These grey teeth and these bloated cheeks, the dark eyebags, that mirror's lying.. Laid strain out with back pain, last night it came, that fear of dying, I push it back quick, the standard tactic. It's all eternal!! A cosmic magic!! Peaceful mood, it's just one easy move And I'm death-defying, yeah I'm death-defying! Years ago, peasant blood, we came this far, Grandaddy yeah he fought for this.. The modern age will light the way, progress made, snap my fingers and I'll conquer this, But I'm on the frontlines with no hand axe. I've no hope on this land mass. Your Tolle and your Ram Dass, Won't cleanse my soul, won't save my ass no.. Now you're living.. Now you're really living.. Oh, midlife. Now you're living.. Now you're really living.. Oh, midlife. Sunflares on the windscreen, I'm driving home from the Bon Secours, So unfair, these tears stream for the love of all of the bones of her, A voice eases my shoulders, it's Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, the early tapes, from the gospel days, oh I'm all yours..... Save the trees, save the whales, curse the oil and all the politician populists, Buy the milk, kiss the kids, pack the lunch, tell me what the latest gossip is, Sell the shares, write the will, fill the holes building all up where my pocket is, Warm embrace, Leave the race, Dreams of grace, Fuck it. See the face of God and live! Keep repeating the holy greeting, the spirit's moving inside me really, I swear it is, if you don't believe me, there's a crack of light up in the bedroom ceiling.. And its shining on me, oh its shining on me, Oh, its not for nothing, no its not for nothing, And it's all bliss, oh its all bliss, I swear it is, I swear it is, Now you're living.. Now you're really living.. Oh, midlife. Now you're living.. Now you're really living.. Oh, midlife.

There's only one thing, I want from you, And I wish that I knew what it was. There's a hole in my heart, Where St. Peter once slept, There's a ghost in my bed, I keep thinking about All the reasons I have For denying and fearing my death, I can be so damn sure I can know what is right Then, that terrible fright, When my chest it caves in I'm feeling so empty inside, There's only one thing, There's only one thing, I want from you, And its right on the tip of my tongue, An empty cup brought to my lips to drink. Everything blurred and kind of indistinct. Looking for solid ground to place my feet Still here waiting for the extra Feeling off shore. Feeling off shore. Through a locked door. Through a locked door.

I'm coming up, yes I'm coming up.... I've got a cup of tea, I'm coming up to cheer you up. Open your curtains up, I'm going to wake you up, Regale you with tales from when we were growing up, We set sail, for the United States, we got our skates on, When we were younger and were dumb enough. Just out of yellow chins and buttercups, A million miles from our mothers love. Could not move quick enough. Running. Dublin See Ya. We're free yeah. This J1 Visa. Got me a job down in Tampa selling slices of pizza in a theme park We went real far together. No Phone cards. No Social media. 2-Dollar Tequilas. Blue Margaritas, Last Night amnesia. "Fake ID, wasn't me, was my cousins idea Mr. Police officer I'm good as Mother Theresa Name's Casey? you must be Irish.." We slept in bus stations, Befriended Polish and Haitians Saw real guns, Pointed in our faces!! You still frowning? Your blues aren't breaking? You're right. Remember when - its the lowest form of conversation,, It's a pain these days, just trying to keep it together. Regain the past, back when we felt light as a feather. But you remain slain. can't get out from under the weather? That's okay. That's alright. Let's see if I can do better.... Up. Up. I'll keep your spirits up. Up. Up. I'll keep your spirits up. Up. Up. I'll keep your spirits up. I see a higher ground. I'm going to lift you up. Switch off the news boo. It's not good for you. The higher the stats go, the lower your mood skews. Spending half the day, sanity snatched away, Station dialling, impatiently trying to make it through. We're all nervous. And the bad hacks, we all know they're worthless. Pretend to serve us. But they hurt us with their daily disturbance. Pit you versus their mad circus. That's their purpose. To make you feel worthless and purchase the services they advertise. And then they say with cold eyes: 'You've been hurt, by a little word, oh Lord preserve us, its an emergency.' They rile up that hate. They know its murderous. And that its lurking just under the surface of all of us. Where do you think the xenophobes and fervant racists get their purpose? And the pervert little civil servants Are trying to stir it with their wolfwhistle wormwords, They don't deserve us And so its now Lockdown 3, and they're just taking the piss. Been so long, don't know what a haircut is, We missed your birthday too, What a kick in the ribs. 10 full months, and not a night away from the kids But I got faith in the human spirit. I got faith in your human spirit. Death is coming some time babe, but we're hopefully nowhere near it, Is that a laugh you made? Come on now, Let me hear it. Up. Up. I'll keep your spirits up. Up. Up. I'll keep your spirits up. Up. Up. I'll keep your spirits up. I see a higher ground. I'm going to lift you up.

