let me invoke the muse and infuse this hip-hop | with words that enthuse and then cue the beat drop | gather round | i’ll expound it forthwith | it’s the profound sound of stereomyth | lush green port by the sea | you contort cautiously as you slip between the crates and grates | stacks of gold plates, scales with weights | exotic merchants tattooed, but all you seek is food | a beggar vagabond grey-hat street-rat orphan | you grew up poor and forcing situations so that you could survive | the constable, he wants your life to end | you have no choice | eyes moist, you go and steal again | let me invoke the muse and infuse this hip-hop | with words that enthuse and then cue the beat drop | gather round | i’ll expound it forthwith | it’s the profound sound of stereomyth | but admiral akbar warned you that this would be a trap | such hubris, lugubrious | now in medias res | the constable does advance as you flee in a dance that’s played out | so many times for your so very many crimes | through houses stacked like turtle shells washed up by the tide | you evade and you run, duck, and hide, but never fight | sense of right still prevails | but the cops they pursue you like a pack of ravenous killer whales | let me invoke the muse and infuse this hip-hop | with words that enthuse and then cue the beat drop | gather round | i’ll expound it forthwith | it’s the profound sound of stereomyth | arrows sing as they begin to fling by your eye | they catch you standing blinking thinking is today when i die? | you get to running, now they gunning, so you reach for a rock | and with a cry, you let it fly then turn and head for the docks | the rock misses the cops | they diss you in flock | the constable scoffs | you cough as you notice that you’ve hit a dead end | no friend in sight | your would-be captors running not far behind | your only choice is to stow on a boat like the cold stows upon the frost | so you get lost | you jump aboard and go below decks | but suddenly your plan’s wrecked | an old man grabs your hand and reprimands you, so completely vexed | he takes your wrist and with a twist he drags you up above | and frowning, drowning in your mind | you see the cops, they have no love | but then a crackle and surge, you hear a booming voice purge ring out | the old man bellows with a terrible shout | the constable flips, jeans dripping with piss | he trips as he runs, and fleeing en masse, the troops forget their guns | the old man breathes and bows and starts to pray | you feel the boat begin to slide away into the bay | let me invoke the muse and infuse this hip-hop | with words that enthuse and then cue the beat drop | gather round | i’ll expound it forthwith | it’s the profound sound of stereomyth

the old man welcomes you aboard the boat | you look left, you look right, you look south, you look north | you see scallawags, scoundrels, just a tad down | grills missing teeth | legs missing feet walk like a skewed beat | you get to thinking that maybe it’s not the right move | your circumstances at home, maybe they’ll improve | maybe you’ll pick up a job, get a spouse | have three kids and a dog | live in a country house, but no | but there’s no way that i can go back | the sea is blue and the past is black | if i could see the future i would let you know | but time will say nothing but i told you so | his face is twisted like the trunk of a tree | grown on the side of a cliff | all its roots clinging to scree | well there’s a map and a plan and a distant land across a deep sea | the goal of the company is to find a machine | you don’t quite comprehend | he says the fate of the world is completely in your hands | he says he’ll train you to do what heroes do | you do a double-take and balk at this loose old screw | you just check right out as he wraps up his speech | exit the harbor you look back at that sliver of beach | you held those rocks on your hand as a kid on the shore long before | but the past is no more | can you feel me now? | you get to thinking that maybe there’s nothing left to lose | the old man’s crazy but then again he’s paid his dues | well you can tell he’s lived more life than you have | and as he goes below decks, you lose sight of the land, alone | but there’s no way that i can go back | the sea is blue and the past is black | if i could see the future i would let you know | but time will say nothing but i told you so

the sailor comes up from below decks, raving drunk | mumbling to the crew about the spoiled new kid, degenerate punk | he spits and he turns then he stumbles to the stern | and then he sternly, sloppily faces you | says he’ll erase you | you take a step back and gawk, balk, look around | these sailors are jailers | no allies nowhere to be found | nothing but neutral faces and the sea on all sides | you realize that this drunk could go ahead and end your whole life | so many stars in the sky | so many fists flying by | what is this road that i try? | well is it time to die? | you get laughed at, wharf rat | spitting up blood, you stand pat | huffing and heaving you feel gassed | for an old drunk, he throws fast | another barrage, straight to the gut | and yet his face is uncut | you stagger to stern, you stagger to port | the sailor he laughs with a proud snort | the others now join in, laughing with breaths of stale gin | you suddenly wish you had stayed home | the sailor appears like a cyclone | he’s just like a mad dog, hopped up on old grog | he fakes with the right | he lands with the left | and suddenly all you can see is the deck | so many stars in the sky | so many fists flying by | what is this road that i try? | well is it time to die? | the ringing in your ears has gotten oh so loud now | you stagger to your feet again but aren’t quite sure how | the sailor looks at you like | yo, how how is he even still alive? | he reaches around and grabs a sword | he draws it and then he lets fly | you turn and then start to run | but looking for help, you find none | running to bow and running to stern, you notice the sea as it starts to churn | too drunk or too brave, he notices not the rogue wave | you brace yourself and yell to flee | but then with a crash he’s carried to sea | so many stars in the sky | so many fists flying by | what is this road that i try? | well is it time to die?

