Read all the lyrics for Anthem: Homunculus below, listed by episode.
Episode 1: “Alone”
Homunculus
I’m the mold on your bread
The prayer bruise on your head
The pause in the joke
That makes you cry til you choke
As a lover I’m unsurpassed
But I come first and you go last
No rival comes above me
I will fuck you til you love me
The end is nigh
And so am I
I am free
To be there when you die
I’ll suck on your memories
Learn from your mistakes
Curate the nightmares
That keep you awake
I will text from upstairs
Just to say you’re pretty
May you live to see
My love turn to pity
I hate when you cry
So dry your eyes
I’m so free
To be there when you die
I will eat the sins
Pressed into your flesh
I will empty and embalm
I will bathe and bless
Just upload your heartache
Onto my soft drive
We will live forever
The singularity has arrived
It’s do or die
The planet’s gonna fry
But when you say goodbye
It will still be there when you die.
I must admit my life’s been
One long bad decision
But my jail cell’s been
Carved out with precision
So spare me the bedside manner
Who says a tumor is subtle
My kingdom for a hammer
To deliver my rebuttal
Some will say I deserve this
And ain’t karma a bitch
I’m a drag on the system
Why not make room for the rich
Christians will avert their eyes
And pray to heaven above
I say, sweet Jesus
I’ll take Medicaid over your love
I don’t know why
I even try
But I’m the only one
Who will still be there when you die
I know I disgust you
I’ve discussed you in detail
With my advisors
They call me the the last great American whale
But how thin the veil
Between loneliness and being alone
I will shuck you like an oyster
I will break your fucking bones
Let’s just skip the plot
Slash the Gordian knot
If you had a body
I say let’s step outside
If I had the courage
I’d bury myself alive
I may not live forever
But you I will survive
I’m so free
The end is nigh
I swear I’ll be
There when you die
Like a turd on a wire
With less mercy than desire
This nation’s tried in its way
To be free
To be there when I die
Oh when I die
I will not die
I will not die
With you
I will not die
Second Glance
Love at first sight my dear
Never got a second glance from me
‘Cause I’m more at home alone
And I know why my dear
At times a word is best denied a rhyme
How sweet the dream postponed
All the cruel boys at school
Were exceptions that proved the fool
Was me
But as the moth once exclaimed
I can’t really blame the flame
Not me
More heat than light my dear
They say youth is wasted on the young
But is age wasted on the old
A kiss can be bliss
When it spans the abyss
But then
I find that all that beguiles
And all that’s worthwhile
Must end
Love at first sight my dear
Never got a second glance from me
‘Cause I’m more at home alone
Home alone
Alone
Episode 2: “Fintan”
Toy Train
I rode a toy train from the Great Plains
To the city by the bay
The fog was air that you could see
And everybody’s mom was gay
Couldn’t get in a bar so I stole a car
And drove straight to the beach
I danced with myself upon the strand
Took my own trembling hand
And gave myself a single grain of sand
And my body sinks into the deep
The ocean fills me straight and true
My parting gift’s still mine to keep
As the world fills up and turns blue
A fish woke me up, he looked like a pup
I took him for a walk
We met a crab who drove a cab
He took us around the block
To the mouth of a volcano
I poured in some Draino
To clear the path ahead
You see I wanted to go all the way
To find a place where only I could stay
And sing songs from Cabaret all day
So I jumped right down into the deep
The fire filled me so straight and true
My grain of sand’s still mine to keep
As the world burns up and turns blue
Then I woke to my brother’s poke
My toy train had derailed
Mom had gone to bed and dad had fled
Fintan said you have failed
You can’t leave home, even after you’re grown.