I started off like dust and I'll go back to nothing, Night skies and coast to coast, oceans running, And so the camera pans from big bangs and grand plans To an ambulance speeding; 3am, West Dublin. Mammy struggled the best that she could have for us In the Coombe, out the womb, in a puddle of blood, Nothing from that day but pure luck and pure love. And pure bliss. And all the grace that a god could summon. Aunties spaced around the place cornering and coddling me and pinching my cheeks, and squealing with glee, Made in his mother’s own image, it's true He's got her brown eyes and her freckles, Got her red hair and her blue moods, Best guess of why my heart started thumping, Its best left in the ether, that crack of thunder, That competition in my stomach rising into my chest, That commotion of emotions that's been travelling since That day, in 1981 My grandfather was a union man. Don't see much now of that struggle. Worked dough with his hands, a bakers bruised knuckles, My grandmother scrubbed and cleaned the decks knew where their last meal came from, she’d just wrung it’s neck. Bread stuffing. Eating meat as grey as ash gravel. Chew the fat off the steak - that's where the flavour gathers. Closed stove lids, then closed their eyelids What did they dream? What did they hope for the kids? Cause I heard stories of their youngest starting bands in the midst of the recession. Friday night. Get out all that aggression. Teddy boys and mop-tops, new romantics to punk rock Soared high in the sky, then back to rock bottom Or so goes that myth by most long forgotten, those tall tales of infamy misbegotten, One uncle had to flee the RA in disguise Another bashed Bono and he didn't apologize All the while, I'm still a twinkle in my mammy's eye, Until that day 1981 Last in a long line of slaves blocked by obstacles And first of the worst cursed by all options possible I went to a college and I got a degree. My uncles left school for jobs at 15. Some folks need nothing, they can naturally dance. I got a 10-mile headstart and a second and third chance And I needed it. Reaped all the benefits. Now I'm just making my way through touching the leg of the elephant, Its all bliss, its all bliss, The good parts, the bad parts, the hurtful words, and the awfulness, That soft kiss, that soft kiss, Passed down from the parents, To the kids, to the grandkids, to the great grandkids Its all bliss, its all bliss, and we're all just, sailing to the edge of the tall cliff together and just jumping into awful abyss and drifting in infinity A pulled thread in a bigger blanket A grain of salt at the family banquet in 1981

Verse 1: How do I find myself in these situations? Sunday morning. With no shoes. In a Budapest police station, You may ask - how the hell did I get here? Rewind two days to that 6am Ryanair.... 14 grown men on a plane. Off to Hungary, where badness reigns Start early. Airport bar by 5. Now we're 3 pints deep, the sun's yet to rise, Its Martin Cassidy's stag - and I don't want to be here. But his wife's my wife's best friend for nearly 3 years, Head low, hotel bed by 12. Been on the dry, looking after myself. Oh No!! Who's this shuffling up through the aisles? James Kenny!! I try and fail to not meet his eyes, Too Late!! Beside me and his tales proceed, Every reason why he can't succeed, Promising sports career cut short by injury, Passed over for promotion in PWC A life story I could do without knowing. Tie his hands behind his back, throw him out of the Boeing... He's pulling funny faces. Casually racist. Worried that the immigrants will gradually replace us. You know the kind of guy. Says the MeToo movement's fine, but he's worried that due process as a concept it is dying 'What about the rights of men?' Ugh, this is gonna be a long weekend... Verse 2: Waking up from a snooze inside the budget hotel Hungover already. Gotta refresh myself What's good for the body. Is good for the soul..... 2 solpadeine, a Diet Coke and a spicy chicken roll. And guess who's here? James is here. And now I'm cursing at this burden He wants to join me on the excursion to the bar He thinks we bonded on the plane! But I've been learning, trying to be a better person, Really working on that pledge to myself, So I say... yes 14 grown men in a bar. Nothing you haven't seen ten thousand times before. Time passes. I'm having fun to be honest. When James pulls me aside and reaches into his pocket, Oh No! A little bag with powder inside He's walking to the toilet, looking back mid stride No way!! I shake my head and turn back to the crowd, Those days behind me, I've got three kids now, Finger to his lips, stupid grin on his jaw, looking like he wants a fucking round of applause Deep breaths, Jack. Compassion and Empathy. Maybe he's sent to me. Test my whole Dharmic abilities, Laughing like a gull, Vein bulging from his skull Trying so hard to show he's living life to the full His voice keeps getting louder, Could never please his father now he's breaking down in tears his head buried in my shoulder, The scene reads so absurd, I'm in Hungary. Propping up the unhappiest man in the world.. oh oh oh oh oh It's Martin Cassidy's Stag!! oh oh oh oh oh oh Verse 3: 4 in the morning, we've spilled onto the streets Under Budapest starlight, voices breaching the peace, An obscene little hymnbook, And yes, you guessed, the destination is the typical strip club, Feeling, low, cold, broken and old, The stag's a no show, and now I only want to go home, But I go slow throughout the whole motions. March on like a soldier. James still stuck to my shoulder. Moaning low about his whole life going nowhere. And for a moment I'm distracted by the poles and their dancers And the boys whip the guilty phones out to text home 'give the kids a kiss, not the same with out you' Oh No! I turn around to monitor James, He's fondling a stripper and he's running away, Throws a drink on the head of a bouncer I try to run after End this whole desperate chapter But I can't catch him. Now here comes the manager. 'Which of you little bastards' after causing disaster'? My vision sharpens with clarity. I raise my hand, take the blame, in a moment of charity, Right the wrongs of the world with a righteous light, And while I'm basking in the glow of self-sacrifice, I feel a short sharp crack in my ribs, and I see stars, I'm doubled-over, bundled in the back of a police car, Joy is here, its just not evenly shared, I did my bit to see the balance repaired, Not exactly Christ dying for our sins, But not nothing either... Guess I could call it a success of a weekend....

