Girlyman - Lyrics

Lyrics

Amaze Me
Angel
Ashen Shade
Best I Could
Bird on the Wire
Break Me Slow
Caroline
Carols at Christmas
Commander
Could Have Guessed
David
Easy Bake Ovens
Easy Pearls
Empire of Our State
Even If
Everything's Easy
Fall Stories
Genevieve
Good Enough
Hey Rose
Hold It All At Bay
House Song
Hudson
I Know Where You Are
I Wonder Where You Have Gone
Invite Me In
Joyful Sign
Kittery Tide
Long Time Gone
Maori
Michelangelo
Montpelier
My Eyes Get Misty
No Matter What I Do
Nothing Called Home
Nothing Left
On the Air
Postcards From Mexico
Reva Thereafter
Right Here
Say Goodbye
See to See
Serve It Up
Soldiers
Somewhere Different Now
Soul of You
Speechless
St. Augustine
St. Peter's Bones
Storms Were Mine
Sunday Morning Bird
Superior
Supernova
Tell Me There's A Reason
The Person You Want
The Shape I Found You In
This is Me
Through to Sunrise
Trees Still Bend
True Enough
Up to the Sea
Viola
Wherever You Keep
You Were the Lie
Young James Dean

Amaze Me

New Jersey born, yeah
The flat land of Nebraska
From Decatur, Georgia
To California

Let's dig up the map and
Let's leave while we're happy
I wanna see Tucson
Before it's all gone

Chorus:
Amaze me, America
Save me from armageddon
High road to heaven

Eight hours at the airport
Wanna hightail to Gulfport
Wanna sit on the back porch
And stare at the stars

From the chemical water
Of new york's dirty harbor
To the rock of gibraltar
At the end of the world

Chorus

Let's dive to Atlantis
Let's hear what they'd tell us
From the bottom of the ocean
I really want to know them

Chorus

Angel

Angel, touch down your flutter wings
No cure just relief it brings
Be still my suffering

Mixed up like colors, artist plate
Paint over every one of my mistakes
Spread me on canvas, so featherweight
I'm waiting here

CHORUS:
Cause somewhere in my bones I start to break
Somewhere in my dreams I'm still awake
Even though you drove that car away

There's only five miles to go A traffic jam, moving so slow
An accident, someone I don't know
Feels like it's me lying on the road

The air so heavy as I keep driving by
The ambulance lighting up the sky
I'm crashing into somebody else inside
That I don't know

CHORUS

Last night I dreamed you picked me up
With the top rolled down and we drove up a hundred flights of stairs
The view up there was angels

With both feet down on the ground
Sometimes the world feels like a lost and found
Everyone's searching and looking around
It's all right here

CHORUS

Ashen Shade

There goes that old postman
Riding on his bike
He's got a bag full of phone bills
And nothing to justify

CHORUS:
I'm as naked as a winter tree
With promises remote
Wish I could fly away above the ashen shade
Observe the world below

Once I had a calling
This town praised my hands
Now I'm sculpting apologies
Cause folks they don't understand

CHORUS

I could change myself
There's so much else I could do
Except I always knew
I was deeper than dailyness
I was made to be manifest
The art like an amethyst of truth

I know, it's only too clear
Spiders spin their webs year after year
I never had that kind of resolve
To know my fear, to face it at all

CHORUS

Best I Could

I am just a girl who loves to eat and drink the world
And so it's no surprise your pumpkin hair would catch my eye

But don't that breeze feel good?
I just did the best I could

Fresh warm loaf of bread, we ate it hot one day in bed
Burn the Hoppin' John when we forgot the stove was on

But don't that breeze feel good?
I just did the best I could

Coffee keeps me up, I always drank it from your cup
The strongest Southern tea was not enough for you or me

But don't that breeze feel good?
I just did the best I could

Lying up awake, your skin so white, angel food cake
The sweetest lemonade was still too tart, I couldn't stay

But don't that breeze feel good?
I just did the best I could

Bird on the Wire

There goes that damn bird on my fencepost
She cries, she cries, "do you know, do you know?"
Well yeah, it's apparent she's gone and there she'll stay
No phone call or a sign
Of a note, of a note

Chorus: she looked at me so seriously
I could've sworn that love was in her eyes
But now she's gone and I'm singing this song
To a lonely random bird on the wire

She always was the type who thought love was a chore
No matter what she had, she wanted more, she wanted more
And even as I breathed her in and felt her skin so tight
I never seemed to fit her right
And she found the door, she found the door

Chorus

Don't ask me what it is about the girls who play hard to get
She swore eternally that she loved me
I never want to counter that

Chorus

Break Me Slow

Build me a home on the Gulf Coast
Where lightning lights up all the life boats
And beds float away just like freed ghosts
When the hurricanes come to call
I've got bricks still to lay of my own fate
Like cards that you weigh under tables
I never could have my hand both ways
So the winner takes it all

Lay my body low
Save me once then let me go
I'll pay every cent that I owe
Just break me slow

Give me a farm on the west coast
Where blackberries climb over fence posts
And barefoot and breezy on back roads
And water turns to wine
Well over and out, I've got to forge
Can't sing one more note of this ragged score
I've run out of scraps for the very poor
Scratching at my mind

Lay my sins down low
Burn me once, now let me go
I'll reap every trouble I sow
Just break me, break me slow

So find me a field on the flood plain
Where storm chasers drive into dark rain
And lay me down flat in the cornrows
As a sound like a freight train grows

Lay this burden low
You told me once, now I should know
I'll shoulder each debt that I owe
Just break me, break me slow

Caroline

Caroline, in the late September sun
You blew my mind, when I thought love was good and done
The Sable River, the shiver no one could have seen
My heart was bursting at the seams
Oh, Caroline

Caroline, I thought she'd give me all I need
I dug the lines and scattered every little seed
Not a blossom, the clouds hugged every drop of rain
Love dried up and left again
Oh, Caroline

Sleep keeps sneaking out the open door
Here's my suitcase splattered on the floor
The kitchen clock has stopped, just short of four

Caroline, did I meet you once before?
By the banks where birds went shelling by the shore
I took a picture, you were merciful in dreams
I couldn't capture what you mean
Oh Caroline

Carols at Christmas

A cold crash of metal and gears
Grip the wheel as I sit right here
Did she get away, a ghost of a deer
Am I in this all alone?

