|
|
|
LYRICS
Songs from THE EMERGENCY
LANE |
Look
For Me
in the slant
of evening sun
burning through your bedroom window
look for me
in the pictures of nude men
with their latin legs akimbo
look for me
see my fingers
circled by the diamond rings
protruding from the sleeves
of laughing mafioso at the bar
and my feet now teetering
on the edge of platforms
in the sneakers of homeboys
waiting for subway cars
and reflected in the sweat
rolling down a workman's neck
look for me
look for me
in the way the snowfall sifts
into nearly human drifts
look for me
in the bitter bray
of customers demanding cheated change
look for me
feel me gripping
in the way your clothing clings to you
right after rain has caught you
running coatless in the street
feel me breathing in the whispering
of passing subways
fluttering your leghair
as it rushes from the grate
and in the way you'll never look for me
not listen
and not wait
you'll look for me
look for me
you will look for me
and you
Love Song for Jeffrey Dahmer
I pulled your head back
by your hair
and I spit in your mouth
put little slaps
on your cheek
in about a week
I might let you out
oh baby baby
are you my sweet baby
oh baby baby
you are my sweet baby
thumbs sunk
into your throat
and your faces is bloated
your neck is bruised
three days beard
nipples seared
the sweet sweet smell
of burning you
oh baby baby
are you my sweet baby
oh baby baby
you are my sweet baby
I carved my initials in your chest
and the blood you bleed
is bled for me
a jesus I can force to bless me now
teeth marks on your chin
a razor in my palm
caressing you
feel me kiss you
with my fist
oh my
how I
love you
all along the avenue
the imprint of my palm in you
beneath your sleeve
you're cuffed to me
so you know I won't
ever leave
oh baby baby
are you my sweet baby
oh baby baby
you are my sweet baby
The Rain on 8th Avenue
buck-tooth call-girls on the corner
like red-haired roses in the rain
dropped off by a drunken mourner
on the wrong grave like a train
that old west bandits disconnected
from the engines and left scattered
'cross the tracks their vaults dissected
hoping that guy's looking at her
purple pimps pick up a patter
whispered like boys behind a school
who found some magazine in tatters
hope the next guy won't stay cool
when he hears the things your promise
that your mom and daddy do
when the bedroom doorlock's kissed
the doorjamp now here come a few
and one of them
will tie her sighs up in a bow
and post her ghosts
to those who'll mostly
read what they already know
and one of them will shave his face
til clean of mean
a trace of grace
will make him buy
today
for her
a gold lame
miniskirt
but none of this is really true
they just lay down and go to sleep
and wake up with the sunset
and rain down on the street outside
their faces fall and splatter wet
the sidewalk they become the bride
or groom
of things that they became
too bored to do
the faces rain
become a pool
then they drain
clouds still heavy
with the rain
on 8th avenue
Take Me Back Home Again
offer a beer to me
and make it clear to me
we're to be
the only ones in this room
all night
spoon your back into me
and I'll begin to believe
you're gonna stay with me tonight
for night and night and night and nights
take me back home again
take me back home
'cause you're the only rider
on the highway in my bones
take me back home again
take me alone
'cause I can't see without your light
shining on my lonely lonely lonely
road tonight
feels like the sun is in my eyes
walk me do
wn empty streets
talking talk that repeats
the sweet
feelings that you feel
I'll eat 'em down down
like the sweetest meal
fingers caught up in mine
and I will lie so fine
you find
all the lies have turned out real
real as road against your wheels
take me back home again
take me back home
'cause you're the only rider
on the highway in my bones
take me back home again
take me alone
'cause I can't see without your light
shining on my lonely lonely lonely
road tonight
feels like the sun is in my eyes
nothing's on your radio
but larry king and oldies shows
I'm on another frequency
you got to dial your dial, dear
down to me
no you don't know why you left
but now that rock of ages clefts
for you and me
you're gonna feel bereft
until you tune on into me
and on a starry night
I think we are rewriting
all the tales that turned out sad
'cause that's one tale
I done already had
here in the candle glow
good'll come and'll go
but you know
I'll never treat you bad
'cept on days
you say you want it bad
take me back home again
take me back home
'cause you're the only rider
on the highway in my bones
