Lyrics

Black Holes and Overdoses

Black holes and overdoses
Oh me oh my oh

Bends space, bends time
There’s no escape when it’s in your mind
Got a gravity that makes you go blind
It’s the biggest smallest thing you can find
Orion! Save me! I can’t take it!
Won’t you please help me out of this torrent

Of black holes and overdoses
Oh me oh my oh

“One a day” the doctor said
But I’m up to four for to keep ahead
Of the weight of the world
And the doom and the dread
It killed my pain then it killed me dead
Oh, Narcan saved me and I got angry
I just wanted to get back in that feeling

Of black holes and overdoses…

But I’m tireder, tireder than I’ve been before

Of black holes and overdoses…

Light a Candle

You made us coffee and I zoned out on your face
I don’t feel much in the morning anymore
Or if I do it’s nothing worth remembering
Like the shadow of some branches on the door

And there’s nothing secret about the way I fell right in
Once we felt as clear and calm as common chorus on a hymn
And so I synthesize some synesthetic state
Yeah, I sing this song to colorize my days

I light a candle for you every night

Then I got sadder than I thought I oughta be
Sadder still for trying to keep the sadness out
Because I could not sink into my sense of me
I was left with several galaxies of doubt

So washed in weightless wonder of this one big world
I descended to desiring the need of being heard
But anyway the coffee that you made was good
Maybe someday I will feel the way I should

I light a candle for you every night

And Then There Was Fire

And then there was fire and it was not unusual
It got hotter and higher while I stared at the moon
Thinking silver and drinking light
Waltzing in the middle of a little stolen night

And then there was fire and it was the new usual
It got hotter and higher, wired to stare up at the moon
Riding shadows and sleeping late
Fighting back against the cold feeling of modern hate

I don’t wanna be the only one who tries to see it through
The end is new, I think it’s true, our love is you and I
Don’t wanna be the way I am, I try my best to change me everyday
To make myself a little bit better

And then there was fire, but there was not much left to burn
It got hotter and higher, flyers spinning as they turn
Past the broken window of a promised dawn
Rising past the riddle of this love of building a song

I don’t wanna…

Can’t Look Away

We were waiting for the times to change
With small acts and weathervanes
Working out all the well earned blame
In a chorus of “Nos!”

But loose teeth and a gentle touch
Didn’t really ever come to much
The very thing that we loved, and such
What a predictable show

But it’s just another human disaster
On the side of the modern road we’re on
And you can’t look away

But a hungry heart and an angry mind
Will keep you looking and keep you blind
And it won’t matter if you never find
Whatever you need to know

But if we’re honest then we’re often mean
We’re such bad, bad little beings
Making awful and incredible scenes
We’re spinning out in the snow

But it’s just another human disaster…

We keep looking for more to burn
We’re digging deeper down in the earth
Yeah, we’re hooked and it’s gonna hurt
When we lose from winning

Won’t stop till we use it up
And somehow it ain’t ever enough
Even seeing how it’s killing us
When we lose from winning

But it’s just another human disaster…

When the Battle is Won

I made the morning, I painted the sun
You were waiting there and the lines were drawn
I picked a color for your kind of pain
I put my brushes down and I picked again

Baby won’t you tell me? Baby won’t you tell me when the battle is won

You made a promise, you made a call
You make the world you live in bittersweet and beautiful
You give me love you give me all your hot and heavy highs
You open up my little heart and cut me down to size

Baby won’t you tell me…

One more, one more year in the rearview
One more, one more reason to be near you
One more, one more ring around the maple
One more, one more…

Well, the kind of kind you are is fine as summer rain on roots
And the love I feel for you is something like a bright green shoot
But the metaphorical attempt at real emotive thought
Is overshadowed by the battle that is being fought

Baby, won’t you tell me…

Jesus! King of the Dinosaurs

Jesus, King of the dinosaurs, I love you I love you, but they loved you more
J.K.O.D. why didn’t you save them from what was in store?
J.K.O.D. why have I never heard of you before?

Jesus king of dinosaurs riding on a raptor, hunting down some food for the people
J.K.O.D. preaching it out on the forest floor in a brontosaur skeleton steeple
Swamp water into wine, T-rex valentine, vine swinging mind made for reason
Ginkgo leaf, giant fern, learned to sew, learned to burn in the best dreamcoat of the season

Jesus! King of the Dinosaurs

J.K.O.D. did you ever keep a score of your prehistoric conversions?
J.K.O.D. wish i knew a couple more stories from your reptile excursions
Diplodocus, allosaur, oviraptor, irritator, did they drink the wine of your blood?
Stegosaurus, sauropod, troodon and triceratops
did they chew your body like cud?