‘Cause it always stays inside
So if you want to find a place
Where you don’t have run the human race
Keep your sand in your pocket just in case
And just sink down into the deep
Of a story that’s a lie but sounds so true
Sing me a song while I go to sleep
As the world fills up and turns blue
I Exist I just want you to know
That I blame you for
Killing me
Every day
Why do I
When you cry like that
I just want you to tell
Mom that she messed up, so bad
Why would I
When she’ll cry and be sad
Do you remember me or
Do you remember being told about me
What are you without me
I figure if you still hurt
Then I exist
I just want you to know
That I blame Dad too
For killing me
Why should I
When he’s already dead now
Tell me do you remember me or
Do you remember being told about me
What are you without me
I figure if you still hurt
Then I stand a chance
Of making a mark
Of leaving a trace
Of cause and effect
If you did this
You feel that
I’ll be all that you lack
I’m the kiss that you dare
But when lips part
Is the kiss still there
Do you remember me or
Do you remember being told about me
What are you without me
I figure if you still hurt
Then I exist
Episode 3: “Mnemonic” Gog and Demagogue
And if my body is evaporated sensations
Each thought a thwarted desire
Is my Tourette’s solely narration
For a world that’s lit up on fire
It’s not the worst
You’re not the first
When you can say it’s the worst
Oh oh oh oh
Is this mic still on?
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
There’s a bird in the embers
Allow and remember me
ADD, forgetfulness, anxiety, forgetfulness,
Abdominal distress, I think I just forgot my own address
I’m sensitive to pollen, to gluten, to moderation
Might I be a pillar of the Aryan nation
Raise up the demagogue
We are all God
For only a God hears his name
Every time it’s called, cursed, tagged, tweeted, hacked
God forbid my God is doxxed
Jesus Christ you’re hereby blocked
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
There’s a bird in the embers
Allow and remember
As we’re all dismembered I force myself
To look in the faces
Near, far, and wide
Try and see and
Identify
The expression
Of desperation
Allow and remember
They plead unto me
New Year’s resolutions
I’ll replace fiction with lies
Great White Hope covered in flies
Immigrants steal our erections
Viagra wins reelection
Ambien helps us sleep-shop
Fast forward to the cum shot
Delivery system over content
Mr. McLuhan has no comment
Screaming over speaking
Finding over seeking
Patching over mending
Breaking over bending
Lust over trust is
Revenge over justice
You take New York
I’ll stay right here
Lying in wait and gripped by fear
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
Allow and remember
As we’re dismembered
There’s a bird in the embers
Allow and remember
As we’re all dismembered
I force myself
To look in the faces
Near, far, and wide
Try and see and
Identify
The expressions
Of desperation
Allow and remember
They plead unto me
Know any good jokes
A guy walks into a bar
Lies down on the floor
And dies
Duet with America
I am not the one who loves you
I am just the one who comes to sleep
I am just the one who sees you
I am not the kind of dream you keep
I’m not nothing
Not your something
If you saw me as I saw you
I’m not nothing
Not your something
If you saw me
As I sow you’ll weep
I am not
I am not
I am not
I am only me
Metaphor
Oh sweet metaphor
Evens all the scores
Lost souls retrieved
Hanged thief walks free
When you accept and eat
The body and blood of God
You spare the child
And break the rod
Cheap muslin melts into silk
When laid over an old man's knee
Nothing is what it seems
When kisses replace his screams
When metaphor is invoked
Great kings remain unprovoked
O happy disaster
When slave becomes his master
Masks over faces
Become destiny
When metaphor
Rests in me
Episode 4: “The End of Love”
The End of Love
When I think about you
I think it’s all been said before
The words rang true
But what were they for
You were a small disappointment
Careless hand on the thigh
Sweet inferred words
That were never implied
Who could frame the fearful asymmetry between lust and love
Is God the synapse or the thought
Caught between what you want and what you bought
Are you the final thread that binds the world to me
Baby is that all that you want to be
The end of love is
A terraced grief
That’s like a drip down a mountain
That fills an ocean
I’ll carry you over the water
You grow heavier with every step
Until you drag me down as sure as Ophelia’s dress
Did you grant me existence
When a random thought of me
Shot through your mind
Like a wasp right through a web
You clothed me in life
But my garment strangles me
Like Desdemona struggling with fortune
And seeking her lover’s eyes
Is a mayfly tenure the best that you can offer me
You’re so wisely absent from past and future
But to me you’re nothing but a suture
To prevent their blending
Though my heart seems to be rending now
The longer I sit in my lonely room
Honey you’re the only lover that I believe in