take me back home again
take me alone
'cause I can't see without your light
shining on my lonely lonely lonely
road tonight
feels like the sun is in my eyes
Bad Driver
I'm a real bad driver
but he was so skinny
that wind filled his skin up
just like a balloon
and it looked like muscles
to each passing car
and they said, hey that's a fag
can lift up weights on a bar
and the emergency lane
is my middle of the road
and the traffic jams curse me
to hell in code
but the cars like to scatter
just like real nervous flies
when my pick-up truck belches
some hell to the sky
and my grate seem to smile
with a murderous eye
when I flicker my brights
with a wink and a lie
and we wave 'em
wave 'em
wave 'em all
goodbye
and I drive a vein
empty of t-cells and t-birds
in a night that's a body
with its blood in the dirt
and his story pours out
with the sweat on his brow
from his festering mouth
spitting details of how
pappy talked like a knife
then drips off his lips
and his granny push out
and gets caught at the hips
so his brain's just a womb
knocked up family-style
that I swear will grow barren
on this crooked mile
yeah he's got a cunt-mouth
birthing out
his family
and he'll push them all out
and leave 'em go rambling
and they'll wait on his grave
where he won't be buried
'cause that hole will say no
to a butt-fucking fairy
so it's just you and me boy
alone with no cops
for as long as the road
and this truck
never stops
it never stops
Mushy-Headed Kid
he is shirtless on the sheets
his pants are crusty
with some stuff he spilled
when he was eating
'yo man
reach me that glass
I'm thirsty
tell me stuff
I wanna talk some
stuff
yeah'
he weaves behind his cigarette
his eyes twist into slits
he doesn't trust me
'but there are places in my heart
I haven't gone to yet'
he laughs and says
'you're sure one mushy-headed kid
I'm merging with
the cracking wall
the crack extends
into his face
the girls are bickering
in the hall
'yeah' he says
'I guess this is the place
is the place
you do
belong
in this place'
I dig my fingers in the cracks
against the wall
against my back
like it's a woman
he folds his face
'that cabbage smell
don't go away
how can they eat that stuff
it smells like
you know'
he slaps the cobwebs from his face
he rubs his arms
he slaps the cobwebs
arms
cobwebs
his arms extend like derailed trains
he bends his eyes my way
'this ain't something
I think you
need someone
to explain'
I'm merging with the cracking wall
the crack extends
into his face
the girls go quiet
in the hall
'yeah' he says
'i guess this is the place
is the place
you do
belong
in this place
my clothing starts to come alive
my pants grow muscles
and they're shifting
like horses skin
when there are flies
'come to my crooking finger
all the hair across my body
is hiding things
from your eyes
but not your hands
if you weave them inside
find the veins
sealed within
my skin
now can we begin?'
'but there are places in my heart
I haven't gone to yet'
he laughs and says
'you're sure one mushy-headed kid'
I'm merging with
the cracking wall
the crack extends
into his face
the girls are gone
out of the hall
'yeah' he says
'I guess
this is the place
is the place
you do
belong
in this place
mushy-headed kid
Side of Sane
and then he rushes down a ray
of streetlamp light
with his face a little crooked
fingers little tight
and he meet up with a guy
who kinda eyes him like an alley
and as he starts to buy
the garbage sighs while he's
thinking back to sally's ass
that's waiting on the corner
hoping noone's gonna come along
and try to warn her
she's a fool
fitting rules
that only fit him fine
'cause he made 'em
and she paid 'em
and she likes it only
when it's raining wine
there is a lamp out on the corner
putting lamplight in her hair
and a painter that it battles
painting shadows on the stairs
and she's sweating in her satin
til he battens
down her ship
and sails her down the gutter
til she sputters
like a throat that somebody slit
he is streets that's calling her
and stalling her
and balling her
on corners in the rain
and it's asphalt hard
as broken shards
of poker cards
that keep him
just this side of sane
just this side of sane
and she remembers about
that first time
when he took her on the stairs
and it hurt her
good as murder
and her blood sang on the air
and when he came
he shot right through her womb
and struck her in the brain
so she's knocked up in the head
without the bread
to make a wire hanger
learn how to unhang
and now he's jumping junkies
skipping signs
that tell him that this property's condemned
where with a promise of a needle
and a wheedle
lays some cunt and then he