Well I'm nine, singing carols at Christmas
I am trying to make sense of your tenses
I know a word but not the rest of your sentence
There is nothing I can do
Because I don't understand you

Always felt like I was walking a maze
No one told me to go right or left
Blue or red, what colors disguise me
So I look like all the rest?

chorus

Your eyes never change their watchful gaze on the T.V. set
They're already a day ahead in the east
Can an island mean more than me?
Well there you are, standing with people like you
It seems I've never seen you laugh like you do
I count the ways I could have been more like you

chorus

Commander

Was it all there before you in a dream
Was it something that only you could see
Was it gold, or even better
Was it weapons-grade metal
Or a glimpse of your god?
Was it whispered right into the bones of your ears
Did you hear what you wanted to hear
Did they take you and make you believe it was clear
When they made you commander and you couldn't be it?

Well the women just didn't like your eyes
And the big boys they cut you down to size
When the war came you ran for your life
As your businesses dried
Were they all there before you just waiting in line
To include you in their crudest design?
You were bad fruit, they knew you wouldn't ripen on the vine
And they made you commander when you couldn't be it
You couldn't be it

As for Jesus, you never felt much, but you prayed
Cause you needed to believe that you could be saved

Now in private you don't cry but you have doubts
It's just better if you never let them out
Was it all there before you in a dream
Was it something that only you could see?
Cause it's right there before you when you close your eyes
You would kill it with a pill but it would still rise
It's the pain of a great love you cannot deny
And you may be commander but you don't believe it
You don't believe it
You don't believe it
You don't believe it

Could Have Guessed

There's so much I've seen since you last saw me
Sea to shining sea each year
All these vans and trains, single engine planes
The coast of Maine to Mount Rainier
And every car runs clean, full of gasoline
Still there's one place I can't go

CHORUS:
Maybe I could have guessed, maybe I should have known
You'd be my one regret that I could not let go

Haze of foggy nights, blaze of northern lights
Maybe everyone's the same
With a heavy weight and a whispered face
And a long unspoken name
Swept away by skies and everything that flies
It's hard enough to drive these roads

CHORUS

So is it wrong? Is it right?
Am I still out of line?
Can you hear me from here anyway?
What could I say?

Now all the open doors in the world are yours
I've sent all my guards away
I hear birds all night like something's just not right
And it can't wait for light of day
But if I tell the truth straight from me to you
Would you even want to know?

CHORUS

David

Well all the love we had was ours
Even in the nights with no stars
Even when the light had faded
There was still you and me, David

And you were all I had for sure
Even when I had much more
Even with my pockets weighted
It was just you and me, David

Cause my darling
In the evening
When my defense
Is receding
I can see you clearly like I did then

Well all the life we had was ours
Even with no kids and no yard
Closing up the store we opened
On that day when all the streets were frozen

Cause my darling
In the morning
Before sunrise
Gave its warning
I could feel you fading from me then

But all the love we had was ours
Even on the nights with no stars
Even when the light had faded
There was still you and me, David

Easy Bake Ovens

You were throwing your shoes right up over the wire
You were rolling out Easy Bake Ovens and tires
Another whole day on the Bucks County plain
Clouds rolling in, it's feeling like rain
Back in the yards and the woods by the pool
The leaves were on fire when I came home from school
Singing a song that I wrote in myself
Singing that I could be something else

You were throwing your shoes right up over the wire
I was sitting there watching on half-buried tires
Scratching on sidewalks with fingers and stone
Waiting for time, feeling alone
Taking out pins in the cushions inside
The rain falling down on the telephone wire
Falling farther and farther away

Those were the days of the model airplanes
Shooting up rockets for neighborhood fame
You on the ground, the remote in your hand
I was sinking on down, my feet in the sand
The rock and roll babysitter's tales
Of nights with the boys running off of the rails
They'd spend the whole night on abandoned farms
Burning up in each other's arms

You were throwing your shoes right up over the wire
You were setting those Easy Bake Ovens on fire
I was carving my name on a chalkboard with nails
Waiting for somebody else to be there
Outside, the dim suburban homes
With their lawns full of ashtrays and their buckets of phones
Ringing off mothers in houses all day

Back then we had to be cool
But nobody taught me the rules
So I just wrote it all down
On the inside of my fast food paperboard crown
Riding bikes before I learned about brakes
Around and around those cul-de-sac lanes
The teens rolling by in their giant green cars
Driving like rain, they were kissing like stars

You were throwing your shoes right up over the wire
You were building those Tinkertoy castle empires
Melting your crayons over tables of flame
I was feeling alone, I was feeling insane
Dad took a picture on August the nine
Of us with the newspaper and the headline
'Ford Steps Up; Nixon Resigns'

Easy Pearls

Maybe I just refuse to be here for you
Maybe that's who I am underneath my official plan

We dive for easy pearls and leave the rest forgotten
We leave the best of worlds on the bottom

I can be frozen, I'm no salt water lake
Maybe I'm broken, can't be blamed for my mistakes
Maybe I'm cruel just like I seem to be
How I can't stand to see you in front of me
Maybe I'm just a child who needs to throw a fit
Maybe I'm mad and wild underneath all I try to fit

We dive for easy pearls and leave the rest forgotten
We leave the darkest worlds on the bottom

I recognize the way you hide your pain
Asking me questions you don't really mean
Maybe I pull against the way you lean
Into the things I say, I'll give you less that way
Or maybe I just refuse to be here for you
Maybe that's who I am underneath my official plan

We dive for easy pearls and leave the rest forgotten
We leave the best of worlds on the bottom

Empire of Our State

Hey, I guess I never really ever could say
That I saw it coming
But when you push a feeling far away
Still your body's humming
And I held it in
Long as I could then
But now all that's changing

So, I guess you never truly ever can know
Where on earth you're heading
You just barrel on down that road
Til that road starts bending
Here we are again
Not a bitter end
But the end of something

Hey, I'm gonna whisper these words right into your sleeve
Gonna open up a portal from you back to me
Gonna take it all the way from the back of our bay
To the top of the empire of our state

Well, I guess I know a thing or two about hell
It's when you lose your fire
You go back to the same old well
Without the same desire
I've been treading earth
From the time of birth
You can't stop this turning

Hey, I'm gonna whisper these words right into your sleeve
Gonna open up a portal from you back to me
Gonna take it all the way from the back of our bay
To the top of the empire of our state

So gee, I guess anyone could've been me
Staring at my reflection
Wanting just a little bit of relief
From my self-deception
There's no more I can run
This is how it's done
You just start all over

Hey, I'm gonna whisper these words right into your sleeve
Gonna open up a portal from you back to me
Gonna take it all the way from the back of our bay
To the top of the empire of our state

Even If

She never has time to inspect her surroundings
It's touch and go with everything
It's never enough to be sitting with nothing
She's never too tired to run

Chorus:
And even if she had her way
She'd be seeking out another
She'll be half asleep during the day
And sleepless every other

Close the door
Feeling trapped in her living
She rushes into activity
Turn the page, see the line drawn through the days
Wherein lies life's ecstasy?

