Blank Screens

We wake up in the west
in pieces on blank screens
a requiem for radio
we've been singing in our sleep
the chorus will laugh it off
with hearts buried in the dream
singing softly
there's a fire in the east tonight
that no one's putting out
watch the doves as they scatter
as they shout each other down
and the body politic swears
oh it couldn't be our fault
with soldiers marching
they'll laugh and they'll dance
as they pull at your strings
with white rooms and white lies
and with black and white dreams
they'll paint you a picture
they'll sell you a scene
electric and alive
the canopy breathes
there's a world at our window
and a swan song on our lips
and each of our self-interest sins
slaughter faith's indulgences
all the silence of the lambs
all the chill of the scientist
they bleed us like this
they'll laugh and they'll dance
as they pull at your strings
with white rooms and white lies
and with black and white dreams
they'll paint you a picture
they'll sell you a scene
electric and alive
the canopy breathes
fall in and out
of love and sleep
silently
but I never said that love was free
and I never said that love was cheap