OPIATE OF THE MASSES, by Charles Cicirella

OPIATE OF THE MASSES

by Charles Cicirella

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1.	Disconnection 02:07	lyrics	buy track
Disconnection I wish I knew what I’d done wrong I wish I knew why she stopped liking me in that way I knew the other shoe was bound to drop and still when it did I felt as if all the air had been sucked from my body like when I smoked kief in Colorado She’s like no one I’ve met before Rocked my world to its foundation and then rocked it some more She describes herself as awkward in social situations, but I find her to be the most poised and bewitching human I’ve come across in this life I am so set apart from everyone and everything that contact is not something I ever seem to get a proper grasp upon Relationships and I have never seen eye to eye and yet for the first time I believed someone got me and that what they saw didn’t make them want to run away Lambryah seemed to actually enjoy my company, but my temper tantrums finally did us in or so I’m led to believe I wish she’d give me some indication that there’s something left to salvage because I want to be more to her than just a friend I liked how she seemed interested in who I am and I hope that’s still true and that the distance is only temporary She’s not good with feelings, hers or others, so I need to try and take it easy and not be so quick to spill my guts or show her the cards I’m holding Charles Cicirella 7/25/17
2.	Slipping through the redacted cracks 00:30	lyrics	buy track
Slipping through the redacted cracks I'm slipping through the redacted cracks and that's not an entirely bad thing Slipping and sliding like a twelve foot mako shark off the coast of NJ And what's wrong was never exactly right And I feel out of whack like a poet whose words have failed him Charles Cicirella
3.	Wind Chimes 02:42	lyrics	buy track
Wind Chimes (For Lambryah) Sunlight came back into my life when I stumbled upon you like a drunk in a midnight choir You hooked me with your audacious hilarity that sneaks up on me like a child hell-bent on scaring the bejesus out of me It’s all worthwhile when we hang out and watch Archer or take field trips down to the kitchen or when you let Peanut Butter in for one of her many quality visits Let’s stop the flow of negativity that our world is currently serving up on a golden platter and never forget the radiance of pure beauty still very much existing if you look hard enough and are willing to give up control Your nose was running and I tried to catch it just like that time I was running late and nearly missed the bus with yapping dogs at my clandestine heels I desire you like I desire the freshest and most delicious of baked goods. I wish to hang out with you in the dark with only a television screen to light our many adventures You’ve helped to squash my temper tantrums like a bug in desperate need of reconditioning or at the very least a hard slap on my round bottom I’m all for being disciplined when the person in charge is willing to get their hands dirty and is not afraid to give it all they got because the clock is ticking and the Bat Signal is all stressed out and in need of overdue maintenance The stars were hidden from view until I met you and now they’re hanging above our heads like hangmen in need of some understanding for the crimes they’ve committed because it’s easier than getting their shit together and moving on Wind chimes are blowing as hard as any blowhard I just want to hide in the folds of your blankets and squishy, cocoa butter skin Even that one face you make is starting to pull me under the waves because I love getting drenched with you Charles Cicirella 7/30/17
4.	No Admittance 02:33	lyrics	buy track
No Admittance We block out what we don’t wish to hear or see Shut it down with all of our senses like soldiers on a covert mission to hell Shut it down and walk on back to our base of disheveled operations He was retching and there was nothing I could do I wanted to enfold him in my raven arms and carry him to the other side I wished I could whisper to him everything would be okay, but what good would that do? Supposedly we were once a first world country, whatever that means, now we’re at best a third world country depending on who you ask and how much money possesses them I am tired of going to our supposed care facilities just to watch people suffer as the aides and nurses turn a blind, dispassionate eye and the doctors are God only knows where Let’s admit to ourselves that we’re better than this and wake up to the truth that this is all wrong and a change must come My mother was in the hospital going on three weeks as the tests dripped and dropped out while a family’s frustration grew and my mother was beside herself with anger and confusion How can people just be left to their own devises when they’re sick and in need of urgent care? How can we just stand by and watch as the wheels of time grind each and every single one of us into dust? We block out the unknown with rivers of denial and an ocean of apathy Instead of turning to each other for comfort we turn against each other, believing we’re fighting the good fight when all we’re actually doing is turning our backs on the inevitable Shut it down and walk right on by because what’s the bloody difference when the new normal has replaced human beings with machines and even the machines are running like shit Charles Cicirella 7/30/17