storm clouds start to gather on the horizon | distant flashes of light in the night, waves rising | your father told you, that he would scold you if you couldn’t take a challenge | you started crying | you hold back the tears as the old man reappears | he warns you that an even greater trial now nears | there’s fear on the ship as the wind starts to whip | he tells you that you’ve reached the solo leg of the trip | you stay sedulous although you’re incredulous | you grab a lifeboat but your life’s so tenuous | the old man lowers you down as he frowns at the storm clouds | the thundercracks become loud now | an island looms, dark and mysterious | the sea smashes its rocks, so imperious | you start to row | the man waves goodbye | flashes of lightning betray the waves in your eye, you go | i, i got so much work to do | i’m freaking out | tryin’ to keep this ship in tip-top shape | wonder how much longer ‘til I get there | gotta keep on and push, push | help me keep my hands up on the oars | you row out full of doubt toward the dark of the sea | struggling through the waves, you embrace the unseen | without light | without coat | without plan | without rope | without friend | without air | without tears | without hope | without fear | without time | without heart | without mind | without love you row out, paddling for your life | without sight | without coat | without light | without rope | without friend | without air | you row on without | there was a time when you were a child | when life was lush and your hair was wild | your mother told you someday you’d meet sorrow | when every single day would be a fight ‘til tomorrow | you laughed, unawares of the cares | you were so free | but now you understand, up against the hungry sea | you have no plan, a bleak destination | your only action now being self preservation, say it | i, i got so much work to do | i’m freaking out | tryin’ to keep this ship in tip-top shape | wonder how much longer ‘til I get there | gotta keep on and push, push | help me keep my hands up on the oars | you row out full of doubt toward the dark of the sea | struggling through the waves, you embrace the unseen | without light | without coat | without plan | without rope | without friend | without air | without tears | without hope | without fear | without time | without heart | without mind | without love you row out, paddling for your life | without sight | without coat | without light | without rope | without friend | without air | you row on without

time

hands covered in seaweed | phosphorescent sea things | you wash up ashore, coughing, sputtering | bubbling out your lungs | rungs on the ladder you’re trying to climb collapsed | you’ve relapsed into your old ways | of having spent days nearly dying | maybe tomorrow you’ll be frying in the desert sun | you need shelter, a sword, a gun, a plan | maybe somewhere to run | but in the back of your mind you feel like | this might’ve been mentioned to you once or twice | by that old man | you hardly knew him or his crazy plan | but you signed on anyway so you could run from land | what is this place, this mysterious island? | and why have you arrived in a fashion so violent? | what do you have left of life when the sea with its strife | tried to run you through with its coral knives? | you’ve done nothing | you’ve won nothing | become nothing | you’ve seen nothing | you’ve learned nothing | you’ve saved nothing | you’ve found nothing | you’ve got nothing | but that’s something | you went and got a clean slate | and now you watch the sea as it starts to abate | well here you are, all alone at the start of a day | well maybe nothing is a pretty cool hand to play | well maybe everything and nothing ain’t so far away | you’ve done nothing | you’ve won nothing | become nothing | you’ve seen nothing | you’ve learned nothing | you’ve saved nothing | you’ve found nothing | you’ve got nothing | but that’s something | you went and got a clean slate | and now you watch the world as it starts to awake | well here you are, all alone at the start of a day | well maybe nothing is a pretty cool hand to play | well maybe everything and nothing ain’t so far away

