The Cure

"Don't deny that sick feeling in your stomach, you can't run from it. Let it guide you into high view and move beyond the summit. From peeks to valleys, speed through alleys. If it's done quick, you'll have time to find the caves where days were never sunlit"

I think that this refers to depression, but specifically the type which can be caused simply by learning so much about the world and how it really works.

Discover scriptures made by a society of blind men who suggest the best directions where you most likely will find them. Dead set on checkmates, embracing a chess set. When bedspreads get wet, they're left with the scent of death threats

Talking about scriptures such as the Bible and how a lot of things that you would have been able to figure out on your own were written in it and thus given their origin from there. He then goes on to criticise how everything is so black and white and how fundamentalists must prove that their opinion is indefinitely right. When they are proven wrong, they are frightened (bedspreads get wet) and often will give death threats to the ones opposed (I think that's more of a reference to radical Muslims)

In seven seconds I'll become undone; I'm breaking through. If you're around by the time I reach number one, I'm taking you. You're not the travelling type? Then hide your baggage better before you die a normal death and write the average letter about your internal furnace and how life's a sexually transmitted disease that you contracted through her kiss.

When a boy writes off the world it's done with sloppy misspelled words if a girl writes off the world it's done in cursive.

The first two lines are beautiful. In live performances, Sage sometimes says "In 7 seconds, I'll become a gun..." so in that regard, I think that he's saying that he'll kill himself in seven seconds, and that if there is a girl who doesn't run and sticks with him right to the final second, then he'll "take her". The travelling refers again to depression and when she's says she's not that type of person, he points out her "baggage" which is basically her sadness (very clever line) and advises her to deal with this sadness.

If not, she will end up committing suicide and writing the same suicide letter that most people write when they die (I think the "normal death" refers not to the actual death itself [suicide not being a normal death, of course] but to the way that she'll die unceremoniously just like everyone else), talking about the burning depression (internal furnace) and how life fucked them over (life's a sexually transmitted disease that you contracted through her kiss).

"When a boy writes off the world, it's done with sloppy misspelled words. If a girl writes off the world it's done in cursive"

I agree with a previous commenter that it's a metaphor relating to how a suicidal woman captivates people's imaginations and emotions whereas the same can't be said for a man. Thus, the speaker in the song is searching for a girl just like that.

I'm searching for the cure this is a sickness can you hear me, love?

The refrain reiterates what I previously stated.

I kick the dirt for what it's worth, listening to the birds chirp. The same cryptic speech the breeze speaks and the sea repeats. Recognising the cycles with every passing day. Writing full demands in the sand 'till the crashing waves wash it away.

I think that this is the speaker's replacement for faith: nature. The way in which he uses the word "cryptic" harkens back to the scriptures from before. This is the spiritual parlance of nature and that's what he observes and finds solace in. He writes his demands in the sand and the way in which the sea washes his demands away are a sign of acceptance (before reading on properly, I had thought of that as being a symbol of rejection). This is how he worships; the latter is his equivalent to prayer.

I watch what I say now but I hate it Trying to make my mark. Afraid of the dark nature of vague statements that plague the vacant parking lots where shopping carts go uncollected. That sick feeling in my stomach starts to leave my heart and soul infected.

Speaks for itself really. He has to watch what he says and be careful of offending anyone. The metaphor of the shopping carts going uncollected is a bit hazy for me. I think that "vacant parking lots" refers to people's minds and that they are filled by vague statements, while the "shopping carts", which I'm guessing refer to reason, truth, the bigger picture etc., are ignored.

I won't accept it. Do my best to reject patterns 'till it hurts. Every second making bad turns for the worse. She's getting further away. I can feel it in the way my bones ache. The ocean sealed its lips. Now, the waves won't break.

He realises that he must keep changing in order to remain content, yet is constantly growing more and more weary as his love, his goal is becoming evermore distant. The solace which he found in the ocean can't be repeated now as the waves will no longer break. This may in essence refer to a break up and how he became dependent upon a woman who subsequently left him; however, I tend to look at it more metaphorically.

The secrets it won't say has got us trying to break codes in churches and lately I've been hating its sole purpose (soul purpose).

When a boy writes off the world it's done with sloppy misspelled words if a girl writes off the world it's done in cursive

The mysteries set by life, the mystery of our sadness (in terms of this song, sickness) - people are trying to decode them in churches and the speaker cannot stand this.

I'm searching for the cure this is a sickness can you hear me, love?

"Now I look for air pockets to pick. Walk with a stick. Start picking locks with it. Opening up heart-shaped lockets with little arguments. The tawdry trinkets start to split and contradict. Those who say one thing but think the opposite."

This is great. He challenges those who have a fervent belief in their faith with simple arguments. The imagery of the heart-shaped locket refers to how people's faith is something close to and guarded by their hearts, and it's what he's violating. Something in a heart-shape also has an aura of positivity about it and thus could refer to the aura of wholesomeness and purity that some believers attempt to give off. When he raises these arguments, they panic and begin to contradict themselves. The use of "tawdry" again refers to their façade of purity. They will then, exactly, tell you one thing when in reality they think the opposite of what they're saying.

"I bit the dust. Tongue kissing documents in a smokestack. Faith is harder to swallow than pride, turning our throats black. I want my home back. I know that's not an available option."

The first line is difficult for me and I end up thinking of a range of interpretations for it. I think he's saying he tried to "settled for less" and ended up making love to someone who was comprised (mentally) of a bunch of religious bibliography. The smokestack refers to the person's mind. In US English, the smokestack is the chimney on a train which helps keep smoke clear from the sight of the driver, thus the "documents" (religious scriptures) are the things that this person uses to keep themselves from becoming depressed (sick, again in reference to the song). However, accepting this person's faith was not worth the sacrifice of his pride.

He wishes to go back to how he was before but cannot.

"It's the way that I'm walking in between a cradle and coffin that just makes me pace myself. If half the battle's done right, the other half won't take my health while jacking my shadow's sunlight to crack it open and find the space between my breaths are desolate. Life is just a lie with an 'f' in it and death is definite."

I took the first line from the other stanza and put it here as I think it fits into it better. I find that there are a few interpretations that you could make from this stanza and mine certainly wouldn't be full proof.

First line is very intelligently written, probably signifying that he is in the middle of his life now and has to take things slower. If you live well during the first half of your life then in the other half, your health won't fail you and you won't need to look to the memories of the past (I interpret the shadow's sunlight as being like nostalgia) to retain some form of happiness, only to find that that time period had nothing going for it either, thus discovering that life is just a lie...

"But after I scratched the surface, I never saw the calm before the storm act so nervous. When a boy writes off the world, it's done with sloppy misspelled words if a girl writes off the world, it's done in cursive."

Upon looking at the world for what it really was, he found that what was supposed to be the calm period in his life (maybe childhood) even became a nervous time.

I'm searching for her. Can you hear me, love?

So, the speaker is trying to come to grips with his depression, and trying to find a significant other who feels the same way that he does. Much to his chagrin, many people find their cure in religion and he cannot do the same. This tragic woman is his cure and he's searching for her. To quote Climb Trees: "Baby don't you know that I love women who hate mankind? Talk about it all the damn time!"

P.S. I didn't want to narrow this down to being an anti-theistic piece but I think it is, essentially. Yet, it's all conjecture, of course.