Diskographie & Lyrics

Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where

A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves

The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun

Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes

And it's the sum of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks

Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"

And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
Heard four winds leveling the pines

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves

My friend you were the model
A priceless work of art
Boys would fashion their emotions
To the pattern of your heart
And I heard you wrote that record
For a girl you loved but died
I'm here sewing mine together
Just hoping you're alive
And I know you'll never come back now
To the world where people are
Because you never understood
What they loved you for

Now ghosts, they have their secrets
And they'll tell them to a few
So you could never pay attention
When they're whispering to you
There were many talents you possessed
That I wished myself to have
But the way your eyes would gloss over
Well, I never envied that
And I doubt you'll ever come back now
From wherever it is you are
Because you never understood
What we loved you for

I'm sure the TV sets will tell us
When someone reinvents the wheel
Until then I'll have a million conversations
About shit that isn't real
But I've tried to breathe in meaning
Dig deep to every gasp of air
Because I know you did the same thing
For as long as you could bear
I guess everything just circles around
To where it was before
So I hope I see you soon
In some other form

Come on in, my weary friend
The welcome here is endless

These fears of yours, like painted whores
They will not stay the night
If all your life you've done what's right
Dont say you felt obliged

Come on along, is your timid tongue
Too shy to tell your story?
This pain in you so far removed
From anything youve known
So I wont condone another moan
When everything is fine

So when in drought, learn to dance
And pray the dead would return

Dream smoke without fire
Just come see me again when it burns

Somewhere along the way
Well, I was led astray
By a wolf in no one's clothing
It was a brilliant disguise

And I forgot that life existed
I thought it was just some kind of game
That's what brings me to your doorstep
Though I dont know why I came today

Standing still in the dust
Giving up on the rain
As with smoke without fire
I've already laid in the flames

I've already laid in the flames

Brother, be afraid of the flames

There's a skinny dog
In a dirty parking lot
And he doesn't bite
But he begs
And he knows what's true
So if you are, he'll follow you
If you're headed home
All the way
So we let him finish
Every dinner plate
And we watched his tail say thanks, thanks, thanks
And we tried to name him
But he ran away
Once he knew his freedom was at stake

This same old shit
So it's how you deal with it
It's the glove that fits
That you wear
So when the wind blows strong
I put a few more layers on
And I tell myself
I don't care
I might make a phone call
To a better man
To ask the questions that I have, have, have
Like how do I get started
And where's it going to end?
Why should I treat a traitor like a friend?

I listened to a lecture of nonsense until dawn
By a plagiary poet with dark glasses on
He said, "How did you ever dream up that song
The one where the baby dies?"

I said, "I'll tell you the secret, which one's your good ear?
Yeah, people are made up of water and fear
If there weren't women present we wouldn't be here
So let's make like we're friends"

And the pot turned to powder and soured the mood
And the people I'd come with were gone from the room
So I asked like a child, "May I be excused?"
And disobeyed them all

Into that late-night latrine, rain soaking through my shoes
I tried walking backwards to get less confused
Working off the theory I could never prove
That it was life itself to blame

And time ruined the world
Like a failed revolution
A tumor we could not remove
An old friend, a constant, the blues

Now my days are distractions, sit wringing my hands
Solitaire, crosswords and films on demand
When you turn from a cartoon back into a man
You start to smell that human smell

So I sleep with the fan on to drown out the street
And the noise rising up from the bar underneath
But for that inconvenience all my drinks are free
So I guess it's just as well

Why do I envy the ending right from the start
Just get it together to take it apart
Watching the horse as it follows the cart
I sweep up my broken spell

And I felt something changing the world
Like a new constitution
A thief I would have to pursue
At all times, at all costs, the truth

It's not the road we used to know
They tore some buildings down
The traffic's like a pack of dogs

There's fewer trees, windows, fleas
There's concrete on the lawn
There's people here but you are gone

And I find still swimming through time
Afraid some days I've reached the shore

"Make yourself free"
Man said back to me
Now my heart is like an open door

And the road finally gave me back
But I dont think I'll unpack
Because I'm not sure if I live here any more

It's not my weight that makes me faint
Or the sugar in my blood
But the way these strangers stand so close

They say my name like a guessing game
"Is that really you?"
No, I dont think it ever was

In the spring
When the world's turning green
I only think about the fall
The frets on the board
My progression of chords
Oh, how I want this to resolve

And the road finally gave me back
But I dont think I'll unpack
Because I'm not sure if I live here any more

Now the road finally gave me back
But I dont think I'll unpack

Because I'm not sure if I live here
No, I'm not sure if I live here
No, I'm not sure if I live here
Anymore

Corporate or Colonial
The Movement is unstoppable
Like the body of a centerfold it spreads
To the counter-culture copyright
Get your revolution at a lower price
Or make believe and throw the fight, play dead
It's exploding bags, aerosol cans
Southbound buses, Peter Pan
They left it up to us again
I thought you knew the drill
It's kill or be killed

Future Markets, Holy Wars
Been tried ten thousand times before
If you think that God is keeping score, Hooray!
For the freedom-fighting simulcast (Victory! A defeat! Victory!)
The imminent and the aftermath
Draw another bloody bath to drain
Like the polar icecaps centrifuge (Oh Allah! Oh Jesus please!)
First snowman built at the end of June
He slicks his hair for the interview, his fifteen-minute fame
Would you agree times have changed?

Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
His body's decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where

A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves

The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen the sun

Cast off the schools of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes

And it's the son of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks

Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"

And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
With four winds, levelling the pines

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't compete with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves

When panic grips your body and your heart is a hummingbird
Raven thoughts blacken your mind until you're breathing in reverse
All your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse
Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt
Better find yourself a place to level out

Got a cricket for a conscience always looks the other way
A cocaine soul starts seeming like an empty cabaret
Hey, where have all the dancers gone? Now the music doesn't play
Tried to listen to the river but you couldn't shut your mouth
Better take a little time to level out

I never thought of running
My feet just led the way

Mixed up Signals
Bullet Train
Cars are switched out in the crazy rain
I could meet you any place
If the Brakeman turns my way

All this automatic writing I have tried to understand
From a psychedelic angel who was tugging on my hand
It's an infinite coincidence but it doesn't form a plan
So I'm headed for New England or the Paris of the South
Gonna find myself somewhere to level out

Are your brothels full, Oh Babylon, with merry Middlemen?
Never peer out of their periscopes from those deep opium dens
All this death must need a counterweight always someone born again
First a mother bathes her child then the other way around
The Scales always find a way to level out

I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away

Mixed up Signals
Bullet Train
People snuffed out in the brutal rain
I could live to any age
If the Brakeman turns my way

It is an old world it's hard to remember
Like a dime store mystery
I'm a repeat first time offender
Who has rewritten history

Mixed up tea leaves
Phantom Pain
Fuzzy logic in the crazy rain
Getting better every day
If the Brakeman turns my way
Mixed up Signals
Bullet Train
Cars are switched out in the blinding rain
He'll be smiling as he seals my fate
When the Brakeman turns my way

The Wife forgave the Mistress for she only entertained
The pain was gone the instant she cleared her throat to speak her name
Said, "Both of us must suffer from the same unending ache"

The world was not of interest though her days were never dull
Her bed beneath a crucifix on guests performing miracles
With the Son of God just hanging like a common criminal
When I do wrong I am with God, she thought
When I feel lost I am not at all

So give me Black Light (Give Give me)
So give me Hot Knives (Deep Clean sleep)
On a dance floor no one tells time (There is no time)

Oh, I've made love, yeah, I've been fucked, so what?
I'm a cartoon, you're a full moon, let's stay up

She went to see a Mystic who made medicine from rain
And gave up her existence to feel everything, dream others' dreams
Bid farewell to her family with one ecstatic wave (Please take care I love you all)
Out the window as the car rolled away
She just vanished into a thick mist of change

So let us rejoice (Let's Rejoice!)
In all this Pink Noise (Out Pink Noise!)
An oscillation that we can pin point (We're right here!)

I heard you're scheming new pyramids
Another big idea to get you rich
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

You said you had your foot in the door
You buy and you sell, you buy some more
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

Life is too short
Death doesn't ask
It don't owe you that

Some things you lose
You don't get back
So just know what you have

And make a plan to love me sometime soon

Life is Too $hort
To be a fool
I don't owe you that

Do what you feel
Whatever is cool
But I just have to ask

First you want to ride off into the Sun
Then you want to shoot straight to the Moon
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

When you are young the world is a Ferris Wheer
I know we will grow old it is lovely, still
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

Will you make a plan to love me?