Chorus

She reaches for a piece of silver
Hoping gold is just beneath the surface
I tell her color is way overrated
She shakes her head

Chorus

Everything's Easy

It's cloudy today but no rain came
I sat and waited outside
The trees in the wind were all shaking
But the storms pass us by

So I turned on the news for an hour
And Matt Lauer was shaking his head
He said that the oceans are rising
So put your children to bed

Still on most days, I hear myself say
Everything's easy
But you never know, wherever I go
Is a way

A rocking chair, a cinnamon pear
Look up in the air, You're a millionaire
And if I could be anywhere I could be
I'd be anywhere

Because my life is only mine to hold
The nights are cold, and it's snowing
In Vermont, but all that I want is here
In the clear light of the streetlight

Still on most days, I hear myself say
Everything's easy
But you never know, wherever I go
Is a way

I guess I was dreaming
The oceans were steaming
And when I started to wake up
I dreamed Derek Jeter
At bat with St. Peter
He hit a home run, and Jesus won
The pennant and cup

Fall Stories

On the roof, underneath the lines of planes,
Their landing lights turning the sky
All red and green
Playing it cool,
Not calling

It's as though I don't care for
The unbroken surface of the water
The sound of your voice
When you stop talking

September's still Summer, but the nights are like Fall.
Tell me your Fall Stories,
Every time you broke your heart.
Your love comes out your hands.
It all comes out of your hands.
Make me remember who I am.

It always felt like a tunnel,
Everything was so small.
The angels hung around you
In the back seat of your car.

Traffic and watching,
My arm over you breathing,
Just turn around and let me.
Just turn around and let me.

September's still Summer, but the night's are like Fall.
Tell me your Fall Stories,
Every time you broke your heart.
Your love comes out your hands.
It all comes out of your hands.
Make me remember who I am.

Your love comes out your hands.
It all comes out of your hands.
Make me remember who I am.

Genevieve

All last night it stormed
Woke me up at two, three, and four
I reached out for you
Genevieve it's true, I have no doubt
I've worked this one out

Flooded all the snails
Left them without shells
Naked on the road, nowhere left to go
I'd have no home if you left me alone

And I can't be good
I can't see far
I just watch the fog burn off the water

Canada in June
I can't help but sing this tune
Buoys out on the bay
It's my birthday
Boats pull in their traps
Anything they catch
Could be lobsters could be trash
Somehow I found you
Genevieve it's true, I have no doubt
I've worked this one out
I've worked this one out

Good Enough

Every time you look at me, I think, "It's not so bad, you see"
My heart still beats, time to lift the catch
And then another day goes out to sea, you close your mouth, you try to be
The brave one, the one who matters

And if I could fly or change the tides
Weather rocks into dust
Then I'd know why I was mystified
Cause baby, look what we've become

Somewhere back in time we made each other laugh
And I could see how that was good enough
You never read my mind but you could fill a gap so fine
And I loved the way you could make things up

chorus

No one makes the rules you see
You are in charge of destiny
Sympathy and wine is all you seem to want
And time to be a stranger to yourself
Rigidly I stand about to seize on what I am
Here's my existence, I'd put it on a shelf

chorus

Hey Rose

It's like any other day, Rose
You won't lose a thing, and no one else will ever know
You're wondering how to go
You're worried it'll show

Hey Rose, your heart grows with every opening
In time, you'll see why this is happening

The sky smells like water and the air tastes like steel
If you were a storm, this is how you would feel
Still and dark all night
With great flashes of light

Oh, it's not just me, Rose
There's nothing I can see that you don't already know
The light is kind of rough
But I could turn it off

Hey Rose, your world grows with every opportunity
Take this while you can, kiss me

Hey Rose, your love grows with every opening
In time, you'll see why this is happening

Hey Rose, your will grows with every opportunity
Take this while you can, kiss me.

Hold It All At Bay

When we arrive you still won't be there
You'll sleep through the drive and storm up the stairs
The sea breeze, it frees me
But you are like a gale wind, mad and unaware

You'll drive by and away, you're leaving today, I wish you were ok
Last night was just another night
It never seemed quite right to hold it all at bay

We could talk all night and still you'd feel this way
You can't hear my words, you have too much to say
I don't want a manhunt
Just let me have the kiss, she gave it to me straight

chorus

You love to walk the Appalachian Trail
You can feel your heart as smooth as a snail
The mountains, your darlings
But better to love than have something to scale

chorus

Jealousy's a drag, like wandering outside
October snow when the leaves all have died
Tomorrow may bring us thunder or sun
I'd do it all again, I'd do it by the ton
The memory, like candy
The sweet taste of love dissolving on my tongue

chorus

House Song

I don't hear wind up in the trees
Nothing stirs those ancient leaves
And I don't know what begins it, the growing of the vines
The deep descending patterns of the wrinkling of time
Like that little plastic flowerpot still sitting on the stairs
Holding a dead bougainvillea from last year's burst of repairs
And all of the fences we built then are still holding in the dogs
Of our love, of our love, of our love

Every old place, every old time
I thought I knew my haunted mind
Thought I picked through every longing a million years ago
At night I dream I'm flying down an endless open road
But our old Toyota is still frozen in the mud
How I begged you to leave it on the street during the flood
And how it sank further in the more we graveled and dug
Our love, our love, our love

Outside it's warm, the first of spring
The opening of everything
And this is what we wanted, a place to settle down
But nothing can prepare you for the gravity of ground
And our old foundation is so settled in its way
I've got less baby and less to say
And all the paint and rearranging never seems to stir the dust
Of our love, of our love, of our love

Hudson

It wasn't what we planned
But I let you hold my hand
We walked down to the place where rotting piers are stuck to land
And looking for the sea
That's how they'll always be
Sagging beams a still relief of possibility

For how long they've stood this strong
The ships and cruisers all are gone
You and I really tried
A better we that we could be was stuck inside
From where we stand against this railing
Jersey seemed just like a dream we only imagined

This sediment was never meant
To hold these trucks and thick cement
One hundred billion metric tons
This city never will be done

And right beside our burdened land
There flows the Hudson, wide and grand
Into the blue, for me and you
It's false, it's true, it's planned
It's more than we can stand

