"Mystery"

Each time you'd pull down the driveway i wasn't sure when i would see you again yours was a twisted blind-sided highway no matter which road you took then oh you set up your place in my thoughts moved in and made my thinking crowded now we're out in the back with the barking dogs my heart the red sun your heart the moon clouded i could go crazy on a night like tonight when summer's beginning to give up her fight and every thought's a possibility and voices are heard but nothing is seen why do you spend this time with me maybe an equal mystery so what is love then is it dictated or chosen does it sing like the hymns of 1000 years or is it just pop emotion and if it ever was here and it left does it mean it was never true and to exist it must elude is that why i think these things of you but i could go crazy on a night like tonight when summer's beginning to give up her fight and every thought's a possibility and voices are heard but nothing is seen why do you spend this time with me maybe an equal mystery oh
but you like the taste of danger it shines like sugar on your lips and you like to stand in the line of fire just to show you can shoot straight from your hip there must be a 1000 things you would die for i can hardly think of two but not everything is better spoken aloud not when i'm talking to you oh the pirate gets the ship and the girl tonight breaks a bottle to christen her basking in the exploits of her thief she's a very good listener and maybe that's all that we need is to meet in the middle of impossibility standing at opposite poles equal partners in a mystery we're standing at opposite poles equal partners in a mystery

"Dead Man's Hill"

We were down at deadman's hill smoking vines like cigarettes looking through the trashy mags trying to feel what's coming next you told me of crashing cars older brothers and late night bars i told you what i feel most and you kept it like a ghost forever don't you write it down remember this in your head don't take a picture remember this in your heart don't leave a message talk to me face to face lying on the bright blue jumping mat dinner bell is ringing barking dogs and model planes and the sound of passing trains we watch for bonfires in the sky on the beach in july spin the bottle steal the kiss postcards to the one i miss forever the one i miss forever don't you write it down remember this in your head don't take a picture remember this in your heart i'll leave a message when everything comes apart i remember cats on fire gasoline a burning spiral standing underneath the night fighting back with all my might empty cans and charred remains find them in the heat of day on the top of deadman's hill this
is what i know of shame forever

"Fare Thee Well"

Fare thee well my bright star i watched your taillights blaze into nothingness but you were long gone before i ever got to you before you blazed past this address and now i think of having loved and having lost you never know what it's like to never love who can say what's better and my heart's become the cost a mere token of a brighter jewel sent from up above fare thee well my bright star the vanity of youth the color of your eyes maybe if i'd fanned the blazing fire of your day to day of if i'd been older i'd been wise to thick the heat of those long summer evenings for a cool evening i began to yearn but you could only feel upon the things which feed a fire waiting to see if i would burn fare thee well my bright star it was a brief brilliant miracle dive that which i looked up to and i clung to for dear life had to burn itself up just to make itself alive i caught you then in your moment of glory your last dramatic scene against a night sky stage with a memory so clear it's as if you're still before me my once in a lifetime star of an age so fare thee well my bright star last night the tongues of fire circled my around this strange season of pain will come to pass when the heating hands of autumn cool me down

"This Train Revised"

It's a fish white belly lump in the throat razor on the wire skin and bone piss and blood in a railroad car 100 people gypsies queers and david's star this train is bound for glory measure the bones count the face pull out the teeth do you belong to the human race doctor doctor are you unkind do you shock the monkeys cover our eyes with clear blue skies this train is bound for glory here is a dancer who has no legs here is a teacher who has no face here is a runner who has no feet here is a healer who has no hands here is a builder who has no back here is a thinker who has no head here is a writer who has no voice these are the questions these are the answers stacked like wood this train is bound for glory these are the questions stacked like wood these are the answers here is potential gone for good

"Get Out The Map"

The saddest sight my eyes can see is that big ball of orange sinking slyly down the trees
Sittin in a broken circle while you rest upon my knee this perfect moment will soon be leaving me
Suzanne calls from Boston the coffee's hot the corn is high
And that same sun that warms your heart will suck the good earth dry
With everything it's opposite enough to keep you crying or keep this old world spinning with a twinkle in its eye
Get out the map get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down
We'll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town
Don't drink the water there seems to be something ailing everyone I'm gonna clear my head
I'm gonna drink that sun I'm gonna love you good and strong
while our love is good and young Joni left for South Africa a few years ago and then
Beth took a job all the way over on the West Coast
And me I'm heavier by the load
Why do we hurtle ourselves through every inch of time and space I must say around some corner
I can sense a resting place
With every lesson learned a line upon your beautiful face
We'll amuse ourselves one day with these memories we'll trace
Get out the map get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down
We'll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town
Don't drink the water there seems to be something ailing everyone
I'm gonna clear my head I'm gonna drink the sun
I'm gonna love you good and strong while our love is good and young

