The Big Picture

(album: Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground - 2002)

The picture is far too big to look at kid. Your eyes won't open wide enough
and you're constantly surrounded by that swirling stream of what is and what was.
Well, we've all made our predictions but the truth still isn't out.
But if you wanna see the future, go stare into a cloud.
And keep trying to find your way out of that maze of memories.
It all sort of looks familiar, until you get up close and it's different. clearly.
But each time you turn a corner, you're, you're right back where you were
and your only hope is that forgetting might make a door appear.
Well is it your fear of being buried that makes you so afraid to speak?
An avalanche of opinions like the one that feel that I am now underneath.
It was my voice that moved the first rock and I would do it all again.
So, I mean, it's cool if you keep quiet, but I like singing.
So I'll be holding my note and stomping and strumming and feeling so very lucky.
There is nothing I know except this lifetime's one moment
and wishing will just leave me empty.
So you can try and live in darkness but you will never shake the light.
It will greet you every morning
and it will make you more aware with its absence at night,
when you're wrapped up in your blankets baby, that comfortable cocoon.
But I have seen the day of your awakening boy and it's coming soon.
So go ahead and loose yourself in liquor and you can praise the clouded mind
but it isn't what you're thinking no, it's the course of history, your position in line.
You're just a piece of the puzzle so I think you'd better find your place.
And don't go blaming your knowledge on some fruit you ate.
Cause there's been a great deal of discussion, yes, about the properties of man.
Animal or angel? You were carved from bone, but your heart it's just sand.
And the wind is going to scatter it and cover everything with love.
So if it makes you happy, then keep kneeling Mama, but I am standing up.
Because this veil, it has been lifted. Yes, my eyes are wet with clarity.
I've been a witness of such wonders. Oh, I've searched for them all across this country
but I think I'll be returning now to the town where I was born.
And I understand you must keep moving friend, but I am heading home.
Yeah I'm gonna follow the road and let the scenery sweeping by easily enter my body.
And I'll send you all this message in code, under ground, over mountains,
through forests, deserts and cities.
All across the electric wire, it's a baited line. The hook is in deep boys,
there is no more time. So you can struggle in the water and be too stubborn to die,
or you could just let go and be lifted to the sky.