Jesus! King of the Dinosaurs…

Breathe Forever

Life was on my mind, you were on my couch
I was on my knees and you were in a crouch
A tube driven TV was fuzzing warm and low
The static on the screen a hazed ozone
And you said, “I don’t mind dying
but I think I’d really like to breathe forever
breathe forever”

Staring at the glowbox, chin cupped in your hands
Looking like you’re looking into foreign lands
You said it pretty dreamy and my inner bell was rung
“How the trees in the winter look just like lungs
And I don’t mind dying but I think I’d really like to
Breathe forever, breathe forever”

Watching all the birds go south forever more
You don’t need a whistle to know the score
And everything we noticed that we were doing wrong
Got caught in transit or stuck in a song
And I don’t mind dying but I think I’d really like to
breathe forever, breathe forever

All the alphabetic bozos are screaming in our ears
Yeah they’re stoking all the id fired ego’s fears
Of nothing meaning nothing, so nothing ever means
With echoes of a neo-fascist scheme
And you said “I don’t mind dying
but I think I’d really like to
breathe forever, breathe forever”

Last Man on the Moon

I told myself that it was just the right thing to do
I was thinking about us, not me and you
It was reflexive, falling out of control
I thought that maybe you would come out when we’re old
But things were changing faster than we thought possible
And I tried to reach you but the bandwidth was full

Now I’m the last man on the moon
Forever never felt so soon
I’m the last man on the moon
What am I supposed to do?

I’m staring at a blue speck that was my home
A little dot on a screen on a telephone
Thinking back about how it used to feel
The buzz of spring in the air at the baseball field
Can’t help but wonder if I’m on your mind at all
As we watch it all fall

I’m the last man on the moon…

I wonder if we’re gonna live these days again
Or is this gonna be the ending that ends all ends?
Not that it matters for the next few moments though
I’m still not ready to go

I’m the last man on the moon…

Rock Bottom

Now all these finer folks, man, to me they’re tall jokes,
Lost clowns looking for an easy smile
Stepping out for a little laugh, looking for some unhappy gaff
Something passing facile and free
But me, I’m at the bottom, the sidewalk scum, the rotten
Human element of urban decay
Tired and broken, torched and limping,
Red of eye and lazy thinking
In a brutal broken bottle kind of way
I’m rock bottom love, coming back from above
I’m all push and shove with rockbottom love

Now this lady ain’t no Lincoln, but that’s gasoline she’s drinking
Sinking back into her favorite song
She sings it hard and heavy, breaking out like a levy
Busting open, cutting through the throngs
Now this motor-oil mamma, she’s mostly made of commas
She’s pausing after every thought she thinks
She was brilliant in her season till she crumbled for no reason
Now she can’t remember what she used to drink
She’s rockbottom love, coming back from above
All push and shove with rockbottom love

I found a dog this morning when he barked out a warning
Telling me that he belonged right there
I told her all about him and she went away and found him
Brought him back to live under the stairs
Now me, I wish I was that guy, despite the mange and the one eye
Cuz he gets to sleep next to her at night
And if I try to scoot a little closer
He shows me teeth much grosser
Than anything that’s ever seen the light

He’s rockbottom love, coming back from above
All push and shove with rockbottom love…

More

Silent spring won’t bother most folks
Birds are falling no more to sing
But profits doubled will triple the trouble
Our time down here, its ending is so near

How much is enough when we all want a little more?
I see that our eyes have all become the dollar’s door
What good are the words when we can’t say what we’ve done it for?
How much is enough when we all want a little more?

The woods got quiet, a stream bed dried up
Fire on all sides, we watch, they hide
And facing our children, what will we tell them?
When we saw it coming but kept on humming

How much is enough…

High Beams

“do you really wanna feel this way,
or would you rather stay and make this night about us?”
she was yelling right into my ear and she smelled like beer
she said “how could you wanna be without us?”
and like everything I thought I knew
it turned half true before I got to think about it.
I was spinning like a skinny dime on borrowed time
but I’d learned my lines without it.

these old pantomimes, well, they keep me up at night.
but then I knew like I knew on the day that we met
like I was leaning on a jukebox looking at Joan Jett
and I heard somebody holler “hey! get out of my dreams!”
and when you see me, baby, please put on your high beams.

