Quiet Americans

I can’t help it

If all the world is ending

If all the life is gone

Still, you’re calling out this name:

Where are the Americans?

Our dimmed conscience

Our hands and eyes that wander

Stumbling down the road

Or collapsing on parade

Or lying alone in the eastern light,

Sleeping in the morning hours

And the only sound

From the lantern-covered hills

The only light

From a day yet to begin

The only signs

Of the guns in silhouette

Are only sound

Are only light

Only, only!

Our dull silence

Our disconnected lives

Pull out the lightning dust

At the mention of his name

And whither the Americans?

Shake the memories off

Hide the evidence under

Piss on the world below

Like a dog that knows his name

Where are the Americans?

All calling on their own tonight,

filling the remaining hours

And the only sounds

Are the bells up on the hill

The only lights

Are the lanterns in the wind

The only sign

Skims the rust off of the rails

The only sound

The only light

Only, only!

The only sound

Is the rushing of the wind

The only light

Is a day yet to begin

The only signs

Of the lives in silhouette

“The only life”

Is not the only life

Only, only!