1. |
New
03:27
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They’re sweeping the early streets
Piles of firework debris
Exploded used up dust of energy
Twenty-seventeen
Red, white and blue flames
Painfully slow change
I drive to the ocean
Watch the winter waves
On New Year’s Day
I feel like a ship wrecked sixteenth century
Alone at my own funeral and I’m whistling
A theme for the future out of reach
To the crowd down on the beach
Gone
Are all of my hopes and dreams
I don’t know what the hell is happening
I feel free
Free like a light wave
Riding a minute into infinity
I write on the back of an overdrawn receipt
From twenty-seventeen
I’ve grown so used to you
I’m scared to death of something new
I’m sure you are too
I feel like a ship wrecked sixteenth century
Alone at my own funeral and I’m whistling
A theme for the future out of reach
To the crowd down on the beach
Aren’t we all coded love notes lost at sea
Longing to change from strangers to family
Invisibly bound but afraid of what we can’t see
Something
New
They’re sweeping the early streets
Piles of firework debris
The winds filling up the sails of red and blue
White stars and stripes shot through
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2. |
Moving
02:14
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Two stars in the dark
Headlights by the roadside
Maybe I should’ve turned right
It’s midnight on the Fourth of July
Can’t sleep - dawn breaks
On an empty, wide open freeway
I keep moving
I have this memory of when
I was thirteen in the backseat
Headphones on ‘cross the country
And the spaces that were empty
Filled the loneliness of my dreams
The sun sets slowly
From a blind rock to the southeast
And I see we’re bleeding
Without you I would not be here
Without you I would not be
I can’t remember what I’ve lost
But I can feel how much it cost
Sing a song for the country
Of the dreamers and the lonely
For the mountains high over evergreens
For the freeways and the gasoline
Sing a song for the ones that were made to leave
For the chained hands that built this democracy
For the canyons older than all of these
Sing a song for the great possibilities
That are riding in the backseat
On the birthday of the country
Two stars in the dark
Headlights by the roadside
Maybe this is the right time
And the place will do just fine
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3. |
Parrots of Highland Park
05:34
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In the morning, when the early light shines in,
Listen. In the distance past the plaster walls,
Beyond apartment’s din,
They are singing
Close your eyes and picture brightly colored wings
And just pretend
You are flying
Borne by body angles
Tilted, twisted, weightless on the wind
Then she was twenty-three
Eyes wide and startling
A smile to make you fall
Head over heels and all
In this black and white photograph
Dated a few years back
Bears little resemblance now
To the girl who lived a few doors down
How quickly this steady stream of steel and concrete moves
Through hours, days and wears away
At dreams that once were certain to come true
And the singing,
Though it’s drowned in helicopter drone and freeway roar, it’s there
They are flying
Over chaos and confusion,
Like court jesters in the air
Then she was twenty-nine
Eyes tired and shadows hide
A smile to make you cry
Although you can’t say why
In this black and white photograph
Dated a few years back
Bears little resemblance now
To the girl who lived a few doors down
Graffiti Jesus watching over homes that hide the cycles he can’t help
With sunshine always in your eyes you can’t see anyone too well
By the streetlight,
There’s an abuelito selling mangos
If you lend your ear,
He will tell you
How the parrot died to save the world from fire with its tears
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4. |
Blue Gold
03:54
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I don’t want to hear another preacher
With opinions to be defended
I just want someone to hold my hand
And kiss me goodnight when the world has ended
I want to believe in rock and roll music
Or anything to make a sound
Against the silence and the darkness
I want to be brave, but I’m afraid of the light and the crowd
So I keep a bottle in the freezer
And some fire on the shelf
And I know I should replace them,
But they’re an easy escape, though they’re hard on my health
You enter the world through waves and windows
Hatred, fear and hunger manifold
I can’t seem to understand it,
But I guess we all choose what to do with our gold
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5. |
Satie Dream
04:20
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6. |
Lilley
02:49
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Once upon a time,
A summer turned into water
We drank it all and
Fell into a deep sleep and floated
Out on the ocean
Thunder awoke us
Once upon a time
The rush of blood preserved in
The womb beneath the surface
What gives this hue its value?
Follow me back where
In another life,
A river brought me a gift
A long distance swimmer
Wrapped me in her blue arms and loved me
We sank below
Where rain couldn’t follow
In another life
You thought you knew what love was
When it was all around you
And so you broke the surface
I know I’m dreaming
But why wake up?