keeps her poppy friend
while sally tells a drunk she's not a whore
not anymore
no she's never ever been
and standing in the street
she listens for his feet
'cause when she looks
she just can't see where this street ends
he is streets that's calling her
and stalling her
and balling her
on corners in the rain
and it's asphalt hard
as broken sha
rds
of poker cards
that keep him
just this side of sane
just this side of sane
and then shows up eventually
and sensually
relieves her of her skirt
once more her panties round her ankles
fingers wrangle hair
i swear babe
it won't hurt
and her lunacy is waning
but you know it's gonna wax back
like a moon
when he rams her in the doorway
make her sore way deep
a knife into a wound
and then he'll skip out with a whistle
emptied thistle
maybe leave her his disease
and though she feels run down her legs
his fresh-laid dregs
you know she'd swear it all
had been a tease
and she'll listen billie holliday
and crawl away
and swear she's gonna try again
and until it burns up on projector light
this dream in black and white
will run again and again
he is streets that's calling her
and stalling her
and balling her
on corners in the rain
and it's asphalt hard
as broken shards
of poker cards
that keep him
just this side of sane
just this side of sane
SIDE OF SANE
and then he rushes down a ray
of streetlamp light
with his face a little crooked
fingers little tight
and he meet up with a guy
who kinda eyes him like an alley
and as he starts to buy
the garbage sighs while he's
thinking back to sally's ass
that's waiting on the corner
hoping noone's gonna come along
and try to warn her
she's a fool
fitting rules
that only fit him fine
'cause he made 'em
and she paid 'em
and she likes it only
when it's raining wine
there is a lamp out on the corner
putting lamplight in her hair
and a painter that it battles
painting shadows on the stairs
and she's sweating in her satin
til he battens
down her ship
and sails her down the gutter
til she sputters
like a throat that somebody slit
he is streets that's calling her
and stalling her
and balling her
on corners in the rain
and it's asphalt hard
as broken shards
of poker cards
that keep him
just this side of sane
just this side of sane
and she remembers about
that first time
when he took her on the stairs
and it hurt her
good as murder
and her blood sang on the air
and when he came
he shot right through her womb
and struck her in the brain
so she's knocked up in the head
without the bread
to make a wire hanger
learn how to unhang
and now he's jumping junkies
skipping signs
that tell him that this property's condemned
where with a promise of a needle
and a wheedle
lays some cunt and then he
keeps her poppy friend
while sally tells a drunk she's not a whore
not anymore
no she's never ever been
and standing in the street
she listens for his feet
'cause when she looks
she just can't see where this street ends
he is streets that's calling her
and stalling her
and balling her
on corners in the rain
and it's asphalt hard
as broken shards
of poker cards
that keep him
just this side of sane
just this side of sane
and then shows up eventually
and sensually
relieves her of her skirt
once more her panties round her ankles
fingers wrangle hair
i swear babe
it won't hurt
and her lunacy is waning
but you know it's gonna wax back
like a moon
when he rams her in the doorway
make her sore way deep
a knife into a wound
and then he'll skip out with a whistle
emptied thistle
maybe leave her his disease
and though she feels run down her legs
his fresh-laid dregs
you know she'd swear it all
had been a tease
and she'll listen billie holliday
and crawl away
and swear she's gonna try again
and until it burns up on projector light
this dream in black and white
will run again and again
he is streets that's calling her
and stalling her
and balling her
on corners in the rain
and it's asphalt hard
as broken shards
of poker cards
that keep him
just this side of sane
just this side of sane
Jesus Didn't Love Us Enough
mickey keep trying to stand to rise
but the sheets keep sucking him down
he look so surprised
they wrap around his head his feet
and they whisper
mickey when you're gone
the pillow say it don't feel complete
his head just keeps bleeding
into the gauze
was that a woman
or was it man
he can't say what it was
on the road and on the beat
tripped up in condoms
somebody tricking with your treat
well, somebody else can want him
somebody else can bleed
but it just deepens your resolve
(hey, times is tough)
that jesus may have loved us
but he just didn't love us enough
