s messing with your pride
but everything that’s standing in your way is in your mind
your demons call but don’t you pay them heed
the veil will fall and you will shine eventually

- Ship of Plenty -

your face is like the open water
your perfume is the scent to which I’m bound
your heart is like a distant thunder
and I can’t sleep without the sound
and the rain keeps falling
and the rain keeps falling down
I sail aboard a ship of plenty
but I feel so poor when you’re not around

I hear you on the midnight aether
making your salty siren’s call
I try to pretend you’re with me
but that brings no relief at all
and I’m staring, honey
and I’m staring, honey, at the wall
your voice and your elusive laughter
and me, a silent bouncing ball

- Accelerator –

I open my eyes, wait for the sun to rise
and dawn to make its entry
I just can’t sleep with you here next to me
I feel so stretched and empty
it started out fine
it was only one line
how bad could it hurt me
but one became ten
and ten times more again
now I feel so dirty

what can I say as you accelerate away
in the harsh light of the junkie morning
what can I do now I’m so tightly bound to you
I should have recognized the warning

I want to say no, make you pack your things and go
I would if I were stronger
but I’m not and you’re here
my head feels so unclear
and the days keep getting longer

what I can I say as you accelerate away
and leave me lonely waiting for you
what can I do I’ve taken on a darker hue
I can’t remember life before you

I can’t tell the time
I think I’ve lost my mind
the lights are fading slowly
the world looks pallid and thin
as I look out from within
this moment, almost holy

what can I say as we accelerate away
and leave this mortal coil behind us
what can I do but lie here motionless with you
until somebody comes and finds us

what can i do
what can i do
what can i do
what can i do

- Candyman -

give me what you can
you are in demand
let go, take my hand
I’m your candyman

and she said

I’ve got what you need
you’ve got blood to bleed
life was meant to be
elementary

and she said

you know that I’m your candyman

- Suffering -

when the time has come for the end of suffering
when all the clouds are gone and the people wondering
why they don’t feel small for no reason at all
that will be the day when everything is new again
when I’m not afraid to say I’m in love with you again
when walls come crashing down and drown out all the sound
left over from yesterday
when everybody bows to the here and now
and wipes their past away
that will be the day

when you’re feeling sad and the world’s not making sense
when everything’s gone bad and you’ve lost all your confidence
just sit down and breathe and in your heart believe
there will come a day when you will ease your troubled mind
when dreams which once were grey are now hallucinogenic and divine
when people follow you to places strange and new
and listen to the words you say
when time itself have turned all you’ve known and learned
into something you can’t weigh
that will be the day

- When the Sun Sets in the Eastern Sky -

when the sun sets in the eastern sky
i will look into your eyes
our skin will flake and dust the ground
and the air will boil and bend around
our tongues will snap like stepped-on twigs
of trees now small that once were big
and as the flesh melts off our bones
we will both be dead but not alone
in the fires of retribution we will all just fade away
in our final absolution we will hear our dying voices say
where once bred a myriad dreams and hopes
now a barren field of isotopes
our souls will dance foreverlong
as the desert wind whistles our song