Venture west they said There's a forest out there Far away The elements can batter At her threshold But she grows on Just the same So much life inside her It'd take a lifetime to survey No apostate to my nature I have wandered here alone With an inkling for my compass And no string attached to guide me safely home And I'm no expert on what Grows beneath your shade Only journeyed far In the hope you'd let me stay I want to wander Through your woods awhile I want to know The size and shape of every leaf I want to drink the rain that falls From your trees on high I want to know if you are What you look to be Beautiful, but above all else You seem Evergreen And I'll keep quiet here Observe your mystery And walk the winding paths With no knowing Where they lead And maybe they'll just Spit me out And I'll be doomed To wander more But what a shame that'd be There's much here to adore I want to wander Through your woods awhile I want to know The size and shape of every leaf I want to drink the rain that falls From your trees on high I want to know if you are What you look to be Beautiful, but above all else You seem Evergreen Evergreen don't need Your lumber for my bed I'll take my rest Up in your branches in the air And let the evening breeze Be comfort and my cover And quietly I'll Mindfully I'll Peacefully I'll Mind the fruit you bear Don't want to own The land you grow upon Don't want to carve my name In hearts on all your trees Just don't expel me 'Til I see the dawn And the way The sunlight break your canopy Cause I don't know But I think you are Cause you sure look This way to me Oh I tell you I tell you You’re evergreen Evergreen

Don’t know when we met I don’t know when the virus came Suspect you’ve been there all along Lying in wait With no escape For me With company Your thoughts race endlessly And you’re lost in space In the quiet comfort of your room The virus keeps you wide awake Turning tricks To get its fix It gets high on all you’ve hidden You wither and isolate Told to love you And embrace you as my own Virus as child or lover Least I'm never left alone You demand attention You will be known But I want to burn your body And I want to stem your plague Won't take half-measures with a virus I can never seem to shake And through force of will I'd put you on list of kills And finally breathing easy I would whistle As I watched you waste away But we both know that you’ll survive No way to vaccinate or put out your lights Cause you’ll wait me out You stare me down From some corner in my mind And you’ll infect me to the bottom of my being The minute I avoid your eyes And will you be there virus On my dying day? Not having pulled the trigger But unrelenting All the same? And will you tell me? Will I know? Will I have peace Or will it always Always Be this way?

Well after it all Looks like I'm back to where I started Is life meant to be this way? Feel like we're making progress Come out the other side Redundancy and I got Nothing new to say Where are the words That will cure me with their rhyme? And tape my battered hopes together One last time And I won't search for lovers anymore That'd be a crime So my heart is closed for business Unless you can read my mind And I'll gaze here at the wall To watch the shadows dance Will sooth me after all this time Away Not going outside Think I'll stay here in my cave Think I'll stay here in my cave Half of me's a spendthrift When it comes to my affections And the other half's disgusted At the lack of a collection Of dues I feel I'm owed For all the love I sowed In her Cause when the light shines On this hovel made of stone Exposing fits of romance Carved here when I was alone All that they reveal, and all they seem to say Is those dreams I dreamt of love died When she took her love away And I'll gaze here at the wall To watch the shadows dance Will soothe me after all this time Away Not going outside Think I'll stay here in my cave Think I'll stay here in my cave No "A" for effort For the one who kept the faith No "A" for effort For the one who kept the faith Do I delude myself In all these dreams of love? Is it just infatuation Until someone's had enough? And how must I work To let it live and watch it grow? And does it always end in heartache Singing songs nobody knows? See I'm banished to this wall To watch the shadows dance As punishment For all my time Away What a fool I was To reach beyond my cave If you need me I'll be here inside my cave If you need me I'll be here inside my cave

I really don't know how to handle this I've no words to set things right And you are gone from me So it's your ghost that I'll be speaking with tonight Sometimes I'm angry at the way you left And so I hiss and stamp my feet But mostly I Can't stand to think you lost your faith in me I'm no hero who can remedy this madness The world outside Will always throw your way And I don't know what to do about this Cause all I'd ever wanted for you Were endless happy days But you’ll never know If I'm damned to sit here talking to your ghost What is that you think I'll do to you If you should wander back to me? Build myself a throne and watch As you struggle to proclaim your purity? But it's not some worship that I craved from you And it's not some vision that we shared Oh it's the way you held me hard When "I love you" lacked the stuff to show you cared I don't think I was some monster bringing madness To confuse you on your route To sit in judgement, or impede And I don't know what to do about this Cause all I'd ever want's To fuel your dreams and let them breed It's what I want most And if you don't believe me You can ask your ghost Think I'm losing my mind Think I'm losing my mind Oh this loneliness begins to feel like madness Cause here I am again Believing you are here And I don't know what to do about this This ghost of you’s become to me The thing I hold most dear I should let it go It's not really you I know But the madness moves me so There is danger Just outside my cave I could be left out there Naked in the cold Oh but whether I am Loving or insane A part of me believes That I can call you home So I'll shout out my location To the heavens Shout it every night I'm out here on my own So if by chance An echo of it moves you Wander to these arms That are your's alone I sit here waiting On the White cliffs of Dover For you Never knowing where you’ve gone I sit here waiting On the White cliffs of Dover For you Hoping you will hear my song I sit here waiting On the White cliffs of Dover For you Never knowing what went wrong I sit here waiting On the White cliffs of Dover For you Hoping you will hear my song

Came on like a fever A compulsion to retrace Maybe it’s this city Forever married to her face For me Beset by phantoms Footprints that I made With no one left here To commune with No one left Who knows my name Come now I long to fill my lungs And somehow Speak once more In the mother tongue Cause I’ve burned bridges That didn’t lead to what I need And god knows I’ve been burned too By those who want No part of me I’m searching for the spirit I had when we were starting out When I took poems From her kisses Oh and I poured them In the concrete Of this city’s sacred ground Will you come now I long fill my lungs And somehow Remind me of The mother tongue Another time, a different way It probably all worked out But though it pains me to say Guess it still all worked out Okay Don’t know what I’m trying To say now Cause I’m not asking For your heart I was just reminded How I loved you Though we were meant To be apart And all I hope All I want You find someone Who speaks to you Sings to you In the mother tongue Oh the mother tongue The fever must come to an end And I don’t long To venture back now Just want to find myself again