A Flash Before My Eyes

(album: Octane - 2005)

[I. The Ballet Of The Impact]

The windshield explodes
Like a bomb packed with diamonds
There's a deafening silence
Time flows to a crawl
As the ballet of the impact
Spreads out across the blacktop
Angels dancing down like raindrops
In the air as they fall

So this is how it goes
So this is how it ends
A flatbed runs a red light
No time to comprehend
As a blizzard of my memories
Lights up like fireflies
In the sliver of an instant
In a flash before my eyes...

[II. I Wouldn't Let It Go]

I was just a boy
A rough and restless child
All skin and bones and thistles
A tough weed growing wild
Someday I'd be an astronaut
And make my way up to Mars
But I was like a monkey
With my hand stuck in a jar

I was holding on to something
That I couldn't make my own
At times it seemed so hopeless
But I wouldn't let it go
No I wouldn't let it go
No I would not let it go

Once I took a penny
Placed it on the track
When the freight train flattened it
I couldn't change it back
I was never lost
In my little town
But I remember hoping
That someday I'd be found

[III. Surfing Down The Avalanche]

I had a mother chasing planets
Shopping doctors for her Vicodin
A weekend father absent
Searching dungeons for some discipline
School was like a prison
The zombies ruled and the masses just gave in

I had to run breakout I had to run

I didn't see the world like the others did
'Cause I couldn't see that world

I had to run break out I had to run
Break out break out break

I am invincible
No one can stop me
Not even mom and dad
They never had a daughter
But I bet they wished they had
I feel like I can walk through walls
I'm fearless and shocking
You're looking at the face of evil baby
Coming to ya at the tender age of thirteen
The tender age of thirteen
But I'm mean...

I lived high on a hill
Until the ground gave way
I felt a wave of my debris
Pick me up and carry me

And the rocks started rolling
The rocks started rolling

Surfing down the avalanche
Surfing down the avalanche
Surfing down the avalanche
Surfing down the avalanche

[IV. She Is Everything]

The first breath of summer in warm morning rain
Where crimson flowers covered the ground
The world faded 'round us
We fell to our knees
Amazed at the love we had found

She is everything
The sacred, the pure
The fix, the addiction
The vision, the cure
She rings down the years
'Round the corners we turned
An ember still burns to this day
But now it's all fading away
She is everything

With words of forever we'd paint through the night
Pictures of life we would share
Then we joined together with all that we owned
A promise
A ring and a prayer

[V. Climbing Up That Hill]

Finally got caught up
We thought we had it made
Then life stepped in and sent another mouth to feed our way
Once our world was more than fighting traffic kids and bills
Working all day straight into the night
No time for chasing thrills

Dancing through the landmines
Right down to the wire
Walking through the fire
But we're

Climbing up that hill
Breaking for the blue skies
Someday we will find our real life
On the other side

On a map let's find a place we've never been before
Pack our bags and book a flight
We'll walk right out that door
Guess that's just a dream
Since we grew roots and settled down
Wonder if we'll ever leave this tired little town

Home up on the high wire
No net down below
There's one thing that we both know
We are

Dancing through the landmines
Right down to the wire
Walking through the fire
But we're

[VI. Letting Go]

[Instrumental]

[VII. Of The Beauty Of It All]

I am drifting on the water
Far out from the land
Moving through my memories
As I try to understand
If I wake tomorrow wiser
Or it's time to shed my skin
And let go of a lifetime
That I can't have back again

All the love we leave behind
All the work we leave undone
All the words we leave unspoken
All the things we won't become
But there's little I would change
In the life that I've recalled
If I could paint a picture
Of the beauty of it all