“and if you’re really gonna kill the day then why not say?”
by now she was really shouting.
yeah, she was pacing like a raging bull
with a heart half full of hurt, half full of doubting.
and like everything I thought I had
it turned half bad before I got to think about it.
I was living on a lunar line with borrowed rhymes
but I’d burned my time without it.

these old pantomimes…

Heart of a Dog

If you let me out,
I will come when you call.
If you touch me right,
you can have it all.
all of my heart,
the heart of a dog.

and if you whistle high,
I will sing for you.
It may not be nice,
but you’ll know it’s true.
true to the heart,
the heart of a dog.

but spare the choke chain,
spare the choke chain.

I will stay by your side,
if you feed me well.
yeah I’ll protect your life,
and I’ll give ’em hell.
the hell of my heart,
the heart of a dog.

but spare the choke chain,
spare the choke chain.

Stay Too Long

I write you a song, I write you a letter,
I make you feel good and then I make you feel better.
I’ll show you my weakness, I’ll show you my way,
I’ll make you wanna leave and I’ll make you wanna stay.
would you tie me to your future? tie me to the chair?
show me how to love and I’ll show you how to care.
right me like a sailboat, right me like a wrong,
kick me off the island when I stay too long.
I’m gonna stay too long.

would you short me like a circuit? short me like a jerk?
I’ll show you how to jump if you teach me how to twerk.
I’ll give all my sequins if you give me half your time,
I’ll trade you these old buttons for that Liberty dime.
would you pull me to your future? push me up the stairs?
show me how to move and I’ll show you how to share.
write me like a sonnet, write me like a song,
kick me off the dance floor when I stay too long.
I’m gonna stay too long.

hold me tight when I’m going down,
I know, I should be grown up by now.
but I got nothing but the night to lose.
baby, be my secret second sight,
go slow to satirize the morning light.
we’ve got nothing but the night to lose.

meanwhile later, in another part of town,
the cats got restless and the moon went down
and the night took a deep breath and let it out slow
and the whole world knew that it was almost time to go.
but we were still dancing, underneath the lights,
you made me feel so wrong and then you made me feel so right.
then right out of the blue sky came a fire song
and everybody sang it who had stayed too long.
I’m gonna stay too long.

Everything I Like

everything I like, everything I like,
everything I like happens at night.
there’s a word that he never said
’cuz she was always so novocaine chilled out
and he was living up inside his head
with the vision of a front porch and laundry on the line.
but then the sun’d go down
and the neon lights, well, they’d flicker for a minute
and they’d both start living in the sound
of that jukebox superhero hoping he’s gonna spin it.
everything I like happens at night.

now everybody’s talking about some new sound,
funny, but it’s still rock and roll to me
and I spent all my money on that brand new pair of speakers
so I stole that old Billy Joel CD.
and in time she was receding into the night
and the dawn on the horizon never feels quite right.
but once the sun sinks in again
and all the world is dark and dim
and everybody’s dressed up for the weekend
and the radio hits your favorite song
and three and a half minutes never felt so long
and it makes you feel all sick and strong for singing.
yeah yeah yeah yeah
everything I like happens at night.

Gods of Sleep

lying on our backs at the bottom of an empty pool
hotter than the asphalt melting out in the perfect sun
by then we should have realized what we would
but at that time of life right there all that we’d do is run
from the gods of sleep, gods of sleep coming down

we looked around for something new and different
I memorized the colors of your suffering
we carried down our missing truth
you had to hurt me so I hurt you
and if there was something better I didn’t know
but I’ve reread all those letters and you still go
back to the gods of sleep, gods of sleep coming down

Dreamless Life

wasting time with my mind at 45 rpm
blood in beats and tapping feet
these four walls are my friends
shaking out what I’m about with loud and mournful song
lonely days and crowded nights
I’m right when I’m not wrong

hell is a dreamless life
what is killing your dreams?

breaking up the brittle stuff
to burn down on the blaze
effervescent sparks rise up
in the black drink of a dead day
being ain’t as easy as I think it used to seem
tired of myself I guess I’m tired of all the things I need

hell is a dreamless life
what is killing your dreams?

