Asleep In The Chapel
Thursday Lyrics

Three chalk outlines sleep in the dirty street
There are three chalk outlines where dead bodies had been lying on the ground in the middle of a dirty street.

And in our beds, under the sheets
Meanwhile, we are sleeping in our beds, covered by sheets.

They're the halo of guilt hanging around your neck
The chalk outlines symbolize the guilt hanging around our necks.

Next to the rosary you count falling asleep
The guilt is as close to us as the rosary beads we count as we try to fall asleep.

And we're praying
We are praying for salvation from our guilt and despair.

These are the symptoms
The chalk outlines and guilt are the symptoms of our hopelessness.

Of letting go of all our hope
We have given up all hope of redemption or salvation.

Since we can't compete with martyred saints
We feel unable to measure up to the example of the saints who have suffered before us.

We'll douse ourselves in gasoline and hang our bodies from the lampposts
Instead, we would rather commit a fiery suicide and hang our charred bodies from the street lamps.

So that our shadows turn into bright lights
Our fiery deaths will leave bright light-shaped shadows on the pavement.

'White lights, white heat'
The bright light and heat of our burning bodies will be blinding and intense.

We'll make as we're backing out in the center lane
We will make a hasty escape in our speeding car from the center of the city where we plan to carry out our suicidal plans.

(We swerve)
We swerve dangerously to avoid obstacles in the road.

To the beat
We speed away in time to the music on the radio.

(Spill)
We spill our drinks as we careen recklessly around corners.

All the ink
All the ideas and songs we have written are useless and meaningless.

(No revisions)
We have no opportunity to revise or make changes to our tragic plans.

Do you hear the church bells ringing?
As we speed towards our death, we hear the ominous tolling of the church bells.

Wake up!! Wake up in an outline and try to speak
We try to wake up from the nightmare that is our lives and express ourselves through the chalk outlines of our bodies.

With the shattered voice of the lives we lead
We would speak with the shattered voices of those who have hoped and lost.

(Have we slept too long)
We worry that we have slept too long and missed our chance for redemption and forgiveness.

Between the bullet holes in a stained glass window state?
Are we like stained glass windows with bullet holes, hopelessly damaged beyond repair?

We are the symptoms
We are hopeless and desperate, the symptoms of a sick society.

(When we repent)
If we were to repent, would we be able to find salvation?

And we're praying
We continue to pray for redemption and forgiveness.

(We fall on the page)
Our hopes and dreams fall on deaf ears, like words written on a page.

(Read in the margins)
Our lives are insignificant footnotes, read only in the margins of history.

Someday we'll be complete like modern saints
Perhaps someday we will find redemption and become like modern-day saints.

Baptize our kids in gasoline
We would even baptize our children in gasoline, as a symbol of our sacrifice.

And hang our doubts up in cathedrals
We would hang our doubts and fears in the cathedrals, hoping they would turn to faith.

So that they turn to faith in the colored sun
We seek the warmth and hope of the sun, even if it is colored by our own despair.

'Red rain, red rain'
Our fiery deaths would be accompanied by a red rain of blood and ashes.

They ring for you
The church bells toll for all those who are lost and hopeless, including ourselves.

(We woke up this morning to a sky with no air in it
We woke up to a suffocating world with no hope of salvation or redemption.

And the street is filled with a thousand burning crosses
The world we live in is full of hate and fanaticism, symbolized by the burning crosses in the street.

And what we thought was the sunrise, just passing headlights)
Our hopes for the future are dashed by the realization that what we thought was a new dawn was just passing cars on the road.

Still the choir girls sing
Despite the despair and hopelessness, the choir girls continue to sing.

'Oh lord, can you save us, save us?
We plead with God to save us from our own despair and the world's destruction.

Oh, lord, sing hallelujah.
We pray for a miracle, a reason to sing hallelujah and rejoice.

We're falling asleep with open eyes
We are so tired and hopeless that we are falling asleep with our eyes still open.

Falling asleep inside the chapel
We are falling asleep in the same place where we sought salvation and found only despair.

Falling asleep in chalk outlines
We are falling asleep in the very outlines that symbolize our own guilt and fear.

Falling asleep as the headlights pass us by
We are falling asleep in the midst of a world that is passing us by, full of bright lights and empty promises.