See the Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand
Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan
For the Soul Singer in the session band

Now a red carpet bagger makes a Blackberry call
To the plastic piranhas in the city of salt
Wasted wheat paste campaign post no bills on the wall
You mean nothing to no one but that's nobody's fault

See the Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand
Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan
For the Soul Singer in the session band

I had a lengthy discussion about The Power of Myth
With a post-modern author who didn't exist
In this fictitious world all reality twists
I was a hopeless romantic now I'm just turning tricks

Just like that Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded confetti beneath a microphone stand
Saw the Conflict of Interest slipping cash in the hand
Of the Soul Singer in the session band

His room is on fire since he painted it red
There are a stranger's silk sequins at the foot of the bed
He has been to weddings and funerals but he still never wept
Now sorrow is pleasure when you want it instead

Just like the Soul Singer in the session band
Wailed like an infant atop a white baby grand
We'll need every sand bag and every man
To save the Soul Singer in the session band

Headlights or Taillights it's a flip of a coin
I have been coming and going since the day I was born
And I followed the breadcrumbs but I never got home
I grew old in an instant now I am all on my own

Just like that Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded to nothing beneath the microphone stand
Saw the wave of the future through the crack of the dam
Drowned the Soul Singer in the session band
Bless the Soul singer in the session band

She was a real royal lady, true patron of the arts
She said the best country singers die in the back of classic cars
So if I ever got too hungry for a suitcase or guitar
To think of them all alone in the dark
So I laid some nights beside her in a bed made for a queen
She said I kissed her different, that all the men her age were mean
Gave me anything I wanted, Oh the generosity
I took all that I could, it was free
Now the sky is a torn up denim and the clouds are just splattered paint
It's a room I'm renovating; it's a name I got to change
If I get out of California I'm going back to my home state
To tell them all that I made a mistake

And I keep looking for that blindfold faith
Lighting candles to a cynical saint
Who wants the last laugh at the fly trapped in the windowsill tape
You can go right out of your mind trying to escape
From the panicked paradox of day to day
If you can't understand something then it's best to be afraid

The whole world it loves you if you are a chic chameleon
Intersecting circles she could hang with anyone
But when conducting business she would lie about where she's from
Saying, "Life is how it is not how it was"
I learned to listen felt like I was back at school
She'd talk forever about the phases of the moon
Saying, "Everything is a cycle, you've got to let it come to you
And when it does, you will know what to do"
Without even knowing I guess I took her advice
Painted her front door it seemed a suitable goodbye
It's not that often but I think of her sometimes
Just something quaint, a couple ships in the night

And they keep moving at a glacial pace
Turning circles in a memory maze
I made a new cast of the death mask that is gonna cover my face
I had to change the combination to the safe
Hide it all behind a wall let people wait
And never trust a heart that is so bent it can't break

I traveled though the atmosphere as a wall of feedback climbed
The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time
Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise
You will never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight

So I have become the Middleman
The gray areas are mine
The in-between, the absentee
Is a beautiful disguise

So I keep my footlights shining bright just like I keep my exits wide
'Cause I never know when it's time to go, it's too crowded now inside
The dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly
But the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise

So I have become the Middleman
The gray areas are fine
The "I don't know," the "maybe so"
Is the only real reply
It is the only true reply

Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows
It is older than Rome and all of this sorrow
See the new pyramids down in old Manhattan
From the roof of a friend's I watched an empire ending
Heard it loud and long the river's Om
Time marching on to a madman's drum

Don't forget what you've learned all you give is returned
And if life seems absurd what you need is some laughter
And a season to sleep and a place to get clean
Maybe Los Angeles, somewhere no one is expecting
On a detox loft through a Glendale Park over sidewalk chalk
Someone wrote in red, "start over"
So I muffled my scream on an Oxnard beach
Full of fever dreams that scare you sober
Into saltless dinners

Take the fruit from the tree, break the skin with your teeth
Is it bitter or sweet? All depends on your timing
Like a meeting of chance with the train station glance
Many lifetimes had past in a instant reminded
Of a millstone house in a seaside town
When your heart gave out in a mission bed
So your wife gave birth to a funeral dirge
You woke up purged as a wailing infant
In Krug Thep, Thailand

Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows
It is older than Rome and our joy and our sorrow

Death may come, invisible
Or in a holy wall of fire
In the breath between the markers
On some black I-80 mile

From the madness of the governments
To the vengeance of the sea
Everything is eclipsed
By the shape of destiny

So love me now
Hell is coming
Could you do it now?
Hell is here

Little soldier, little insect
You know war, it has no heart
It will kill you in the sunshine
Or just as happily in the dark

Well, kindness is a card game
Or a bent-up cigarette
In the trenches, in the hard rain
With the bullet and the bit

He says help me out
Hell is coming
Just kiss my mouth
Hell is here

Do you see the sterile soil
Poisoned sky
Yellow water
The final scraps of life
Bringing new tears

Wake, baby, wake
Leave that blanket around you
There's no where we're safe

I'm leaving this place
But there's nothing
I'm planning to take

Just you

Just you
Just you
Just you
Just you

Shrill as a choir of children
Urgent like the first day of May
False and inflatable feeling
Tugs at my senses, big as the Macy's Parade
One brick on top of another
Such is the measure of man
Planets are inset like diamonds
On a gravity halo, eternity's wedding band
I slept with that dealer all summer
The ecstasy is still in my spine
Coat Check I couldn't remember
Walked into the winter, came out on the other side

In the South the sun is shining
Back in the East the lights went out

Stuck on a ladder to heaven
On trial way back in The Hague
Lullaby sounds from the engine
In my Styrofoam coffin, asleep on the interstate
Black globes, old symbols of freedom
A murderer still on the lam
Cities encircled in iron
On a great silver beltway, democracy's shackled hands
Seance that brought us together
Objects we move with our minds
Coat Check and I lost the number
Short sleeves in the winter, fell back through the other side

Out in the West the cars are crashing
Up in the North the ice gave out

Saada Tekmel B'Lhouria...
Houria...

Leave the bright blue door on the whitewashed wall
Leave the death ledger under city hall
Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today

Leave the lilac print on the linen sheet
Leave the birds you killed at your father's feet
Let the sideways rain and the crooked street remain

Leave the whimpering dog in his cold kennel
Leave the dead starlet on her pedestal
Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today

Just leave the sad guitar in its hardshell case
Leave the worried look on your lover's face
Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain

Everything it must belong somewhere
A train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that is why I'm staying here

Leave the ocean's roar in the turquoise shell
Leave the widower in his private hell
Leave the liberty in that broken bell today

Leave the epic poem on its yellowed page
Leave the grey macaw in its covered cage
Let the traveling band on the interstate remain

Everything it must belong somewhere
Sound stage in California, televisions in Times Square
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now that is why I'm staying here
Yeah, I know that now, that is why I'm staying here

Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed
Leave the garden tools in that rusted shed
Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today

Leave the restless ghost in his old hotel
Leave the homeless man in that cardboard cell
Let the painted horse on the carousel remain

Everything it must belong somewhere
Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here

In truth the forest hears each sound
Each blade of grass as it lies down
The world requires no audience
No witnesses, no witnesses

Leave the old town drunk on his wooden stool
Leave the autumn leaves in their swimming pool
Leave the poor black child in his crumbling school today

Leave the novelist in his daydream tune
Leave the scientist in his Rubik's cube
Let the true genius in the padded room remain

Leave the horse's hair on the slanted bow
Leave the slot machines on the riverboat
Leave the cauliflower in the casserole today

Leave the hot bright trash in the shopping malls
Leave the hawks of war in their capitol
Let the organ's moan in the cathedral remain

Everything it must belong somewhere
They locked the Devil in the basement, threw God up into the air
Everything it must belong somewhere
And you know it's true, I wish you'd leave me here
You know it's true, why don't you leave me here?