I Know Where You Are

We always passed the Cogen plant at night
The towers and tanks all lit up like Christmas
As we crossed the still black water into Delaware
The blinking red sign said welcome, three dollars, pass with care
You were always asleep
Even when the car ground into second
And flooded with the smell of foggy river air

Chorus: I know where you are
I know where you are
And I wish that I could
Wish for you to
Come back home again

We hit the stretch south of Rehoboth
The Atlantic Ocean came into sight
There was nothing on the radio but old Joni Mitchell
And I said, 'lean your seat back, just close your eyes, and I'll drive'
I'll bring you home and carry your shit to the house
How else can I say this?
I never really tried
I was always afraid that the world would end in ice

Chorus

We were careless and mistaken
To drive so far at night
There's so much we never could see past the headlights
We could have passed through the beautiful country and never even known it
We could have passed through the beautiful country and never even known it

Chorus

I Wonder Where You Have Gone

It's been a long time, friend
Since we've said much and then some
Sometimes I feel just fine
There are days I shrug
I think it's not meant at all
And I put down that pen and sigh

Chorus: you caught me by surprise
With that look in your eyes
And I wonder where you have gone
You have not kept me apprised
Of the tales of your life
And I wonder where you have gone

We lit up the night
But a spark's not a candle
It's as bright as a star's dying tears
When you looked at me
I saw more than just moonlight
I believed every word, every fear

Chorus

Now the wind's picked up
And the trees they are a-heavin'
Do you think that I'm to blame?
You could not bear
To wallow in this despair
You said I tried to make you change

Chorus

Invite Me In

You went to France and bought me a wallet
Now you won't absolve it, I'm indebted
Now what were you saying with that kid's book you laid on me
When I turned thirty, called People Get Mad

But in me, I can't be the high and mighty
Alone, unrested, no light to guide me
You loved me back then, but you will not invite me in again

We took a walk, seventy city blocks
Held hands, burned up the clock, felt like no time at all
You saw something in a window, stepped inside and I watched you go
But nothing's still nothing no matter how you divide

Now time is to batting like pain is to memory
My words all come back saying why did you send me
You heard me back then, but you will never hear me out again

Baby, I should know when I'm drinking
Everything that I'm thinking, everything that I am
The blistering wind takes the skin right off me
But it's just me and coffee in the morning again

Way deep inside me is a room full of butterflies
Frantically flying in an old wing of the museum
Deep blue and orange like the sunrise that morning
With you breathing beside me and the whine of the dogs

Sorry's a word without grace or vision
Pacing around like a crow or a pigeon
You threw more than crumbs, but you will not invite me in again

Joyful Sign

One, two, three, and four weeks of nothing more since you've been here
I can't move on, there's something wrong when people disappear
Sometimes I see you, wouldn't wanna be you, you're like the sun
You rise and shine, but you're not mine, you shine on everyone
We all hold on, but when we go, we'll be gone

Sometimes leaving is a joyful sign
Like a little child singing, "This little light of mine
Gonna let it shine, let it shine"

Back when we drank wine I'd look for signs that you were lying
A stitch in time could have saved nine if I had just been strong
I didn't have the will back then, I was like a child, maybe five or ten
Of mice and men, I'd say amen, and sing your praise in song
"All my songs shall be nearer my love to thee"

chorus

Ten margaritas in Encinitas, there is no end
You sent a word, now I am stirred all up again
When you move into motion, the Atlantic Ocean cannot compare
My heart's out there, but I don't care, I'll throw it anywhere
We all hold on, but when we go, we'll be gone

chorus

Kittery Tide

There are times when I want to pick up and say goodbye
To the oldest friends I've known
Jump in the car with no street map
No long sleeve shirts or shoes to pack
Just the sound of you and my guitar

Chorus: I can't wait 'til the day
You come running to say
Those summer nights are here to stay
We can run far away
Not tell a soul for a day
Carry me, oh freedom's delight

'cause I've spent times locked in grooves
Trapped in mama's old black shoes
Or my papa's, folks' and friends'
Always wanted a way just to have my own say
And walk the untrod path 'til the end

Chorus

As the map tore in two
I swore and vented like a fool
Watching miles tick, road signs fly
But I was running from myself
There was no one else
Who could know that better than I

Chorus

As the light changed to red
I wrapped the scarf tight round my head
I was cold as the Kittery tide
There was not much more to see
So I turned back quietly
And crossed back to the other side

Chorus

Long Time Gone

When I look around for anything familiar
Even my reflection shows another face
Even my voice singing sounds out of place

Every lie that I believed when I was little
Every thought that I was selfish, I was bad
Now they gather round me, all that I have

I'm a long time gone
The calendar carried along
No one could see me and no one could save me
From my own song
When it all comes home
Living this life all alone
No one to care for me, nothing is fair
It's a climb up the stairs to a place unknown

Now I pull the shades down, nothing more to see here
Just a lonely girl who thought she had more time
Just don't leave me here, don't leave me behind

So tell me if you know
Is this my time to go?
I've just begun this drive on the open road

Maori

When I first met you, I said
"My God, get away.
You smell like fish heads."
And you followed me around all day.
While you were smitten with me,
I tried to get away.

You would dream of the ocean,
Waves from the Aleutians crashing on the shore
And you'd dream of the Maori,
Alive in the South Sea.

As a child on the island, you'd doze,
As the light of the moon reflected off your toes.
And the wind off the water felt warm
In the calm of the night that came before the storm

You would dream of the ocean,
Waves from the Aleutians crashing on the shore
And you'd dream of the Maori,
Alive in the South Sea.

You always said that you'd be fine.
There's no predicting what could happen in a lifetime.
Maybe you've just lost your mind.
Well, there's a lot to be said for what's been left behind.

You just dream of the ocean,
Waves from the Aleutians crashing on the shore
And you'd dream of the Maori,
Alive in the South Sea.

And you'd dream of the Maori,
Alive in the South Sea.

Michelangelo

Down at the bar, you sit far from everyone
Writing poems on your jeans
On the inside seams
Dropping cherries like bombs into your beer
Nowhere left to be but here
You never could see it clearly

So what do you want?
Do you want to let the world destroy you?
Or write down the names of every person who ignored you?
Your mom and your dad never knew what they had
So how could you know you were Michelangelo?

Up all night, the morning light, surprising through the door
You're still lying on the floor
Writing words into the boards
She changed, she got sick after the war
And she never did come back
So many ways the odds are stacked against you

chorus

Money here, money there, some people know your name
Just a little taste of fame
Like hair caught in the drain
You're a genius now, you're insane
You may be different or the same
But there something in your heart
Feels like love, feels like pain

chorus

Montpelier

Driving alone on this North Country road
In the middle of the day,
Hundreds have died where I now ride
on the highway.