and you been bashed six ways to sunday
but that's not the point
in my wallet is a joint
though I would really rather have
ecstasy
that's really my only disease
all these boys round here
whip their cocks out
wave 'em around
yelling please
and you yell back
hey jesus
wants me on my kneeses
but not for though
and very definitely not for thee
(though I might do it for me)
but it just deepens your resolve
(hey, times is tough)
that jesus may have loved us
but he just didn't love us enough
the ropes around our necks is glowing
(for that price they better)
and somebody is rapping
this crazy rap
from the house of luv
house of glam
house of something
something I don't understand
we are huddled in the kiev
in black mornings
we are walking on the river
we are huddled
in a huddle
in a room
a sheet
inside of you
mickey
hey man
is that you
and this payphone keeps ringing
while noone passes by
stick that needle in your eye
you know your heart's already crossed
and someone hopes to die
so you stuck your dick inside him
and you could feel the rubber break
and you watch a seagull flying
past your window
while his mouth starts to shake
going 'you're always pulling out, man
just when it's getting good
what's the matter with you'
but mickey
just won't explain
it just deepens your resolve
(hey, times is tough)
that jesus may have loved us
but he just didn't love us enough
he didn't love us
jesus
jesus didn't love us enough
The Winding Sheet
wound so tight
you could bounce a nickel off
the dirty light
the missing cough
and I ain't had much to eat
and the bed is made
with a winding sheet
we'll eat
but then my dear
I fear
we'll freeze
the mine is so dark
you tunnel too deep
to coal from the ark
you'd dig eden tree
and I ain't ha
d much to eat
and the bed is made
with a winding sheet
we'll eat
but then my dear
I fear
coal off the tracks
rattles my pail
they're bones from his back
melting like hail
the mine'll soon close
its blackness seeped out
blackening the snow
blackening our mouths
and we ain't had much to eat
and the bed is made
with a winding sheet
we'll eat
but then my dear
I fear
we'll freeze
Bina's Radio
as they tore her building down
all the people stood around
in a thin blue line
in a red silk teddy there
smoke and whisky in her hair
she heard voices that said
we don't want you here
from a radio that played
from a cop's brown belt
and from men of asia
she knows would still
eye her asian pelt
but the radio that plays
in her heart
won't depart
so I pissed on bricks and rocks
where I felt chris aim my cock
while the sun rose on us all
through the steam I saw her drift
in a desert-storm that left her
scanning skies for new bombfall
wondering when and why and if
a radio was playing
from that dead queen's place
and she danced under his window
like he might yet show his face
but the radio that plays
in her heart
won't depart
she knows the lonely
vacancy
of roads between
the desert towns
and just as well
the hell
the towns will be
where they wait
for her and me
to break our backs
against the beat
now she can't make it down the block
for all the ghosts that try to talk
new third-world words noone needs
wojnarowicz in her ear
ethyl eichelberger tears
playing penny arcade
in this thin nintendor year
she's a radio that plays
an infrequency
and she tries to write it down
but noone now know how
to read
this radio that plays
in her heart
as we
slowly
depart
The Wild Men
babyboy
are you sleeping
have you heard
a word I've said
is your body
still a-breathing
can you live
this life we've led
I wish you were
a swallow flying
you'd fly this high
and lonesome place
and join your wild men
in their sighing
and linger in
their salty taste
on our sidewalk
in the summer
lies a man
a-baking slow
seeds and coins
fall from his slumber
his burning mother
holding close
I wish you were
a swallow flying
you'd fly this high
and lonesome place
and join your wild men
in their sighing
and linger in
their salty taste
I wish I were
a swallow flying
I'd find your high
and lonesome place
and join your wild men
in their sighing
and linger in
their salty taste
Seventeen
come down daddy
set your clothes on fire
lay your body down
in the middle of the night
tell me pretty stories
about things you believe
things you get
things you leave
'cause the stars pour down
just like an ocean in the sky
I'm caught up in the undertow
and I I I I
can't believe
I'm sitting still
I took that pill
and I
am just so
high
just so high
now the days disappear
and the nights run away
like answer to arguments
you never got to say
and it's october cold tomorrow
and springtime yesterday
and today?
