Defiance (For Elise Sunderhuse)

General Doom got another leg caught
He was arming kids, begging for artillery shells to kick around
And building white crosses to commemorate the martyrs' brigade
In the Red Crescent-bearing ambulances
It's better than working in the mines all day

One vehicle down
We were praising the Lord when we heard the report
Of the trucks and the cranes and the double-yellow lines
And the fear and the love and the violence dissolved
We're told that we've learned a great deal
And we're told that your loss is collateral cost
And stochastically inevitable
And the price that we pay for breathing

But we defy
We defy
We defy
We defy

Punk Haitians kicking under concrete
They charge their phones and send another text feed to the flotilla
And it's out, but time's not a disease
It's an ordered state, it's a firm substrate
It's a shocking priceless wasteland
And it's where we'll raise our kids and get lost

And defy
And defy
And defy
And defy

Letters, pixels, texts
Crystallize and mutate
Patterns amplifying forever