1. |
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THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE
Your breathing fogs the early winter air.
The bus will come when the time is right.
A voice in your head is singing, "There, there."
What were you thinking last night?
The dry leaves scatter all around your feet.
Another morning comes with later light.
The voice is singing against the beat.
What were you thinking last night?
The sun's too weak to make a proper blue.
Your socks are dirty, your pants too tight.
The singer cannot tell you what to do.
What were you thinking last night?
If clouds could talk, they'd laugh about your dreams.
Your aching eyes make everything too bright.
Each song is never more than what it seems.
What were you thinking last night?
Is this morning one that you'll remember?
Or one you should forget with all your might?
Has the singing ever been so tender?
What were you thinking last night?
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2. |
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LAND WITHOUT NIGHTINGALES
A sparrow grew up to the moon;
tailfeathers clouded the sky.
A panda inherited noon;
April came into the light.
The land without nightingales slept
and woke to the mockingbird's song.
The judge in the one-way street wept
and put off her ruling till dawn.
The marriage of blackbird and thrush
shattered the hopes of the finch.
She threw her bouquet with a blush,
then woke from her dream with a pinch.
The land without nightingales slept
and woke to the mockingbird's song.
The judge in the one-way street wept
and put off her ruling till dawn.
The storks in the trees at the zoo
are wild but migrate no more.
They clatter the whole winter through
and feed where the cold water's warm.
The land without mockingbirds slept
and woke to the nightingale's song.
The judge in the one-way street left;
she'd put off her ruling too long.
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3. |
Rumpus
03:10
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RUMPUS
Fire and fear and monsters under the bed
Visions of dark forests in my head
Wild beasts around corners giving me a dreadful fright
All these things they fill my dreams like tigers in the night
Hand and eye and symmetry
Little do we know
What use is flyin' into the sky
When there's nowhere else to go
Think I'll lay me down in the grass
Wait for this feeling to pass
I just can't seem to get over it I always seem to find
It's just too hard to chase away the tigers in my mind
Hand and eye and symmetry
Little do we know
What use is flyin' into the sky
When there's nowhere else to go
Famine is spreading like wildfire
The walls around us are getting higher
We find ourselves becoming our roles like bees living in hives
Never learning what to do with our burning tiger lives
Hand and eye and symmetry
Little do we know
What use is flyin' into the sky
When there's nowhere else to go
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4. |
Pale Horse
05:17
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PALE HORSE
I have seen the palest horse
Coming round the bend
Its hoofbeats echo closer
As I near my end
O is there a light
A light that shines for me
To guide me on the darkest ride
On the longest journey
Here comes the palest horse
Saddled up and ready to go
Now I must take me away
Where I just don't know
O is there a light
At the end of the day
To guide me on the darkest ride
Will it show me the way
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5. |
Abbottabad
04:16
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ABBOTTABAD
I always sit in this booth with my back to the bar,
nursing a glass of water on the rocks.
I haven't had a scotch for three years now.
I never look at bottles or at clocks.
I used to shave in the shower; now, I don't shave at all.
When I wash my hands, I watch the water swirl around.
When I walk down the street, I don't watch folks go by.
I look down at the kids in strollers; I look down at the ground.
I only tell the ice cubes in my water
about the things I did back in the day.
But sometimes someone just like you sits down right there
and looks like he'll listen to what I have to say.
A soldier shouldn't know their names and faces.
A soldier shouldn't ask who's behind the door.
Every bullet that I fired could have been a dead man.
I don't have more men than that to answer for.
Once I drank to them with every shot I took.
Now this glass of water's all I need.
Remember the name of the town the Major founded,
where I did my famous unsung deed.
Once I shot a man in Abbottabad.
Everyone heard, but no one made me pay.
He's the only man I ever killed
that I don't regret at all today.
For everyone who can't look in the mirror,
there's someone's never had a second thought.
For all those getting old with a shot of scotch or water,
there's someone else who paid for what he bought.
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6. |
A Pirate's Life
03:05
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A PIRATE'S LIFE
I grew up in a village by the sea,
herding and milking the goats my family lived on.
It was a life to barely live, a place to escape from—
oh yes, my friend, a pirate's life for me.
When you were a kid, you skipped stones in the sea.
You took to the waves to laugh and shout and play.
The sea I lived by did nothing every day—
oh yes, my friend, a pirate's life for me.
In tiny boats, we headed out to sea
to find and seize the biggest ships we could.
It might have been dangerous, but the money sure was good—
oh yes, my friend, a pirate's life for me.
Our hostage suddenly dove into the sea.
The snipers scoped us and shot us in our boats.