today
pass that joint this way
I got my own life
on my own side
I got whisky
when I'm out of beer
I got all the things
I never should have tried
and I got one thing
that worked its way
right through to here
hold it up to the light
shut one eye and peer
right into it like a crystal ball
like a telescope
do you see
do you see what I see here
and right now it's warm as thunder
when there isn't any rain
and a million miles away
is where that storm is gonna break
and I'll do the things
I'm dying to do
and baby, dead
dead is on the way
well they tell me that's what mama
had to say
I got my own life
on my own side
I got whisky
when I'm out of beer
I got all the things
I never should have tried
I am seventeen
and it feels so queer
sick and bad and disgusting
I am seventeen
and I
I
want to get
high
The Wagoner's Lad
oh I'm just a poor boy
my fortune is sad
I've always been courted
by the wagoner's lad
he's courted me nightly
and never by day
and now he is loading
and going away
oh your horses are hungry
go and feed them some hay
and sit down here by me
as long as you may
my horses ain't hungry
they won't eat your hay
so fair thee well darling
I'll be on my way
oh your wagon needs greasing
your whip is to mend
so sit down here by me
as long as you can
my wagon is greasy
my whip's in my hand
so fair thee well darling
no longer to stand
oh hard is the fortune
of all of our kind
we're always controlled
we're always confined
controlled by our people
unless we take wife
or a slave to the highway
for the rest of our lives
and he's a slave to highway
for the rest of his life
Songs from THE BILLY
WHITE ACRE SESSIONS+ (2005)
|
The
Undoing (Every Day):
can
these hands
of mine
unslap this child
can
you teach
his tears to turn around
and uncry
can you undrink
that one too many bottles of wine
can you undo
our undoing
by undoing
that line
every day
every day
every day
every day now
every day
any day now
all it takes
is each and every day
can you unbreak
that plate
that shattered into the wall
can
you learn
to unburn
all the rubber
you burned down the road to hell and
can
this knife of ours
uncut the scars
that go running up and down your arms
can
your dad unleave
your mom unbleed
can you unbelieve
that you re worth nothing
every day
you can get what you need
when you give up what you think you want
you shall be released
when you see release
takes each day you ve got
unscream the hurting things
and then we will unhear
unwind the time
and give us time
to find out
how to unfear
unfreeze the cold
unage the old
and we ll und
ream
our worst nightmares
unhit unfight
unleave unlie
unhate undie
until it s all all right
every day
The Truck of the Rising Sun:
the headlights of trucks
flashed your eye to your brain
to the shoulder of roads
you went stiff as cum stains
turned once in the taxi
to the light of the dash
and then rumbled back home
body jack-knifed and crashed
he was not too old
his chest like a soul
heavenward ascending
his arms said prayers
for a tear
without mending
you d each dig a trough
wave as they pulled off
thinking smiles in their eyes
one day I ll eat up the miles
to be with you
and kentucky is cold
when the snow falls and folds
like a blanket you re shuffling off
or daddy's dead quilt
full of seed you spilt
and you will
that it will not
be filled with your guilt
look
out at the snow
a bull s out and so
black against the hill
now he's pawing
now he's bucking back
and black
to a spill
angels waver
should they save your soul
or add your body to the bill
there's a crack in the wall
by the windowsill
and o how you're heartstrings
will twang the wrong tune
singing stand by your man
while your man's in the moon
so you deep-throat a bottle
cumming rye down your throat
o the bloating of bodies
whiskey river can float
lord, they'll rise up so high
all your secrets come clean
river-foam to their eyes
made of male magazines
boys born from their fathers
can never be weaned
there is a truck bound for new orleans
they call the rising sun
and its been the ruin of many poor boys
and me o god
me o god
o god
I'm one
Daddy When He Sings
(Dead Bird Fly):
he is gospel going wrong
sweating down into a down and dirty song
perversity
obscenity
can it be
what he sees is me
and you love your daddy when he sings
and raise his arms like dirty wings
and soars into your body
like its sky
and its ok here if i die
choking on his lullabye
telling me i m right
and that together we ve both
got hold of my mind
he tells me i have gone to seed
but thats ok it just means i m growing things
