to the teeth lyrics

The sun is settin on the century
And we are armed to the teeth
We are all working together now
To make our lives mercifully brief
Schoolkids keep trying to teach us
What guns are all about
Confuse liberty with weaponry
And watch your kids act it out
Every year now like Christmas
Some boy gets the mildfed surburban blues
Reaches for the avaliable aresenal

I don't keep much stuff around
I value my portability
But I will say that I have saved
Every letter you ever wrote to me
The one you left on my windshield
Outside of that little motel
Is in the pocket of my old gigbag
From back when life was more soft shelled

Letters littered with little lewd pictures
Drawn by the ghost of Woddy Guthrie
Who would use your big thick hand

I'm losing my love of adventure
I'm losing all respect
For me and myself tonight
I wonder what happens if I get to
The end of this tunnel
And there isn't a light
I've worn down the treads
On all of my tires
I've worn through the elbows
And the knees of my clothing
And I'm stumbling down
The gravel driveway of desire
Trying not to wake up
My sleepy self-loathing

Life in the circus ain't easy
But the folks on the outside don't know
The tent goes up and the tent comes down
And all that they see is the show
And the ladies on the horses look so pretty
And the lions are lookin real mad
And some of the clowns are happy
And some of the clowns are sad

But underneath
There's another expression
That the makeup isn't making
Life under the big top

Going once
Going twice
Sold to the girl who ignored all the good advice
Of all the people who knew better
She just stood there
On the front porch
Waiting for her (will) to come and get her
She was packed
She had a suitcase
Full of noble intentions
She had a (map)
And a staight face
Hell bent on reinvention
And she was ready for a long day
She was in it for it (only)

Hold me down
I am floating away
Into the overcast skies
Over my home town
On election day

What is it about Birmingham?
What is it about buffalo?
Did the hate filled wanna build bunkers
In your beautiful red earth
They want to build them
In our shiny white snow

Now I've drawn closed the curtain
In this little booth where the truth has no place to stand

Back, back, back
In the back of your mind are you learning an angry language?

Tell me, boy
Boy
Boy, are you tending to your joy, or are you just letting it vanquish?

Yeah, back, back, back
In the dark of your mind where the eyes of your demons are gleaming
Are you mad
Mad
Mad about the life you never had
Yeah, even when you are dreaming?

are you weary as water
in a faucet left dripping
with an incessant sadness
like a sad record skipping
and an ugly and ornery
and shadowy dread
lurking like a troll under the bridge
between your heart and your head

she came to and her
whole life was how she remembered it
she had a mouth full of fur
and she was laughing
she parked her hearse across

How pleased can one
Sun setting make you
If you humble yourself to it?
How grateful can you
Really say that you are
Just to be here and live through it?
And when beauty asks a question
How often do you reply?
How often do you wonder about life on the other side?
On the other side of sorrow
On the other side of rage
On the other side of ok
OK at all in any way

ive been wondering what you meant
when you asked do you have a light
ive been wondering where you went
when you left that party that night
cloud blood sweat smeared on the sky
its dawns roadkill
ive been driving since midnight
and im driving still

stop on the top of the ridge
just to feel the wind on my rand mcnally
then i feel the air grow cold
as i drift to the first blue of the valley

Gonna go out to the arrivals gate at the airport
And sit there all day
Watch people reuniting
Public affection so exciting
It even makes airports OK
Watching children run
With their arms outstretched
Just to throw those arms
Around their grandpa's neck
Watching lovers plant kisses
Old men to their misses
At their arrivals gate

Watching a mother
With a mother's smile

Who knew
At this party that
I would walk in and I'd see you
I gues snow
We could just get drunk
Yeah and that could be our excuse
You could slip
And outta nowhere
I could be there to catch your fall
And we could laugh
At ourselves
And the writing that's on the wall

It's a narrow margin
Just room enough for regret
In the inch and half between
Hey, how ya been?