I keep floating down the river but the ocean never comes
Since the operation I heard you're breathing just for one
Now everything is imaginary, especially what you love
You left another message said it's done,
It's done

When I hear beautiful music it's always from another time
Old friends I never visit, I remember what they're like
Standing on a doorstep full of nervous butterflies
Waiting to be asked to come inside
Just come inside

But I keep going out
I can't sleep next to a stranger when I'm coming down
It's 8 a.m. my heart is beating too loud
Too loud
Don't be so amazing or I'll miss you too much
I felt something that I had never touched

Everything gets smaller now the further that I go
Towards the mouth and the reunion of the Known and the Unknown
Consider yourself lucky if you think of it as home
You can move mountains with your misery if you don't
If you don't

It comes to me in fragments, even those still split in two
Under the leaves of that old Lime Tree I stood examining the fruit
Some were ripe and some were rotten, I felt nauseous with the truth
There will never be a time more opportune

So I just won't be late
The window closes, shock rolls over in a tidal wave
And all the color drains out of the frame
So pleased with a daydream that now living is no good
I took off my shoes and walked into the woods
I felt lost and found with every step I took

Death
Data entry
Ant hill law
Encoded arc our common cause
Drink liquid clocks 'til I see God
Crystal display
Can't turn it off
Shh...shh...shhhh
Don't talk
Don't talk

It was Don Delillo, whiskey, neat
And a blinking midnight clock
Speakers on a tv stand, just a turntable to watch
When the smoke came out our mouths
On all those hooded sweatshirt walks
You were a stroke of luck
We were a goldmine and they gutted us

And from the sidelines
You see me run
Until I'm out of breath
Living the good life
I left for dead
The sorrowful midwest
Well I did my best
To keep my head

It was grass-stained jeans and incompletes
And a girl from class to touch
But you think about yourself too much
And you ruin who you love
Well all these claims at consciousness
My stray dog freedom
Let's have a nice clean cut
Like a bag we buy and divvy up

And from the sidelines
I see you run
Until you're out of breath
And all those white lines that sped us up
We hurry to our death
Well I lagged behind
So you got ahead

You can make a plan
Carve it into stone
Like a feather falling
That is still unknown

Until the clock speaks up
Says it's time to go
You can choose the high
Or the lower road

You might clench your fist
You might fork your tongue
As you curse or praise
All the things you've done

And the faders move
And the music dies
As we pass over
On the arc of time

So you'll nurse your love
Like a wounded dove
In the covered cage of night
Every star is crossed
By frenetic thoughts
They separate and then collide

And they twist like sheets
Till you fall asleep
And they finally unwind
It's a black balloon
It's a dream you'll soon
Deny

I hear if you make friends
With Jesus Christ
You'll get right up
From that chalk outline

And then you'll get dolled up
And you'll dress in white
All to take your place
In his chorus line

And then in you'll come
With those marching drums
In a saintly compromise
No more whiskey slurs
No more blonde hair girls
For your whole eternal life
And you'll do the dance
That was choreographed
At the very dawn of time
Singing "I told you son
The day would come
You would die, you die, you die, you die..."

To the deepest part
Of the human heart
The fear of death expands
Till we crack the code
We've always known
But could never understand
On a circuit board
We'll soon be born
Again, again, again, again

I heard you fell into a rabbit hole
Covered yourself up in snow
Baby tell me where to go for days and days
Did they make you stay up all night
Did they paint your face that pasty white
You're thirsty but your appetite is chased away
The sun turns us to stone
It's a cloudy day but we still kept hold
Open up that cellar door
Till we seen then we're invisible
No one ever takes the garbage out
And maybe kid gets dared to touch the house
He runs back to announce there's no one home
Cause we paint the foil with the flame
Smear the soda, taste butane
For every fear that can't be named to calm you down
Your heart starts skipping steps
So you're farther gone
And you might expect
If your thoughts should turn to death
Gotta stomp them out like a cigarette

First with your hands and then with your mouth
A downpour of sweat, damp cotton clouds
I was a fool, you were my friend
You made it happen
You took off your clothes, left on the light
You stood there so brave
You used to be shy
Each feature improved, each movement refined and eyes like a showroom
Now they're spreading out the blankets on the beach
That weatherman's a liar
He said it'd be raining
But it's clear and blue as far as I can see

Left by the lamp, right next to the bed
On a cartoon cat pad you scratched with a pen
"Everything is as it's always been
This never happened
Don't take it so bad, it's nothing you did
It's just once something dies you can't make it live
You're a beautiful boy
You're a sweet little kid but I am a woman"
So I laid back down and wrapped myself up in the sheet
And I must have looked like a ghost cause something frightened me
And since then I've been so good at vanishing

Now I do as I please and I lie through my teeth
Someone might get hurt, but it won't be me
I should probably feel cheap but I just feel free
And a little bit empty
No, it isn't so hard to get close to me
There'll be no arguments
We'll always agree
And I will try and be kind when I ask you to leave
We'll both take it easy
But if you stay too long inside my memory
I will trap you in a song tied to a melody
And I will keep you there so you can't bother me

I'm staring out into that vacuum again
From the back porch of my mind
The only thing thats alive, I'm all there is
And I start attacking my vodka
Stab the ice with my straw
My eyes have turned red as stoplights
You seem ready to walk
You know I'll call you eventually
When I wanna talk, until then you're invisible

Cause there's this switch that gets hit
And it all stops making sense
And in the middle of drinks
Maybe the fifth or the sixth
I'm completely alone at a table of friends
I feel nothing for them
I feel nothing, nothing

Well I need a break from the city again
I think I'll ship myself back west
I've got a friend there
She says "Hey anytime"
Unless that offer's expired
I have been less than frequent
She's under no obligation
To indulge every whim
And I'm so ungrateful, I take
She gives and forgives and I keep forgetting it

And each morning she wakes
With a dream to describe
Something lovely that bloomed
In her beautiful mind
I say, "i'll trade you one
For two nightmares of mine
I have some where i die
I have some where we all die"

I'm thinking of quitting drinking again
I know I've said that a couple of times
And I'm always changing my mind
Well I guess I am
But there's this burn in my stomach
And there's this pain in my side
And when I kneel at the toilet
And the morning's clean light
Pours in through the window
Sometimes I pray I don't die
I'm a goddamn hypocrite

But then night rolls around and it all starts making sense
There is no right way or wrong way, you just have to live
And so I do what I do, and at least I exist
What could mean more than this?
What would mean more, mean more?

Some plans were made and rice was thrown
A house was built, a baby born
How time can move both fast and slow amazes me
And so I raise my glass to symmetry
To the second hand and its accuracy
To the actual size of everything
The desert is the sand

You can't hold it in your hand
It won't bow to your demands
There's no difference you can make
There's no difference you can make
And if it seems like an accident
A collage of senselessness
You weren't looking hard enough
I wasn't looking hard enough

An argument for consciousness
The instinct of the blind insect
Who makes love to the flowerbed
And dies in the first freeze
I want to learn such simple things
No politics, no history
So what I want and what I need
Can finally be the same
I just got myself to blame
Give everything up to fate
When there's choices I can make
When there's choices I can make
Now my heart needs a polygraph
I'm so eager to pack my bags
When I really wanna stay

The arc of time, the stench of sex
The innocence you can't protect
Each quarter note, each marble step
Walk up and down that lonely treble clef
Each wanting the next one to arrive

An argument for consciousness
The instinct of the blind insect
Who never thinks not to accept it's fate, that's faith
There's happiness in death
You give to the next one
You give to the next on down the line

The levity of longing that
Distills each dream inside my head
By morning watered down, forget
On silver stars I wish and wish and wish
From one to the next one
From one to the next right down the line
You give to the next one
You give to the next on down the line

A house of cards
The supple heart
Is not a place to dwell

Now you have your cake
Don't hesitate
Come on just do it
Come on just do it

Put it in your mouth
There is only now
Tomorrow has to wait

But know there's no backing out
This is gonna be reality
You can never dream it down

I have no way of telling
The two apart

Well I made amends
In the general sense
But the devil's in the details

And I know the cause
And I want to stop
But I can't do it
I just can't do it

There was love I meant
There were accidents
So tell me which is which

Cause I just can't work it out
But for memory and clarity
We had better write it down

I have no way of knowing
The truth with time dissolves

I put the past into the ground
I saw the future as a cloud
If there's still time to turn around
I'm going to

Its just one day I fell asleep
And now all day and night I dream
I am the first one I deceive
If I can make myself believe
The rest is easy