The end of love is
A deus ex machina
But ain’t that better than a deus
So much more humane
So much more remains
After the play is over
The end of love
The end of love
The end of love
Episode 5: “The Seraph”
State Road
State Road, as long as the day
State Road, Salina to Hayes
State road, you’ve come a long way
State road, you’re falling away
You will never be the one who says are we there yet
I will never be the one who plays Russian roulette
You will never be the one who you could call a safe bet
Maybe you could be the one who catches my breath
Prayer of the Mandrake
Blow fly, soldier ant
Did you fear the void before
Wood vine, sweet plant
I fear the void hereafter
Little rat, big mouse
Take my fingers, take my toes
Moo cow, slaughter house
I don’t think she knows
Earth love me little
Earth love me long
Earth love me more
Than I ever done you wrong
The hanged man comes
It drips to the ground
The mandrake grows
A purple crown
Earth love me little
Earth love me long
Earth love me more
Than I ever done you wrong
Earth love me long enough
For me to finish this s--
Episode 6: “Let’s Hear the Needle Drop”
I See What I Am
Because a man cries
I am what I see
A woman sighs
What you see is me
But Mary says, Goddamn
I see what I am
At the beginning of time
There was no God
There was just a lonely woman
Whose life felt flawed
It was the birth of the blues
She hatched a plan
She said to herself
Ima make me a man
She huffed and puffed
And reached deep within
She birthed a manchild
Who was ugly as sin
She wrapped his face up in a cloud
As if he were maimed
When in fact he was proud
Because a man cries
I am what I see
A woman sighs
What you see is me
But Mary says, Goddamn
I see what I am
Now that’s how God
Came to insist
That nobody else
Really exists
He made a mirror
He called Mankind
Held it up to his face
Then he wished he was blind
He flung Mankind
Away in disgust
It shattered into
Pieces of us
But Mary swept us up so fast
You know she gave us the Earth
You know she blew us like glass
Because a man cries
I am what I see
A woman sighs
What you see is me
But Mary says, Goddamn
I see what I motherfucking am
Mary had a little lamb
And that’s when the shit hit the fan
Now did she regret it
Goddamn
Talk about the best laid plans
Did she regret it
Goddamn
Now the Virgin’s on the lam
Turns out he was just a man
And still we feel our Daddy’s blame
Our broken faces reflect his shame
We drown in drink, we spike our veins
We gorge on vengeance to purge the pain
From fix to fix I hop across the river
Just a single arrow in my quiver
I shelter within my future corpse
My body blackens, I scream til I’m hoarse
I once asked you to make it stop
My hands are shaky, my rhythm is shot
So baby if you love me, tie me off
Tacit the band, let’s hear the needle drop
And now Mother wild and true
I find that I must turn to you
When will you return
When will you return
The man who drowns floats face down
But the woman who dies faces the sky
Cloud of Unknowing (Jairo)
Every day
When I wake
I tell myself
There is a God
And He is not you.
We meet halfway
Shorn of age Feet unshod
Same time each day
To find out what is true
I will not rule and
I will not be ruled
In the Cloud of Unknowing
I will not be fooled
Father’s guitar is missing a string
The notes he can’t play I try to sing
I am blinded by his wings
Yet in darkness I accept all things
I will not rule and
I will not be ruled
In the Cloud of Unknowing
I will not be fooled
My mother’s tongue washes me clean
Her name means Little Girl
Menininha Mae, Mae Menininha
A grain of sand became a pearl
I will not rule and
I will not be ruled
In the Cloud of Unknowing
I will not be fooled
Will I be there when you die
I’ll take no eye for an eye
So I can see that it’s true
Only a stranger can heal you
I will not rule and
I will not be ruled
In the Cloud of Unknowing
I will not be fooled
Inside the cloud I feel fear grow
The words of my song might be denied
Light might fade, time might slow
Will you be there when I die
Love You For Free
When you wake up too soon
‘Cause slivers of the moon
Got under your skin
The walls are closing in
‘Cause down in the city
Only God knows you’re alone
When you feel there comes a time
That you are not mine
And I’m not yours
And hope itself ignores you
When the sigh you breathe is
All you have that’s yours to own
You were so early
You fit in my hand
Like a bird in a cup
Now when you grow up
Remember my face
Like a promise of grace
In this world, my child
You have a place
When God swings overhead
Like a body from a tree
Remember what I said
Don’t break the thread
Just float down the river
That splits into you and me
You were so early
You fit in my hand
Like a bird in a cup
Now when you grow up
Remember my face
Like a promise of grace
In this world my child
You have a place
Hush it’s just me
I’m one of the few
Who’s gonna love you for free
Won’t you take it from me
Just one of the few
Who’s gonna love you for free
Who’s gonna love you for free
When all that you need