The car is slipping on the road in the rain,
And this slips through my brain:
Five stars, Eisenhower,
And Montpelier is three miles away

I woke up in the night, and I couldn't sit still,
So I got in the car and left town.
I was hoping to see the sun rise over me,
But instead, the rain kept coming down.

The car is slipping on the road in the rain,
And this slips through my brain:
Five stars, Eisenhower,
And Montpelier is three miles away

You were riding alone on a paved city road
In the middle of the day,
When a truck turning wide struck your blind side,
And dying, there you lay.

The car is slipping on the road in the rain,
And this slips through my brain:
Five stars, Eisenhower,
And Montpelier is three miles away

My Eyes Get Misty

My eyes get misty when you don't kiss me
Whenever you are near
I shut my eyes and hope I'll disappear
But I dare not shed a tear

My eyes get misty
Why don't you miss me?
Why are you doing just fine?
For when my heart is drunk on more than wine
I always seem to lose my spine

My eyes get misty
Love has missed me
Love has shined on you so fair
It might be risky to talk to you again
But if you're frisky I would not care

My eyes get misty when you don't kiss me
Whenever you are near
I shut my eyes and hope I'll disappear
But I dare not shed a tear

My eyes get misty
Agatha Christie had no mystery that could compare
It's just a tryst, we
Will have to let it go
My eyes get misty when you're not there

No Matter What I Do

I had a dream, maybe you could tell me what it means
Maybe you know the secrets that I cannot see
Now that you're gone, I stayed up all night until the dawn
I lay up just thinking about the way you turn me on

It's like I never felt before
Everything's changed and now is more
But still there's the thought, it's all for naught, it won't come true
I keep it all locked inside my chest
Like feeling like shit is for the best
Like feeling the earth still turn no matter what I do

There's got to be more than manning the ship, minding the store
Leaving the office early, getting home by four
That's what I'd do every day til I met you
I guess in a way it was the best that I could do

Stop – one, two, three
Flying across the whole country
And see all the ways
All of it plays out so nicely

I had a dream, maybe you could tell me what it means
The world it was ending, sending me into the blue
The stars went away, the sky was a blackened ball of grey
Nothing to say, I sat and waited there for you

Nothing Called Home

You sit and watch the ocean blue
The colors stare right back at you
There's love pulsing underneath that sea
There's salt dusting painted benches
Planks of deck and rusted wrenches
Nature wants to taste this life
The one you spit out every time

CHORUS:
Do you think there's nowhere to go
Nothing called home
Nowhere that you'd rather be
Let it go, oh let it alone
Someday you'll find what you need

You kept the light inside you bright
But shielded it as careful as a candle on a cold and rainy night
You pushed away the oneswho loved you
But held them high, right above you
Caring more what we would think
Offering us the first drink

CHORUS

Most of all your sweaters packed away moved with you
Though none of them got worn anyway
You think you're leaving everything behind
But no matter where you are
You are there, you're the star

Snow covers every corner
Every fountain, every border
Paving ancient roads and antique signs
Most of what I know about you are memories, now far from truth
We melt away our circumstance
We all deserve a second chance

CHORUS

Nothing Left

I woke up fast when the call came
I knew I'd never be the same
Another time I would have cried
But as it was I felt too shy

But something there still holds my eye
There's nothing left for me to write
No reason to fight or even ask why

I've been around, I've seen it all
The love that blooms before the fall
The gardens wild with all the love
Til the end came from high above

But something there still holds my eye
There's nothing left for me to write
No reason to fight or even ask why

It all seems true
If you know it's there
I needed you

And hope it comes
From where you are
I've seen it in a morning star
I've seen a chance to say amen
To just let go and start again

But something there still holds my eye
There's nothing left for me to write
No reason to fight or even ask why

On the Air

Would you order on demand
From the disembodied hand
From the moving lights up in the sky?
'Cause there was a time you know
When I had my own live show
It was improvised for the camera's eye
It was made up in the ring
Back when Bob Hope was king
Back when every choice felt right
Back when life was black and white

Chorus: now there's one thing I regret
How I wish I didn't care
How I wish I could forget
That I was someone then when we were on the air

It was June of '55
I walked out when we were live
Cause I knew I was made for bigger screens than just
That small time comedy, just a half hour parody
It was cinema marquees for me or bust
We were heroes with a plan
Back before the laughs were canned
Back before the double bed
When the carpets all were red

Chorus

Maybe at the traffic light
When I see that big white sign
Just by chance in my rearview mirror
Well I don't know what it means
But I know it's not the screen
It's my own routine and I'm the antihero
But I used to be number one back before the reruns
Back when every choice felt right
Back when life was black and white

Chorus

Postcards From Mexico

When you slammed through my life
Like a screen door in a hurricane wind,
All I could think was how to find you again.
But Route 80 was snowed under,
And the roads to the canyon were closed.
For our safety, I suppose.

The sound of your voice is like longing feels
When you whispered my name in the dark.
And the thick yellow Brooklyn
Night sky through the window
Burned itself into me,
Deep as my history.

Baby,
You're great on the highway.
You know how to make an escape.
(This desperation
To pack up and move on and see)
(You're cold hearted.
You're lonesome and shady.)
You leave us crying over postcards from Mexico
Baby, you're never far enough away.

Everyone always loves you
When you're on your way out the door.
Everybody needs you and begs you to stay.
Guess I learned something from you,
And the way you stared right through me.

Baby,
You're great on the highway.
Baby,
You're great on the highway.
You know how to make an escape.
(This desperation
To pack up and move on and see)
(You're cold hearted.
You're lonesome and shady.)
You leave us crying over postcards from Mexico
Baby, you're never far enough away.

You leave us crying over postcards from Mexico
Baby, you're never far enough away.