I wanna be the surgeon that cuts you open
And fixes all of life's mistakes
I wanna be the house that you were raised in
The only place that you feel safe
I wanna be your shower in the morning
That wakes you up and makes you clean
I know I'm just the weather against your window
As you sleep through a winter's dream
Something's churning the earth
Something's stirring the sky
Every color at once in a column of light
Bacteria breeds on a microscope slide
The worm in my heart is the apple of your eye
Don't adore what is impossible
We have built this ship in a wine bottle
If we knew how it worked we would have to grow old
Something's eating at you
Wakes you up in the night
If you're digging the past
Who knows what you'll find
Read the newspaper print off the microfiche slide
And you're holding your breath
For the rest of your life
Don't you love what is intangible
I have built this ship in a wine bottle
But if you knew who I was
You would never grow old

John A Hobson was a good man
He used to loan me books and mic stands
He even got me a subscription to the Socialist Review
Listening to records in his basement
Old folk songs about the government
"It's love of money, not the market," he said
"These fuckers push on you
And freedom yells, it dont cry
Whatever sells will decide
But there is no hell when you die
So dont look so worried"
He got a night life
Lost his day job
Pushing paper, swinging pendulums
Anything to serve a function or to occupy some time
You have got to earn this living somehow
You are good as dead without a bank account
But it is funny how alive he felt, down in that unemployment line
With all the trash at his feet
The pools of piss in the street
All of that filthy empathy for the way we're feeling
The billboards shade
The flags they wave
The anthem was playing loud
The baseball game was letting out
Then all at once he saw the dust
And heard every tiny sound
Got in his truck and turned around
Drove out through the crowd and the cops
Drove out past that center mall
Out past that sickening sprawl
Out past that fenced in gold
And maybe he lost control fucking with the radio
But I bet the stars seemed so close at the end

I wish I had a parachute cause I'm falling bad for you
And I can see the ground approaching now
But I'm not sure what to do
I feel like a pinata won't you take a swing at me
If you could just crack the shell open
I think inside you'd find something sweet

I hear you like a hunter now, your footsteps in the leaves
And I would gladly leave my hiding place
Yes I'm hoping to be seen
So let your arrow fly and sing
I'm well within your aim
Lay your traps for a thousand miles
Please don't let me escape

Winter came to Omaha and left us looking like a bride
A million perfect snowflakes
And no two are alike
And so it's hard for me imagining the flaws in this design
I know debris, it covers everything
But still I am in love with this life

Did it all get real, I guess it's real enough
They got refrigerators full of blood
Another century spent pointing guns
At anything that moves
Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot
My twitching muscles tense my flippant thoughts
I never really dreamed of heaven much
Until we put him in the ground
But it's all I'm doing now
Listening for patterns in the sound
Of an endless static sea
But once the satellite's deceased
It blows like garbage through the streets
Of the night sky to infinity
But don't you weep
Don't you weep for them
There is nothing as lucky
Honey don't you weep
Don't you weep for them
There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free

Don't be a criminal in this police state
You better shop and eat and procreate
You got vacation days then you might escape
To a condo on the coast
I set my watch to the atomic clock
I watch the crowd count down till the bomb gets dropped
I always figured there'd be time enough
I never let it get me down
But I can't help it now
Looking for faces in the clouds
I got some friends I barely see
But we're all planning to meet
We'll lay in bags as dead as leaves
All together for eternity
But don't you weep
Don't you weep for us
There is no one as lucky
Honey, don't you weep
Don't you weep for us
There is nothing as lucky, as easy, or free

So there was this woman and
She was on an airplane and
She's flying to meet her fiancé
Sailing high above the largest ocean
On planet Earth and she was seated
Next to this man who you know
She had tried to start a conversation
But really the only thing
She heard him say was to order his Bloody Mary
And she's sitting there and she's reading
This really arduous magazine article about this
Third world country that she couldn't
Even pronounce the name of and
She's feeling very bored and very despondent
And then uh suddenly there's this huge mechanical failure
And one of the engines gave out
And they started just falling thirty thousand feet
And the pilot's on the microphone and he's saying
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Oh My God, I'm Sorry"
And apologizing and she looks at the man and she says
"Where are we going?" and he looks at her and he says
"We're going to a party, it's a birthday party
"It's your birthday party, happy birthday darling
"We love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much"
And then he starts humming this little tune and it kind of goes like this:

One, Two, One, Two, Three, Four
We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues from the books we have read
Into the face of every criminal strapped firmly in a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
And in the ear of every anarchist who sleeps but doesn't dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

And it'll go like this
While my mother waters plants my father loads his gun
He says, "Death will give us back to God
"Just like the setting sun
"is returned to the lonesome ocean"

And then they splashed into the deep blue sea
And it was a wonderful splash

We must blend into the choir, sing ecstatic with the whole
We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul
And in this endless race for property and privilege to be won
We must run, we must run, we must run

We must hang up in the belfry where the bats in moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
And in the caverns of tomorrow with our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge

And then we'll get down there
way down to the very bottom of everything
and then we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it

Oh my morning's coming back
The whole world's waking up
Oh the city bus is swimming past
I'm happy just because
I found out I am really no one

If you hate the taste of wine
Why do you drink it till you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
The past and future town

We are nowhere and it's now
We are nowhere and it's now

And like a ten minute dream in the passenger seat
While the world was flying by
You haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a lifetime

I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide

I've got no plans and too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought as I walk a block
To my favorite neon sign

Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the juke box on and we hum along
And I smile back at her

And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned

Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it onto me
She said this one will bring you love
And I don't know if it's true
But I keep it for good luck

Grey light new day leaks through the window
Some old song comes on the alarm clock radio
We walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard that everything would be
And there were barricades to keep us off the street
But the crowd kept pushing forward
Till they swallowed the police
Yeah, they went wild, yeah, they went wild
yeah, they went wild, yeah, they went wild

We left before the dust had time to settle
And all the broken glass swept off the avenue
Ana all the way home held your camera like a bible
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth

And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room
You drop the paper in the water
And it all begins to bloom

Yeah, they go wild, yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild, yeah, they go wild

And just when I get so lonesome I can't speak
I see some flowers on a hillside
Like a wall of new TVs

Yeah, they go wild, yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild, yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild, yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild, yeah, they go wild

I know that it is freezing but I think we have to walk
I keep waving at the taxis they keep turning their lights off
But Julie knows a party at some actor's west side loft
Supplies are endless in the evening by the morning they'll be gone
When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend
I get a coffee and the paper
Have my own conversations with the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening by the morning looks like shit
And I know you have a heavy heart
I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger than me have throw their backs out trying to lift it
But me I'm not a gamble you can count on me to split
The love I sell you in the evening by the morning won't exist
You're looking skinny like a model with your eyes all painted black
You just keep going to the bathroom always say you'll be right back
Well, it takes one to know one, kid, I think you got it bad
What's so easy in the evening by the morning's such a drag
I got a flask inside my pocket we can share it on the train
And if you promise to stay conscious I will try and do the same
Well we might die from medication but we sure killed all the pain
But what was normal in the evening by the morning seems insane
And I'm not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away but the feeling never did
It's not something I would recommend but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight by the morning never is
It was so simple in the moonlight now it's so complicated
It was so simple in the moonlight

You were born inside of a raindrop
I watched you falling to your death
And the sun, well, it could not save you
From falling down to the streets all wet
Body of water, toxic and timeless
Atlantic Ocean, New York skyline
I always get lost when I leave the village
So I couldn't come meet you in Brooklyn last night

But I sing glory from my lowest
And I will say peace to the people I meet
While the world waits for an explosion
That instant of light that wipes the slate clean

So don't be fooled, so don't be lied to
Love was always cruel
And don't act strange, don't be a stranger
It happened to me, now it's happening to you
But if you take that train underwater
Then we could talk it through

Well, if I could tame all of my desires
Wait out the weather that howls in my brain
Because it seems that it's always changing
The winds' indecision, the sorrowful rain

I was a postcard, I was a record
I was a camera until I went blind
Now I'm riding all over this island
Looking for something to open my eyes

We will sing glory from a high rise
And I will say thanks if you're pouring my drinks
While the world waits for an explosion
That moment in time when we are set free

So don't stay mad, just let some time pass
And in the morning you awake feeling new
And if I don't come back
I mean, if I get sidetracked
It's only 'cause I wanted to
Keeping up with the moon on an all night avenue