But such a life, or one spent herding goats?—
oh yes, my friend, a pirate's death for me.
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7. |
Alisa's Bridge
03:51
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ALISA'S BRIDGE
On the streets of somebody's hometown
She walked around trying to find a good time
the town's a lie she's never been there before
She wants so much more than being free
From the bridge she sees the swirling water
On a train in another country
Where she felt so free she was living her own life
the country's a lie she's never been there before
She wants so much more than day to day
From the bridge she looks into the water
From a plane she looked out over the world
She tried to fly away from her own mind
the world's a lie she's never been there before
She wants she wants so much more
From the bridge she reaches to the water
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8. |
Better Never Than Late
05:10
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BETTER NEVER THAN LATE
I was baptized twice, but still it didn't stick.
First, as a dying baby, I became a Catholic.
When I'd been saved from Limbo came my first heresy:
I was made a Protestant when I'd forgotten I'd been sick.
Better never than late for me.
He put off his deathbed conversion until another day,
when all the broken promises will have been unmade
and wrapped up in a package with a pretty ribbon
just waiting for Pandora to come along and say,
"Better never than late for him."
When the spirit came to save her, she'd already left home
to turn one trick too many to feed her baby and her jones.
She heard that preacher's words as he turned away with a curse,
throwing down the money beside her unanswered cell phone,
"Better never than late for her."
You've heard a million voices, seen a thousand points of light,
but Jesus never comes to you on a backsliding night,
and salvation's just another tale for you to misconstrue
if nobody answers when you ask what's wrong or right,
"Better never than late for you."
Two fire engines scurry past; the sirens doppler down.
They speak in tongues in that storefront church and writhe down on the ground,
but the dealer in the back room chokes on smoke and phlegm
and rasps out when he sells his shit by the ounce or by the pound,
"Better never than late for them."
They wanted to be a big-city story, that was all,
so they called some number scratched on a bathroom wall.
The ringing at the other end sounded ominous,
and when it finally ended, one said, "Don't make another call.
Better never than late for us."
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9. |
Sundowning
02:37
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SUNDOWNING
The chickens are back in their coop.
The kids are out on the town.
It's here in one fell swoop.
It's sundown.
You've heard them say it before.
The rumor's been going around.
You're heading straight for the door.
It's sundown.
You've forgotten what you said.
All that matters is here and now.
No one's getting you to bed,
even though it's sundown.
The trucks roll by on the highway.
You want to follow that sound.
You want to have your say
at sundown.
The dusk turns into dark.
You walk away with a frown.
You're the only one in the park
past sundown.
Here's where the children played,
but they're not here right now.
You don't want to end your day,
even though it's sundown.
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10. |
Penny A Point
05:12
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PENNY A POINT
She dealt herself a hand of solitaire
and saw her face in the Queen of Spades.
The Jack of Clubs repeated her last prayer
and wept as she unwound her braids.
Sweet Susie is lost in a circle,
spinning around a new moon.
Esau will wander till he finds her,
still spinning when the stars shine at noon.
A stranger came to town to strike a deal
to sell the little that he owned.
Nothing comes of bargain-basement stories.
His buried hatchet was never found.
She put the cracked old cribbage board between them
and dealt the first of their many hands.
Fifteen two, and a double run made ten.
The hourglass ran out of sand.
After she had left, he struck a match
but didn't light her oil lamp.
The candles burned, then the tattered blankets,
then the mattress, and then the camp.
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11. |
You Know I Know
03:19
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YOU KNOW I KNOW
I sing this song to the people that I love
sing for the people I don't know
Don't you be worrying about no heaven up above
Don't worry about no fire down below
You know I know you know I know you know
You know I know you know I know you
You know I know you know I know you know
You know I know you know I know you
The sun is setting somewhere while I sing
And somewhere else it's on the rise
Rising and setting you know it don't mean a thing
Everything is happening all the time
You know I know you know I know you know
You know I know you know I know you
You know I know you know I know you know
You know I know you know I know you
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12. |
Long Enough
03:31
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LONG ENOUGH
Under her hat, her eyes flatter all my dreams.
Red as her lips, the hat offers nothing more.
If I just look at her long enough,
I'll remember what I once was looking for.
Chasing a ball, a boy runs across the sand.
Walking along, a man also crooks his knee.
If I just look at them long enough,
I'll remember what they wanted to tell me.
So little time, remarked the librarian.
So many books, he said, making up my head.
If I just look at him long enough,
I'll remember what I someday must have read.
Two painted boys playing flute and a guitar.
Though they're just paint, I can hear the melody.
If I just look at them long enough,
I'll remember what they wanted to tell me.
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