Is more than you can stand
When all that you free
Has laid waste unto the land
Remember she who hates herself
Is not humble
Hush it’s just me
I’m one of the few
Who’s gonna love you for free
Won’t you take it from me
I’m one of the few
Who’s gonna love you for free
Who’s gonna love you for free
Episode 7: “Joan the Baptist”
The New Messiah
If you’re hoping to crucify it
You’re gonna need more wood
Blessed Mother
Don’t let my words
Be misunderstood
When the Outside becomes like the In
And Below like Above
If you want your Heaven like Hell
And love your Hate like Love
We are like the little bitty baby bird
With his little bitty tiny legs
Pushing all the unhatched eggs
Right outta the nest, right into the earth
Like a motherfucking man possessed
With the burden of survival
He will countenance no rival
And neither do I motherfucker
When the Two become One, and the Moon become Sun
When He become She, and She is a He
And the Inside like Out, and Below like Above
And Heaven like Hell, and Hate like Love
When you bring me an eye, I will fill your third orbit
You will see the inner truth of every man who could abhor it
See a Christ who eats humanity’s sin without torment
Nails Caesar to a cross, and topples the government
When you martyr the damned to the damned, free for all to see
Cut off the hand too small to build a wall to keep us
From our revenge against the old men above us
You speak the truth to power
We will bleed until you love us
We will bleed until you love us
You got to
Smash the power
Mama knows he’s got it coming
Kill the killer
But please Goddess don’t become him
Blacken the sky
You better believe he’ll be runnin’
Uncover the lie
Sweet mother, I have opened my heart to
Pure eternity yeah
Empty out your head and your heart
Let in the refugee yeah
Let in the refugee yeah
Let in the refugee
Now let me hear you scream for the Messiah’s arrival
Everybody Look
Everybody look
Don’t close your eyes
Seen it all
You’re in for a surprise
Everybody
La la la la la look now
Two plus one to me equals fun
Add it all up or you won’t get none
Everybody
La la la la look now
Baby I know it’s hard to find
The hand that fits the glove
But if you find two hands to fit it
Just call it modern love
I gotta live my life like I want
I cry inside but I act nonchalant
La la la la look now
But if my baby needs it then
You know I’ll give it all
Episode 8: “If You Were Born”
If You Were Born
And
If you were born
Great minds just might confer
To decide just what you were
As if you were something to add
To what they already had
And as if knowing would not
Make them sad
And
If you were born
They would call you a symbol
As our need for them dwindles
A metaphor washed up on a wave
A simile pale and blind in a cave
We are all born astride our
Own grave
But
If you lived
I might carry you in a jar
Together we’d travel far
You could never leave
You would always be
Something to
Something to
Take care of
And
If you were born
Holy men just might repent
And their holy wars lament
To some you’d be a dangerous thing
Less of a prophet and more of a king
You’d silence the past and make the
Future sing
And
If we lived
I might carry you in a jar
Together we’d travel far
You’d not want to leave
For I’d always be
Something you
Something you take care of
Nothing to
Nothing to beware of
But some will call you strange
As if you called for change
For in the times when you fail
Crueler heads will prevail
Screaming: Witch, sink or swim
And they will tear you limb from limb
From limb from limb from limb
From limb
Cloud of Unknowing (Joan)
Every day babe
I tell myself
There is a God
And She is not you
We meet halfway
Feet unshod
Same time each day
To find out what is true
I will not rule and
I will not be ruled
In the Cloud of Unknowing
I will not be fooled
Father’s guitar is missing a string
The notes he can’t play I try to sing
I am blinded by his wings
Yet in darkness I accept all things
I will not rule and
I will not be ruled
In the Cloud of Unknowing
I will not be fooled
My mother’s tongue washes me clean
Her name means Little Girl
Menininha Mae, Mae Menininha
A grain of sand became a pearl
Nobody Blink
He’s a man kept on a chain
Marked for life like the head of Cain
Fears the sun and melts in rain
He’s a man on a chain
In his hand holds the key
Takes us in we’ll set you free
Now everybody drink from the same cup
Everybody thinks we’re just acting up
Now nobody blink
You’ll miss the chance for love
Nobody blink
Philosopher’s Stone
If I could’ve conceived you alone
I would have
Used the philosopher’s stone
I should have
Laid my seed like a baby
In the earth’s warm womb
Beside it a firefly
To ease the gloom
Fed you with a dropper
Full of my blood
Til the shape of a son
Crawled up from the mud
If nature could bring about
A seahorse or a worm
Let there be no doubt
I’d have carried you to term
If I could have told you the future
I would have
But life is a dissolving suture
I could have
Unbroken the mold
When you came of age
Gained riches untold
We’d harness our rage.