This is the first day of my life
I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain, suddenly everything changed
They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don't know where I am
I don't know where I've been
But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I'd let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you had just woke up
And you said "this is the first day of my life
"I'm glad I didn't die before I met you
"Now I don't care I could go anywhere with you
"And I'd probably be happy"

So if you want to be with me
With these things there's no telling
We'll just have to wait and see
But I'd rather be working for a paycheck
Then waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time it's different
I mean I really think you'll like me

Well I'm changing all my strings
I'm gonna write another travelin' song
About all the billion highways
And the cities at the break of dawn
I guess the best that I can do now
Is to pretend that I've done nothing wrong
And to dream about a train
That's gonna take me back where I belong

Well now the ocean speaks and spits
And I can hear it from the interstate
And I'm screamin' at my brother on a cellphone
He is far away
And I'm saying nothing in the past or future
Ever will feel like today
Until we're parking in an alley
Just hoping that our shit is safe

So I go back and forth forever All my thoughts they come in pairs Oh I will, I won't, I doubt, I don't, I'm not surprised but I never feel quite prepared Now I'm hunched over a typewriter
I guess you call that paintin' in a cave
And there's a word I can't remember
and a feeling I cannot escape
And now my ashtray's overflowing
I'm still staring at a clean white page
Oh and morning's at my window
She is sending me to bed again

Well I dream the dark on the horizon
I dream the desert where the dead lay down
I dream the prostituted child touching an old man in a fast food crown
I dreamt this ship was sinkin' there were people screaming all around
And I awoke to my alarm clock it was a pop song it was playin' loud

So I will find my fears and face them
Or I will cower like a dog
I will kick and scream or kneel and plead
I will fight like hell to hide that I've given up

If you walk away I'll walk away
Just tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing someday
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way

The future hangs over our heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls all around like a cold steady rain
Just stay in when it's looking this way

And the moon's laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds like a jewelry store case
They argue walk this way, now walk this way

Laura's asleep in my bed
As I'm leaving she wakes up and says
I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave
Baby, don't go away, come here

There's kids playing guns in the street
One's pointing his tree branch at me
So I put my hands up, said Enough is Enough
If you walk away, I'll walk away
Then he shot me dead

I found a liquid cure
For my landlocked blues
It will pass away, like a slow parade
It's leaving, but I don't know how soon

And the world's got me dizzy again
You'd think after 22 years I'd be used to the spin
But it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away

I'm drinking the ink from my pen
And I'm balancing history books up on my head
And it all boils down to one quotable phrase:
If you love something, give it away

A good woman will pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for a possible heart
And you may be offended, and you may be afraid
But don't walk away, don't walk away

We made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background from a televised war
And in that deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say
If we walk away, they'll walk away

But greed is a bottomless pit
And all freedom's a joke, we're just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch the sad comic display
If you're still free, start running away
Cos we're coming for you

I've grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying "Let me walk away, please"

You'll be free, child, once you have died
From the shackles of language in measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
Tell them walk away, walk away, walk away

So I'm up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I'm leaving, but I don't know where to
Yeah, I'm leaving, but I don't know where to

Poison oak, some boyhood bravery
When the telephone was a tin can on a string
And I fell asleep with you still talking to me
You said you weren't afraid to die
In polaroids you were dressed in women's clothes
Were you made ashamed, why'd you lock them in a drawer?
Well, I don't think that I ever loved you more

Than when you turned away, when you slammed the door
When you stole the car and drove towards Mexico
And you wrote bad checks just to fill your arm
I was young enough, I still believed in war

Well let the poets cry themselves to sleep
And all their tearful words will turn back into steam

But me, I'm a single cell on a serpent's tongue
There's a muddy field where a garden was
And I'm glad you got away but I'm still stuck out here
My clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears

And I never thought this life was possible
You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for

The end of paralysis, I was a statuette
Now I'm drunk as hell on a piano bench
And when I press the keys it all gets reversed
The sound of loneliness makes me happier

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake, its morning

I have my drugs, I have my woman
They keep away my loneliness
My parents, they have their religion
But sleep in separate houses

I read the body count out of the paper
And now it's written all over my face
No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter
Sometimes that's just the most comfortable place

So I'm drinking, breathing, writing, singing
Every day I'm on the clock
My mind races with all my longings
But can't keep up with what I've got

And so I hope I dont sound too ungrateful
For what history gave modern man
A telephone to talk to strangers
Machine guns and a camera lens

So when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing
It's best to join the side that's gonna win
No one's sure how all of this got started
But we're gonna make 'em God damn certain how it's gonna end
Oh yeah we will, oh yeah we will

Well I could have been a famous singer
If I had some one else's voice
But failure's always sounded better
Let's fuck it up boys, make some noise

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake, it's morning

This is the first day of my life
I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain, suddenly everything changed
They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don't know where I am
I don't know where I've been
But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I'd let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you had just woke up
And you said "this is the first day of my life
"I'm glad I didn't die before I met you
"Now I don't care I could go anywhere with you
"And I'd probably be happy"

So if you want to be with me
With these things there's no telling
We'll just have to wait and see
But I'd rather be working for a paycheck
Then waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time it's different
I mean I really think you'll like me

When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our womens' rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where prisons should be built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs, the ghetto's broke
No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't
Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That's what God recommends

When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
While they pick which countries to invade
Which Muslim souls still can be saved?
I guess God just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God

When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?

I doubt it
I doubt it

I am a blueblood I will admit that
I dance in blue shoes and wear a blue hat
Live in a blue house on a blue street, in a blue town by a blue creek
I write my blue songs with my blue pen
I sing the blue notes to my blue friends
Now I don't know that much about you
But I like you because you are true blue
I had a blue dream about a blue star
In it I drove there in my blue car
And when I got there I met a blue dog with a blue tongue
We had real fun
We bounced a blue ball
It broke a blue glass
We banged on blue drums and called it bluegrass
I guess the thing I'm trying to tell you is that it is best, kid
If you're true blue
Once I had gangrene I had it real bad
And so the Doc came with his black bag
I said "You know doc, I don't feel well
"If you had a blue bag, I think I'd get well"
So he came right back with a blue sack
He said, "Will this do?" I said, "Why not? Yeah"
That is how I am here today to tell you that it is best, man
To be true blue
Out on the blue sea I sailed a blue ship
I had a first mate that always had blue lips
His name was Bluebeard
He had a weird twitch
We flew a blue flag up on a big stick
And we ate bluegill and we ate blue chips
Oh, I felt real blue eating that blue fish
Because there ain't much that I won't do
Unless it keeps me from being true blue
Once in a blue moon there is a blue sky
I wear my blue jeans and fly my blue kite
It hangs like a bluebird until the wind dies
And then the tears pour out of my blue eyes
If it is your birthday we'll bake you a blue cake
And then we'll eat it off my blue plates
Because kid, I don't know much about you
But I like you because you are true blue

Well once I gave a look to you but you never gave it back
So here I stand expressionless but my memory's intact
I guess the past is good for a laugh
A comedy so dry and black
It makes my stomach hurt so bad, I cried
So two thumbs up we give this one despite its predictable ending
The dialogue seemed rushed and wrong but the actors did their best
To lay some worth on every word
Like coffins dropped into the earth
The saddest sound I ever heard, we sang along
We sang it, take this wait away
We sang it, take this wait away
We sang it, take this wait away
Away
Away

You said they laid out lots of coke
You don't know how much you did
Now you dont want me to go home, because you're afraid you might get sick
Just like the bad news you accept, just like that boy you're gonna get
It's the mistake I wont regret, I'll be your friend
But you just haven't made me yet
So you come chasing after me, but I'm just barely out the door
Down in the belly of the beast, we waited with the passengers
Just like the train I gotta catch, just like that song I can't finish
You'll be my friend but I hope I just haven't made you yet
You talk like you're drunk, like you're standing in front of a microphone
And each night it repeats and you fall into me, like a domino
And you talk when you're drunk like you're writing it up for a article
And you think that I lie when I tell you goodbye and then I've got to go, cause I've got to go
But I guess it's a success, we're at our best when you're upset
I'll be your friend but you just haven't made me yet

