Asleep in the Chapel

Three chalk outlines sleep in the dirty street
And in our beds
Under the sheets
They're the halo of guilt hanging around your neck
Next to the rosary
You count, falling asleep

And we're praying
These are the symptoms of letting go of all our hope

Since we can't compete with martyred saints
We'll douse ourselves in gasoline
And hang our bodies from the lampposts
So that our shadows turn into bright lights
White light
White heat
We'll make as we're blacking out in the center lane
We swerve to the beat
Spill all the ink
No revisions
Do you hear the church bells ringing?

Wake up!
Wake up in an outline
And try to speak with the shattered voice of the lives we lead
Have we slept too long
Between the bullet holes in a stained-glass window state?

When we repent
We fall on the page
Read, in the margins
We are the symptoms of letting go of all our hope
When we repent
We fall on the page
Read, in the margins
We are the symptoms of letting go of all our hope

Someday we'll be complete like modern saints
Baptize our kids in gasoline
And hang our doubts up in cathedrals
So that they turn to faith in the colored sunlight
"Red rain, Red Rain"
We'll make as we're blacking out in the center lane
Do you hear the church bells ringing?
They ring for you

We woke up this morning to a sky with no air in it
And all the streets are filled with a thousand burning crosses
And what we thought was the sunrise
Just passing headlights

Still the choir girls sing
"Oh lord, can you save us?
Oh lord, sing hallelujah
Oh lord, can you save us?
Oh lord, sing hallelujah"

They are the symptoms of letting go of all our hope
We're falling asleep with open eyes
Falling asleep inside the chapel
Falling asleep in chalk outlines
Falling asleep as the headlights pass us by..