Aesop Rock
Commencement (at the Obedience Academy)
[Intro]
I fell asleep again
I wasn't ready for it
Yo

[Verse 1]
The harvest appeared less plentiful than last season
I imagine sloppy seed handling evoked a stroke of tardy planting
And the crops we'd have harnessed mid-November
Had only brushed the blossom bracket
Then soon sacrificed lives to icicle jackets when the frost hit
I sunk to find the warmth beneath the mosses
With a plan to tunnel past after the rains have run their courses
But alas, the portraits of these frostbit corpses tortured in the grass
Offered this torch supporter one tall glass of nauseous
And I'm asking you: Why's the spy supply hiding in strangers
When they know atop the food chains I could spot biters for acres?
Now be gracious, these minstrels turn a bully cycle civil
By dissolving the candy coated image down to the pixels
The upbringing of self-styled freedom brigade investors
And their studies connecting one hit wonders with dust collectors
Puts it down
It's down beneath your sappy sing-a-longs
Let's take it further down, we'll let Dante decide which ring I'm on
Nova
The elders took positions and the fans marched
Parched, plain and steamed
Hawking the rain in my canteen
Now I'm like point:
I guess I could spare a splash for a couple of heads
Counterpoint:
During my famine I never got broke your bread
Well, equation of intrigue, yes, yes
Lemme fence sit for a bit
These tense lips need soaking before I hand out tokens
Shut the fuck up
Drama like kabuki with a heart of dirt
Skull fucked cross bones hence my birth
It hurts
[Chorus]
Must not sleep. Must warn others
Trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers
I milk my habitat for almost everything I want
Sometimes I take it all and still can't fill this pitfall in my gut
Must not sleep. Must warn others
Trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers
I'm tryin' to walk on top of sunshine
But it's ridiculous at times. That's why I'm touring with this warning

[Verse 2]
Crowning the glory of our advance
Fire ants to water beetles
These Freemasons adjacent to pacing pins and needles
Pupil turned pedagogue, benediction to my dream
Beaming a billion bottle rockets off the golden mezzanine
Check it
I'll pluck the petals off a classic blood rose one at a time
Gripping the stem in the right; invite the thorns to dig up in my lifeline
It's a metaphor for nighttime
Ante up the slight cost of exhaustion
To salute the moon above paradise lost and you're a spectator, stringent
Inch by sacred inch shoveling coal into my earthworm soul
(You should know!)
Burrow up through the dirt with bloody digit
Lick my knuckles clean
Noting the corporate clusters holding hands
'round the abode of the damned
Now what's your poison?
Starlight in a maser with a nicotine chaser
Sip it clean, savor the taste to sit and dream later:
The eyelids pivot back upon the hinges
20 miles across the glassy eyed window of wonders to passers by
Now I'm 6 foot 4 with a 6-floor walk up just to recline
With no free time. The alarm storms at nine
My daytime's on some, 'Yes, sir. Ok, sir. Right away sir
Sir, do you mind if I breathe, sir?
Oh you do? Well excuse me, sir, fuck you.'
I breathe slow
I run in with these fantastic amalgams
Painting casket-bound careers to peers gunning with classic albums
Security's the javelin, catch it
Labor
Clocked in in '76 and haven't clocked out ever since
[Chorus]
Must not sleep. Must warn others
Trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers
I milk my habitat for almost everything I want
Sometimes I take it all and still can't fill this pitfall in my gut
Must not sleep. Must warn others
Trust blocks creep where the dust storm hovers
I'm tryin' to walk on top of sunshine
But it's ridiculous at times. That's why I'm touring with this warning

[Outro]
Feel it, it's like that