Amy's got a baby in her stomach, she took my hand and I felt it kick
So she's crying and glowing, she's three months and showing
Seeing her now makes me want to live
But her man's got an angry mouth, he once told me to rot in hell
He's poisonous, reasonless, demons and Jesus, if he died it'd be just as well
So I'm having it out with the rain
It argues so long and so loud
It keeps tapping and talking we're walking forever on First Avenue headed south
And all the traffic lights blur into a bright bouquet
My heart is in mothballs, it's been packed away, and I can't get to it, no way
Until the birds return for spring cleaning
All the traffic lights blur into a bright bouquet
I wish I could just turn and walk away, but I can't do it, no way
Until the birds return for spring cleaning

First with your hands and then with your mouth
A downpour of sweat, damp cotton clouds
I was a fool, you were my friend
You made it happen
You took off your clothes, left on the light
You stood there so brave
You used to be shy
Each feature improved, each movement refined and eyes like a showroom
Now they're spreading out the blankets on the beach
That weatherman's a liar
He said it'd be raining
But it's clear and blue as far as I can see

Left by the lamp, right next to the bed
On a cartoon cat pad you scratched with a pen
"Everything is as it's always been
This never happened
Don't take it so bad, it's nothing you did
It's just once something dies you can't make it live
You're a beautiful boy
You're a sweet little kid but I am a woman"
So I laid back down and wrapped myself up in the sheet
And I must have looked like a ghost cause something frightened me
And since then I've been so good at vanishing

Now I do as I please and I lie through my teeth
Someone might get hurt, but it won't be me
I should probably feel cheap but I just feel free
And a little bit empty
No, it isn't so hard to get close to me
There'll be no arguments
We'll always agree
And I will try and be kind when I ask you to leave
We'll both take it easy
But if you stay too long inside my memory
I will trap you in a song tied to a melody
And I will keep you there so you can't bother me

Well if you turn the porch light off and let the marble light withdraw
You can smoke a cigarette on the wooden steps
The mosquitoes are not vampires, the moon is not your mother
Although she is preparing for a total eclipse
Get behind the wheel, stay in front of the storm
Get behind the wheel, stay in front of the storm
The clouds dream disorder, they make faces, they make mud
On some ancient order which is no longer enforced
The sugar bowl is full of ants
Your sister is a dumpy mess
And you're cutting off your head to spite your shoulders
Get behind the wheel, stay in front of the storm
Just get behind the wheel, stay in front of the storm

The picture's far too big to look at kid, your eyes won't open wide enough
And you're constantly surrounded by the swirling stream of what is and what was
Well, we've all made our predictions but the truth still isn't out
But if you wanna see the future, go and stare into a cloud
And keep trying to find your way out through that maze of memories
It all sorta looks familiar till you get up close then it's different clearly
But each time you turn a corner
You're right back where you were
And your only hope is that forgetting might make a door appear
Is it your fear of being buried that makes you so afraid to speak?
An avalanche of opinions like the one that fell that I'm now underneath
It was my voice that moved the first rock and I would do it all again
I mean, it's cool if you keep quiet but I like singing
So I'll be holding my note and stomping and strumming and feeling so very lucky
And there is nothing I know except a lifetime's one moment and wishing will just leave you empty
So you can try to live in darkness but you will never shake the light
No, it will greet you every morning, make you more aware with its absence at night
When you're wrapped up in your blankets, baby, that comfortable cocoon
But I've seen the day of your awakening, boy, and it's coming soon
So go ahead and lose yourself in liquor and you can praise the clouded mind
But it isn't what you're thinking, no, it's the course of history, your position in line
You're just a piece of the puzzle, so I think you'd better find your place
And don't go blaming your knowledge on some fruit you ate
'Cause there's been a great deal of discussion, yes, about the properties of man
I mean, animal or angel, you were carved from bone but your heart is just sand
And the wind is gonna scatter it and cover everything with love
So if it makes you happy then keep kneeling, but I'm standing up
Because this veil it has been lifted, yes, my eyes are wet with clarity
I've been a witness to such wonders, yes, I have searched for them all across this country
But I think I'll be returning now to the town where I was born
And I understand you must keep moving, friend, but I'm headed home
Yeah, I'm gonna follow the road and let the scenery sweeping by easily enter my body
I will send this message in code, underground, through forests and deserts and cities
All across electric wire, it's a baited line, yeah the hook's in deep, boys, there's no more time
So you can struggle in the water, be too stubborn to die
Or you can just let go and be lifted to the sky

There's no beginning to the story
A bookshelf sinks into the sand
And a language learned and forgot in turn
Is studied once again
It's a shocking bit of footage
Viewed from a shitty tv screen
You can squint at it
Just snow and static
To make out the meaning
And keep on stretching the antenna
Hoping that it will come clear
We need some reception
A higher message
Just tell us what to fear
'Cause I don't know what tomorrow brings
To light with such possibilities
All I know is I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That's my voice rising

So Michael please keep the tape rolling
Boys keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures
Yes we must document our love
I have sat too long in my silence
I have grown too old in my pain
To shed this skin
Be born again
Oh it starts with an ending
So thank you friends for the time we shared
My love stays with you like sunlight and air
No I truly wish I could keep hanging around here
My joy is covering me
Soon I will disappear

It's not a movie
No private screening
This method acting
Well I call it living
It's like a fountain
A door has opened
We have a problem
With no solution but to love
And to be loved
So I've made peace with the fallen leaves
I see their same fate in my own body
But I won't be frightened when I'm awoken from this dream
And return to that which gave birth to me
Gave birth to me gave birth to me gave birth to me
And the story goes and the story goes
And it goes on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on

On a string
On a string
on a string
I was held
The way I moved, can't you tell
My actions are orchestrated from above
And so I swing and I'll sway
Wave my hand, kick my leg
And it's always right with the music
(katie and tiffany: till all that swaying starts to make you sad)
For a song, I was bought
Now I lie, when I talk
With a careful eye on the cue card
Onto a stage, I was pushed
With my sorrow well rehearsed
So give me all your pity and your money now
All of it
(katie and tiffany: we used to think that sound was something pure)
But if I could act like this was my real life
And not some cage where I was placed
Well then I could tell you
The truth like I used to
And not be afraid of sounding fake
Not while all you were listening for was the mistakes
(katie: sorry!)
It's alright
One, two, three!
One, two, three!
In a house by myself
I hear the ice start to melt
And I watched the rooftops weep for the sunlight
And I know what must change
Fuck my face, fuck my name
They are brief and false advertisements
For a soul, I don't have
Something true I have lacked
I spent my whole life trying to make up for it
But I found, in a song
And I'll repeat
It will lift me up out of darkness
And now my door
It stands open, I'm inviting all of you in
We're gonna laugh, we're gonna drink
Until the morning comes
That's what we're gonna do!
Come on!
Come on!

Well, you say that I treat you like a book on a shelf
I don't take you out that often
'Cause I know that I completed you
And that's why you are here
That's the reason you stay here
How awful that must feel
You said you'd be my dream
I could have you every night
And if by morning I'd forgotten you
Well, no big deal, that'd be all right
'Cause you're the re-occuring kind
You are the re-occuring kind
You never really leave my mind
Are you the love of my lifetime
'Cause there's been times I've had my doubts
We were just kids when I first kissed you
In the attic of my parents' house
And I wish we were there now
I took so long to figure out
What this book has been about
Now I write when I'm away
Letters that you'll never read
You said 'Go explore those other women
The geography of their bodies
But there's just one map you'll need
You're a boomerang you'll see
You will return to me
Yeah you will you will you will'
Well, if you don't think this book's all lies
If you don't think my plans would all be ruined
I'll start drinking like the way I drank before
And I just won't have a future anymore

I picked you out
Of a crowd to talk to you
Said I liked your shoes
You said thanks can I follow you?
So it's up the stairs
And out of view
No prying eyes
I poured some wine
I asked your name you asked the time
Well it's two o'clock
Yeah the club is closed we're up the block
Your hands on me
Pressing hard against your jeans
Your tongue in my mouth
Trying to keep the words from coming out
You didn't care to know
Who else may have been here before
I want a lover I don't have to love
I want a girl who's to sad to give a fuck
Where's the kid with the chemicals?
I thought he said he'd meet us here but I'm not sure
I got the money if you got the time
He said it feels good I said I'll give it a try
Then my mind went dark
We both forgot where your car was parked
Let's just take the train
I'll meet up with the band in the morning
Bad actors with bad habits
Some sad singers
They just play tragic
Now the phone's ringing
And the band's leaving
Let's just keep touching
Let's just keep keep singing
I want a lover I don't have to love
I want a boy who's so drunk he doesn't talk
Where's the kid with the chemicals
I got a hunger and I can't seem to get full
I need some meaning I can memorize
The kind I have always seems to slip my mind
But you but you
You write such pretty words
But life's no story book
Love is an excuse to get hurt
And to hurt
Do you like to hurt?
'Cause I do I do I do
This didn't hurt me
Didn't hurt me
Oh this hurt me

