"Good, Bad, Ugly"

it was good
good to see you again
good to meet your girlfriend
I'll try not to wonder where you are
when you go outside to kiss her
in the front seat of your car

it is good
good to be back home
how I missed this time zone
strangers are exciting
their mystery never ends
but there's nothing like looking at your own history
in the faces of your friends

and it's bad
to have eyes like neon signs
flashing open open open
open open open open open
open all the time
and it's bad
that I wrapped you in a fantasy
and I carry you with me
but lately it seems like everybody's
joined at the hip
and I'm still fancy
I'm so fancy
fancy free

sometimes the beauty is easy
sometimes you don't have to try at all
sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake
sometimes there's poetry written right
on the bathroom wall

and it's bad
that I took that second look
I guess I'm an open book
you know I didn't really intend
to embrace you that long
but then again I wasn't the only one
holding on

"I'm No Heroine"

you think I wouldn't have him
unless I could have him by the balls
you think I just dish it out
you don't think I take it at all
you think I am stronger
you think I walk taller than the rest
you think I'm usually wearing the pants
just 'cause I rarely wear a dress

well...

when you look at me
you see my purpose,
see my pride
you think I just saddle up my anger
and ride and ride and ride
you think I stand so firm
you think I sit so high on my trusty steed
let me tell you
I'm usually face down on the ground
when there's a stampede

I'm no heroine
at least, not last time I checked
I'm too easy to roll over
I'm too easy to wreck
I just write about
what I should have done
I just sing
what I wish I could say
and hope somewhere
some woman hears my music
and it helps her through her day

'cause some guy designed
these shoes I use to walk around
some big man's business turns a profit
every time I lay my money down
some guy designed the room I'm standing in
another built it with his own tools
who says I like right angles?
these are not my laws
there are not my rules

I'm no heroine
I still answer to the other half of the race
I don't fool myself
like I fool you
I don't have the power
we just don't run this place

"Coming Up"

our father who art in a penthouse
sits in his 37th floor suite
and swivels to gaze down
at the city he made me in
he allows me to stand and
sollicit graffiti until
he needs the land I stand on
I in my darkened threshold
am pawing through my pockets
the receipts, the bus schedules
the matchbook phone numbers
the urgent napkin poems
all of which laundering has rendered
pulpy and strange
loose change and a key
ask me
go ahead, ask me if I care
I got the answer here
I wrote it down somewhere
I just gotta find it
I just gotta find it

somebody and their spraypaint got too close
somebody came on too heavy
now look at me made ugly
by the drooling letters
I was better off alone
ain't that the way it is
they don't know the first thing
but you don't know that
until they take the first swing
my fingers are red and swollen from the cold
I'm getting bold in my old age
so go ahead, try the door
it doesn't matter anymore
I know the weakhearted are strongwilled
and we are being kept alive
until we're killed
he's up there the ice
is clinking in his glass
I don't ask
I just empty my pockets and wait
it's not fate
it's just circumstance
I don't fool myself with romance
I just live
phone number to phone number
dusting them against my thighs
in the warmth of my pockets
which whisper history incessantly
asking me
where were you

I lower my eyes
wishing I could cry more
and care less,
yes it's true,
I was trying to love someone again,
I was caught caring,
bearing weight

but I love this city, this state
this country is too large
and whoever's in charge up there
had better take the elevator down
and put more than change in our cup
or else we
are coming
up

"Make Them Apologize"

my breast is cradled
in the curve of my guitar
I'm breaking strings
and other things
playing hard
no I'm not on the rag
but I'm not on the run
I am matching the big boys
one for one
and I must admit,
I'm having myself some fun

because the music business
is still run by men
like every business
and everything
but we can sing like a sonofabitch
make them twitch around their eyes
make them apologize

he had a mean streak
three miles wide
it was a long walk
to the other side
she tried to get through it
holding on to her smile
but he wasn't worth the time it takes
to make that mistake
he just wasn't worthwhile
she's been under command
of the wrong man
and she'll give you everything
except the upper hand
she was his mother, and his lover,
and his wife
now she wants the luxury
of her own life

'cause the marriage business
is still run by men
like every business
and every thing
but she can sing like a sonofabitch
make him twitch around his eyes
girl, make him apologize

they all want to lead the fight
and they know what they know all right
but there's so much
they don't understand
what about the other sex
what about the other hand
they only know what they've been told
and they're well cast
but they don't break the mold
and good sources are not enough
so she calls their bluff
yeah, she calls their bluff

'cause the revolution business
is still run by men
like every business
and everything
but we can sing like a sonofabitch
make them twitch around their eyes
until they realize
they just don't realize

