Wires (Donny Angel And The Opening Wide)

When it was silent for a real long time
Way up north in some white cave
All that nothing turned itself into a spark
Sounded just like a radio wave

I was listening to the A.M. live
Riding to the county fair
Hard days before seatbelts in the chairs
But when Donny Angel sang, nobody cared

I rode on the Gravitron
Then the platform man hit the button
I looked down, the bottom was gone
And all that force upon my eyes
Blanketed my troubled mind
First time I walked upon the wire

Wake up: your mother’s gone, you’re just a child
The ride is done you’re on the ground
And nobody cares when the next ten years
Fall off the table and break with no sound

Sometimes I dreamt I saw my future life
From a firetower in a field
I either saw myself floating away in the sky
Or the Donny Angel walking the Earth
From the wrong side

I almost woke up from the sound
Of a lot of geese rustling at the same time
I tuned myself into joining their flight
‘till what I saw that night
Burned across my troubled mind
From where I’d walked upon the wire

What’d the Donny Angel say?
Shut up

You gotta stick out your tongue to all
The feelings you don’t know what to do with
Hang your feet from the bridge
While you’re still young
Pretend you’re watching the sun come up
From another planet’s sun
(so far behind)

And if your sky catches fire ‘cause the tank
Crushed the car with the family inside
And now you fly from reason like sparks
Or the rocks that you kick down the street
With your heels while you’re waiting for
The community van
That takes you and your bag
Someplace that you’ve already been

Then someday your memories stop
And turn into chords, fall down
They’ll write a song
About that time you fell
The one you didn’t stand back up
Then it sounds just like they knew you
Stood up every time before

You’ll know it’s comin' when you’re
Having that same dream
Things are moving out real slow
Way high above a field so green
But you don’t know what it means
Just stare ‘till you hear the birds
You won’t feel better
But you won’t feel worse

Where was heaven
When you were stuck in the night?
Lift off from your tallest tower stairs
You’ll find it’s all comin clear
But it ain’t here yet
Donny hail, shake it, fly!
Oh!

Then come the age they call
The opening wide
When city riots met the dawn
One time I got chased so hard
Through the streets
My feet lifted and I rose up above

And so I asked what you were doin' tonight
Let’s spend an hour in the dark
Try to look in the eyes of the maker
Try to hear the sound of the inside out spark

And if it’s silence chop it up with a knife
Until you say you feel the same
Let’s get a place downtown by the river
Where they bang on the pipes
And it sounds like the rain
How does that sound?

The river flooded and the T.V. died
I saw the channel changing slow
I turned and looked outside
I had to say out loud
“Is this a window or the city below?“

Donny, what happened
To the words you’d write?
They used to lift me like a storm
Blow me from the ceilings
Of North Church Hill to the floor
Maybe they’ll bring me back home sometime
Don’t just say I’m right
Give me nothing for my troubled mind
Just say I’m walking the wire

Last night on the water where the
Lights from the fires get thrown
I saw Donny sailing by all alone
Humming his song of how we only get home
When all our fears are gone

Someday your memories stop and turn into
Chords, fall down, they’ll write a song
About that time you fell
The one you didn’t stand back up
Hope it sounds just like they knew you
Stood up every time before

Baby, lately I’ve been having that same dream
Things start zooming out real slow
Then your face gets hard to see
Don’t tell me I know what it means
To stare 'till I hear the birds
I don’t feel better
But I don’t feel worse

Picked up her her bag and I felt sad
Knowing it was time for the door
And another melody that they
Hadn’t found yet probably soon gonna be
Just as soon as she pulls her heart
Back from under me

And I’ll have to stick out my tongue to all
The feelings I won’t know what to do with
Hang my feet from the bridge like I’m still young
Not like I’ve watched my son grow up
From another planet’s sun

Followed the river to the dry fairgrounds
I climbed the firetower stairs
Tried to imagine the stain of a war-torn plain
That was a city
If the city wasn’t there

When it was silent for a real long time
I took off into the blue
In a week they’ll broadcast
My name across a wire
Or maybe if I land just right