Reva Thereafter

You were the mother who said to her child, "You bring it up slowly"
All of these buoys, they mark the traps, and you were the only
Woman for fifty miles who could lift something like that
You'd cook them up in seawater soon as you got back

Reva, thereafter
Up to the rafters
Up through the plaster
Up through the highest beams, I will
Sing of your wonder
In a voice like thunder
Sometimes your heart bursts at its seams

The sound of a nighttime passing train wakes me from a slumber
The creeping of time keeps me awake, won't let me go under
But sometimes forgetting is all you need to get some sleep
Why have you left here, and what does it mean for me?

chorus

You wrote the letters one by one into the setting of the sun
Tell me, what was it like to send yourself into the light that night?

chorus

Right Here

I've seen the way you love, I know you like the build up of a mystery
I can't be that for you, I'm always gonna lose at games of hide and seek

But I will be right here, I will be right here
Right behind the door, where I left my love before
I will be right here, I will be right here

I know about rapture, the feeling that you've captured what you'll never own
With you I felt alive, sometimes too drunk to drive my sorry self back home

So see it like it is, take it like it is
Right inside the room where I always wait for you
I will be right here, I will be right here

I guess I'm just no needle in the haystack, no diamond in the rough
The clock above me ticks another hour
I'm driven by some power to just give you my love

Nighttime falls again, the corners settle in, I want to call to you
Cause everybody knows, the truth of letting go is that you never do

I will be right here, I will be right here
Right behind the door, where I left my love before
I will be right here, I will be right here

Say Goodbye

It's a simple day outside.
The sun is the only thing shining,
Not a cloud in the sky.
No hint of you.

I will always regret
Never hearing your best secrets.
And your mind with all its witty jokes,
Your hand restless, reaching for another smoke.

Can you see how I miss you so?
Can't believe your wanting to go,
'Cause I just don't know how to make myself
Let you go.

And I still can't seem to find
A simple way to say goodbye.
I'm not the kind for regret.
Was there something I wanted to forget?
Either way you'd already made up your mind.

It's a matter of faith.
Shut your eyes and believe that it will take.
Though it's hard with these doubts, I know with no doubt,
That you're resting somewhere great.

Can you see how I miss you so?
Can't believe your wanting to go,
'Cause I just don't know how to make myself
Let you go.

And I still can't seem to find
A simple way to say goodbye.
I'm not the kind for regret.
Was there something I wanted to forget?
Either way you'd already made up your mind.

See to See

Maybe I'm fading, and everyone knows it
Just like I'm a ghost at the end of my rope
With my better days calling, dust in my taillights
Waking on cold nights, looking for blankets
With no one to thank but my sorry eyes

I look in the mirror, and can't quite remember
If I'm any nearer than I appear or
If I'm just a user, a moth in a sweater drawer
Eating one thing then eating more
Then dying off into the source of light

Now mama I'm trying, please believe
That everything's coming at, coming at me
And I can't see to see

It's the best that I can be, off in my sandbox
Alone with my own thoughts, firing my own shots
Firing like a blind man kicking up dirt
Down in the trenches, can't know who I've hurt
But I've got no damn shirt to lose anymore

In my last nightmare, was me who was running
From everyone's words like the tip of a gun
Pointing in anger, what can be done
But to take it a day and a day as they come
Not to worry what heaven might have in store

Now mama I'm trying, please believe
That everything's coming at, coming at me
And I can't see to see

I used to be someone asleep in my own bed
At home in my own head, well versed, well fed
Now I'm alone, just a dog in a dog bed
No one alive here to tell me that I'm not dead
No one to turn to and say goodnight

Now mama I'm trying, please believe
That everything's coming at, coming at me
And I can't see to see

Serve It Up

There's a place that you always invite me
And when I get there I feel like there's no hiding
So I pull the covers over my head
I tell you stories but they're best left unsaid

You write me letters even though we let it end
You say you want me back, you miss me as a friend
So every time I think there's something more to your excuses
You prove me wrong and suddenly I blow just like a fuse does

Dig into this meal that you've created
Eliminate the flavors of your past
The good taste accentuated
Serve it up at last

Stop asking me to help you find your way
I gave you all of my maps and let you stay
And now you tell me you're too tired to drive
You lean your head as I swerve out on 95

chorus

You're so small you can't see what's on the other side
You act so tall but I'm the one who's pulling higher and higher

Stop repeating the things that I'm saying
Let me know when you have quieted your craving
I've had enough and I am tired of remaining silent
The wooden gate has finally splintered and the water's violent

chorus

Soldiers

At the embassy in Saigon
Burning papers on the lawn
Our great escape was grand
Sleight of hand and we got away
The soldiers fight today
Far away
In a land far away

In Panama we checked our notes
Children and goats got in our way
So finally we pushed on through
And yes, we blew them all away
The soldiers fight today
Far away
In a land far away

Tell me, tell me
Will it hold the hounds at bay?
Is brute force our course
Or is it bound to fade away?

If murder's all the same
By any name you choose to say
Then freedom's purchased with a gun
Number one in the U.S.A.
The soldiers fight today
Far away
In a land far away

Somewhere Different Now

I took a long drive by the church and the high dive
Past the riverbank hillside, where we looked at the clouds
I believe in the big god, and the multitude of love
And the fact that it's just us helping each other out

Now I've just been reeling, staring up at my ceiling
Wishing someone would reach out, come and bust up my hideout
I'm not quite lost, not quite found
Just somewhere different now

I went walking past the corner lot, teeming
With weeds and trailers abandoned, people wandering around
I've been dreaming of gardens, crops that grow without dusting
In the San Rafael highlands, where we listened to bugs sing

Now I don't mind saying, I believe in the waiting
In the visions of grandeur, and the random encounter
I'm not on fire, not burned out
Just somewhere different now

Woke up this morning with a familiar feeling
Like the angels were crying 'stead of their normal flying
When did you get so certain, boldly draw back your curtains
Lightning strikes in the tall place, water flows to the street grates

Now I look in the mirror, can't abide what I see there
Still I'll play you a strong hand, what remains of a good plan
It's not quite gone, but it's not around
Must be somewhere different now

Now I caught a red light past the coffeeshop Starlight
And plastic Christmas adornments someone left on the pavement
Just to drive feels like passion, just to let the wheels roll on
Engine light keeps on flashing, don't know what has gone wrong

Now I keep believing, don't know if there's a reason
I search under the pillow for the crumbs in the willow
Cause they got me here, and I'm not sure how
But I'm somewhere different now

Soul of You

I know I have no right
I know I have no say
I know that you're not thinking about me
Anymore, anyway

So what was it we were
In that thin piece of time
Cause I was never yours
And you were never mine
And I don't really care, I'm fine

I wanted you to know
Before you up and go
Back to your pretty boys
Back to your pretty home

That you're a ray of god
Lighting up the dust in the Vatican
And I'm a secret stairway
Down to a place that light has never been
And we could be a soft amen

So you don't have to say
Cause I already know
There's nothing there to have
There's nothing here to hold

But now I'm leaning in
Let me whisper just one thing to you
I think that when you feel it
You ought to feel it all, the whole way through
Down to the very soul of you