I'm a spent thing. Barely worth mentioning. depression on me again it comes settling. I'm welcoming any sense of the better things, 'Life is suffering' in 10-foot high lettering. We got bad news today. Deadening. Fighting with karma, our world armageddoning, Beat down, knocked out, chewed up and spit out again, By the words of doctor, a child medicine veteran, Now I'm bruised and looking for a tender thing, A moment I can totally and wholly surrender in, A tall shot of god's rhapsodic medicine. turn the hard-edged to the sensitive, turn the masculine to the feminine, Start my search in the logical place, My part time church, my psychological base, The sheen of a TV screen in a dark living room, Hiding from the light of the afternoon, On the couch, mouths open, nestling, Sopranos and the West Wing Brando in the vest-string, in Streetcar on Blu-Ray Herzog so dissenting, sweet heart its too late, Ozu so affecting, just one more, its 3am, My dreams up on the screen. Reflected back to me. Don't have to think. Don't have to talk. I close my eyes. And i will levitate... I will levitate... I Will Levitate!! I'll paint my masterpiece. beneath the diamond sky. down ancient empty streets. I Will Levitate!! This is my song of songs, 6 inches off the ground is where I belong, I Will Levitate!! Sit at the keys like Nina, New hands, new feet, new way of seeing, I Will Levitate!! Become a butterfly Be transformed by the renewal of my mind I Will Levitate!! I Will Levitate!! I Will Levitate!! Me? I'll eat nearly anything. What pure joy can be had in this inbetween, Eat the peach, the juice drips down free Chocolate with the scent of fresh clementines. Burgers bitten and fingers licked with grease, Ham hock and spring potted peas. A cream cake from that bakery on Thomas street. A toblerone brought back from your week in Greece the sweet deep chewy geometry, bags of chips with steam, salt and vinegar hot popcorn in the cinema, apple crumble with the cinnamon, ice-cream melting on top that's criminal, fresh fish on friday from Finnegans soggy in the bag if you don't get home quick again, I moan low and my belly grows tasting every morsel till I reach my death throes. Forget those, niggling little wiggling fingers though, there's just one life probably! Whats next? Who knows! I take the good news with the bad. But I heard bad news today: There's protestors dead in Myanmar. A million Uighers locked up in China. Economies collapsing in South America. Journalists killed in Saudi Arabia. Late stages of capitalism, early stages of narcissism, I will levitate. I will levitate. I will levitate. I Will Levitate!! A ritual witness. At the tabernacle out of Leviticus. I will Levitate!! I'll horseplay with the kids, Kisses on their heavenly eyelids I Will Levitate!! I'll take my children with me. A scene straight out of Walt Disney. I Will Levitate!! I'll hold their trembling hands, Forever on the journey to Neverland, I will Levitate I will Levitate I will Levitate