i am a blister on his soul
and he touches me although
it stings
and you love your daddy when he sings
and raise his arms like dirty wings
and soars into your body
like its sky
and its ok here if i die
choking on his lullabye
telling me i m right
and that together we ve both
got hold of my
mind is my own he cries
geographies of open lies
and bodies that cant seem to rise
but shoot a man who even tries
and hope is a religious rite
that lost its god to friday night
sit down here
on my splintered thigh
and i ll tell you
how to
make a dead bird fly
he say call me eddie
thats this king they killed
you aint ready boy
but pretty soon you will
you will
THE LOCUST
she tells a list
of daddy's family names
like all the begats in the Bible
and dark is singing in the car
and daddy aims the car to eat the road
so silent that you start to know
your ma don't know who those names are
cuz I am buried in the basement
like the locusts who all sleep inside your yard
and wake one day and try to tell you who they are
and daddy starts to cry
and no-one says a word
because the locust that is buried in the dirt
comes back in seven years to hurt
lord I am one
lord I am two
lord I am three four
lord I'm five hundred miles
from that aching rocking car
while locusts rise up from the ground
I'm hanging upside down
in a basement underneath some town
yelling hard
'come daddy deeper come inside
grease me up and spread me wide
and when I spread my teeth to cry
it'll move the earth
with leather sinking deeper in
I think I'll finally slip my skin
just like this locust in the dirt
come back this seventh year to hurt
in my body made of all the missing years
you can see the limbs of screaming children
move like bones beneath my skin
and the fingers of that other wife
who'd finally gotten out of hand
and he can't stand
I heard him pray Jesus make my family new
he buried me but then I grew
a weed unwinding in his back
a buzzing plaguing the skies to black
yes I come back
you say, I am a tumbleweed
some decades down the line
to an Arizona barkeep
with a lean untroubled mind
I'm rooted in the wind
I'm grooved into the road
and when I cry
you know just why
and there's nothing else to know'
but nestled in the sandstorm's whine
a language you can't read
a song you cannot sing along
an aching you don't need
like conversations through a wall
you listen hard but all
that you can hear is
mmmmmmmmmmmm
LOVE IN CRYSTAL
so full of crystal meth
I could shoot my load into the stars
smell of plastic's on my sweat
and my heart beats on my ribs like bars
but my finger's feeling more
than a finger's meant to feel
there are fingers on my pores
feeling electricity
on this shortwave in my skull
radioactivity
every station playing in my face
it's not me in here
it's everybody everywhere
everywhere
I watch the things my body does
they have gone beyond belief
I can feel them bend my mind
I think they might leave a crease
but my tongue is tasting more
than my throat can swallow down
I am licking up the store
I am choking I am drowned
on this shortwave in my skull
radioactivty
every station playing in my face
it's not me in here
it's everybody everywhere
everywhere
across my skin
is the sin
of men
like cinnamon
and tangerines
it's a cardamon
religion in him
I'm beginning to see
all the things
his body knows
his body knows
in the hungry place
my body goes
he says, Americans is just like kids
they think trouble's some movie that's in their heads
that fades away beneath the credits
and they think coulda stood an edit
but my eyes are seeing more
than a light will let inside
TV stations in my soul
broadcast color out of night
on this shortwave in my skull
radioactivity
every station playing in my face
it's not me in here
it's everybody everywhere
everywhere
Songs from RESTORE (1998)
|
I COME WITH 3 WOUNDS
I come with three wounds in my side
and bleed on the porch
my pick-up shines moonlight
won't you light up the door
I'm too long on my own
yes I've buddies I know
but none of them know
what I was 'fore I's grown
are your bellies so full
that my voice has no pull
are you warm in your wool
yes I've broken your rules
and flown
I come with three wounds in my side
and wait in the yard
your windows the color of night
I have travelled so far
just to stand here again
with my pockets of sin
full of places I've been
I was blown by your wind
come and bandage my side
I'm what became of your child
you are sleeping inside
you should come help me die
cause soon I will be done
repeat verse 1
BREATH
oh I'm a-feared for my life
I'm afraid it's gonna murder me