Once upon a time
Is living memory suspended
Blue arms that reach me
From another life
Where winters turned into sand
Are counted by our old hands
Once upon a time
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7. |
Boo
02:45
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Boo,
I can hear you singing lullabies
See the nightlight shine in your living room
You live all alone
And I don’t think that you ever leave
Close the blinds and cover the mirrors with sheets
Boo,
You’re a ghost that no one talks about
They forgot - you hide in a haunted house
Rewriting a tune
To a theme that means something to me
So I hope you know that I think of you
Dreaming of a garden,
A library, an alchemical state
You’re c-c-crazy, but I think you’re ok
I think you will be ok
I think you will be a-ok
Sometimes, I see a movement in the window
I hear laughing
Sometimes, I hear crying
Boo,
Is it just the way the world moves?
Is it aging? Are you giving up too soon?
What happened to you?
Did you choose a world of melody
over one with the risks and rewards of youth?
They say you have one thousand blue umbrellas
In the desert, of course
You’re c-c-crazy
I don’t know what you mean
In half the songs you sing, but I don’t mind
I keep listening
Sometimes, I see a movement in the window
I hear nothing,
But the silence doesn’t bother me
(Owl: “Hoo-hoo”)
Boo, do you think you’ll ever fall in love?
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8. |
Snakes
04:04
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The cat is purring with pleasure
He smiles and gnashes his teeth
And rolls around in his fine soft furs
Sipping a cup of mushroom tea
Each Sunday, in San Francisco,
His pink flamingo party reconvenes
‘Cause life is a hallucination baby
Still, I wish that he would just come clean
The strong man stands in the flower beds
Whistles while he waters his team
Channeling animal instinct
To raise their right arms in defeat
A mountain goat on a mole hill
Tells me of the valleys and peaks
Little sheep bow at his bare feet
The saxophone blows, the drums beat
And I wonder “Why?”
Their answer never seems quite right
The hole is deep and endless as the night sky
Show me how to live
Knowing I am going to die
They sing in sunflower silence
High vibrato hymns on the breeze
Their faith is an anesthesia
When Mother comes to harvest her seeds
The girl washes their bodies with a soft drink
Cool Coca-Cola makes them weep
They never thought about asking
Who she was or what she believed
And I wonder “Why?”
Their answer never seems quite right
The hole is deep and endless as the night sky
Show me how to live
Knowing I am going to die
Down in the dirt beneath the roses
Men with skin like oysters and jaws like fish
Flapping about big questions
Beards flecked with soil and spit
One says, “You are the earth that eats you.”
So why do I feel this pain?
From somewhere down in a deep well
The echo is still reverberating
Do you wonder “Why?”?
Their answer never seems quite right
The hole is deep and endless as the night sky
Watering the roots
Of the tree of life
Show me how to live
Knowing I am going
To die
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9. |
Swan Song
04:06
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Black borderline
Lies beyond the lake, beyond the night
I’m wearing white
A boy with wet hair shivering inside
With a silver cross necklace
Pressed against my chest
Claimed in the heat of the afternoon
With a taste of the sweet and the bitter fruit
Time flew by
Landed on the lake and cast a line
Pulled you swimming out
Into the womb beyond the borderline
What was left of you?
Ripples in the moonlight, fading proof
And the weight of the silver cross
Heavier now with the taste of loss and
Oh,
The unknown
Pressing close
Mirror, shadow
The moment floating on an endless surface
White well of light
Reflecting triple time
The Sun’s future rising,
Mother’s love,
The past and distant fire
Now the lake is still
A swan floats through the mirror of the moon
In the end, a beginning too
In the seed that grows from the fallen fruit but
Oh,
The unknown
Pressing close
Mirror, shadow
Pulls me in
In my season
Crescent call
Curtains close
The moment floating on an endless surface
Something round unraveling
Twisting loose end
Ripples all across the lake
I wade out and wait
Frequencies slow deep and low
The moment knocks up against the door
Someone cries, “It’s time now.”
I know.
Somersault upward through thick saltwater
Into the well of the moonlight
Lifted like a question
Open my palms to invite the night
Surrendering each side like a circle
A form with no weakness
In a dream
A drawing of a sketch erased
I have no proof, only faith
I wade out and wait
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10. |
Hum
01:51
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Like a bird that flies between
The Sun and the Earth
Wings always beating
Silently
Darkness, a shadow
Outlined in brilliant light that hurts
I close my eyes and think of life
Like falling through an open sky
Face first towards the Earth
I see a shadow
And the dark defines the light
As it shines through from the other side
I have lost so much so I could find
Something true to hang on through the night
So I speak out with a crippled tongue
Fearful voice, soft sound, a single hum
It is strong because it speaks with love
I am strong because I speak with love
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