5.	Superimposed-Glitter-Reality 01:27	lyrics	buy track
Superimposed-Glitter-Reality (For Juliet) Snake venom Feather boa Landlocked misprint Femme fatale Blow Up Fever pitched Stand your ground Sockeye requiem “Four Dead in Ohio” Foregone concluded Dinosaur dystopia Shaved avocado Spine curvature Vomit reflex Lawn darts Chain smoker Nicotine fits Sleight of hand Come what may Come what goes Poisoned pen letter Charles Cicirella 7/31/17
6.	You need to learn to be patient with yourself. 03:42	lyrics	buy track
You need to learn to be patient with yourself. (For Lambryah) Inhale Exhale Inhale Exhale Working out and yoga will never do the trick if your mind is full of toxins and past relationships still hound you like possessed canines from the underbelly of the beast Resisting temptation is a start, but not when you’re the temptation You’ve always baked the sweetest and most delectable treats under the sun, but that will hardly save your restless soul or make you whole Exhale Inhale Exhale Inhale Whoever brung you to the dance will most likely be the one who drives you home and a kiss goodnight is never just a kiss goodnight You roused me with the smoke signals you sent from across the burning fields and I’ll never learn my lesson as I continue to relinquish control and break beneath the pressure of your weightless, opaque uncertainties I knew there was no way to properly shield myself from the hurt and I would be a better man if I could find some way to distinguish the trees from the sap Inhale Exhale Inhale Exhale Charles Cicirella 8/1/17
7.	Charles Cicirella and Ted Kane - Agape Love 01:28	lyrics	buy track
Agape Love (For Roxanne) Oral hygiene Screaming banshee Voice telemetry Confessional gymnastics Everlasting beatitudes Revolving chaos Ether shaman Mystic femme fatale Fishnet stockings Bloody Earth Prophecies shattered God killer Occupied resistant Keyhole perversions Enslaved mysteries Aural history Missed opportunities Guitar pyrotechnics Charles Cicirella 8/2/17
8.	Recklessness is never a virtue. 02:22	lyrics	buy track
Recklessness is never a virtue. Choking on my tendencies of low self esteem This nausea bites me in the ass too often as of late My moneymaker won’t shake and I miss you like summer vacations We could go back to the beginning, but what good would that do when beginnings are never all that clearly defined I’ve been coloring outside of the lines since before the Fall of the Western Roman Empire All I want is for you to give me permission to bury my head between your thick thighs and lick your pussy until you’re moaning like the intellectual pinup you’ll always be I sit here and I type these words because I have nothing better to do It’s the only way I know how to connect when the water is high and my life preserver refuses to give me the time of day When I saw it was you calling the other night I was taken back to another time and place when late night talk show hosts could still smoke on camera and not being ready for prime time was a very good thing I lost my mojo around the time my growl became a whimper and I started to look more like an irascible Care Bear rather than the young lion I once was It’s funny how time sucker punches us before we even realize what’s happening and before we know it we’re wishing someone would simply love us for who we are The Grand Inquisitor grilled me like a Panini with no hope of ever getting clear. My persecutor within knew it was time to either give up the ghost or get off the mat and fight for the independence of free thought Charles Cicirella 8/3/17
9.	Letters to a Young Writer 02:30	lyrics	buy track
Letter to a Young Writer (For Lambryah Abiah Turner) Capture the sun with your words and swallow it whole. Imagine you’re Icarus, but instead of your wings made of wax they’re constructed from the consonants and vowels from a different age when time was but a footnote. When reading your words I feel all the bad things put on hold and only goodness coming through loud and clear. We must resist the temptation to stall our work because our passions are not indestructible and must be nurtured and fed. Wring the words from your mind no matter if the inspiration is there or not because you must train and condition your intellectual tools until they’re as sharp as a samurai sword and as pious as the working poor. The talents you possess are the greatest gifts you’ll ever know because they are born from God and delivered to you through your own strength and belief in yourself. You’ve always fought the good fight and when you start tapping the keys a symphony of blood and courage pour from you like a new day visiting our shadowy world. You’ve always been a writer because your beautiful brain and heart know no limits and your spirit is full of foresight. You’ve always been cautious with the words you speak out loud and that makes complete sense when someone is as powerful as you are and can tear worlds apart with just a sentence or two spilled from their quill pen guts. Charles Cicirella 8/4/17