and you'll leave me behind
boy you've guessed it about right
I've been digging your grave
for the best part of last night
and now I see you receding
behind my car
getting smaller but never getting gone
but I believe I'll be leaving
before the sun
finally goes down to take a breath
take it right out of my chest
I threw a little dirt over him
and I started on my way back home
and I left no-one and nothing behind me
'cept for the wild trucks
to rush on by and moan
and now I see you receding
behind my car
getting smaller but never getting gone
but I believe I'll be leaving
before the sun
finally goes down to take a breath
take it right out of my chest
exploding in the west
throwing blood around the sky
and dark is closing like
an eyelid closing down a dying eye
on the shoulder cracking dry
you know this story ends right here
who'll remember I remembered
that someone was here
long may you wave
if you are waving over empty graves
long may you fly
if you are flying out of
one closed eye
and now I see you receding
behind my car
getting smaller but never getting gone
but I believe I'll be leaving
before the sun
finally goes down to take a breath
take it right out of my chest
DOWN BY THE BUS STATION I
LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND WEPT
down by the bus station I lay down my sword and wept
and though your hands were holding out
my pocket slept
ticket carbons fell all down around my feet and smeared
til the floor turned black with ink
a black ocean where you sink
sinking down
hold your hands up and start to count
I stared and I slept some
through fading TV reception
put a quarter in the next one
down by the bus station
and how we fly across America
we won't get caught in the highways
that pile up and bury us
you can sleep on my shoulder
but you can't get older
so I will age for your
I will pray
over your grave
in the radio waves
that go astray
I stared and I slept some
through fading TV reception
put a quarter in the next one
and push the sound
go ahead and push the sound
push it right up through the ground
rolling down
BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON I
DROVE MY CAR
By the waters of Babylon I drove my car
with you beside me
it was not far
you traced the map-roads with the edge of a knife
by the waters of Babylong
I lost your life
By the watb ers of Babylon a-headed west
you told me stories that had no sense
I looked at your sweet lips
that spoke once so fine
by the waters of Babylon
I lost your mind
down through the windshield
on a ray of sun
the crows swept down
and it was done
I looked in the darkness
where their beaks had pried
by the waters of Babylon
I lost your eyes
by the waters of Babylon
that car broke down
I laid you out upon the ground
dust covered you over
the car still won't start
by the waters of Babylon
I lost your heart
MY PRIME
When I was in my prime
I fluourished like a vine
I came upon a false young man
who stole the heart of mine
In June the red rose bloomed
that's not the flower for me
for I would pluck that red rose off
and plant me a willow tree
and that willow tree shall weep
and that willow tree shall whine
I wish I was in that young man's arms
who stole the heart of mine
if I'm spared for one year more
and God should grant me grace
I'll weep a bowl of crystal tears
to wash his deceitful face
TRYING NOT TO DISAPPEAR
while the son is sinking down
I'm gonna try not to fall in the water
edging this town
I'm standing here
at the end of a lonely pier
where ships don't dock no more, my dear
just trying not to disappear
trail my fingers along the wood
ain't nobody standing right there
where you once stood
last time the setting sun sat at your back
now that board's got a great big crack
where you've gone
no-one comes back
well, I'm coming soon so just relax
I'm standing here at the end of a lonely pier
where ships don't dock no more my dear
trying not to disappear
now who'll remember I was here
please remember I was here
GUTTER BROKE
the gutter broke
the rain washed down
in a sheet across the window
her kids were sleeping in the booth
she stared him down
he stared her up
his saucer filling
from his spilling cup
'you speak to me boy I wanna hear the truth'
a bleach job flashing roots
while the brake-lights backed up to her face
washed in red from screaming brakes
he missed his brake in a mistake, boys
but she never breaks her gaze
'woman someone's waiting up for you
he loves you and just look at your kids'
'you don't talk to me about my kids don't you talk to me'
well I could load them up behind the seat
