Help Us Pick The Title for our First EP

I cracked my world open before you

Spilled rotting innards at your feet

Bloodied my own on the fragments of my shell

I never could tread carefully

But that rank and shattered egg was not me,

But the broken walls of my unsuited home

Unseen for the carnage left I crept away,

Concealed the kind of creature that I am

I can’t live long homeless without armor

I’ve been living the past two years as a clam             

On bare beaches beggars can’t be choosers

And I’d rather be silent than exposed

I, too, only knew the one part you showed me

The smooth, sculpted surface of your shell   

Its single shadowed crease spiraled inward to infinity

I loved you.     I loved you.

Were you paradise inside

Or a decapod like me

I loved you.

In my heart I only hoped to live beside you

In my heart I only hoped to live beside you                  

Under my shell I only hoped to live beside

My only love

In my heart I only hoped to live beside you

In my heart I only hoped to live beside you                

Under my shell I only hoped to live beside

My only love

Under my jagged, tarnished shell

I only hoped to live beside

My only love

Lured like a fool before, I used to swim around you

When your boat cast a shadow and your paddle beat the waves

You sang so sweetly when you plucked me from the water

Cried with wrath when I jumped free

Cried with wrath when I jumped free

Now you come around dangling a rusty hook above me

Like I’m not worth your time, a piece of plastic, or a worm

Like I’ve forgotten how it feels to flop for air in your canoe

Or why I swam across the ocean

Why I swam across the ocean

Down here I’ve caught my breath

Been sharing blessings with new friends

You’ll never reach me by hook or net

Down here I’ve caught my breath

Now you’re the fool; you still mistake a goldfish for a guppy

I’m too slippery to grasp now, you’re not sharp enough to gut me

I could grant you all these wishes if you’d only show me mercy

And recognize my majesty

Recognize my majesty

Down here I’ve caught my breath

Been sharing blessings with new friends

You’ll never reach me by hook or net

Down here I’ve caught my breath

Reel in your fishing line, receive my parting gift

This secret truth that made me gold, changed and redeemed

In every monster there’s a sacred, magic being

Dive down deep and set it free

Dive down deep and set it free

Down here I’ve caught my breath

Been sharing blessings with new friends

You’ll find your way and then we’ll meet again

Down here I’ve caught my breath

Down here I’ve caught my breath

In the cold aisle I’m awaiting

Someone who’s looking for  

Something intoxicating

Suddenly

Off the shelf, down the belt

In the sack, out to your car

I’m sitting shotgun

Bumpy ride shaking me

Growing lukewarm in a

Ray of afternoon sun

Why are you surprised all my bubbles turned to foam

When you ripped my top right off the minute you got home?

Wet fingers circling

Metal; lamenting

That cylinders are waist-less

Sipping me, grimacing

You weren’t expecting

Something so flat and tasteless

Why are you surprised by my bitter alcohol,

When you knew full well dark beer wouldn’t taste like cherry cream soda at all?

So pour my marrow down the sink and

Crush my thin aluminum bones

Clip my plastic ligament

Save a dolphin

Save a dolphin

Torn apart, tossed out, in fact, or

Melting in a furnace, folding in a trash compactor