Love Me Like an Only lyrics

An all is a pall of idealism waiting to settle
In a lighthouse, all’s the sea I know
All are the oysters in harmony with seagulls
“Live to eat; dive to feed; time to grow”

As an oyster being preyed on by seagulls
I can only turn to the blue bird and shout:
“Tend to your starvation, in some other way!”
Don’t you know “all” for me is in doubt?

All I have is this one and only
(This one and only) chance to exist as myself
(One and only) chance to vibe human moments
Human warmth, human homes
Human shouts!
As an oyster I’m so small and so lonely
(This one and done) chance to sleep as myself
“All” is the sea and the stars and the seagulls out there…
Only’s the world of my shell
(“Only’s the song of myself”)

[seagulls]

An all is a pall of abstraction waiting to mettle
With our sense that nothing, “nothing” is just
A stance we have to take as a species for each other:
“What is human?” (What is “try”? What is “must”?)
From a lighthouse, “all” are the cosmos I witness
Supernovas circlin’ aliens unto eternity…
All are the mollusks being lapped up by seagulls
“Born to Die”—tell me, what’s modernity?

All I have is this one and only
(This one and only) chance to exist as myself
(One and only) chance to vibe human expressions
Human warmth, human homes
Human shouts!
As an oyster I’m so small and so holy
(This one and done) chance to Holy Spirit myself
“All” is the sea and the stars and the seagulls out there…
Only’s the world of my shell
(“Only’s the song of myself”)

[seagulls]

All for one? Then it’s all for the onlies!
“Onlies plus onlies plus homies”
Is our century’s shout
All for one? Then it’s all for the lonelies!
Lonelies plus lonelies plus lonelies
Is our eternity’s clout
El-oh-el
(Hello, hell)
El-oh-el
(Hello, hell)
Lonely is the pall of my Christic idealism
From a lighthouse, I can see lonelies huddled
All are the mollusks, risin’ up to be seagulls!
Moral harmonies end up manglin’ so muddled

As a mollusk being preyed on by seagulls
I can only turn to the good bird and shout:
“Tend to your starvation, in some other way!”
Don’t you know “all for all” is in doubt?

All we have is this one and only
(One and only) chance to remember ourselves
(One and only) chance to record our species’ story
Who we know? What we are?
“When in doubt”?
As a messiah I’m so weak and so lonely
(This one and done) chance to poet myself
“All” is the sea and the stars and the bluebirds out there…
Lonely I sing Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
Only’s the word on top of my shell

Hello hell, hello hell
Hello hell, hello hell
(Hell is “eternal,” “wakeful,” “solitude”—never forget that)
El-oh-el, el-oh-el, el-oh-el