The rain it started tappin'
On the window near my bed
There was a loophole in my dreamin'
So I got out of it
And to my surprise my eyes were wide and already open
Just my nightstand and my dresser
Where those nightmares had just been
So I dressed myself and left then
Out into the gray streets
But everything seemed different
And completely new to me
The sky the trees, houses, buildings, even my own body
And each person I encountered
I couldn't wait to meet
And I came upon a doctor
Who appeared in quite poor health
I said there's nothing I can do for you that you can't do for yourself
He said oh yes you can, just hold my hand, so I sat with him awhile
Then I asked him how he felt
He said I think I'm cured
No, in fact, I'm sure of it
Thank you, stranger
For your therapeutic smile
So that's how I learned the lesson
That everyone's alone
And your eyes must do some raining
If you're ever gonna grow
And when crying don't help
You can't compose yourself
It's best to compose a poem
An honest verse of longing
Or a simple song of hope
That's why I'm singing baby don't worry
'Cause now I got your back
And every time you feel like crying
I'm gonna try and make you laugh
And if I can't
If it just hurts too bad
Then we'll wait for it to pass
And I will keep you company for those days so long and black
And we'll keep working on the problem
We know we'll never solve
Our love's un-even remainders
Our lives are fractions of a whole
But if the world could remain within a frame
Like a painting on a wall
Then I think we'd see the beauty then
We'd stand staring in awe
At our still lives posed
Like a bowl of oranges
Like a story told
By the fault-lines in the soil

Is it true what they say about the son of God?
Did he come for us or did he come at all?
And if I washed his feet with my dirty hair would he make me cleanagain?

Well, they don't know when but a day's gonna come
When there won't be a moon and there won't be a sun
It's gonna all go black, it's gonna all go back
To the way it was before

I knew a lovely girl with such pretty pride
Every man wanted her, yeah, and so did I, yeah, and so did I
But she up and died in a fit of vanity

Now men with purple hearts carry silver guns and they'llkill a man for what his father's done
But what my father did, no, it don't mean shit, I'm not him

But still it's hard to ignore all the news reports
That say we must defend ourselves and fight on foreign soil against the infidels with the oil wells
God saves gas prices

You think I need some discipline well, I've had my share
I've been sent to my room and I've sat in a chair
I held my tongue, I didn't plug my ears, no, I had a good talking to

And I don't know why, but I still try to smile when they talk at me like I'm just a child
But I'm not a child, even though I am much younger than that[them?]

Well, I've read some books and I've grown quite brave
If I could just speak up I think that I would say that there is no truth
No, there is only you and what you make the truth

So, I'll sing some songs and I'll pass a hat
And I'll leave your town and I'll never look back
No, I won't look back 'cause the road is clear and laid out ahead of me

When I get home I'll meet my friends at our favorite bar
We'll get some lighter heads for our heavy hearts
Yeah, we'll share a drink, we will share our fears
And they will know how I love them
Yeah, they will know how I love, they will know how I love them
I'm nothing without their love

Well, they don't know when but a day's gonna come
When there won't be a moon and there won't be a sun
It's gonna just go black, it's gonna just go back to the way it's supposed to be

Is it true what they say about the son of God?
Did he die for us or did he die at all?
If I sold my soul, for a bag of gold to you which one of us would be the foolish one?
Which one of us would be the fool? Which one of us would bethe foolish one?

Could you please start explaining? I think I need some understanding
Could you please start explaining? You know I need some understanding
Could you please start explaining? You know I wanna understand

Well the future's got me worried
Such awful thoughts
My head's a carousel of pictures
The spinning never stops
I just want someone to walk in front
And not follow the leader
Like when I fell under the weight of a schoolboy crush
Started carrying her books and doing lots of drugs
I almost forgot who I was
But I came to my senses
Now I'm trying to be assertive
I'm making plans
Gonna rise to the occasion yeah
Meet all their demands
But all I do is just lay in bed
And hide under the covers
Yeah I know I should be brave
But i'm just too afraid of all this change
And it's too hard to focus through all this doubt
I keep making these to-do lists but nothing gets crossed out
Working on the record seems pointless now
When the world ends who's gonna hear it?
But I'm trying to take some comfort in written words
Yeah, Tim, I heard your album and it's better than good
When we get off tour I think we should
Hang and black out together
'Cause I been feeling sentimental for days gone by
All the summers singing, drinking, my friend
Wasting our time
Remember all the songs and the way we smiled
In those basements made of music
But now I've got to crawl to get anywhere at all
I'm not as strong as I thought

So when I'm lost in a crowd
I hope that you'll pick me out
How I long to be found
The grass grew high, I laid down
Now I'm waiting for a hand
To lift me up, help me stand
I've been laying so low
Don't wanna lay here no more
Don't wanna lay here no more

Everything that happens is supposed to be
And it's all predetermined can't change your destiny
Guess I'll just keep moving
Someday maybe I'll get to where I'm going

Our love is dead but without limit
Like the surface of the moon
Or the land between here and the mountains
It is not these hiding places that have kept us innocent
But the way you taught me to just let it all go back
So we learn to be as faithless
Stand behind bulletproof glass
Exchanging our affections through a drawer
It was always horribly convenient and happening too fast
You should count your change before you're even out the door
Well, yes you should, but please return, return
To the person that you were, and I will do the same
'Cause it's too hard to belong to someone who is gone
My compass spins, but wilderness remains
Once too often I've retreated into the depths of my despair
I built a barricade to block you on the road
But standing there with all of my possessions piled higher than a house
I felt closer to you than you ever would have known
So let's let all these tiny acts of charity become ground on which tobuild
A monument to commemorate our time
And though you say you've found another who will surely speed you on your way
Don't let the forest grow over that path you came there by
But you will, so, so hurry up and run to the one that you love
And blind him with your kindness
And he'll make war, oh, war, on who you were before
And claim all that has spoiled in your heart
But now I tell myself I've mended under these patches of blue sky
There's still a few holes that let in a little rain
And so it's crying on my shingles
My floorboards moan under my feet
The refrigerator's whining so I've got reason to complain
But I'm not gonna bless you with such compliments
Some degrading song of praise
Like the kind that converted you to me so long ago
Because the truth is that gossip's as good as gospel in this town
You can save face but you won't ever save your soul
And that's a fact so, so hurry up and run to the one that you love
And blind him in your likeness
And he'll become, become, oh, the prisoner I was
And know all that has spoiled in your heart
Yeah, he'll know it all
He'll know all that has spoiled in your heart
so hurry up and run to the one that you love
And blind him with your kindness
And he'll make war, oh, war, on who you were before
And claim all that has spoiled in your heart

I have a friend, he's mostly made of pain
He wakes up, drives to work and straight back home again
He once cut one of my nightmares out of paper
I thought it was beautiful, I put it on a record cover
And I tried to tell him that he had a sense
Of color and composition so magnificent
And he said thank you, please, but your flattery
It is truly not becoming me
Your eyes are poor, you're blind, you see
No beauty ever could have come from me
I'm a waste
Of breath, of space, of time

I knew a woman she was dignified and true
Her love for her man was one of her many virtues
Until one day she found out that he had lied
And decided the rest of her life from that point on would be a lie
She was grateful for everything that had happened
And she was anxious for all that would come next
But then she wept, what did you expect
In that big old house with the cars she kept
Such is life, she often said
With one day leading to the next
You get a little closer to your death
Which was fine with her, she never got upset
And with all the days she may have left
She would never clean another mess
Or fold his shirts, or look her best
She was free
To waste away alone

Last night my brother, he got drunk and drove
And this cop, he pulled him off to the side of the road
And he said officer, officer, you've got the wrong man
No, no, I'm a student of medicine, a son of a banker, you don't understand
The cop said No one got hurt, you should be thankful
And your carelessness, it is something awful
And no I can't just let you go
And though your father's name is known
Your decisions now are yours alone
You're nothing but a stepping stone on a path
To debt, to loss, to shame