maybe it’s just you and me | maybe we’re just nobody | you walk out in the pouring rain | past where those children used to play | those scenes you’ve seen inside your brain | they make a grown man strain to keep it sane | had you prepared for this, you still would’ve found yourself dismissed | it’s like the world’s gone amiss, but take a chance now and jump in the abyss | we’re halfway into our lives | long gone are the drugs and the night drives | we’ve kissed goodbye to our wives | no shelter, seeing just who survives | maybe it’s just you and me | maybe it’s just nobody | some people’s lives are replete | while other people die on the street | maybe it’s just you and me | maybe we’re just nobody | you see through the fog and the grey mist | old names and old flames you’d kissed | in a way they grow now each minute | bigger than real life as you lived it | your memory’s just like a drug | a siren’s call that will tug | but now you’re tied to the mast | you live now and not in the past | time says i told you so | but you know time has no flow | just moments stitched at the seams | discrete like daylight and dreams | maybe that’s just you and me | maybe we’re just nobody | some people’s lives are replete | and other people die on the street | maybe it’s just you and me | maybe we’re just nobody | you stumble through haze and mud | but water’s thinner than blood | you press on, where you don’t know | until you see that red glow | coming from inside a cave | you calm your mind and behave | lurid bright filament lights | you never seen such sights in your life | a giant cast-iron gate | separates you from the cave | you pull with all of your might | knowing that something’s inside | maybe that’s just you and me | maybe we’re just nobody | the lights shut off as you knock | you see the gate come unlocked

you cautiously contort as you enter the cave | a stream trickles by as the night overtakes the day | adverbs, adjectives, they fail to describe | the many strange sights that overcome your tiring eyes | bioluminescent mushrooms and glow worms, they guide you | as something new and strange stirs inside you | this quest and this place make no sense at face value | but something very odd does indeed seem to corral you | ever deeper, you start to see the creepers, the crawlers | the tiny eyeless fish and bottom trawlers | suddenly your heart begins to spasm | as the cave, it opens up into an underground cavern | moss, trees, streams, purple amethyst | jut forth here and somehow subsist | even so, you’re still in a crack in the earth | you snap off a crystal and you wonder at its worth | instantly the ground starts to shake with a quake | you hear alarm bells ringing, drop the crystal, and it breaks | oh shit, oh no, the way you came back in is closed | you start to move across the room and then you see the stream’s froze | not frozen in ice, but in time the room’s fixed | the images around you slowly cease to exist | the room’s a dark black trap and tells only lies | and through the dark now you see pair upon pair of red eyes | you search for an exit as the eyes draw near | you have a vision of the constable standing on the pier | you feel a knock on your head, and your knees start to go | time will say nothing but I told you so | but there’s no way that i can go back | the sea is blue and the past is black | if i could see the future i would let you know | but time will say nothing but i told you so

you come to, eyes bloodshot, there in a metallic room | listen to the sound of whizzing cranks in a sulfur plume | conveyor belts woven with pneumatic tubes | tiny little bots inside beryllium cubes | your hands are bound, your face to the ground | you start to think that maybe you wish that you had drowned in the sea | you hear a sound at the door, a fumbling of many keys | the old man, the old man, damnit | bursts through the door with the force of a planet | he says come on cause we’re in grave danger | well this journey that you’re on, well it’s about to get stranger | you leave the room, your legs on turbo | behind you, you can hear the strange sound of a servo | you look back at the dim light track | a thousand pairs of red eyes pursue you in a pack | they say | we are the machine underneath the world | everything you’ve ever loved will come unfurled | well if you disobey, you will pay | we control the night and day | submit now | back to the pack you must assimilate | don’t be afraid of metal hands and red eyes | everything you’ve ever known is just a disguise | well if you try to flee, you will see | we control society | submit now | you’re not allowed to live defiantly | the old man huffs and heaves | but he explains the situation as he tries to breathe | he says that there are slaves, cages for days | and there’s an evil queen that keeps them in this underground maze | but even worse, they control the land from below | from the sea to that lush green port that you know | to the island where old memories emerged again | to the cave where illusions came and reeled you in | you start a double-take and balk but now you know better | everything he’s told you has been true to the letter | so how does one confront a crazy army of bots | powered by a planet of a billion watts? | old man states that he’ll be the bait | that he’ll divert the army while you go and search the place for the queen | the bots draw close, little space in between | they speak loud now, one machine | they say | we are the machine underneath the world | everything you’ve ever loved will come unfurled | well if you disobey, you will pay | we control the night and day | submit now | back to the pack you must assimilate | don’t be afraid of metal hands and red eyes | everything you’ve ever known is just a disguise | well if you try to flee, you will see | we control society | submit now | you’re not allowed to live defiantly | the old man stops in his tracks and he turns | he rises up, and his eyes they begin to burn with a fire | the robots begin to conspire | to bring him down, to bind him in platinum wire | you keep running, stumbling to survive | you lose sight of the light of the robot hive | the plan worked for the time being | you hear a crash behind you but you keep on fleeing | you can’t believe the many sights that you see | control rooms, cages, and slaves, but no keys | where is the queen bee stuck inside this dead tree | stumble to the west as your chest cannot find reprieve | you turn a corner, expecting the coroner | but suddenly you feel more hot-blooded than foreigner | a beautiful damsel, her assets ample | she beckons you, you reckon that you’d like to have a sample | but in your mind you know that something is very wrong | but paralyzed, anesthetized, you go and follow along | you march at double-time and balk, you thought you knew better | she takes you hand and walks you like an irish setter | saying | i am the machine underneath the world | slowly the illusion starts to come unfurled | a horrible visage | you try to turn and flee | but falling down, you notice that you’re bound at the feet

