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Born For These Times (unmastered)

by Benjamin Blake

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1.
Satisfied 03:52
You wake up in the morning and you hate yourself Like a disgraced king with his hollow wealth Watch the smoke rise from peasant fires But you’ll be safe in Versailles for a while Rumors of plagues and rumors of war Rumors of heaven and rumors of souls As your car sets sail off the edge of the cliff You think “There must’ve been a reason for this” And it makes you shake with an unborn faith Like a cry in the wild, like a tunneled escape You quit your job on your cigarette break and you fly You don’t need to know the meaning of life Just the open road and a fire by your side You lay your pack out under heaven and call it satisfied You put a prayer to the wind and a friend you found You didn’t know what you had till they put him in the ground You swear sometimes you think you see his face Flashing past across the interstate Do you feel love when you’re by yourself? Or do you always need to give it to somebody else? Another lover to walk out your door And leave you like you were before And it makes you shake with an unborn faith Like a cry in the wild, like a tunneled escape You quit your job on your cigarette break and you fly You don’t need to know the meaning of life Just the open road and a fire by your side You lay your pack out under heaven and think you must have died You lay your pack out under heaven and call it satisfied
2.
I wish that I'd known you before the war Before you earned the scars that I know you for I wonder what you dreamed of as you scrubbed their kitchen floors I see your face in every public square Where gallows hang and smoke fills the air There was a time I could have loved you there Then they called your name, you said "I'll see you in a hundred years" And last night I dreamt of murdering a king Cut into the roots of everything Power doesn't retire and it doesn't resign Kings lose their heads, they lose their minds Last night I swore I saw you through the trees I see your name every now and then Beneath a headline or painted on a subway train I think I finally understand what you meant when one night I asked you why you loved the war When hope is gone and we don't know what we're fighting for You said, "Life is a battle, love is a chore, and the weavers of the dream are the ones who win the war.”
3.
On a bed of leaves, we shared the dreams of a life that we would complete We parted ways but said the End of Days was always where we’d meet And I keep my friends close But I gotta keep the highway closer Good goddamn, who’d have faith in a man Who can’t pay for what he’s selling? In tears we laid on the bed we made that looked something like a shallow grave To hearing you crying inside of your four post night while I just acted like it wasn’t my fault For holding my lover close But leaving the back door open Good goddamn, who could love a man Who’s afraid of what he’s after? There was a promise made from the lights of the stage Was it freedom or just 15 of fame? I go to work every day but I still can’t explain why I never really loved what I do And I keep my obligations, it’s true But I keep my fantasies closer Good goddamn, who’d give voice to a man Who can’t say just what he’s after? There’s a place I know at the end of the road If we keep walking, we’ll step right out of time From what I know of you, friend, you’ve got good intentions And I’ve always seen a light in your eyes And I keep my friends close But I always keep the highway closer Good goddamn, will you befriend a man Who’s trying to turn you on to what he’s after?
4.
The sunrise blesses the trash collectors as a new day pours into our lives The world we fell asleep to yesterday was gone as soon as we closed our eyes And when you were young you knew you’d be the one to bring this crazy world back to its senses But you’ve had to carve your house out in it now and you’re rushing to it’s defenses Once upon a time you were the highway kind, the wind was the only blanket you needed To witness every crevice with honest eyes was your job and, man, it kept you lean You’d blow into a town built on a burial ground, suburbs dotted the hills like sheep You’d feel the fires burning on Main Street and sleep out in the trees like a refugee But now you sing the same song day to day cause it works and you've got bills to pay You rent out a house with other families around, you say "the shepherd, man, well he's ok" You stare out onto the landscape now, times have changed and so have you You feel written out of the future, and old for a world so new Some days I believe I'm fixing to leave this world, but that feeling just fades into the next Some nights out here are sleepless, some are like eternal rest When your number is called and the pieces fall, I hope you burn just as bright as the sun I hope the trash collectors know they're carrying away pieces of a chosen one
5.
A Roman soldier says to his boss “I got a feeling I can’t shake Ever since we pinned that lunatic on the cross, every night I lie awake Having visions of a great serpent sleeping in the roots of a burning tree And a movie called the end of the world and the main character is me Heaven knows that I dream about murder even when I’m down on my bended knee” The mistress says to the bridegroom “Just apologize to yourself No one here believes your lies as much as you yourself. Besides, I’ve never met a man who could put a ring on me Cause I’ve never found that love is a reason not to be free And I see the way your eyes wander even when you’re down on your bended knee” Satanic verses on the men’s room wall Hieroglyphics on the second stall Forgotten thoughts of lost souls scrawled from the ceiling to the floor And if I stare in this mirror any longer I’ll forget that I have a name The Colorado River runs from the faucet to the drain Sometimes I wonder what I’m running from when I’m down on my bended knee The silence shattered by a mission bell, the sun muted by a cloud The goat they’re gonna sacrifice for the feast is talking clear and loud And the Padre pulls a book off the shelf called “The Dark Side of Our Lord” As the maids pull the sheets off the clothesline, getting ready for the storm You ever wonder who you’re talking to when you’re down on your bended knee?
6.
Dive into the river like an old familiar lover But the fool’s gold you’ve been earning is like stones in your pockets You’re not swimming The sorrow inside you fills you up light nightfall Blinded by highbeams you die in your daydreams You steal me from the earth and show me it’s as empty as the sky You steal me from myself and show me the dark side of the light See the mark of Cain on the one that you love Stare into those eyes, they’re not afraid of a little blood Sometimes your love flows out you from your veins into the earth Sometimes you are the killer, sometimes the mother giving birth You steal me from the earth and show me I’m as empty as the sky You steal me from myself and show me the dark side of the light This table that I sit at is like an inn along the highway And I’m the old innkeeper, I’ve been here forever Sometimes a weary traveler comes to join me at my table But the night’s my true companion, she loves me and she scorns me She steals me from the earth and shows me its as empty as the sky She steals me from myself and shows me the dark side of the light
7.
The way the sirens call the sailors The way the shepherd calls the sheep The way the ocean calls the burning plane The way that you once called to me The way the ground calls to the falling The way the sunlight calls the seed The way the lonely call the lonely The way tomorrow beckons me I don’t know how I met you But I remembered you from before I saw an ancient face in a modern crowd I knew the essence but not the form The way an instant turns to wonder The way that wonder turns towards skin The way that skin turns towards routine Till every move I make turns you away again The way the fire leaves the ashes The way the green grass leaves the hay The way a building goes abandoned The way we parted yesterday The way a village leaves a ruin The way a tree leaves a snag The way a loved one leaves a corpse The way the essence leaves the form Is that a routine or a mantra? Are you here, or just taking up space? Are we making love, or are we making porn? Is it the essence or the form?

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released April 19, 2018

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Benjamin Blake Portland, Oregon

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