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lyrics

I know a kid
who left Catholicism behind
but he carries chalk in his pocket
Every once and a while, he'll stop
and draw a steeple on the wall behind him
This lets people know its not graffitti,
he's just praying

There's another
who got sick of gone green skin
from electroplated fool's gold around her neck
so she up and tattooed a crucifix on her chest
Now she doesn't have to to take it off before sex,
and every time she screams
"Jesus!" it means
a hell of a lot more

One thing I learned being homeless
was how to sleep sitting up, shiver swaying
in the Denver winter night
In those dreams, it was never cold
I was just dahvening

These days
we take prayer where we can
but we never call it worship
God has come down off the altar
and talks to us right at eye level
The fading Mosque brick
and crumbling stone Synagogues
have set new foundations
in the air five feet around us

Before there were churches
and printed words to be misinterpreted
we prayed in glottal stops and melody
Only now there's keystrokes in our gospel
divinity and digital, synthesizers and god hollering
not up or down but out
Out of our throats, out of our limbs
spinning eclesciasticly
Out of our eyes red and watering
Outside of ourselves, inside prayer
is the chance to be
everything

This thing we give no name to
It don't care for manners
It don't punch a clock and it don't take attendance
It don't take to preachin' and I'm sorry if this
seems that way
This is just my way of an explanation
Us thumbed monkies
fear a lack of comprehension
but we don't need to understand
just accept, isn't that what faith is?

We
singing, dancing students of I don't know what
do not apologize for our convulsions nor
deny you yours
And if your brick and mortar
your wood, nails, and rooftops go flames up
or come tumbling down, leaving your worship
in ashes, we invite you
outside
There is so much room out there
and yeah
It gets cold, sometimes
The wind and grit will whip you blind, sometimes
We all have to wander shut eyes and compassless, sometimes
We'll all have our lost moments but faith will find other flailing hands

Sometimes,
this world ain't pretty, but god damn
is it beautiful

credits

from Live​-​ish​-​esque, released April 2, 2013

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Paulie Lipman Denver, Colorado

Paulie Lipman has been a part of 8 Denver National Slam Teams(including '04's second place and '06's national champions). His work has appeared in The Legendary, Borderline, and the Write Bloody anthology: The Good Things About America.

In addition to Spoken Word, Pauile is also a musician/composer and is available for hire for commercial/video game/soundtrack work.
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