Let’s lay down our burden
May the gods of the brine
Grant us the kindness
Of this vision of mine
The women are gone
God bless the cage
We built it ourselves
And no one’s the wiser
There’s no one left
Just a couple of misers
Plenty to eat
Nothing to farm
No one to meet
No one to harm
So many streets
To be renamed
So many songs
To be reclaimed
My son, I would
Give you a world
Without shame
Episode 9: “Vivimancer” Unborn/Unsound
Oh, to be unborn
All is unsound
Curtain is untorn
All vows are unbound
Trapped inside the cloud
Cumulus like brains
Speaking unaloud
Of uncoming rain
I’m the king inside the mound
From below I watch and wait
My days too vast to count
My voice too worn to pray
But I will be
Your good thing
I will be
Your friend
I pray I’ll remember
How all of this began
By the time
I reach
The end
Oh won’t you hear me and heed me
All you addicts of future drugs Give us a tit to suck on
Is all I can hear from you
Think I’m gonna have to give
All you junkies hugs
It’s your mama you’ll be needing
All I got to give is my blood
But if I’m the only one
You can get your dirty hands on
We’ll get on down
And wrestle in the Kansas mud
And I’ll try to be
Your good thing
Then you will reap
All that good brings
Just pray that you remember
How it all began
By the time
You bring about
My end
There was nothing to do
And I did it
There was everything to gain
But I hid it
If you touch my face
What dies in another place
I don’t know if it’s right
But I know outside is bright
I want to be your good thing
I want to be your good thing
I swear I will be
Your good thing
Soon we will see
All that good brings
I pray you retrace
All of the lines
That we wend
After you realize
My end
Dissolve Me
Mother is first lover
Pull the pin out of the doll
Prick a hole in the rubber
Baby’s born against the wall
If a woman’s blood is chaos
And a man’s sperm is form
Our progeny must obey us
I command my first born
By the power of the child absolve me
For what I did to you
Dissolve me resolve me
Into something that is new
I take it all back
I wither on the vine
Don’t step on the crack
That breaks your own spine
I want to feel that spasm
Right before I go to sleep
I’m at the lip of the chasm
Push me ‘cause I can’t leap
By the power of the child absolve me
For what I did to you
Dissolve me resolve me
Into something that is new
By the power of the child absolve me
For what I did to you
Dissolve me resolve me
Into something that is new
I am permanent disruption
On the tip of my own tongue
Seeking final interruption
Let my song remain unsung
I’m the one who chewed your food
So you could swallow it
Future’s rigged polls are skewed
I’m the rule now follow it
By the power of the child absolve me
For what I did to you
Dissolve me resolve me
Into something that is new
By the power of the child absolve me
For what I did to you
Dissolve me resolve me
Into something that is new
Episode 10: “The Unnameable”
The Quiet Savior
Every day
I remind myself
That there is a God
And that he’s not me
Speak less than you know
Give more than you owe
Live alone, follow the rules
Suffer children, suffer fools
Tell the truth, to one at a time
In blank verse, nothing that rhymes
Rise early and carry the day
In a reusable bag, and I pray
You love me little and love me long
For a quiet savior can do no wrong
Love me, love me, love me little
Love me, love me, love me long
No wrong
No wrong
Build something small
Without excuse
Show it to few
Put it to use
Don’t call attention
Don’t rock the boat
Don’t take the bait
Don’t read what you wrote
Look through our eyes
And know we can’t see you
Look through our eyes
And hope we won’t fear you
See all that we see
Hear all that we hear
Feel all that we feel
Know all that we
All we know
What we know
The Unnameable
Great Whore rides the Beast
Worm makes of itself a feast
Raise the Cup of Abominations
It’s the Final Fragmentation
The Nine-Headed Dragon
Brings the Virgin
To her knees
Christ embraces Anti-Christ
And they vanish
Into the deep
The Judgment of the Wicked
Trumps the Glory of the Saved
It’s not as predicted
It’s the Rapture of the Depraved
I am the microbiome
That feeds on your lies
I am the chancres in place of
Your eyes
What’s my name
I’ll eat your shame
You should
Have known
That I would break your
Bones
Move From Me
The drowned memory
Has devoured all meaning
It hits the mainline
And poisons all history
It will take away
The risk of salvation
The very pith of hope
And the prayer of reconciliation
So move from me, move from us
The old memories who flash on a screen
Move from him, move from us
You have no power here, you’re not what you seem.
