We All Die In The End

The death squads keep walking

lapping up the blood from their guns like sweetened turpentine

and chardonnay, and oil for the new machines they're going to buy

when they never get the money they were promised

Too stupid to understand

that no one will let them walk away

with their pockets full of green

and ash

and trample-engine steam

The glory is too good

for the masters without minds

hanging above them on the wind

to watch them leave with anything

other than empty sleeves

and empty dreams

and empty souls they helped to paint black

with rotted seed sourced from between their teeth

ripe and raw and rotted Russian red

and we'll all be dead

We'll all be dead

And that's not something that brings us fear anymore

Because we all lay down at the end of days

We all die in the end

and the dirt of the grave will play with our bones

And we've had the years

to be brought to the zone where the ghosts of our skin

whisper to the pool of the void

We all die in the end

But how many times do we get to protect and defend

To show the world that we offer each other what we never had for ourselves

and freely give it to everyone else

because we can't stand the thought that it doesn't exist in our universe

for anyone at all

We all die in the end

It doesn't matter by whose hands

It doesn't matter by whose plans or planes or cars

and canons or last stands

There will never be another us again

There will never be another we

and the death squads seem to think

that a kidnapped child proves how great they are

and murdered men make us compliant and complacent

and leave us begging to lick their black soot boots

But we all die in the end

and we're already dead

and we're all ready to rise for each other

and rise again

in every way

in every sound

In the whistles that play instead of your names

In the shadows that follow in the shade of arrest

Through the gas

and the masks

We

All

Die

In the end

We all die

Some of us by your fear and arrogance, and allegiance to empty shells

Some of us by the demons dripping from your backs

Some of us by the pain in ourselves

We all die

We all die

We all die

And so will you

And our stories will read of how in each

our own

we found our ways to hold you down

To show your face

To show your flaccid puppeteers

That the books written about us will bring people to laughter

and to tears

and the books about you will be the only ones burned when we all die in the end

when you all die alone

Even those of us who have no one around

when the reaper takes his toll

may still die unseen, but not unknown

Anonymous killers

leave nothing behind

I am a vampire

I've never had the grace to fully accept

that an eye shouldn't be for an eye

and a stone can't break a deserving bone

and if your shit hits my fan I will protect my home

And if given the chance

your faces and your wrists would make for satisfying meals

There's always been something wrong with me

But there's something much more wrong with you

I am an animal

holding back every urge and action that could crush the existence

of everyone I've ever heard of and ever known

You are fools who think yourselves kings

scattering like rats when one of your own fires a gun

I bet your blood is dense and rich, and full of vitamin anxiety

I will die in the end

and people will think this quiet little man in his corner of mankind

He had some anger that he never let speak

But he cared, and he loved, and he acted

and he protected in the only ways he had access to

You will all die in the end

and no one will care about your blood anymore

No one will love that you lived

knowing about the things you did

I'd bet they'll never know the whole of it

I'll be there

when you die in the end

I'll be someplace watching from whatever passes for distance over there

Waiting to see who comes to talk to you

to confront you

to make you break

To show you the lives you ripped apart and ask you why

To see who comes to comfort you

to give you light, and understanding

To teach you to forgive yourselves

I'll be watching as they show you to the curtain

and ask if you want to try again

Then I will appear, and tear the veil from your hands

We all die, and in the end

Every pain you've caused will torment whatever passes for your mind

I will be the legion made

of everyone who screamed and cried, and wrote, and drew

and sang our frustration and our pain

but had no power to stop you in our lives

And I will rule over all of your hells

And I will finally drink your sweet, rich, anxious blood

and gag as I feed on your withered, empty souls