rock 'em in the engines heat
with these rumble-lullabies that I find sweet
go chicago up to buffalo
right down through new orleans moving kind of slow
but slick as sweat that grease all these guys inside you
don't you know oh don't you know'
she pets her children in face
black fingerprints left in her wake
her mouth keeps moving
but there ain
't a word that I can hear her say
just 'what's gonna happen to me
what's gonna happen to me
what's gonna happen to me
to me to me to me'
the night keeps yawning in the south
something walking in her mouth
disappearing in the yaw
take this bone out of my jaw
a white line painted down her back
her children catching in the cracks
while every truck rocks down her night
down her night
the dream and light
turn til they're turning inside out
turning down the devil's route
like turning chambers in a gun
turn to a full or empty one
look mama's here look mama's gone
looky mama
looky mama
looky mama
looky what you done
this is a story about a man named Joe
whose eyes said yes
but whose head kept shaking no
kept shaking
it kept shaking
he wants to sleep but her eyes are waking
'take my clothes girl take my money
you knew he was mine you knew he was funny'
ah but that poor boy does know
that her sleeping kids will not wake up
that she's drinking from an endless cup
the fork keeps moving to her mouth
but never never will she sup
'what's gonna happen to me'
'ah girl it done happened'
'boy you tell me the truth'
'you know the truth"
"I said tell me the truth"
'girl you know the truth'
'I said tell me the truth'
SHOTGUN
riding shotgun on the riverboat
watching eddies watching trees
in the water something floats
turns a drowning face to see
puts its rotting stare on me
and then he sleeps on by the bough
and there's a man who points his rifle out at me
between the branches his barrel
aiming through the reeds
the brambles on the bank
is the hair that's on his chest
hold my face against his belly
and I will get to rest
moonlight on my rifle glows
I am sweating in my clothes
or maybe just starting to bleed
gunpowder in my throat
I've been poised since I don't know
I still feel his spit on me
and there's a man who points his rifle out at me
between the branches his barrel
aiming through the reeds
the brambles on the bank
is the hair that's on his chest
hold my face against his belly
and I will get to rest
JACOB'S LADDER
the camera cut a second out of time
one light flashed then walked out of your eye
close the door on the people in the hall
in this jewel lives a flaw
and I've been walking almost empty piers
where figures wheel and bend and disappear
close the door on the people in the hall
in this jewel lives a flaw
where I can see everything
distort and sing
through your twisting eye
as it goes dry
while the wood in windows
cuts your face up into squares of black and white
through the long heedless night
you can say I'm wrong
you can be right this time
right over the county line
to a county that's not dry
and how my car would fly
sweet saint J&B
pour a blanket, cover me
singing 'jesus 'fore I'll be a slave
my body set me free"
still the heat inside these walls
cool the veins inside my head
something steadies something falls
something whispers something
that he said
but softer than he said
much softer
everything is whispering
in traffic in the streets
refrains, repeats
residing somewhere folded up so lightly
turning in the sheets
through the long heedless night
you can say I'm wrong
you can be right this time
right over the county line
to a county that's not dry
and how my car would fly
ticking
winding
shuffling
we are climbing
jacob's ladder
I'm gonna sit down on that golden golden throne
but not just now
LEBANON (from Ecclesiastes)
let them bring it forth
let them show us what will happen
let them show the former things
show the things that are to come
that we may know if you are god
do good do evil
that we may be dismayed
but you are nothing
and your work is nothing
an abomination
is he who chooses
you
but I have raised up one
from the north
and he shall come
with the rising of the sun
to open up the blind eyes
to bring the prisoners out of the prison houses
and them that sit in darkness
I have a long time holden my peace
I have been still and refrained myself
now I'll cry
I will destroy
and devour at once
lebanon
is not sufficient
for burning
this is a people robbed and spoiled
we are all of us snared in holes
we are hid in prison houses
we are for a prey and none delivereth
for a spoil and nobody says
restore
|
|
|
|
|
|