10.	Sanity Unsubstantiated 02:36	lyrics	buy track
Sanity Unsubstantiated (“Another Exterminator Eaten By Bugs”) There’s no one to talk to Not really And it hurts like hell And I’m starting to consider my options My friend found his escape hatch in 1998 Call him J-Man, Jimbo or Steppenwolf He’ll answer or he won’t and what’s the bloody difference? Another exterminator calling it quits because the care was subpar and he was tired of drinking himself to sleep every night You want to know how much it hurts? I’ll show you by lifting my shirt and revealing the scars I’ve weathered from punching myself in the stomach because I was so frustrated I didn’t know what else to do She said she was on her way home and would call when she got there Instead of calling she sat in her driveway making out with her ex because compassion is nowhere to be found on her list The Priest, Bishop, Cardinal and Pope keep fucking little boys in the ass because to them it’s all in a day of worship and it’s nice for someone else to be subservient for a change Some people will read these words as a cry for help when actually I’ve been crying in the wilderness for as long as I can remember and words have still changed next to nothing We’re led to believe Moses was a provocateur when what I believe is he was just another hard working Joe who one day was chosen by God to bring the Israelites out of Egypt Burning bushes appear everyday if we’re willing to suspend disbelief and open our hearts to real love Charles Cicirella 8/4/17
11.	More Words 01:38	lyrics	buy track
More Words More words Not less More stress Blows up my head She’s a revolving door Keeps me sliding down her Chutes and Ladders I thought she was speaking in tongues Then I realized those sounds were coming from her stomach I’d take you to Church, but then I’d have to forgive you I’d take you to my Temple, but what’s the point when we can’t even sit together I need to go to bed, but am not sure what to do with this emptiness in my gut My Aunt Peggy pointed out she’ll never give me the emotional support I’m looking for and he was right which made me realize just how out there I am I believe in unconditional love and unwavering support Never been able to stand small talk and the water cooler crowd can suck my dick I’ll never forget doing a report on platypuses when I was a kid I’ll also never forget doing that leaf report and how hard it was to find the perfect leaves Less excuses Not more Less stress Allowing me to breathe and kick back Charles Cicirella 8/7/17
12.	Empathic Soldier 02:18	lyrics	buy track
Empathic Soldier (For Sander Wildeboer) Standing atop the mountain Looking out over the great expanse These killing fields will have to do for now His music an open embrace Channeling a tortured heart forever on the mend Resistance is futile when the world’s in a tangle Don’t tell me the future is bright Hate is on the rise as the yeast ferments and the alcohol is drained from our bladders Stop cracking your knuckles as skulls get broken I was a good soldier before realizing conscientiously objecting was our only hope Our minds penned up in a briar patch of unintended consequences and the fervent belief we’re better off than when we started The shit’s hitting the fan and there’s nothing to be done about it because the powerbrokers all have their heads so far up their asses only a proctologist could help them find the sun The train tracks called out to him like Mahalia Jackson’s voice through the ether He decided it was best he kept moving as the White Cliffs of Dover reminded him just how far he’d come I feel like I’m bleeding even though I haven’t seen my own blood in over a decade Charles Cicirella 8/12/17
13.	My Best Friend 01:35	lyrics	buy track
My Best Friend My best friend is my writing It’s been that way since I was fourteen years old and wrote my first poem about the moon This is my happy place and nothing you do will change that or reinvent the wheel Intimacy and I have never seen eye to eye It’s just the way it is like my brother liked Count Chocula while I preferred Cap'n Crunch There’s something to be said for dealing with heavy feelings because who wants to discover their loved one hanging on the back of the door like a shoe tree or dirty laundry I sat in front of his Remington knowing my staying had placed undue pressure on him I got out of there by December ’97, but I know irrevocable damage had been caused I saw him riding his bike and it was awkward because gaping wounds still needed to heal and as it turned out that time would not be afforded us My best friend is my writing I don’t see that changing anytime soon As I climb inside this small coffin and dream about In Watermelon Sugar Charles Cicirella 8/12/17