I know this bar
With a jukebox full of medicine
And Christmas lights blinking
Around a clouded mirror
It's not that far
From old voelkers bowling alley
Just go up there and turn right
It's about three blocks from here

You'll probably find grace
Her shift starts at happy hour
She's got this sweet face
Easy as tea leaves to read
You gotta know what to look for

In a coffee shop in a city
Which is every coffee shop in every city
On a day which is every day
I picked up a magazine
Which is every magazine
Read a story, and then forgot it right away

They say goldfish have no memory
I guess their lives are much like mine
And the little plastic castle
Is a surprise every time
And it's hard to say if they're happy

They were digging a new foundation in Manhattan
They discovered a slave cemetery there
And may their souls rest easy now that lynching has been frowned upon
And we've moved on to the electric chair

And I wonder who's gonna be president
Tweedle dum or tweedle dumber?
And who's gonna have the big
Blockbuster box office
This summer
How 'bout we put up a wall

I heard the sound of your bike,
As your wheels hit the gravel,
Then your engine in the driveway
Cutting off
And I pushed through the screen door
And I stood out on the porch
Thinking fight, fight, fight
At all costs,
But instead I let you in,
Just like I've always done
And I sat you down and offered you a beer
And across the kitchen table
I fired several rounds,

You can't hide behind social graces
So don't try to be all touchy feely
Cuz you've lie in my face of all places
But I got no problem with that really

What bugs me is that you believe what you're saying
What bothers me is that you don't know how you feel
What scares me is that while you're telling me stories
You actually believe that they are real

You were fresh off the boat from Virginia
I had a year in New York City under my belt
We met in a dream
We were both nineteen
I remember where we were standing
I remember how it felt
Two little girls
Growing out of their training bras
This little girl breaks furniture
This little girl breaks laws
Two girls together
Just a little less alone

Cold and drizzly night in Chicago's deep dish
Flourescent light of the bathroom
Shows my hands as they are
See and eyelash on my cheek
Pick it off and make a wish
And walk back out into the bar
Wind at the windows
Neon lights the patterned panes
The waitress wields the weight of her tray around her palm
The doorman cups his hands
And lights his cigarette again

You always got those dark sunglasses
Covering up your face
But if you promise to take them off
I promise I won't squander your gaze
I will be picturesque
I will be nice
I won't do anything
You can't tell your wife
I will think before I act
I will think twice
Just let me see your eyes

Each time we've spoke
We've put in our token
And ridden the tilt-a-whirl

I'm a pixie
I'm a paper doll
I'm a cartoon
I'm a chipper cheerful free-for-all
I light up a room
I'm a color-me-happy girl
Miss live and let live
And when they're out for blood
I always give

The man behind the counter looks like he's got
A half a dozen places he'd rather be
and furthermore it looks like he's prepared
To take it all out on me

I'm cradling the softest, warmest part of you in my hands
Feels like a little baby bird
Fallen from the nest
I think that your body is something I understand
I think that I'm happy
I think that I'm blessed

But I've had a lack of inhibition
I've had a loss of perspective
I've had a little bit to drink
And it's making me think
That I can jump ship and swim

Sitting in my glass house while your ghost is sleeping down the hall.
Watching the little birds fly kamikaze missions into the walls.
Think I'm gonna stay in today,
Sit on my couch and watch them fall.
Life just keeps getting harder,
Keeps getting harder to hide.
Darker it is around me,
Easier it is to see inside.
And outside the glass the whole world is magnified,

We drove the car to the top of the parking ramp on the 4th of July.
We sat out on the hood with a couple of
Warm beers and watched the fireworks explode in the sky.
And there was an exodus of birds from the trees,
But they didn't know, we were only pretending.
And the people all looked up,
And the birds flew around like the whole world was ending.
And I don't think war is noble,

You crawled into my bed like some sort of giant insect
And I found myself spellbound that night at the sight of you there,
Beautiful and grotesque and all the rest of that bug stuff
Fluttering your way into my mouth,
Behind my teeth, reaching for my scars.
That night we got kicked out of two bars and laughed our way home.
That night you leaned over and threw up into your hair.