thursday
asleep in the chapel
Three chalk outlines sleep in the dirty street And in our beds, under the sheets They're the halo of guilt hanging around your neck Next to the rosary you count falling asleep And we're praying   These are the symptoms  Of letting go of all our hope Since we can't compete with martyred saints We'll douse ourselves in gasoline and hang our bodies from the lampposts So that our shadows turn into bright lights  'White lights, white heat' We'll make as we're backing out in the center lane (We swerve) To the beat (Spill) All the ink No revisions Do you hear the church bells ringing?  Wake up!! Wake up in an outline and try to speak With the shattered voice of the lives we lead (Have we slept too long) Between the bullet holes in a stained glass window state? And we're praying   These are the symptoms  Of letting go of all our hope (When we repent) And we're praying (We fall on the page) (Read in the margins) We are the symptoms  Of letting go of all our hope  Someday we'll be complete like modern saints Baptize our kids in gasoline And hang our doubts up in cathedrals  So that they turn to faith in the colored sun  'Red rain, red rain' We'll make as we're backing out in the center lane (We swerve) To the beat (Spill) All the ink (No revisions) Do you hear the church bells ringing? They ring for you  (We woke up this morning to a sky with no air in it And the street is filled with a thousand burning crosses And what we thought was the sunrise, just passing headlights)  Still the choir girls sing 'Oh lord, can you save us, save us? Oh, lord, sing hallelujah. Oh lord, can you save us, save us? Oh, lord, sing hallelujah.'  They are the symptoms Of letting go of all our hope We're falling asleep with open eyes Falling asleep inside the chapel Falling asleep in chalk outlines Falling asleep as the headlights pass us by