James Lee Johnston

Nameless Nothings        

 

(Verse 1)

Upon the high point of the bridge

Cold steel pushing flat my back

My feet weightless on the edge

First light witnessing my pact

 

(Verse 2)

Chiffon winds shine up my face

Flakes of rust encase my palms

So ironic in this place

Silence sings to me in psalms

 

(Chorus)

Nameless nothings in the gray,

(The skyline bursts at break of day)

Nameless nothings how they hide away

(The sunshine showers its array)

Nameless nothings how they weigh

(I remembered how to pray today)

Nameless nothings go away

(I feel so clear at this crossway)

 

(Verse 3)

Upon the high point of the bridge

Where I now live from day-to-day

Dangled lonely from this ledge

Like some old, shipwrecked castaway

 

(Verse 4)

Fresh sunlight lifts me up

Rank darkness takes me down

They think I’m a teenaged buttercup

But I could still be Queen of this ghost town

 

(Chorus)

Nameless nothings in the gray,

(The skyline bursts at break of day)

Nameless nothings how they hide away

(The sunshine showers its array)

 

(Bridge)

Spinning round upon this narrow space

It’s just me and the whole human race

This borderline might balance me

Between powers that won’t let me be

Confronted by eternity:

 Despair versus divinity

The best I can do is fight or flight:

Avert my eyes.  Receive the light.

 

(Chorus)

Nameless nothings in the gray,

(The skyline bursts at break of day)

Nameless nothings how they hide away

(The sunshine showers its array)

Nameless nothings how they weigh

(I remembered how to pray today)

Nameless nothings go away

(I feel so clear at this crossway)

 

Shadow Works

 

VERSE

As I consult and seek the universe

Reflections of when times were worse

There’s no space between here and then:

A soul traveler steeped in my Zen

 

In my best life I’m Marie Antoinette

My pageantry blew up the internet

Despite French wealth and royal majesty

In the end, I’m but a comic tragedy

 

Sometimes I feel foreboding dread:

Joked a one off from my busy head

Made a cake mistake, one little gaffe

Now I’m not the queen I once was by half

 

CHORUS

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A better side of me

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A new reality

 

VERSE

My inner roar born from Joan of Arc

Courage and faith brought down an English monarch

Caught between hellfire and holy water

I only ever wanted to be God’s loving daughter

 

Cleopatra ruled with my open heart

Charismatic and schooled, I was state-of-the-art

An Egyptian passage appeared on my top shelf:

“To conquer the world, one must conquer oneself”

 

CHORUS

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A new reality

 

BRIDGE

One, two, three, four: let’s rehearse

One hundred more lives to reverse

Cocooned safely in my quietude

My dark Sacred Space of Solitude

Their irony always follows me

I weave them into my tapestry….

 

CODA

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A better side of me

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A new reality

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A better side of me

I just do my shadow works

My shadows work through me

In the backside of the mirror lurks

A new reality

 

OUTRO

The final taste of freedom

The final taste of freedom