Every hour we’re in a maze with collapsing walls
The heavy weight of existence comes with a quiet call
Is this screaming in my head or in the air itself?
Am I reading the void and avoiding the bookshelf?

There are no secrets in the night sky
Just muted disdain
The rain falls horizontally as the light dies
Leave no stain

This fracture was always bent
Absent joy
Hearts lament
Mundane pulses with every thought
What is decay if never sought?

It’s hard to barter in time already spent
It’s an empty currency
A ledger’s dissent
Grinning projections
Tears are muted
How can we tell if we’re lying or rooted?

The mirror’s a tragedy as it returns
What you cannot explain
Nothing but a face full of questions
Dissolved in pain

This fracture was always bent
Absent joy
Hearts lament
Mundane pulses with every thought
What is decay if never sought?

The weight of the answers we’ll never perceive
Like maps of the stars etched in frost that won’t leave
And still we march forward on legs made of glass
Not knowing the future
Just mourning the past

This clock moves with teeth that gnaw to the bone
Each tick a betrayal
Each tock overthrown
The rhythm’s relentless
A tyrant disguised
In seconds that whisper what’s truth and what’s lies

This fracture was always bent
Absent joy
Hearts lament
Mundane pulses with every thought
What is decay if it’s never been sought?

So we hum through the static to decipher the gray
And drown in the questions we bury each day
Is this now or forever?
We’ve forgotten the line
Between trembling edges and dismal signs

I said in my heart, “Come now
I will test you with pleasure
Enjoy yourself”
But behold, this also was vanity.
I said of laughter, “It is mad”
And of pleasure, “What use is it?”
I searched with my heart
How to cheer my body with wine
My heart still guiding me with wisdom
And how to lay hold on folly
Till I might see what was good
For the children of man to do under heaven
During the few days of their life
I made great works
I built houses and planted vineyards for myself
I made myself gardens and parks
And planted in them all kinds of fruit trees
I made myself pools from which
To water the forest of growing trees

…more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem
I also gathered for myself silver and gold
And the treasure of kings and provinces
I got singers, both men and women
And many concubines
The delight of the sons of man
So I became great and surpassed all
who were before me in Jerusalem
Also my wisdom remained with me
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them

The weight of the answers we’ll never perceive
Like maps of the stars etched in frost that won’t leave
And still, we march forward on legs made of glass
Not knowing the future
Just mourning the past
This clock moves with teeth that gnaw to the bone
Each tick a betrayal
Each tock overthrown
And still we march forward on legs made of glass
Not knowing the future
Just mourning the past

So we hum through the static to decipher the gray
And drown in the questions we bury each day
Is this now or we’ve forgotten the line
Between trembling edges and dismal signs

Signs

I kept my heart from no pleasure
For my heart found pleasure in all my toil
And this was my reward for all my toil
Then I considered all that my hands had done
And the toil I had expended in doing it

So we hum through the static to decipher the gray
And drown in the questions we bury each day
Is this now or forever?
We’ve forgotten the line
Between trembling edges and dismal signs

And behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind
And there was nothing to be gained under the sun

* Ecclesiastes 2:1-11