Speechless

I don't know what is happening to me
I think my mind's finally come undone
The city's quiet and the hour is late
And I'm afraid to face my life alone

Chorus: And I don't know why
It's so hard to consider this
I've reached up so many times
To find my hands full of emptiness

There's been nothing to help me to sleep
I've got too much going on inside
I never thought someone could pull me in this deep
But now I find I'm losing this time

So many times I've been put aside
I was always second best
(through several tales of the past I've sailed)
But nothing's sweeter than to be picked from the vine
Like the treasure of a harvest
(but nothing hides when you cast them aside)
I have never been seen except in glimpses of my dreams
But you're waiting here in the wings and I'm speechless

Chorus

St. Augustine

Can I revise the page of November
When she left me behind that old hospital door?
We all have our stories, some are sad to remember
Some are maddening reminders of who we once were before

But tell me what you see
From high above the trees
The less that I want, the less to remind me
That everything wanted is just more to regret
Saint Augustine, will you lay your hands on me
And heal my head

Something unseen, something inside me
Twisted mad like a bull through my bones, seeing red
I walked all around, with a sword pointed toward me
Asking me if I choose to be alive or dead

St. Peter's Bones

Growing tired, barely walking
Walking over this sweet grave
Winds grew bolder, bruised my shoulder
Not much left to say

Sweet and spare now, holy sparrow
Singing softly outside
When it's colder, we'll feel older
Not much left to hide

Chorus:
We are breathing, we are seething
We are hardly underway
We have high hopes like the old popes
Even St. Peter's bones decay

In the old times, we made up rhymes
To sing ourselves to sleep at night
It was wild means, singing horse dreams
Did nothing wrong and nothing right

Chorus

Making wishes like wine
Losing sleep and losing time
Maybe silver or green
The world alive, the world unseen

Chorus

Storms Were Mine

I've been squinting at the sun
A ball of fire always on the run
But it's still burning when the clouds
Blanket, blanket

Spending time all on my own
And when I see you I still feel alone
And when I look back all I feel is
Anger, anger

CHORUS:
I am lost, you left me at sea
Tossed and turned 'round all of the time
Still the storms that battered me
Were mine

It's a wonder that I've grown
A yellowed plant, I've still got something to show
Leaves that beckon toward the sky
Praying, praying

And now all I feel is rage
It follows me when I get up on the stage
I even carry it when I'm
Sleeping, sleeping

CHORUS
I can't believe it could be
All mine, all mine
CHORUS

Sunday Morning Bird

Little Sunday morning bird yelling at me to wake up
Screaming at the top of its blue lungs, at the top of its blue lungs
Northern New Mexico feeling like the driest of dry land
Keeps that Rio grand

I've been wondering, wondering, waiting for you
Since the day you came through
Fare thee well, every day I do

You're that stretch of spaceship houses on the mesa past the bridge
So far off the grid
You're a score of a score inside of some great opera years gone by
You are given to goodbyes

chorus

Now and now and now I'm losing
Always chasing, always choosing you
In the car the car because you always go back to what you know
Feel that tailwind blow
Thursday Sunday morning thinking nothing's gonna get me to give up
Baby no such luck

chorus

Superior

There is no child that I loved better than the others
But I looked at one differently some days
Yeah Lou, you never acted like your brothers
Makes me wonder what your daddy would say
Back then, when the factories all were open
And the rent was not so difficult to pay
You said you would stay with me forever
'til Superior swept both of us away

Chorus: and that helicopter was green and grey
Like the sky that hangs over the lake
And I knew that you would fly one day for sure
'cause you were made for more

Ambition is what keeps you moving
When your heart wants to pull you back home
You gotta run when God makes you an offer
You gotta go if someone shows you how to go
But when I wake it takes a minute to remember
Why it's so quiet and still
Sometimes I can't tell one thing from the other
Your voice from the ringing of those bells

Chorus

When I look into the eyes of the angels from this porch
It's like the world's upside down
And winter, it's not really what it should be
Nothing sticks to the ground

Supernova

Could the archangels have ever dwelt
In the whispering Kuiper Belt
When the gasses all began to melt
And know their name?

It's like when everyone's up in my face
And I want to quit the human race
Find a quiet corner out in space
And stake my claim

Gone, the supernova's over - burned out
Everywhere I look for it I strike out

Now the gasses all begin to fade
Into a suborbital parade
Circling everyone who could have stayed
But would not dare

And the asteroids have all gone home
Gone to bed, they've all turned off their phones
Unto the cosmic dust from whence they've grown
They now repair

Gone, the supernova's over - burned out
Everywhere I look for it I strike out

So if you and I are all that's left
In a universe sad and bereft
Should I smile and say it's for the best
Or should I shout?

Gone, the supernova's over - burned out
Everywhere I look for it I strike out

Tell Me There's A Reason

Why should I be stunned when winds begin to change?
Clearest skies turn slowly into rain
The leaves throw off their green
Nothing new about this scene
Still I want you here with me
Cause that's the way it used to be

Tell me there's a reason
For every stupid season
November freezes everything in sight
I'm fine all day, I think of you at night

Loving you was like a trip around the world
Spires of gold, skylines made of pearls
From the mountains of Peru all the way to Kathmandu
Now I'm sitting here alone
And I just want you to come home

Maybe I was not
The person that you thought
A joke I made
You never got

Time has its way with everyone
You can't stop the circle of the sun
But you can pull down all the shades
You can wait for better days
Throw another blanket on
Til the winter's come and gone

The Person You Want

Oh yeah, I talk a good game
But every time I try to play it
I lose my house and my name
Beg in the street for spare change

Oh yeah, I pull a good trick
Right out of my hat like I'm dead sure
Then I fall just like pick up sticks
All over the dining room floor

Ah, just throw this old heart to the mad dogs
One day you'll wake up and see
The person you want me to be

Oh yeah, I know what I know
And sometimes I think that's enough for
One little life on the road
A suitcase, a skyline, a show

Oh yeah, I'm always in here
Behind the old boxwoods and shed doors
Hiding my plums and my fears
The old owners planted before

Ah, just throw me like flax to the blackbirds
One day you'll wake up and see
The person you want me to be

From this rooftop, the leaves and the sky
All wake up from blind misbelievings
And give it another good try
The cardinals all landing and leaving

Oh yeah, I want what I want
A bird in the hand and a letter
Signed and sealed with a cross,
A kiss, and a promise for more

Ah, I train like I'm training an old dog
Loyal, determined you'll see
The person you want me to be

Ah, just throw this old heart to the Black Sea
One day you'll wake up and see
The person you want me to be

