There ain’t no doubt anymore: it’s a violent world Where the first man to find the body gets the gold And the second’s hauled away to jail And you might find that you can’t go on anymore Too afraid to step outside lest a fool break bad Now in the heart of the crowded capitals People can watch each other’s backs But while you may trust in trust, the betrayed have seen it fail Whether out in the wider world or behind a fence You might have lost the only assurance you ever had, oh Ready for some good news? All you’ve got to do is call Aplomb Squad Warriors and protectors so no one will ever hurt you any more They don’t look too tough Yet great power is concealed inside Aplomb Squad As they go about their necessary trade Helping you achieve what destiny forbade Tracking down your biggest problem And injecting UPR into its core Meet Mrs. Counsell, a rising star who studied Under not one, but two mighty gurus Surnamed Rogers ’round about ’83 Her associate, Dr. Don, to Earth Is the mastermind who drives their beat-up van Lieutenant Champion handles security Old Man Frost sees to the gear An accountant, the PR girl, and an intern to make the tea Drawn together to serve their common cause Of freeing, healing, and empowering everybody they can So if you’re in big trouble, never hesitate to call Aplomb Squad Every case is different and important to the ones who really care They don’t make a big splash Yet no dive is too deep for Aplomb Squad As they slowly build a better place to live Taking back the planet from those who won’t give Introducing new solutions Calming down a species addicted to despair Scheduling your appointment will be easy And the magic power really works, believe me But only if you do what must be done Because the hard work’s really yours Oh, there’s a rumor going ’round that you’ll only be talking Well, was the first ascent of Denali only walking? This prison’s burning down so find the doors It’s true: the antidote to low-down fighting seems bizarre And, at first sight, laughably out of touch With the hard facts of “dog-eat-dog and the rest can starve” I guess it depends on whether you prefer To wallow along with the dumb beasts of the field You see, it only seems that way because we’re trained From birth to respond to force whereas It’s cool blue reason that stops life from being hard Add awareness, empathy, self-defense Of the kind that scares mad away and you will be healed Oh, ready for some good news? You can volunteer to join Aplomb Squad Warriors and protectors Keeping bullies from tormenting gentler souls Underneath the soft smile Super strength’s the secret of Aplomb Squad Let the sufferers who are willing be released And the rest can hoard their misery in peace While our precious spherical spaceship Forges on with healthy minds at the controls

My best friend doesn’t share this body I am in And there ain’t no way we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on everything Or synchronize the way we think She could draw you places I have never been It happens so fast Turn around and your dreams have moved out And shacked up with the past What a shame to waste one day Some people throw them all away So I hope that you are more discerning And spend at least some time willfully learning Amazing, helpful, easy lessons too cool to call life hacks That you would not have known if you hadn’t asked That’s why questions are better than answers Trailheads more precious than roads They who wonder alone have the power To find out what nobody knows Guessing wrong is a part of discovery Being sure only holds one surprise And questions can never be platitudes, slogans, or lies Now and then you come across a door with no way in And there ain’t no way you’ll ever figure out the missing link There’s no guarantee everything the brain can hook Can always be reeled in Why are we here? Why are the laws of nature such as they appear? What happens when we sleep? How much of life do the dying keep? Will all of this make any difference of any cosmic significance? Is value necessarily tied to the long run, or is here and now More important than how it shapes the next billion years? Well, happily questions are better than answers Some truth bombs must stay in the sky There’s a good chance we can’t learn the whole game And likely will never know why One struggle is worth a thousand victories The essence of all that we are Is growing without growing out of it Being without being limited That is why questions are better than answers Trailheads more precious than roads They who wonder alone have the power To find out what nobody knows

I was just driving down the road and I saw this mysterious sign It said you could go straight to hell So I took that road and it was quite a load But I can tell you it was quite amazing Torture devices, zombie uprises But ask yourself it could be much worse While there isn’t much of a curse Nobody can steal from your purse because you don’t have it While there isn’t much of a curse Nobody can steal from your purse Because you’re going to throw a fit Remember not to hit ’Cause you’re going to love this last bit in hell You can go straight to hell, you can go straight to hell You can go straight to the pits of hell

One last chore at one last soiree; if only all I had to do was play Yet I will make it through – oh, how they love to be in the room While the newest virtuoso charms the dullest gang in Paris Yes, a freak who tends the pianoforte My passion is real, the commitment to my dream Their applause, I feel, would be the same for clams with cream Now I adore my work, it’s true But how I loathe the circus which buys my bread Have we really come so far from being servants of the nobles And the Church? When will the artist gain esteem? Fear is overwhelmed by hunger; yes, and greed Desire for recognition, that homeliest human need There is rage piled upon lust, frustration stirred with pain Contempt for fools, the sudden rush of love Which leads to fear again Some don’t mind the endless dry parade Let them live long in search of accolade If I can make it through this night, lock me away in some room Where the outward-looking empty social climbers cannot go And a piano beckons calmly to be played

