If you're wondering how to open
Open with the wrestlers
Dressed in their shiny little briefs
Some kind of polyester vest
Tied across their hairless chests shiny with the attention.
And if you're wondering how this skinhead got in
Someone let him
And he's circling the stadium
With his Nazi friend and they're radiant
And everyone stares straight ahead and just lets them.
And if you're wondering how our stupid hearts
Let themselves get torn apart
Every survivor learns this lesson
About seeing ravens circling
Feeling the shifting of the winds
As the tides pull out of the basin.
So this is elemental action
So this is one becoming two
So this is opposites retracting
So this is left, what once was blue
Maybe these days we won't run and twirl
Unfurl our curls of smoke that touch the stars
Until we've given up our sense of wonder, sense of touch
So swirling summer songs won't sound so far.
And if you're wondering how our stupid hearts
Let themselves get torn apart
Every survivor learns this lesson
About seeing ravens circling
Feeling the shifting of the winds
As the tides pull out of the basin
As the tides withdraw from the basin.
I walk these streets
Like a one-man parade
Lurching & bragging &
Seasick on cheap champagne
It's a long ride
From here to my city
But it's only money
It's only a dime at a time
And if you're wondering how our stupid hearts
Let themselves get torn apart
Every survivor learns this lesson
About seeing ravens circling
Feeling the shifting of the winds
As the tides pull out of the basin
As the tides withdraw from the basin.
And if you don't know how to close, close with the archers
And the judges in the mercy seat
Stopping stray arrows with their feet
And signalling the changing of the partners.