"Everest"

from the depth of the pacific
to the height of everest
and still the world is smoother
than a shiny ball-bearing
so i take a few steps back
and put on a wider lens
and it changes your skin,
your sex, and what your wearing
distance shows your silloutte
to be a lot like mine
like a sphere is a sphere
and all of us here
have been here all the time

you brought me to church,
cinder blocks, flourescent light
you brought me to church
at 7o'clock on a sunday night
and the band was rocking
and the floors were scrubbed clean
and everybody had a tambourine

so i took a deep breath and became
the white girl with the hair
and you sat right beside me
while everybody stared
and through the open window
i think the singing went outside
and floated up to tell
all the stars not to hide
cuz by the time church let out
the sky was much clearer
and the moon was so beautiful,
that the ocean held up a mirror

as we walked home we spoke slowly
we spoke slow,
and we spoke lowly
like it was taking more time
than usual to choose
the words to go
with your squeaky sandle shoes
like time is not a thing
that's ours to lose

from the height of the pacific
to the depths of everest

"Up Up Up Up Up Up"

up up up up up up points the
spire of the steeple
but god's work isn't done by god
it's done by people

up up up up up up points the
fingers of the trees
the lumberjacks with their bloody axes
are on their knees

and just when you think that you've got enough
enough grows
and everywhere that you go in life
enough knows

up up up up up up dances
the steam from the sewer
as she rounds the corner
the brutal wind blows right through her

up up up up up up raises
the stakes of the game
each day sinks its bootprint into her clay
and she's not the same

and just when you think that you've got enough
enough grows
and everywhere that you go in life
enough knows

half of learning how to play
is learning what not to play
and she's learning the spaces she leaves
have their own things to say
then she's trying to sing just enough
so that the air around her moves
and make music like mercy
that gives what it is
and has nothing to prove

she crawls out on a limb
and begins to build her home
amd it's enough just to look around
to know she's not alone

up up up up up up points
the spire of the steeple
but god's work isn't done by god
it's done by people

"Know Now Then"

it's not so much that we got closer
it's that her face just go tbigger
and by the time it was filling up my whole view
i figured my face had got bigger too
so i used it ot try and way her
say something to her
make my case
but my face
never had a chance
all along it was the wrong song and dance

i just stood there
without even a stance
helpless to her advance
and her retreat
backspace, delete

it wasn't so much that we fell in love as
my life just seemed to come down
to a slow walk on a straight line
between her smile and her frown
and maybe we never were as close
as we should have been
but i didn't know what i now now, then
yeah, i didn't know what i know now, then

"Trickle Down"

you cease to smell the steel plant
after you've lived there for a while
smoke is snow is ash are leaves that blow
through the air aloft
all our houses dim their sliding
to the same soot gray style
and we hang our laundry out on sundays
when they turn the furnaces off

everybody's daddy works up on the line
the stienbrenners and the wilczewskis
have been there the longest time
everybody's mommy squints into the sun
sunday afternoon after all the laundry's done

sometimes a distant siren
can set a dog to barking late at night
then it dominos on down
til every dog is joining in
the first rumours of the layoffs
sang like a distant siren might
and we all perked up our ears
and paced the fence
of the ensuing din

every night, we were glued to the tv news
at six o'clock
cuz it was hard to tell what was real
and what was talk
they explained about the cutbacks
all the earnest frowns
but what they didn't say was that the plant
was slowly shutting down

this town is not the kind of place
that money people go
they make their jokes up on the tv
about all the snow
and they're building condos downriver
from where the plant had been
but nobody really lives here
now that the air is clean

the president assured us
it was all gonna trickle down
like it'd be raining so much money
that we'd be sad to see the sun
mr. wilczewski's brother had some business
out in denver
so they left denver
and everybody knows they were the lucky ones

you cease to smell the steel plant
after you'v ebeen here for a while

"Hat Shaped Hat"

in walked a man in the shape of a man
holding a hat-shaped hat
he held up two fingers and said 'how many fingers?"
and i said 'Peace man, that's where it's at"
i said you are what you do in order to
prevent becoming what you're busy not doing
and if you do do it truly
then you arrive at it newly
then in the end you are absolved
and the problem of heaven is solved

and the man broke into a smile,
like he was breaking into a song
and he was broken and smiling
and i was singing along
and we agreed completely agreetly about most things
'til the sun set sweetly
like it does in those paintings
the ones they hang in hotel rooms
the ones they bolt to the wall
as though anyone would want to steal them at all

we talked like children without breathing
'til i stopped this lady as she was leaving
and i said 'excuse me,
but do you know what time it would be
if we were on mars ?'
and she held up her hand
like a crossing guard stopping the cars
and she said
five in the morning

in walked a man
in the shape of a man
holding a hat shaped hat

"To The Teeth"

the sun is settin on the century
and we are armed to the teeth
we are all working together now
to make our lives mercifully brief
schoolkids keep trying to teach us
what guns are all about
confuse liberty with weaponry
and watch your kids act it out
every year now like christmas
some boy gets the mildfed surburban blues
reaches for the avaliable aresenal
and saunters off to make the news
and women in the middle
are learning what poor women have always known
that the edge is closer than you think
when your men bring the guns home

