California

From West and East you were the desire
Rush the golden palace to stake a claim
Where refugees gathered
For new life and new hopes,
The pursuit of happiness and land

You're the West to which the gateway led
The dream for which a generation bled.
From gold rush to a silver screen,
You're a fame-seekers wet dream -
An earthquake that moved the world

Going to California
With a wish on their breath
An aching in their hearts
And a desperate prayer
Seeking that promise of a fresh start you deny

You're everyone's dream, baby,
So why can't I care?

Now your skies are blue and your sun scorches
Over manufactured houses and manicured lawns.
Your plastic dolls lie on crowded beaches,
The stars you wish on slowly fall,
As we all play the game that shows the world
How useless we are.

Lines of exhaust fill the veins of the city,
Clogging the blood of us all,
Waiting for the heart attack that never comes
To this body without life

But I hate these acts,
The people who use you as an escape
Like cheap alcohol and whores,
When you're my prison
From which I seek escape but will always remain;
You're my abusive relationship I think I can save

But soon your skies will fill with smoke
- the billows I miss -
The red sunsets and lights of a thousand fires
I'll blow smoke rings in the fading glimmer
And I'll return to
The cold nights and starlit mountains

I'll return to the desert where this all began
To a struggle for life, not lies,
Dreams don't matter when you can barely survive.
Be a real desert for my heart,
The burning sun and scouring sand
Will scorch away my tears
And maybe I'll escape this desert of the real

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