"The Waiting Song"

your basic average super star
is singing about justice
and peace
and love
and I am glaring at the radio,
swearing
saying that's just what I was afraid of
the system gives you just enough
to make you think that you see change
they will sing you right to sleep
and then they'll screw you just the same

but I will wait
yes, I will wait for the truth

they think I make a big deal about nothing
but they still think I'm
kinda cute
they joke about the staus quo
to break the ice
once the ice is broken
I hope they all fall through
'cause this is no joke to me
they don't fool me
with their acts of sensitivity
they too shall pass
just like everyone
who's only here for my ass

and I can't wait
oh I can't wait til they get their due

baby I've only got a minute
baby I have to go
a minute is all my life
will ever allow
let's grow old
and die together
let's do it now
because you'll do all the jobs
no one else will do
and you'll step aside
and you will let me come through
you have all my respect
I'll leave it here when I go
maybe I never told you, baby
maybe you don't know

but maybe if we wait
if we wait things will improve
maybe we just wait
and things will improve
you know, they've got to improve

your basic average superstar
is singing about justice
and peace
and love
and I am glaring at the radio
swearing
saying that's just what I was afraid of
the system gives you just enough
to make you think that you see change
they'll sing you right to sleep
and then they'll screw you just the same

he says I know you have to go
you have gone before
we are fighting on two different fronts
of the same war
but no matter what else
I will do
I will wait for you

"Served Faithfully"

he caresses every bottle
like it's the first one he's had
saying
it ain't love
but it ain't bad
it's the only reward
bestowed upon me
and I have served faithfully

I can see he is scarred
from doing some hard time
but I let alone what is broken
'cause it isn't mine
he strikes out at me
when I am within reach
then he reaches for me
when I draw the line

sometimes it seems like love
is just a fancy word for compromise
you gotta read between the years
you gotta write between the lines
you gotta try to understand
the grandness of the man behind the petty crimes
and let him off easy sometimes

I have only just met
an old old friend
we've been walking around holding hands
I hope some day he can bend
as far as it takes to understand
and risk breaking open again

"Imperfectly"

I'm okay
if you get me at a good angle
and you're okay
in the sort of light
and we don't look
like pages from a magazine
but that's all right
that's all right

I crashed your pickup truck
and then I had to drive it back home
I was crying
I was so scared
of what you would do
of what you would say
but you just started laughing
so I started laughing along
saying, it looks a little rough
but it runs okay
it looks a little rough
but it runs good anyway

we get a little further from perfection
each year on the road
I guess that's what they call character
I guess that's just the way it goes
better to be dusty than polished
like some store window mannequin
why don't you tocuh me where I'm rusty
let me stain your hands

when you're pretty as a picture
they pound down your door
but I've been offered love
in two dimensions before
and I know that it's not all
it's made out to be
let's show them how it's done
let's do it all imperfectly

"Names And Dates And Times"

I know so many white people
I mean, where do I start?
the trouble with white people
is you can't tell them apart
I'm so bad with names and dates and times
but I'm big on faces
that is, except for mine

I believe you when you tell me
we've met before
this time you've got my interest
this time you've got the floor
why don't you go and tell me something
I don't already know
give me something to remember you by
when you go

I eat too much
I laugh too long
maybe I'll like too much of you
when I'm gone

let's go over to the window
and sit in the neon light
let's go out walking
you know, it's garbage night
let's go down to the east river
and throw something in
something we can't live without
and then let's start again

the more you talk
the more I get
the sense of something
that hasn't happened yet
the more you talk
the more I want to know
the way I'll remember you
when I go

I eat too much
I laugh too long
maybe I'll like too much of you
when I'm gone

I am so many white people
I mean where do I start
they've got lots of personalities
I just can't tell them apart
and I never remember anything
except for those things
which I never forget you know
there's no in between

I'm big on your face
yeah it's big in my mind
you're like the rest of the human race
you're one of a kind

"Anyday"

I will lean into you
and you can be the wind
I will open up my mouth
and you can come rushing in
you can rush in so hard
and make it so I can't breathe
I breathe too much anyway
I can do that anyday

I just wish I knew who you were
I wish you'd make yourself known
probably you don't know I'm her
the woman you want to call home
I'll keep my ear to the wall
I'll keep my eye on the door
'cause I've heard all my own jokes
and they're just not funny anymore
I laugh too much anyway
I can do that anyday

have you ever been bent or pulled
have you ever been played like strings
if I could see you I could strum you
I could break you
make you sing
but I guess you can't really see the wind
it just comes in and fills the space
and everytime something moves
you think that you have seen its face
and I've always got my guitar to play
but I can do that anyday

"4th Of July"

you gotta have the right tools
for every job
so I invite myself in
through a hole in the fence
I am tripping through the junkyard
scanning over the piles
the thin cats raise their skin in defense
I know he's watching me
I can see him through the cracks
his eyes are small and shy on my back
he says his name is jason
he lives in the last trailer on the right
and he'll be seven
on the fourth of july

only the people who live here
know the name of this place
my path through iowa would be
hard to trace
all the adults in this town
try not to frown
when I walk by
but jason smiled at me
he met my eye

he don't ask me
where I'm from
or why I came
here alone
we all go looking for paradise
then we go back home
we cut out the small talk
go right to the way things are
he showed me his squirrel skull
I told him I locked myself out of my car

so there goes the only friend
I have in iowa
his hand flapping behind him
waving good-bye
his name is jason
he lives in the last trailer on the right
and he'll be seven
on the fourth of july