There are two kinds of wrong: there’s one for reason and facts And one for people who assume that they’re right You’d figure the real kind would carry more weight But its publicist is subtle and quiet If you’ve ever heard authority screaming in your ear Connected to a bug in your brain Then the OMC is overruled by a subroutine That evolved to keep us partially sane When the dumps get you down it can pick you up Better than a doctor whose name I forget And when you’re boiling over manic, it can lower the gain Once you learn to use your soft reset If you’re head over heels or your love is a lie Then compressing your mood is the key I know of Turtle Tracks, shopping bags, little blue pills Before you try all of that, try and leave it to the OMC It’s twenty trillion miles to the second nearest star An inch behind your eyes – that’s where true powers are Be still, my aching heart; let me catch my bated breath Emotions are a part of life and maybe death There are two kinds of wrong: the one that fixes the truth And the noise that you can safely ignore There are three kinds of problems: impossible, easy And those you faced around age four If you’re burning your bridges or drowning your sorrow You’re doing the natural thing There is definitely more than one nature And no coping mechanism is king Remember OMC, with some practice, can be One more tool in the kit than can simplify your suffering How do they do it? Tell us, what’s the secret way? Control’s a lot like poker – you’d best observe before you play

I like the one you wrote about the cowboy She had it coming – totally agree with you there And I really like the one where you make fun Of the woke-ass commie kids Some came to the show; by God, how dumb can you be? To misinterpret all the clues you leave cleverly hidden away You’re so right: crooning for the heavily armed And I really like the way you bring it on Different strokes and freedom sure do sound good The guitar is hot and girls like to dance To the beat of that one song But I have to admit sometimes you don’t quite say What you must mean to Nobody’s perfect so at those times I just kind of tune out While they misinterpret all the clues You leave cleverly hidden away Don’t it feel good singing to the winning team And I really like the way you bring it on

Big Bill had raised up four grown sons When the trouble really began That was the best way to put it Before the invention of the electric fan Each boy carved a home out of the hills Found an old plow and brand new bride Three at the edge of Kentucky And Perry over on the Virginia side Now state lines never meant anything To the folks along Sugar Run Except that spring of 1861 The call to arms seduced more men Than a million siren clones Four minutes into Manassas Promising futures were nothing but bones Naturally, a man’s opinion counted But something else counted more: A line drawn through the woods By a tax collector decades before Bill Jr., Bishop and Henry wound up scattered and wearing blue And Uncle Perry, he signed up with you-know-who Little Bill fought at Mill Springs and saw Zollicoffer fall Henry besieged a fort with his name And he must have seen it all Bishop barely made it out of Richmond on two feet And come October, all four brothers finally got to meet Uncle Perry laughed when he saw the sign and said “I believe I will Have to have my picture taken at Perryville” Buell had 55,000 untrained kids to conduct his affairs Bragg, just 16.8 but each of his worth two or three of theirs Both sides got whipped and nobody won Though all of them lost some friends The Confederates carried the field Then had to turn tail to save their skins On a day when your chance of taking a ball Was a hair above one in five Somehow all four Moneys made it through alive Things calmed down for Bishop and Little Bill all through ’63 Henry helped capture Morgan while back east Meade couldn’t nail down Lee By the fortunes of war Young Perry was stationed a few miles from his home From the Cumberland Gap It felt like he could hold off the Union all alone He told his buddies “We’ll never be overrun” and he was right In September they surrendered to Burnside without a fight Nine long months laid up in Camp Douglas One rung up from Andersonville Would take its toll on anyone Even a mountain boy trained to kill One morning a half-drunk major Pitched a deal to the boys in grey “You can join us and shoot down Sioux out west Unless you’d prefer to stay” Uncle Perry stared down at his uniform Managed to coax out a single tear And said “Nebraska’s got to beat the daylights out of here” Now Big Bill’s unforgiven; if you’ve seen that picture, you know Henry rests at Artemus up on a ridge in a neat little row Bishop’s folks are doing all right Bill Junior’s baby leads straight to me And you can read Dee Brown’s fine book On the Galvanized Yankee But when he reached his post The youngest brother deserted with a horse and a grin And nobody ever caught Uncle Perry again

So let’s pretend you are four or five; It should be simple and once was true You are a force, no less smart or alive Now tell me, what do you do? By which means do you pass your day? What are you thinking while you play? Distractions do not hold enough sway To block out the real and new Surely you wonder about nearly everything before your eyes Surely you wonder as does every child your size The dream is over, welcome back to Earth Perhaps you are 30 or 50 now Such as it is and for what it’s worth You’re part of a bigger world now Did growing up feel like you thought it would? If so, man, you must have really had it good Would you make different choices if you could? Are you pleased with how it’s going to turn out? Surely you wonder, in a moment of darkness, what went wrong? Surely you wonder if life’s been a ripoff all along The planet spins, sticking to one path It literally doesn’t have a choice The evening sky’s still a bit too vast to fill with one lonely voice There’s no denying something’s changed Did the world get worse or was it just your brain? You can pay good money to hear it explained But most of that’s only noise Surely you wonder even if only for a minute or two Tell me you wonder and I’ll say How I’ve been thinking this stuff through And I believe it’s our twisted culture that’s damaging you Is this really the level best grown-up children can do?