Wasteland

The maggots are emerging
From the caskets that we're burning
On the body of the sphere
That we wedged between our ears
To weave baskets of imaginary
Creation, spaceship, cotton ferry
Isolation on the wooden lock
Behind the bus, on top the block
And feral crows eat off the gnome
That we stretched out beyond the zone
And if you want your kid to see
Pluck out his eyes to feed the trees
Our future's rocks between the roots
That dance to notes from carbon flutes
And I can sing, but I can't dance
A jester made of ocean sand
A plastic ring we call the sun
Is held by birthers on the run
And every moon, and some between
I count the shrinking flock of sheep
And deep inside I know a sun
Will rise and shine only once
Gone are days we count to sleep
I stay awake as long as I breathe

We need a lie
We need a lie
We've been sleeping for a thousand years, oh
We need a lie
We need a lie
We've been sleeping for a thousand years, oh
It's a wasteland, baby
It's a wasteland, baby

Picking the grime from under my toes
Digging fast under where the sun don't show
I'm not Apollo, I don't own land
I'm not a dealer but I own my hand
I pull the water and scrub the grime
When the cities underwater I'll still shine
No place where it's supposed to be
That's the catch with feeling free
And we caught ankles, slashing binds
So we rewrite a different mind
I'll lay down your house of bones
From the children we knew would grow
Ask the parents, they'll agree
Bones need homes, and homes aren't trees
We rest our heads on beds from sheep
The ones they used to count for sleep
And when we emerge from above the bed
Clean is our body and clear is our head
No grime left to slow the tips
From writing words to speak to lips
Time to take the money from the top and redistribute it
Throwing out bills like we're trying to get rid of it
Find every monster and steal food from their plates
The Earth bears fruit for everybody who waits
So why are there still walls at the borders that we made
The earth gives birth, but we're still building graves
What if every fruit was picked off the ground?
What if we never let a fruit turn brown
The children of the earth will never be fed
Until we heal the wound where the Earth has bled
We don't give up on the Earth for the young
Until lands collapsed, fallen into the sun
What if we ignored competition for a moment
What if we never sold the West as a token?
Where would go if you could choose any second
Cornfield now, or a field without fences

We need a lie
We need a lie
We've been sleeping for a thousand years, oh
We need a lie
We need a lie
We've been sleeping for a thousand years, oh
It's a wasteland, baby
It's a wasteland, baby

I want to chase powerlines coast to coast
From LA to New York and back to home
The country we paved on golden hills
The bones of the bison that grind the mills
If just to kiss the buds of a thousand tongues
Of the words that we took from the wars that we won
I've got to feed the babies, got to know why they're not
I need to know where the food goes when it rots
I was excited for a world to see
You took your life at 17
In your note, just five words
Wild west, world has burned
A picture in the capital of Washington state
A wagon arrives, but just too late
Every piece of land, divided up
Every single Indian, hunted for blood
Every speck of gold has been sifted from the water
And death holds everyone, you weep for your daughter
These words flowed when we worked at the hill
Walking from the office to the world that we killed
Staring at the picture, but you didn't say it
We were on a wagon but we didn't make it
Watching the the night birds dive towards the sun
Light that it pulls, nowhere to run

We need a lie
We need a lie
We've been sleeping for a thousand years, oh
We need a lie
We need a lie
We've been sleeping for a thousand years, oh
It's a wasteland, baby
It's a wasteland, baby