when you were young
and your heart was an open book
you used to say, “live and let live”
but they took all you had
and now you have nothing left to give
the notion of it all
makes it impossible
not to cry
and a feat
too colossal
not to die
when you were older
but not wiser
you had an answer to everything
a story to write
a neighbor
to fight
a brother
to right
the wrongs
and hands to throw
and nothing to know
past the walls of your own
invisible place
you saved her for your
false future space
and she never
showed
so you stowed away
to live and let die
to live and let die
what does it matter to you
when you got a job to do
you got to do it well
you gotta give the others hell
you got to fight
to forget her
and tonight
you will drown her out
and the regulator
will bring down her
annihilator
it’s not you who will
oppose her
enemy
not this time
heroes will be made
and consequences
will be avoided
and for the moment
she can’t be
voided out
just locked away
in a safe
in the caribbean
off the coast
losing money
going broke
just to
live and let die
to live and let die
and the lamb who was slain
from the end of the world
will have his say
when the beautiful girl
who’s fallen away
sends the serpent
to repent
on a bed
of regrets
and nails
to live and let die
to live and let die
even in the face of chaos and sex,
not too weak to shy away
from the inevitable death
and when your breath
is drawn out from inside you
you will live and let die.
