The Riot Before - The Middle Distance lyrics

“Somewhere in the east: early morning: set off at dawn, travel round in front of the sun, steal a day's march on him. Keep it up for ever never grow a day older technically.” --James Joyce, Ulysses Waking up with the sunrise Running fast enough to the west Forever fallow your shadow Never allowing it to shorten It's a youth without ever ending It's a d**h with nothing to show Just a life spent negating Screaming no, no, not what I wanted at all In between the two letters The firsts in the alphabet Navigating the expanse Separating them on a map Is a swamp covered over in water Overgrown over sediment That'll bury a traveller Sinking slow slow slow till it's all overhead Down down down So we fight to flee towards the lives that we wanted Leave behind all the murdered air Then find we aren't what we were when we started Lost, old, removed from the things we once cared How those years start to weigh How the reflexes slow How the pa**ionate days Grow increasingly dull There is so much to say When the tide is out low But it is trite it is vain When the moon starts to pull There's a space in the seam between hate sewn to love And I know what it means to live in the undone When you've stopped your retreat but you're unsure at what You want to re-raise your gun If you should re-raise your gun I've been lost in between all the gaps separating the atoms I've been trapped in the billboard fonts lining the highways All I want is the middle distance Where the solids have definition To risk defeat find meaning without just running away