THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE

Album #12  lp 2002

1 Bathroom Inscriptions
2 Maritime Lunacy
3 Arctic Jungle
4 The Silo
5 Rastafarce
6 The Leaning Pole Of Garber’s Crossing
7 Stereotype
8 Double H (HH)
9 Invasion Of The Snakehead
10 Element 112
11 Envision Reality
12 Riddle Of The Septadigits

All lyrics written by Rathke

BATHROOM INSCRIPTIONS
Time tends to have an affect on things
Pictures fade and concrete cracks
But in a place where relief brings
There is a place where decay lacks
I've seen the writing on the walls
Etched by a knife or sharp object
Most are rude in bathroom stalls
But they last longer than you'd expect
Vandalism at a minute scale
Through the sands of time it prevails
A message written 20 years ago
Is as fresh as yesterday's prose
Engraved for eternity
For everyone to look and see
As juvenile as it seems
The thought captured at the scene
Dirty thoughts and dirty words
Etched on the wall yet never heard
Some are just plain absurd
As I read one more blurb
When there's a date inscribed in time
Like August 14th, 1979
The world can see just what was said
And what thoughts ran though their heads
The oldest ones they stick around
They bring a smile or a frown
On the throne with my pants down
Bathroom transcripts are abound

MARITIME LUNACY
In international waters
Between Australia and New Zealand
There were two Greenpeace protestors
One of them a legislature Australian
They were there to try and halt
Two armed cargo vessels
Packed with 650 pounds
Of plutonium and reactor fuel
The protestors chased the ship for several hours
Caught up to it, holding a sign, jumped in the water
The ship then made an emergency evasive maneuver
Which could have caused an ecological disaster
Now we have ourselves a case of maritime lunacy
All in the good name of the insane Greenpeace
After they jumped into the Tasman Sea
They could have been killed or maimed
The banner read 'nuclear free Pacific'
A near ecodisaster they weren't using their brains

ARCTIC JUNGLE
In the arctic jungle
It's cold and damp
I see ice sickles
Hanging from the steaming branch
The steaming branch is sweltering
in the humid sun
The thick dense growth cuddles
in the sticky mud
The temperatures so high so low
it makes them want to run
Cyprus trees in swampy land
Are frozen solid yet still stand
Polar bears in the hail forest
Found the river's water warm at best
Penguin Birds along the perma-steam
Find the heat unbearably keen
So here we are in the arctic jungle
A mass of heat and frozen bungle
The jungle animals are searching
for their fur coats
The freezing environment is not
limited to moats
The palm trees shiver and
the mosquitos are taking notes
Steaming hot frozen cold
The mercury is getting old
Equator arctic ring
the circle of collision it doth bring
Slurred words from the burning freeze
Arctic heat brings you to your knees

THE SILO
Since we don't live in the city
Where the buildings scrape the sky
We are limited to surroundings
That don't quite reach as high
Restricted simply by ordinance
In our small and quaint town
Structures seem to lack vision
And are barely off the ground
Enter the silo
Reach to the sky
Alone or in pairs
Cannot be denied
Scattered throughout the landscape
So rural yet so pristine
The silos are projected upward
As they occupy the scene
Engrossed by their simple beauty
From our small and quaint town
These structures invoke power
As they rise up from the ground

RASTAFARCE 
The reign of the messenJah
Has ended before it's begun
Selassie the Ethiopian Emperor
Was just a devout Christian
If he was the Lion of Judah
Or Jah as some have said
He never kissed mary jane
And Jah as he was called is dead
Rastas say they fight injustice
Oppression and poverty
They demonize the other races
And claim Ethiopia for eternity
The poor black man's Watchtower Society
They claim the Messiah has appeared
They use the ganja to get themselves closer
To a god that has yet to be feared
Spiritual inhalation of the herb
Is the silliest thing I've ever heard
Don't need no weed
to get close to God (repeat)
You can take your dope
and stick it in your rear (repeat)
No herb is needed for the service of men
The King of kings is seated at the right hand
We have no desire for the cannabis
We have the One who died for all of us

THE LEANING POLE OF GARBER'S CROSSING
I saw a light pole
Just south of the burg
Close to the incident
With the stuff in the jug
This pole like the others
Was built recently
Since then, unlike the others
It has begun to lean
Over and not straight up
The light pole one cannot ignore
By the entrance to the super store
It's tilt is seen plain as day
Its stuck in a permanent sway
The tower of Pisa
May lean a little bit
But this pole at the crossing
Wins the race for quickest lean
Was it karst topography
That caused it's angle
Or was it bending over
To try to see what
Was lying on the road

STEREROTYPE
Looking at my keyboard
Looking at my screen
I never really noticed
The sounds of my typing
I see what I know to be
I type using the home row keys
I never thought to listen to
What is heard when I strike a key
I hear the sound of my fingers
As they press the buttons
On both sides of my head
I'm a stereophonic glutton

DOUBLE H (HH)
He does not take crap
From any, all, or none
He's Hardcore Hartman
He will not be outdone
He wears a belt or two
Three, or four, or five
In the Friendly City
He's the only one that's alive

INVASION OF THE SNAKEHEAD
Carnivorous creature of the sea feeding
On any fleshly thing land or sea breathing
The labyrinth predator can crawl on land
And like the piranha it will bite a man
The channiformes can stay
out of water for 3 days
They've invaded America
and have become plague
The snakeheads can grow
to be 3 feet long
In seven states found poisoning
the anabantids can't be wrong
Banned from the states like something
from a horror movie
In Asia they are bought
for soup and are tasty

ELEMENT 112
At the Institute for Heavy Ion Research
The synthesis of an element was undertaken
With a half-life of 280 microseconds
This isotope was identified in one atom
Ununbium
The most dense atom
An element of surprise
The heaviest metal arise
Created by nuclear fusion
By bombardment of lead atoms
With high energy zinc ions
The birth of Element 112

ENVISION REALITY
There's a reality that simply can't be seen
This Truth at one time appeared as human being
When you face the Truth, as you lie awake in bed
You hear a voice that's spoken and not said
Envision reality beyond this life
Focused on beauty bowing to The Light
And it is He who is the great I Am
That calls on all of us to take a stand
Life on this earth is but a grain of sand
Salvation and forgiveness is in demand
We take this life for granted
And we think of our dreams
Look beyond our comprehension
Only one path to the Heavenlies

RIDDLE OF THE SEPTADIGITS
The second glass of milk
In the second letter round
It turns out to be the one
That makes this very sound
The prefixed situation
A deuce sandwiched between
A pair of rotated infinite signs
That's the digital scheme

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