"Shed Your Skin"

115 you are 17 Itchy trigger venomous
You growing longer
You growing strong
You shed your skin
Now shed this
Come on over baby
You tell me it's holy holy I don't know what that is
Come on over Let's call it the fullness of time I don't know what that is
Hey holy console me some power control me
Remorse it I force it can't free it so be it I'm speaking in tongues handling you I got religion now look at it
The days grow longer
As we grow stronger
So shed your skin baby Let it rip
Now tell me it's holy holy I don't know what that is I want to call it the fullness of time
But I don't know if it is
Hey holy console me some power control me
Remorse it I force it can't free it so be it I got the hangman I got Milagro I got the celebration too
The flesh is strong
The spirit stronger
So shed your skin baby
Let it through
Come on over

"It's Alright"

It's alright forty days of rain my skin stretched our from the growing pain
I'd be nice to have an explanation, but it's alright
And it's alright if you hate that way, hate me cause I'm different, hate me cause I'm gay
Truth of the matter come around one day so it's alright
I look at this lifeline stretched way all across my hand
I look at the burned out empty like a plague across the land
And for everything I learn there are two I don't understand
That's why I'm still on a search through the weather strewn church I'm doing the best
I can and it's alright
And it's alright though we worry and fuss, we can't get over the hump or get over us
It seems easier to push than to let go and trust but it's alright
When we get a little distance some things get clearer
Give em the space our hearts grow nearer I ran as hard as I could and still ended up here
but it's alright I look at this lifeline stretched way all across my hand
I look at the fires of hatred burning up the bounty of this beautiful land
I know I'm small in a way but I know I'm strong
And it's my thirst that brought me to the water when I give it all up then she carries me on and it's alright
Yeah it's alright
And it's alright though I feel afraid my plans in pieces my plans mislaid
It's the will of the way the will of the way the will of the only way
that could have brought me here today and it's alright.

"Caramia"

Caramia a blank notebook and a backpocket fade,
you used to mock me sometimes I would cry when I was home later You hurt my feelings,
why why why, send it down in your notebook my wannabe Harriet the spy
And some say your genius is in your madness will you get better then will you leave us?
How you mixed with the darkness at such a young age
until in your chemistry science and violence turned silence to rage
Why are you dreaming this, one shoe off and a bridge to cross over
And where is your taxi fare, are you left by yourself or left by your lover?
For three nights straight now I dream I keep both of my shoes but I've forgotten my lines and
I've misplace my cues, and there's a sea full of faces and a show to go on,
and I'm struck mute at entrance with nothing to draw from
There were the secrets the big bang and the bigger joke
You seem to know all of them and injustice makes you red with choke
You love like you're desperate you don't know what love is
I thought if there was one thing I could give you one thing I could give you, maybe it was this
With your head on the bed board the anguished repeat the sweat of our sadness the twist of the sheets
I don't want what's best for you, where will I be when you've found it?
I pray a lot about these bad feelings inside but I can't pray my way through or around it

"Don't Give That Girl A Gun"

She's got a case against me a jury of my peers
The rage of the righteous screaming in her ears I'm not dignified anymore can't say I didn't call
When I say I love you she don't hear me anymore
Don't give that girl a gun I made a bad connection she says I went astray
Jumped ship abandoned my post I didn't think I lost my way
But oh how the mighty I saw her crack a smile I don't got a chance for redemption
She don't believe in the miracle mile
Take the first shot baby it'll be real clean I'm your girl strong and mean
Take a second shot baby it'll be real cool I'm your fool
Don't give that girl a gun I said hold me closer cause something's happening
Why can't we come together?
She said, "I doubt we ever will again."
Don't give that girl a gun

"Leeds"

It's dark at four PM in Leeds the steeples pierce the skylight till the last of it bleeds
The absent sound of another day as it recedes into the shadows until it's nothing
Fax papers slipped under the hotel room door like food for the prisoner or the prospect to the whore
Well fed and halfway drunk I ache myself for more until I'm shadows of myself until I'm nothing
Sixteen black churches burning on the TV all the way from Texas to Tennessee
a politician locks my eye and says to me there is no crisis here there's no conspiracy
I crave inertia every move made so I can stop
Whatever this madness is in me spinning like a top on a bed of anxiety
over a deep dark drop down into nothingness into withoutyouness
Was it ever so evil creep like ivy, toe hold on the stronger half of nature's dichotomy
Beating back a path through nothing more than pure insistence
Until here becomes the distance
Hold my head love I'm sick tonight find the open hole and press your finger
there will all your might before the last ounce of my spirit bleeds
onto the pristine sheets of the hotel bed in Leeds