the idler wheel is wiser than the driver of the screw and whipping cords will serve you more than ropes will ever do

• 1. every single night

every single night, i endure the flight of little wings of white-flamed butterflies in my brain these ideas of mine percolate the mind trickle down the spine, swarm the belly, swellin' to a blaze

that's where the pain comes in like a second skeleton tryin' to fit beneath the skin, i can't fit the feelings in, oh

i say to her, why'd i say it to her? what does she think of me? that i'm not what i ought to be that i'm what i try not to be, it's got to be somebody else's fault i can't get caught

if what i am is what i am 'cause i does what i does then brother get back, 'cause my breast's gonna bust open the rib is the shell, and a heart is the yolk and i just made a meal for us both to choke on

every single night's a fight with my brain, brain my heart's made of parts of all that surround me and that's why the devil just can't get around me

• 2. daredevil

seek me out, look at, look at, look at look at me, i'm all the fishes in the sea

maybe you let me look out for you protect what i found in you and never let it starve then that way, you let me stay, skirtin' the skirt like i want to and i will try hard to hold onto you with open arms

• 3. valentine

you didn't see my valentine i sent it via pantomime while you were watching someone else i stared at you and cut myself that's all i'll do cause i'm not free a fugitive too dull to flee i'm amorous but out of reach a still life drawing of a peach

i'm a tulip in a cup i stand no chance of growing up i've made my peace, i'm dead, i'm done i watch you live to have my fun

i made it to a dinner date my teardrops seasoned every plate i tried to dance but lost my nerve i cramped up in the learning curve

• 4. jonathan

kiss me while i calculate and calibrate and heaven's sakes don't make me explain

just tolerate my little fist tugging on your forest chest i don't wanna talk about i don't wanna talk about anything

• 5. left alone

and i can love the same man in the same bed in the same city

how can i ask anyone to love me when all i do is beg to be left when all i do is beg to be left when all i do is beg to be left alone? alone? alone?

• 6. werewolf

i could liken you to a werewolf the way you left me for dead but i admit that i provided a full moon and i could liken you to a shark the way you bit off my head but then again i was waving around a bleeding open wound

we’re like a wishing well and a bolt of electricity but we can still support each other, all we gotta do is avoid each other

the lava of a volcano shot up hot from under the sea one thing leads to another and you made an island of me

and i could liken you to a chemical the way you made me compound a compound but i'm a chemical, too inevitable you and me would mix

• 8. regret

'member when we argued o'er the concept of regret? you were an expert even then but not me, not yet now all you gotta do's remind me that we met and there you got me, that's how you got me, you taught me to regret

but i ran out of white doves' feathers to soak up the hot piss that comes from your mouth every time you address me

'member when i was so sick and you didn't believe me? then you got sick too and guess who took care of you? you hated that, didn't you? didn't you? now when you look at me, you're condemned to see the monster your mother made you to be and there you got me, that's how you got free you got rid of me

• 9. anything we want

and i kept touching my neck to guide your eye to where i wanted you to kiss me when we find some time alone

my scars were reflecting the mist in your headlights i look like a neon zebra shaking rain off her stripes and the rivulets had you riveted to the places that

started out sippin' the water and now we try to swallow the wave and we try not to let those bastards get us down we don't worry anymore 'cause we know when the guff comes we get brave after all, look around, it's happening, it's happening, it's happening now

let's pretend we're eight years old playin' hooky i draw on the wall and you can play ufc rookie then we'll grow up, take our clothes off and you remind me that i wanted you to kiss me when we find some time alone

• 10. hot knife

if i'm butter then he's a hot knife he makes my heart a cinemascope screen showing a dancing bird of paradise