legs skitter, eyes glitter | a million little robot feet, they move with a pitter | and patter, they chatter here comes the queen | she emerges from the dark in a flash of pale green | light, right | what a hideous sight | deadly beautiful with a fierce underbite | a trillion eyes, thighs that crush | terrified and awed, your blood starts to rush | as you start to pass out | the queen addresses you, she begins to shout | bellows with a force that could cause a drought | blow the rain away and turn your insides out | with a hideous snout, she says | you are not the first, and you’re not the last | every single future turns into the past | but not mine, for i draw no breath | i’ll call you stereo, you can call me death | you search the gloom as you survey the room | you come to think that maybe this place will be your tomb | from the womb to the grave, life can be such a knave | suddenly you see a glimmer from inside a cage | the old man, beaten and bruised he groans | from his mouth, he produces a single stone | a final push, he hurls the stone with his might | the bots swarm | with a terrible sound he dies | horrified, you watch the stone fly | it sails like a fastball straight to your eye | you catch it, inspect it | it’s dull, round, and grey | he got it from the sliver of beach by the bay | where you grew up running from the cops in the rain | a flash of memories overwhelms your brain | you turn around, understand what to do | the queen snarls and she charges at you, you say | stop | now i’m gonna explain | the future generation gonna sing my name | oh, such clarity | well you can go and vanquish death with that posterity | stop | now i’m gonna explain | the future generation gonna sing my name | oh, such temerity | well you can go and vanquish death with that posterity | confident now, you start to invoke the muse | the queen stops now, puzzled, perturbed, confused | the bots quake, uncertain of what takes place | you let em know as you start to say | let me invoke the muse and infuse this hip-hop | with words that enthuse and then cue the beat drop | gather round i’ll expound it forthwith | it’s the profound sound of stereomyth | you hear a deep rumble, it thunders below | your knees start to shake, but you continue to flow | you speak in rhymes as you tell your own legend | the volume in your voice surges up to eleven | she twists and grates | the queen starts to break as you feel the earth quake | you feel your legs give, but your mind is awake | you sing your own song for posterity’s sake | with a strength in your voice, you go | stop | now i’m gonna explain | the future generation gonna sing my name | oh, such clarity | well you can go and vanquish death with that posterity | stop | now i’m gonna explain | the future generation gonna sing my name | oh, such temerity | well you can go and vanquish death with that posterity | the queen screams in pain, her brain surges | and purges her memory banks, they emerge | as you grip the grey stone in your hand, held tight | you rear back and launch the stone, it takes flight | a beggar vagabond grey-hat street-rat orphan | you grew up poor and forcing situations | and still you survive | and you’ll survive beyond life | you pass into legend, the stone smashes her mind | a bright flash, she explodes like the death star | you think to run, but you know you won’t get far | you stand calm | the cave turns to scree | you close your eyes and you think of the sea

you breathe in | open up your eyes to daylight begin | and start another life, as you taste the wind | it blows the dust away, you see the wreckage | the queen lies vanquished, not a single living vestige is there to be seen | and the world is so green | the former slaves celebrate, now freed | they sing of a hero whose miraculous deeds will be told and retold throughout posterity | you’ve got something, but that’s nothing | if you really want to jam, then raise the bunting or head home | yeah, head wherever you please | you’ve seen the underworld and survived the seas | not bad for a young nobody | the world is cruel; it can be so bloody | but the world makes and the world takes | it’s not fair, but it’s a constant exchange | there was a strange old man with a strange old plan | hard to think that everything was happenstance | there was a fight on a boat and a wave that was rogue | a violent birth into the unknown | a journey underground | a terrible sound | some bots, a queen, a violent scream | a memory of home with a flash of green | what you’ve seen | it will never be seen again

out