Move away on crippled wing
On shattered back you broken thing
Move from me, move from us
We are the love that should have been
We are the true microbiome
We digest we protect
We turn the earth and seed the loam
When that black sun
Turns from night into day
Light is reborn
Memory regained
Both cradle and grave
Appear in the same frame
Sickness passes
Wholeness comes to the lame
A child loves but grows to know my mind
He drowns in fear chokes on ties that bind
Move from him, move from us
You’ll draw no life from a child of mine
We are the true
The true microbiome
You will pass with the dregs
Your seed unsown
You have no claim
We’ve come to take him home
So move from me
We will not give you a name
So move from me
Move from him
The Unnameable (Reprise)
My life for a name
My life for a name
I should have grown
I should have known
That you would break
My bones
The End of Love (Reprise)
I wrote a song about us
To a melody that you knew
Simple words you distrust
But hard is not true
You never looked away
Your eyes were trained on me
While I gazed within
And found I wasn’t free
When you love your neighbor
The way you love yourself
You must beware the danger
Hate can spread by stealth
Children are surprised
When their first words are heard
All my life I was advised
That loved did not mean cured
The end of love is
A terraced grief
That’s like a drip down a mountain
That fills an ocean
Carry me over the water
I’ll grow lighter with every step
Until I lift like mist
And you can see your way to health
The end of love is
A deus ex machina
But ain’t that better
Than a deus
So much more humane
But you will not remain
After the play is over
The end of love
The end of love
The end of love
Duet with America (Reprise)
I am just the one who holds you
You are just the one who comes to sleep
I am just the one who sees you
I am not the kind of dream you keep
I am nothing
Not your something
If I saw you as you see me
I’m not nothing
I’m your something
If I saw you
As you grow I’ll weep
For I am now
I am now
I am now
I am now
Free
Hymn to Life
Give me little something Mama
Give me little something now
Give me little something Daddy
You said you would, you gave me your vow
Don’t take it from no poor man Mama
Ain’t free from no rich man no how
Never take from the mouth of another child
Take it from the heaviest bough
See me coming
Up that hill
You can see me coming now
Bringing something
Good for my baby
I swear you keep me true to my vow
Once I saw my Mama running
I saw her run away from the plow
I don’t know why my God ain’t coming
Don’t know why she broke her vow
Sometimes I think your Daddies are coming
Thought I’d see them again somehow
Sweet baby keeps me from stumbling
Baby’s all that Heaven allows
See me coming
Up that hill
You can see me coming now
Bringing something
Good for my baby
I’d breathe my last
For your first smile
There are tears to drink
An endless supply
I step back from the brink
There is time enough to die
Sometimes I don’t know
What to think
Hush little baby now
I’ll step back from the brink
If you can’t give a little something people
If you can’t wipe the sweat from your brow
If you can’t hear no bell from no steeple
Then take it from me right now
A cup is going round
The congregation
There is rain left in the cloud
When it comes round to you from the gíving hand
Take a sip and pass it on with a smile
See me coming
A running today
Tomorrow you’ll be coming to me
Bringing something
Good for your Momma
You know
She’s gonna love you for free
I got tears to drink
Offered from dry eyes
I step back from the brink
Hush little baby now don’t you cry
Let’s all step back
Back from the brink
Hush little baby now
There is time
Yet to live