The Shape I Found You In

You were spoken for
I spent twenty lifetimes at your door
But your heart was busy within
Building bomb shelters under your skin
That's the shape I found you in
That's the shape I found you in

I was calling to you
It was one thing I knew how to do
But my heart tried to cheat
Building safety nets under my feet
So if I fell I would fall right in
That's the shape you found me in

You were delivered to me
We were closed as the stores on Christmas Eve
So I felt around in the dark
Building rope ladders into your heart
Climbing hand over hand to get in
That's the shape I found you in
That's the shape I found you in

This is Me

This old highway is just a lonely patch of blue and gray
And late at night my memory obfuscates my line of sight
And in my mind I really had no choice, the stars were cold
In my eyes they hung there in dark skies, just still and cold

The wheels of this pickup are rusted and cracked
The lines are uneven, there is no turning back
This is me
All that I am
You will see

The noble mind, it traps four pieces of the heart inside
We came in twos, and two by twos it seemed of little use
We felt the rain, our faces cold and pale, the colors drained
The oceans grew until we floated on a deeper hue

You will become a stranger, you will seize all the land
You will breach the other, count the hours, spill the sand
This is me
All that I am
You will see

A little star of brilliant hope in skies of black we are
And Danish blue is the color of your eyes in June
For many days I've woken with head pains, my eyes ablaze
You never knew because I never told you

The hours of the day wonder how they've been spent
The creases on the bed grow deep, I've made my descent
This is me
All that I am
You will see
All that I have
This is me

Through to Sunrise

I could stand to go outside
Always keep my options wide
Never mind the blinding skies
It all will up and leave you
You could let yourself feel sad
Government make the good go bad
Broken token and a subway ad
It all will up and leave you

Keep the faith, don't toe the line, and watch it through your two eyes
Leave the light still on inside and watch it through to sunrise
Leave the fight and go behind where all the stupid fear dies
Keep the light still on inside and watch it through to sunrise

Bowing towers kinda left me dry
Sittin' pretty in my own pigsty
A little bitty of me wanted to die
It all will up and leave you
Turn the forest to a mud-drenched road
You never tarry to carry the load
It's never funny like it's money you're owed
It all will up and leave you

chorus

You sit and watch as the watch keeps time
Treat yourself to a nursery rhyme
Making bacon just to stake your dime
It all will up and leave you
Here we are in a Brooklyn dive
At a one one two twenty-five
Take the two down from one twenty-five
And in the time we have we'll...

chorus

Trees Still Bend

Romance is everybody's best chance
Of finding out the kind of things you're really made of
And though it may end
Water flows and trees still bend

You cast a spell I couldn't protest
But there's something that I found out
That's not what love is all about
And though we found bliss
It came tumbling into this

And if we follow rules
For how we're supposed to be
Why do the same mistakes eventually
Haunt the ground we're walking 'round on
yeah

Breathe now, we're gonna do it somehow
Maybe the worst is put behind us
And we can look for stars to guide us
And though it may end
Water flows and trees still bend
Water flows and trees still bend

True Enough

Oahu
Two hundred miles from Hilo
Four thousand miles from Tokyo
Four thousand from Chicago
Five thousand from Atlanta
Ten thousand miles from Kenya
Three thousand from L.A.

A mansion
Looking for redemption
Looking for a man's son
Looking for his father
Squinting to see farther
Squinting in the sunlight
Of a brand new day

Will you come and dance with me
Will you be my only love
Tell me will you love me true
Will you be true enough?

A worldwide
Twenty minute El ride
Down towards the South Side
Down towards the Skyway
Ten miles east of Midway
Not quite to the lake shore
Or even Lake Shore Drive

D.C.
Always looked so easy
Always sounds so sleazy
Sometimes feels so lonely
Like the end of a long day
Driving on the Beltway
I-495

Up to the Sea

Georgia, New York, I am here
Up to the sea
Oceans cover me

Never have I been so hopeful
I'm alive as I will be
Up to the sea

Presque Isle down the river
Down to the sea
Maine to California

Walk ten thousand lifetimes
There will always be ten thousand more

Viola

Viola, I swear I miss you.
You were the wisest girl I knew.
Like when you told me of Katrina,
How she rose and cried, "Hallelujah."
Viola, Viola.

I once heard Chester speak.
He said he saw you dancing on the stage.
He told me that, despite your years,
Your style had not changed with age.
I drowned myself tonight in sangria
Made with sliced up fruit and cheap marsala.
Viola, Viola.

I tried to remember a dream I had with you.
We were trying to swim across the ocean in the black of night.
There were lightning storms outside of Panama
Before we reached the shores of Angola.
Viola, Viola.

Viola, I swear I miss you.

Wherever You Keep

You, you seem so far away
Fog comes rolling in, don't know where you've been
No excuse and no idea
How dark it seems to me
You make me want to leave

But if I go wherever you go
Every step I follow you
Down to the deep, wherever you keep
I always feel blue

I will try to clear the way
All that we will be, sailing on the sea
But you, you tend an aching place
Wrapped inside you tight
Away from all the light

Like a bird I call to you
Fly in circles, nothing I can do

Every time I close the door
Wind blows on my face
Feels good to leave this place
You will go and live your life
I hold you close to me
Wherever you may be

You Were the Lie

Nobody bothered your football games
I sat alone upstairs, thinking it was not fair
If not people I thought channels could change
Sitting here now I see, glowing in front of me

You were the lie, you were the lie, you were the lie

Maybe the demons possessed your mind
Why bother fighting them, they'll only come again
Or maybe you never even bought your storyline
You weren't looking for meaning or metaphor

chorus

I threw out all the pieces that puzzled me
Cause they never added up to much
So I didn't know you were still assigned to killing me
Still aligned with willing me away

So maybe the best part of life remains
Maybe it's gonna be, maybe you wait and see
That's what they tell you, someday we'll all be free
You shoot it off into space, but it never goes away

chorus

Young James Dean

In the back of a camouflage truck
They locked me in once with the materiel
I was full of a rage no one could handle
I was a private in the army
All the real girls with their backs turned called me crazy
Called me crazy

I worked for a while at a diner
Manager said I had to wear that little uniform
Said I was part of the problem
But I was in love with that blonde girl
She kissed me twice behind the counter
But when I asked her to get into my car
She called her man, said 'don't bother her'
She called her man, said 'don't bother her'

I guess I'll feel less than real all my life
With these feathers I made
Under me lifting me up
But I was a young James Dean
With a way with ladies
All the real boys in their black jeans called me crazy
Called me crazy
Called me crazy
Called me crazy