Skeleton Crew

Ah, those were our halcyon nights
Dancing blindly on fantasy’s ledge
Outlandish pied-piper satellites
Pushing the envelope over the edge

Horizons shrink with every blink
After sailing so long along the brink
That skeleton crew’s beginning to think
That this leaky ship was built to sink

Oh, all of us, we paid the cost
Of the four-way double-cross
When a headless coin was tossed
As an endless race was lost
And the crosshairs hit the albatross
First it soars
And then it tumbles
Well, that’s the way the karma crumbles

Well the course took a turn for the strange
Missing storm-clouds for wild seas
Icebergs looming high as a mountain range
Echoing projected whispers of mutiny

The senseless prophet held his head
Salty and parched with thirst
Said, better bring that bird back from the dead
If your fate is to be reversed

If your crew survives resurrection
And rises up from the murky deep
Casting a still life reflection
Of when dreams were only asleep

The stars all shining spectral rays
And the ocean was but a lake
Sailing in circles for a thousand days
Swept away as we fell awake

Oh, all of us, we paid the cost
Of that four-way double-cross
When the headless coin was tossed
As the endless race was lost
And the crosshairs hit the albatross
First it soars
And then it tumbles
Well, that’s the way the karma crumbles

In the ricochet of a smashed compass glass
Sprites swooped in to distribute the dust
Trading in futures and trinkets of trust
Eating ghostly fruits of possibilities past
The thesis of Theseus under an updated mast
In the tension strung between now and then
And the decks scrubbed of what could have been
Let them think that was original paint
We knew it was just rust rust rust

Now I gotta get it off my chest
My chest
Gotta get it off my chest
My chest

Oh, all of us, we paid the cost
Of the four-way double-cross
When a headless coin was tossed
As an endless race was lost
And the crosshairs hit the albatross
First it soars
And then it tumbles
Well, that’s the way the karma crumbles

So send your voice into tattered sails
And lower that arrow before it’s too late
You’ll circle long around the old tale
Of how the aimless hunter took the bait

You can follow any shadow but your own
Vessel in the harbor, vessel under the sea
The onus is mine, but not mine alone
Captain or captive, neither is me

The subject is the subtext
When the line runs out of slack
With no notion of what follows next
The ideas you hold can hold you back

Oh, all of us, we paid the cost
Of the four-way double-cross
When a headless coin was tossed
As the endless race was lost
And the crosshairs hit the albatross
First it soars
And then it tumbles
Well, that’s the way the karma crumbles

Air Lift Underground February 23, 2025. Category: Air Lift Underground, Word Jazz.

About Air Lift Underground

View all posts by Air Lift Underground