Oh, Sisyphus (2007)
I dreamed of a philosophy that's probably been thought up lots before
It reads that nothing's real, that there's no reason, truth, or form
but let's not focus on the hoplessness, instead let's make the best of this
I'm drinking nihilist with a twist of optimist
I'm crossing my convictions
I'm pissing contradictions

I'm not real. You're not real. Nothing's real.
But since when has that mattered?

Letter to a Friend in Calgary (2008)
Remember when we shared a city, my friend?
We were prescribed to take it for granted
Now it's been just short of a year since I last saw you
We had a medical lab goodbye
I spend my days grasping onto things
My hands shake and my mind decays
I've written daily since August,
but the acceleration of time is still bringing me down

I'm going back to school you know
I'm kind of sick of selling out
I've ripened aspirations of becoming a writer,
to join the rest of my stilborn dreams
Do you remember? Entomologist, environmental scientist,
sound engineer, and now I'm going to be a great philosopher
I guess there's not all that much you've missed
I'm eeking by, but what's absent is your company, your thoughts,
and the stupid jokes we shared
Do you remember silly quotes from films?
Whenever I hear things mentioned like weight rooms,
or long times, like eight days
I always think of you
I'm always thinking of you, my friend,
and I hope you remember me too

Rooftop Nights (2002)
I could stay here forever tonight, or any night
Though I used to appreciate the stars much more, they're still beautiful
but harder to appreciate, knowing there is no point to appreciation
Sometimes I wish myself back to sunny memories: to be five again
But tonight I'm content making rooftop memories
to store away and look back upon again once I realise the moment is gone
To be twenty again

The Speeding of the Clocks (2007)
My chemicals are fucked
Lately I've been thinking about taking up drinking again
to throw the balance off, to bring back some passion
But oh, it's all been drained, as time decays my brain
I try to dig up old feelings, come on, even just a little pain

My head's not right
I lost count of the rounds, but I'm pretty sure I'm losing the fight
My memory's been stepping out. My history is brewing spite
As thoughts barely escape my brain to coalesce into a broken phrase
and spill out over my lips in monophonic waves

So I quit my job and I burn all my things,
disown society and say goodbye to all my friends
I walk into the mountains with my books and my angst
I'll be gone for a year or for as long as it takes
to figure out what the fuck is going on
and what the hell happened with the speeding of the clocks
I know the cancer's coming; I can see it all the while
I'm looking for a place I can meet it with a smile

Into the Sea (Sink, Victoria, Sink!) (2008)
You evaporated up right out of an eastern sea
You drifted out west across my father's prairies
and you rained down on me; I tried to steal you away to the coasts of B.C.
but you're a wild little river destined to run right back out east
It's the way it goes, the way the water flows back into the sea

It's so wet and green out here. It's a wonder I can see your tears
It's been a cold winter still, even with no snow there's such a chill
in the faces of passers by I pass by on the street
where smiles out to strangers get spat back in my face
It's the coldest warmest place in the country

You miss your rock. I miss my tree
We both miss a sense of community
I won't argue that it would be so easy to turn our backs and flee
but there's a strange scent that's leading me to a strange sense I can't quite feel
and the message is coming through so clear:
We could carry on for a hundred years, muttering in basements,
and never change a thing

It's time for me to burn the hotels down
set fire to local souvenirs made on foreign grounds
liberate the horses and bring those property values down
before the plates shift and the ocean swallows up this town

Time for you to flow back home, or sink with me into the sea

Masokissed (2005-2008)
The whole damn thing is falling apart my friend
I'm shaking like a rattle snake and I can hardly take my eyes off of the pray:
a hard case of heart break

But that's all fantasy: a mere dramatized daydream
No I have no such feelings; they've all grown numb with routine
and everything feels the same

My history is determined by chemistry
It's easy to see why you don't believe in me,
because you know that I don't believe in anything
I follow my chemicals blind

So masokiss me one more time
then break my heart so I feel alright
I don't have much more feeling inside
Let's let it last just one more night

My sister, just like me, is always looking for a tragedy
Too much stability and she starts to lose the feeling
So she'll take him and break him,
and then she'll say,

Masokiss me one more time
then break my heart so I feel alright
I don't have much more feeling inside
let's make it hurt just one more night
Take my heart and set it right
I love for the lows like I live for the highs
Set me afire and leave me try
Let's let it last just one more night

Let's make it work
Let's make it hurt

The Lack of Permanence in Everything (2009)
You were looking for a constant at the core of the chaos
The variables graph a jagged little path across your heart
Well I crossed my heart

In how many lives before were you left at the door, an abandoned infant
Memories that last and permeate your past and your present
Well I'm always present

Time is making rounds as fast as you and I can count
Making sure we're stocked with birthdays and big dates
Days keep passing by, I know you're so afraid to die
There's such a lack of permanence in everything
I'm doing my best to be a landmark in this mess
Somewhere to rest your tired head when it all begins to shift
once again. An end will always come
For the dying man and his setting sun.

You asked me when I was dying, if I would think of you
I said yeah, if I see it coming, and you said you would too
It turns out we're all slowly dying, and you know that I follow through
Every day I can see it coming, so every day I'll think of you

Old Friend (2007)
Old friend, how can I make you new again?
How can we relive the days before we went our separate ways?
When the fallout's fallen out, I hope we can fall back in again
Old friend, let's make sure that we never end

As the season's change, as we grow more estranged, and certain memories fade away
New friends are made and new foundations laid, but it's the past we can't create
It shouldn't take too much for us to keep in touch; pick up the keyboard, pen, or phone
Time is the enemy and we are constantly out there redefining home

When the fallout's fallen out I hope that we can fall back in again
and in the spring we'll sing new songs and joke about times past and present

Old friend, let's find a new beginning
Old friend, let's make sure that we never end
Old friend, how can I make you new again?

In Finite Time (2006/2008)
I don't know you that well, so I just write what I know
You say I know you well enough, well, enough to know
that all your dreams, that all your convictions
slowly dying since birth
Bouts of passion are robbing your wisdom
for everything it's worth

You and I converge and collide, in the same action divide
We part with thoughts of infinite pathways
in finite time

This Moment has Past (2005)
I don't have enough pictures of you to what-if myself into
so desperately and incessantly
You know no picture will ever do
I'm still stuck in that February night we spent in 1999
With your head on my lap and prickers in your back
from the cactus at my parents' house
You were my wonder drug, had the perfect hug
we let it all go with a shrug
That was six years ago

You're breaking my heart and you don't even know it
Why does my mind always come back to you?
If I could go to the start well you know I would do it
and take a million sorry's back from you
Oh, and you won't get out of my dreams
Oh, mellodrama taken to extremes

As I was saying, the music was playing, "How Far Shallow Takes You", by gob
We'd been drinking somewhat. I should have kept my mouth shut
because there in the silence I felt
such a feeling of being alive and of seeing everything fall into place for once in my life
and in your eyes, I could have died, and that feeling would have lived forever

And I, I would have tore down that starry sky
and wrapped you in the night
if I could have made you stay
I wish you could taste this: this bitter tastelessness
from a kiss I never would have had the courage to give

So please, break my fucking heart
Please, tear it right apart
And please, please
tell me to fuck off just once.