Son of Steven

thirty five year old son of Steven
living on a miracle, breaking even
with a televangelical rhyme and reason
I’m stealing all my best ideas from the seasons.

had it easy as a kid, little worry
never had a cavity, my teeth were crooked
running round in the woods full of wonder
I’m stealing all my best ideas from the thunder
like don’t let your memories blind you

I don’t know what it means, you may not either
nothing’s quite what it seems but I’m a believer
in freakouts and fever dreams and Cupid’s quiver
I’m stealing all my best ideas from the river

like how it’s all so similar but changes slowly
who we love and how we burn’s what makes us holy
hoping we can live to learn and never harden
I’m stealing all my best ideas from the garden
like don’t let your memories blind you

I’m flying in my favorite dreams with Mama waving
living out my pschizo schemes, I’m raising ravens
sitting round in skinny jeans I slowly soften
I’m stealing all my best ideas from the coffin
like don’t let your memories blind you

Dandelion Crown

ain’t no potion strong enough to exorcise her demons,
but that won’t stop her trying she’s got piles of good reasons:
this heartbreak and that love lost, new one every season.
dulls the edge, or so she says, plus it’s so damn pleasing.

so she follows every longing into luxury and laughter
but it leads her into loneliness, lost, reeling in the rafters.
no one would believe the photos of before and after,
least of all herself, pride’s denial’s a bitter master.

but once she’s good and loaded she can ease away in the old days,
memories of good times, unrestricted, wild, weird ways
and how the golden light would linger long after it should fade,
hanging on to her Adonis shining
in a fresh made dandelion crown

when she told me that she loved everybody
I know I kind of turned it away
I was blinded by my pride always hoping
I’d know the words that might make her stay

now the amber of nostalgia, all them shadows trapped in real time,
snap her back into her glass her gaze aglow in light lines
and everyone around her for a moment has a real smile,
glory graces every face and sparks the inner child with a dandelion crown

New York City

I’m driving south into New York City
and everybody’s laughing with the women so witty
yeah but no one believes her ’cuz she’s “too cute to trust”
subtext: a masculine pronoun is an absolute must
got a trash fire bum fight as a rose garden speech
while there’s kids in this country that’re too hungry to teach

I’m driving south into New York City
everybody’s saying “what a shame, what a pity”
but their thoughts and their prayers are an empty escape
by the cowards in power of a fetishized state
their theatrical actions always laid on too late
just trying to get their crocodile tears on tape

I’m driving south into New York City
now we all got connected on some virtual life
but we really only go there when we’re looking to fight
or if our ego needs adjustment from a flurry of “likes”
in the shifting shallow shine of a weak spotlight

I’m driving south into New York City

Scattered Notes From A First Time Home Buyers Workshop

things are always changing
and nothing stays the same
when funds are free in this economy
the money comes down and the lenders come up
with the health, the stairs and the safety

danger, sanitation, leaky windows and loans
attractive terms, the grants will come and go
categories and definitions,
median incomes and strange equations
established by a formula

but a mean old dog and a trampoline is alright with me

it changed a few days ago, don’t worry we’ll get to those
establish the balance in the home
a bank for banks, it’s supposed to come out
the most exciting one I’ll tell you about
is there any interest in Chicopee?
energy assessment, invest in yourself
commitments and contingencies contest
but as of right now the figures are revised
and it’s a real relationship

but a mean old dog and a trampoline is alright with me

What Happened

bad weather brought on the shock
high water wanted it all
when the bells of the warning
were laughed off as lies
for the bottom line
we lost time

back when we saw it
as a thought for the kids
back when the rivers still lived
it felt like a story
written down wrong
with a heavy refrain
of look what we’ve done

and so we hide away
until we find a way

for all that we promised
for all that we missed
what happened came faster than any one kiss
and the fires we started stole every home
but we were divided
throwing old stones

and so we hide away
until we find a way

Old Machine

I made some moonshine
so I could put it in a song and not feel a fraud
but I still don’t have a song about knowing god
or god knowing me

but I made moonshine
and it’s just as clear and cold as a mountain stream
and it tastes like a solvent that could clean
this old machine

oh moonshine
can you tune up the inner workings of my heart?
can you burn off the tar and loosen up the parts that oughta move?

yeah, I made moonshine ’cuz this old machine is slipping out of time
and the syncopated patter of my mind has lost its line
so I made moonshine now I’m a fire breathing heathen in the night
I’m all tangled in the tail of a runaway kite
oh, where am I?

oh moonshine
can you tune up the inner workings of the years?
can you burn off the dust and loosen up the gears of my heart?