- 895
The back and forth repeat, it's nothing new,
I'm not who I want to be for you,
eager eyes got a funny way of shinning through,
just before the bore and you say,
"the bridge looks like it's made with K's,"
for my name,
shaped just like your right hand veins,
paler than the salt stacks in the rain,
- April
I drink my drink from your mug made of tin,
but what happened 7/31/76 that made them etch your name and the date?
what'd I miss? It was a Saturday.
You got your wasting,
you got away,
you got your dad,
his dying days,
you got it all,
- Arizona
You don't know and you won't,
Arizona you burned my throat,
you were loyal to a fault but I know I left a lot of it all with you,
I was so passive when you left Maryland,
you don't know and you won't,
Arizona you burned my throat,
you were loyal to a fault but I know I left a lot of it all with you,
I was blood red and I can't mend it,
- eight hundred ninety-five
The back and forth repeat, it's nothing new,
I'm not who I want to be for you,
Eager eyes got a funny way of shinning through,
Just before the bore and you say,
"The bridge looks like it's made with k's,"
For my name
Shaped just like your right hand veins,
- Filial
Too seldom sanguine,
Always crying over closed doors
You should feel like you should,
You should feel like you should adapt well with a wistful heart
I could never take it, but I'll give you your breath back
Infants and whales still have the holes there, never proving to be born on time
You keep your eyes to the light between finger and thumb and the sky just laughs as I Stare at the grass,
The sun, the green, I want the snow years ago
- Gift Of The Giver
Swallow, lose weight, and shake the demons out
I kept the little rules and broke the big ones
An ugly voice singing of the commons with such an intense hunger
The tallest tree with reservations to grow
Try to grit your teeth
We just chew on the bit
Could I hate you enough
To expose you to these walls so cold
- Good Times
You're laying here with a beds eye view of a body that no longer belongs to you,
you're scared that the past 3 haven't lived past their 60's and if you break the trend,
you'll just end up like the old folks at Roland and 3939,
you're scared because you're an army brat of a man who died before his time.
I miss those summers, that grill smell, home cooked meals, take me back,
sleeping like a log, healing so fast,
but losing you, I learned to lose my youth, lose my spirit, and now I can't hear it anymore,
and I guess that's life
- Hiding
There’s no good in your eyes anymore, and it makes you want to drive home, drunk and alone, curse the faces in the wheat, drown yourself in the gold because you can’t let it go, makes you almost miss the smell of smoke in your clothes, makes you want to wear the wool. It’s that need like nothing else, You bullshit with the best and wait for what’s perfect, bitch and moan more than most about where you think your life will take you but you know that’s no sort of pretending. I guess it’s the things that I don’t say, we’re just pretending. There’s no good in your eyes anymore. Nothing is worse than doing nothing, I know, well, who’s hiding it? Who the hell is hiding it? But you can’t stay angry forever, and I know but you can’t stay angry forever, or so I’m told. But the house gets so quiet, sitting here wishing for just an hour or two, alone with you, well, it’s always too personal, always too close to comment, they all mention how tired you look and you realize you haven’t said a word in hours, well, who’s hiding it, who the hell is hiding it? I guess it’s the things that I don’t say.
- Houses We Die In
...and I miss home, and I miss the closets, the windows, the hallways
And when we are gone, who will keep up the garden?
Like a mother calling her boy, I am, I am so unsafe
But she can't do it alone
but there's nothing stronger than her prayers.
Nothing stronger than the smell of reds.
My fathers reds
- I'll Be Damned
Maybe… Maybe you saw your mother, maybe she’s smiling,
She hears your catching laughter, she’s missed your charm,
We never made it to Cooperstown
But I’ve still got that glove under my bed,
Maybe I’ll see you, we could shoot the shit, finally have a beer,
“Have a catch,”but for now its catch my tears, its catch my breath,
I can just hear you say “come on bud, get out of that funk, it’s time to move on,”
It’s funny how you still apply, you still know me,
- I'll get by
I used to listen to my life,
I was so put together,
I chose what I wanted to be in that age of chasing sand,
the age of believing in everything,
but I couldn't save you,
I couldn't save what was taken away,
and I'm still singing, and you still can't stay.