The last few months I've been living with this couple
Yeah, you know the kind who buy everything in doubles
Yeah, they fit together like a puzzle
I love their love and I am thankful
That someone actually receives the prize that was promised
By all those fairy tales that drugged us
And still to me I'm sick, lonely
No laurel tree, just green envy
Will my number come up eventually
Like love's some kind of lottery
Where you scratch and see what's underneath
It's sorry
Just one cherry
I'll play again, get lucky

So now I hang out down by the train's depot
No, I don't ride, I just sit and watch the people there
They remind me of wind-up cars in motion
They way they spin and turn and jockey for positions
And I wanna scream out that it all is nonsense
Their life's one track and can't they see it's pointless?
But just then my knees give under me
My head feels weak and suddenly
It's clear to see, it's not them, but me
Who's lost my self-identity
And I hide behind these books I read
While scribbling my poetry
Like art could save a wretch like me
With some ideal ideology
That no one could hope to achieve
And I'm never real, it's just a sketch of me
And everything I've made is trite and cheap and a waste
Of paint
Of tape
Of time

So I park my car down by the cathedral
Where the floodlights point up at the steeples
Choir practice is filling up with people
I hear the sound escaping as an echo
Sloping off the ceiling at an angle
When the voices blend they sound like angels
I hope there's some room still in the middle
But when lift my voice up now to reach them
The range is too high way up in heaven
So I hold my tongue, forget the song
Tie my shoes, start walking off
And try to just keep moving on
With my broken heart and my absent god
And I have no faith but it's all I want
To be loved
And believe
In my soul, in my soul

There is a man holding a megaphone, so he must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels flying up and down the block
Well, they must have been attached to wires
I saw one laying in the lawn with a broken arm, so I called 911
So that is one less founded opinion
One more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I mean a miracle
So then I fell like that girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes were all holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that is all it takes

Now I'm staring at my wrist hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun and those little painted marbles spinning senseless through an endless, black sky

(and so it never started and it will never stop just like I am and you are)

It was in a foreign hotel's bathtub I baptized myself in change
And one by one I drowned all of the people I had been
I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror and someone new was there
Still I was as helpless as a chess piece when I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner my enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside that holding cell that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key as it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me
"Oh my patient prisoner you have waited for this and finally... you are free! You are free! You are freezing"

Now I'm staring at the sun waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come, don't know when but it will come
And then we will finally know the way out of here
And I will throw away this wrinkled map and my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap to avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sign of graveyard gray and a garden green and then we won't have worry no more
No, we won't ever worry again about how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end

Laura, are you still living there
On your estate of sorrows
You used to leave it occasionally
But now you don't even bother
To ride that commuter train, west to Chicago
To stroll through the greenery in the park past the statues
How their eyes seemed to follow you like a hated addiction
Their beauty carved out of absolutes that you could never claim
Or even envision
Laura, you were the saddest song
In the shape of a woman
Yeah, I thought you were beautiful
But I wept with your movements
But I hope that you're laughing now from that place on the carpet
Where we shared a sleeping bag in your sister's apartment
Oh, how she would worry so
You know, I was just a stranger
But she asked me to care for you, yes she did
And I went and betrayed her
But do you know we're in high demand, Laura, us people who suffer
Because we don't take to arguing
And we're quick to surrender
Well, I think I would call tonight if I still had your number
Your thoughts have always lain close to mine
Yeah, we were both skipping supper
But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living
'Cause it's the ones with the sorest throats, Laura
Who have done the most singing
Everybody
Lalalala...

Well the animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness
A baby cries hard in an apartment complex
As I pass in a car
Buried under the influence
The city's driving me out of my mind
I've seen a child getting caught in that sad trap of gravity
He falls from the lowest branch of the apple tree
And lands in the grass, and weeps for his dignity
Next time he will not aim so high
Yeah next time neither will I

Now my mother takes loans out
Sends her kids off to colleges
Her family's reduced to names on a shopping list
Well a coroner kneels beneath a great wooden crucifix
He goes, 'there are worse things than being alone'
And so I've learned to retreat at the first sign of danger
I mean why wait around, if it's just to surrender
And ambition, I've found, can lead only to failure
I do not read the reviews
No, I am not singing for you

Well I stood dropping a coin into the pit of a well
And I would throw my whole billfold if I thought it would help
With all these wishes I make, I should buy something real
At least a telephone, call home
Well my teachers they build this retaining wall of memory
All those bold, simple choices I answer so fluently
And got my grades back, and forgot just as easily
But at least I got an A
So I don't have them to blame
So I should stop pointing fingers
Reserve my judgement of all those public action figures
They count their presidents
So loud behind the bullhorn
So proud they can't admit
They may have made a mistake
Well-poisoning excuse from a speechwriter's pen
He knows he don't have to say it so it don't bother him
Honesty, accuracy, they're just popular opinion
The approval rating's high
Yeah so someone's gonna die
ABC, NBC, CBS bullshit
They give us fact or fiction and we can't even split
And each stupid act of war is tonight's entertainment
We're still pawns in their game
As they take eye for an eye, until no one can see
And we will stumble blindly forth, repeating history
Why can't we all be as useful on that flat-screen marquee
Blood red and white skin knowing the blues
Oh yeah the blues I got the blues
That's me

Well I awoke in relief
All my sheets and tubes were entangled
Weak from whiskey and pills in a Chicago hospital
And my father was there, in a chair by the window
Staring so far away
And I tried talking, just whispered, "so sorry, so selfish."
He stopped me and said, 'Child, I love you regardless
'And there is nothing you could do that would ever change this
'I'm not angry, it happens, but you just can't do it again'
So now I try to keep up
I've been exchanging my currency
One million objects pass through my periphery
And I'm rubbing my eyes, cause they're starting to bother me
I've been staring too long at the screen
But where was it when I first heard that sweet sound of humility
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery
To love and to be loved
Let's just hope that is enough

There is a man holding a megaphone
So he must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels
Flying up and down the block
Well, they must have been attached to wires
I saw one laying in the lawn with a broken arm
So I called 911
So that's one less founded opinion
One more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin
Up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors
Leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I, I mean a miracle
So then I fell like that girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes were all holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that's all it takes

Now I'm staring at my wrist
Hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
And those little painted marbles
Spinning senseless through an endless black sky

(And so it never started and it will never stop just like I am and you are)

It was in a foreign hotel's bathtub
I baptized myself in change
And one by one I drowned all of the people I had been
I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror and someone new was there
Still I was as helpless as a chess piece
When I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner
My enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside
That holding cell that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key
As it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me
"Oh, my patient prisoner, you have waited for this day and finally
You are free! You are free! You are freezing"

Now I'm staring at the sun waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come
Don't know when but it will come
And then we will finally know the way out of here

And I will throw away this wrinkled map
And my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap
To avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sing
Of a graveyard gray and a garden green
And then we won't have worry no more
No, we won't ever worry again
About how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end

The kitchen is cold
But the coffee is warm
The sun is coming up
The day has just begun
And you are already bored

You're bored of cheering me up
Bored of calming me down
Bored of drying my eyes
But there was once a time when you were the one

You were the blue of the sky
You came after the storm
You were the switch on the wall
In the dark of the hall
That I'm still fumbling for

Because I'm lost in the black
I don't know where I am
I have my arms stretched out in front
And I'm calling your name just as loud as I can

And I know there's words that we will never speak
And the questions can't be answered easily
But I want it to be easy

So nod you head if the plans have changed
Shake it, love, if they've stayed the same
Smile at me and I will stay
Start to cry and I'll go away
Just, please
Don't leave me guessing

So you made me come
Then you sent me away
Like a messenger bird
So I circled the earth
Blown away in the wind
But I always returned

With some new little song
Some sad story to tell
Of a brief love affair
With a girl I compared to you
And she failed

You said you don't want me to beg
Then said "Get down on your knees,"
'Cause you knew that I would
If I'd do any good
Satisfying your needs

And I know all about those things we cannot speak
And just so you know, well
They don't bother me
So you don't have to be worried

Just nod your head if the plans have changed
Shake it, love, if they've stayed the same
Smile at me and I will stay
Start to cry and I'll go away
Just, please
Don't leave me guessing

Just nod your head if your mind's been changed
Shake it, love, if some hope remains
Just say the word and of course I'll stay
Roll you eyes and I'll go away
Just, please
Don't leave me guessing
Just, please
Don't keep me waiting