look at where the profits are
that's how you'll find the source
of the big lie that you and i
both know so well
it the time it takes this cultural
death wish to run its course
they're gonna make a pretty penny
and then they're all going to hell
he said the chickens all come home to roost
yeah, malcom forecasted this flood
are we really gonna sleep through another century
while the rich profir off our blood?
true, it may take some doing
to see this undoing done
but in my humble opinion
here's what i suggest we do:

open fire on hollywood
open fire on MTV
open fire on NBC
and CBS and ABC
open fire on the NRA
and all the lies they told us
along the way
open fire on each weapons manufacturer
while he's giving head
to some republician senator

and if i hear one more time
about fool's rights
to his tools of rage
I'm gonna take all my friends
and i'm gonna move to canada
and we're gonna die of old age

"Soft Shoulder"

I don't keep much stuff around
I value my portability
but I will say that I have saved
every letter you ever wrote to me
the one you left on my windsheild
outside of that little motel
is in the pocket of my old gigbag
from back when life was more soft shelled

letters littered with little lewd pictures
drawn by the ghost of Woddy Guthrie
who would use your big thick hand
just to draw one two for me

and I think of your letters as love letters
which is how I think of songs
in that it is the writing of them
that tend to carry us along
and I dance to one of your old tunes
with my true love on our wedding day
and your voice sang the way my heart would sing
if it finally knew just what to say

two people pulled over on the same night
to look up at the same stars
they both found their wheels were spinning
in a soft shoulder
when they got back into their cars
and they missed fate's appointed rendezvous
and then a whole lotta time went by
and finally they were done
worshipping the landscape
and they put down their hands
and moved into the sky

and they had barely said hello
and it was time to say goodbye
goodbye ............

"Wish I May"

i'm losing my love of adventure
i'm losing all respect
for me and myself tonight
i wonder what happens if i get to
the end of this tunnel
and there isn't a light
ive worn down the treads
on all of my tires
i've worn through the elbows
and the knees of my clothing
and i'm stumbling down
the gravel driveway of desire
trying not to wake up
my sleepy self-loathing

do you ever have that dream
when you open your mouth
and you try to scream
but you can't make a sound
that's everyday starting now
that's everyday starting now

dont tell me it's gonna be alright
you can't sell me on your optimism tonight
it's a stiff competition
to see who can stay up later
the stars or the street lights
and all they really want
is to be alone with the darkness
no more wish i may
no more wish i might

it takes a stiff upper lip
just to hold up my face
i gotta suck it up and savor
the taste of my own behavior
i am spinning with longing
faster then a roulette wheel
this is not who i meant to be
this is not how i meant to feel

i don't think i am strong enough
to do this much longer
god, i wish i was stronger
this song could never be long enough
to express every longing
god, i wish it was longer...

"Feakshow"

life in the circus ain't easy
but the folks on the outside don't know
the tent goes up and the tent comes down
and all that they see is the show
and the ladies on the horses look so pretty
and the lions are lookin real mad
and some of the clowns are happy
and some of the clowns are sad

but underneath
there's another expression
that the makeup isn't making
life under the big top
it's about freedom
it's about faking
there's an art to the laughter
there's a science
and there's a lot of love
and compliance

welcoem to the freakshow
here we go...

we live to hear the slack-jawed gasping
we live under a halo of held breath
and when the children raise up a giant shield
of laughter, it's like they're fending off death
and we can make somethig bigger
then anyone of us alone
and then the clowns will take off their makeup
and the people will go home

but life on the outside ain't easy
no sequins, no elephants,
no parading around
yeah, the tent goes up
and the tent comes down
and they're stuck in this fucking town

you need a lot of love and compliance

welcome to the freakshow
here we go

"Going Once"

going once
going twice
sold to the girl
who ignored all the good advice
of all the people who knew better
she just stood there
on the front porch
waiting for her will to come and get her

she was packed
she had a suitcase
full of noble intentions
she had a map
and a staight face
hell bent on reinvention
and she was ready for the lonely
she was in it for it only

going once
going twice
down the road less taken
through the coffee
and the wd40
and the swiss army knife
and the beer
there was always someone there to say
why don't you just stay
and hang your hat here

but she was packed
she had a suitcase
full of fumbles and near misses
she was swinging through a jungle
of last calls and first kisses
and she was learning
about please
about hugh humilities

and then one day she looked around her
and everything up till then was showing
and she wondered how did i get here
without even knowing where i was going
and now there's no getting out of this
and there's no going back
and it all seems so odd sometimes
and the odds all seemed stacked

going once, going twice
sold to the girl
who ignored all the advice
of all the people who knew better
she just stood there
on the front porch
waiting for her will
to come and get her

she was packed
she ahd a suitcase
she had a map
and a straight face
she was ready
for the lonely
she was in it for
it only