14.	Static 01:41	lyrics	buy track
Static (For Lambryah) It’s your curves They just stop me in my tracks And I want to fuck you hard And I need to lick your pussy It’s your railroad tracks They bring me closer to home than I’ve ever been before I treasure the time we hang out even if you just got back from kissing your ex-boyfriend or sucking an old flame’s dick I tuned in the radio before I got down to business Your thick thighs are inviting like a Lazy Boy Recliner with nothing but time on its hands And I desire you even more now that there’s these impermeable barriers set down between us like barbed wire or a melting ice rink It’s your ferocious appetite that keeps me coming back for more And the way sarcasm drips off your pierced tongue like a Messiah in need of new upholstery or a more merciful father And I want to hold your hand as we cross the deserted parking lot And I need some compassion before it’s too late and your apathy turns into rotting meat Charles Cicirella 8/12/17
15.	Empty the Dishwasher 01:45	lyrics	buy track
Empty the Dishwasher Meager chores Wrap around my brain like a boa constrictor constricting its prey before consuming it whole This nausea murders me in fits and starts My desires are dipped in dark chocolate and buckwheat honey Thankfully you’re not milk based because I’ve been lactose intolerant since I was a baby Never trusted strawberries as far as I can throw them Let’s start at the beginning when you weren’t comfortable and you still treated me like a person At twenty six I don’t understand how you can still be so focused upon everyone wanting you and being fingered as a documentary about Hitler fills your Hello Kitty eyes Crushes come and go, so do flames if you never give them the space and time to burn out Menial trials and tribulations Resisting the desire to fixate on what or who you may be doing at any given time You’re right this is so unhealthy for me and that’s in large part because you played me like a fiddle and then dispensed with me once you lost interest in the structure of this song Charles Cicirella 8/13/17
16.	Cup of Coffee 00:19	lyrics	buy track
Cup of Coffee drank about seven and a half sips just rinsed the cup and put it in the dishwasher it was good and served its purpose so I could take my allergy medicine Charles Cicirella 8/13/17
17.	Semi-automatic 01:57	lyrics	buy track
Semi-automatic The death of so many children should have changed everything It in fact changed nothing And we accept this as the new normal And we throw up our hands in disgust as even background checks are shot full of holes I don’t know what to do next The emperor’s new clothes are even more impervious to blood and shit stains I’m at a loss at how quickly we’ve become desensitized to the slaughter America the Beautiful has always been a bloody, hopeful mess and to believe differently just makes you one more white, entitled, embittered hypocrite We took out the Native Americans because we wanted what they had Now our children are standing in the way of more bang for our buck We haven’t lost touch with our identities because we’ve always been scabrous I am unclean as my country turns me away for asking too many queer questions I’m not a junkie Not even a patriot whatever that means But I can read the scrawling on the wall And I know we’re down for the count and quickly turning comatose blue Charles Cicirella 8/14/17
18.	Lackadaisical Garbage Truck 02:34	lyrics	buy track
Lackadaisical Garbage Truck I’m a lackadaisical garbage truck tired of hemming and hawing over this state of affairs called life and life only You want to break my back by sitting on me and screaming orders at me in German? Okay, but you’ll soon reap what you sow just like all those holocaust deniers who won an Oscar and then were put into the ground and eaten by worms I’m a Cookie Monster A puppet whose inner stuffing is replete with fleas and ticks and doesn’t quite know what to do with itself when cancelled and syndication is so far off in the future Just look at Cosby and the just deserts he was handed even if the jury wasn’t able to come back with a verdict I relish time alone until time weighs on me like an origami paperweight I remember the first foreign film we watched together and how when I spoke in tongues you were convinced I was having a seizure Let’s not sweat the small stuff because what good would it do us anyhow when an X still marks the spot and buried treasure is such a misnomer I’m a lackadaisical garbage truck with a Red Octopus on my upper left arm because I very much believe in miracles even with all the fucking hoops one must jump through before meeting their creator I really did trust you until finally having to come to grips with your inability to tell the truth because it either put a kink in your plans or cramped your involuntary life choices Maybe it’s time I flew south for the winter even though it’s still the dog days of summer and I haven’t yet gotten my wings out of cold storage Charles Cicirella 8/14/17