You "loved life," and those words have lasted,
- Jess and Charlie
give her back and give him back to her
her charlie stayed fenced in on underwood road, she grew old and
she forever took off her riding boots
youve been handed a year
don't let yourself forget you know the right way
don't leave those dirt trails dead
always heard the roar for miles, ears were always burning
don't listen to what the holders told you
- Late Lives
How odd life would be if you had made it from Elmira to Kansas City,
but instead you cried the whole way,
punching the wheel home,
and I forget his name,
but like Billy said, "you can't be everything you want to be, before your time,"
so slow it down,
because everyone will wait for you,
there's no fire,
- Lesions
If it's true, here's me telling you,
and here's me glad as hell that you'll never know,
If it's true, here's me telling you,
and here's me glad as hell that you'll never know,
and ever since I heard,
I've cursed her for putting that idea in my head,
I wear a stock smile so well,
"I'm doing just fine,"
- liquid courage
On the day you died,
I cut my hair for the funeral,
and on memorial day, I started drinking
because it got kind of hard just sitting there thinking
about mom all alone in that house,
and I'm too far away to do our lunch dates,
she misses the regimen
- Old Jaw
You're about what you're about,
let me tell you what I found,
you're about what you're about,
you can tell me how it sounds,
you're about what you're about
let me tell you I have my doubts,
every word in your mouth
always lifted these lashes,
- Pensive
The first man saw his scope
Making lists, he asked "will it look like this tomorrow?"
Excuse you, behoove you to live a spiders life and "clean up nice"
Placate away, placate away and grow up tame
Tonight I saw what I'll never be, old men walking and the reveries badgering me
My longevity lays in my feet,
Im counting fridays on calendars
Im seeing signs in my yellow teeth
- Ripple Water Shine
Sprinting off the dock,
shallow water mud,
ripple water shine,
second day of our stay,
it was, and it's been a long time,
it was, but now it's not mine,
I took the boat out on the lake,
and I was okay,
- Say Nothing
So let's say nothing some more,
because this is something more than me,
and I got what I need,
but sleeping,
when I should've been alive,
it still gives me sand,
but clouds my eyes,
I thought about the rust,
- Shared Bodies
So striking, I swear you leveled me with a look,
reminded me of my breathing patterns,
ran your hands through the grease and set fire to my face,
seduced a love to grief and left the same as you came,
we were based on an end,
It's as if everyone always arrives already gone,
some say love is a river and the wetness behind my ears puts out the wick,
some say love is time, I helped you pass,
- Spine
On tuesday I got the call, that damn phone call I’d been bracing for all week. No, don’t say it. I watched her crawl in bed with you, I watched her wet your lips and couldn’t do a God damned thing, I watched you shake, I watched our hearts break, I couldn’t wrap my fingers around your spine and shake it loose from the bone, I couldn’t fight against the loss, I never set fire to your bed, I never burnt the bed sores, I never ate the flame, or drank the sweat, but if it burns me up I won’t char half as much as I’ll keep warm. Life goes on because it has to, these things, they never leave, they stay with you, the smell of the viewing, your friends singing your praises, the flower boot that never bloomed until we lost you, the first Christmas we suffered through, room 211, kissing your head, the last look into your eyes, not having the words to say thank you, say good bye.
- Such Confidence
Just sit down, and let it be, if only today, if only for me,
that day, what exactly were you selling, preach?
It's misery, these screaming dreams, you see, we all gotta get so broken eventually
and most shouldn't strut around with such confidence
because most of the time, your feet are the same whether he's there or not,
and most of the time, my feet were the same whether you were here or not,
and I take it hard, I take it to heart, and it tears me apart
and I get so tired in that 3 o'clock sun,
- Your Sister's Handwriting
One drop was all it took
Throwing rocks through ice
How is our footing chosen wisely?
Do you hunch over?
You know my shrug
And I can't pass
The past if it keeps coming back but
We were great