The Creek Drank the Cradle

Lion's mane

Run like a race for family
When you hear like you're alone
The rusted gears of morning
To faceless busy phones
We gladly run in circles
But the shape we meant to make is gone

Love is a tired symphony
Tou hum when you're awake
Love is a crying baby
Mama warned you not to shake
Love is the best sensation
Hiding in the lion's mane

So I'll clear the road, the gravel
And the thornbush in your path
That burns a scented oil
That I'll drip into your bath
The water's there to warm you
And the earth is warmer
When you laugh

Love is a scene I render
When you catch me wide awake
Love's a dream you enter
Though I shake and shake and shake you
Love is the best endeavor
Waiting in the lion's mane

Bird stealing bread

Tell me baby tell me
Are you still on the stoop
Watching the windows close
I've not seen seen you lately
On the street, by the beach
Or places we used to go

I've a picture of you
On our favorite day by the seaside
There's a bird stealing bread
That I brought out from under my nose

Tell me baby tell me
Does his company make
Light of a rainy day
How I've missed you lately
And the way we would speak
And all that we wouldn't say

Do his hands in your hair
Feel a lot like a thing you believe in
Or a bit like a bird stealing bread
Out from under your nose

Tell me baby tell me
Do you carry the words
Around like a key or change
I've been thinking lately
of a night on the stoop
and all that we wouldn't say

If I see you again
On the street, by the beach
In the evening
Will you fly like a bird stealing bread
Out from under my nose

Faded from the winter

Daddy's ghost behind you
Sleeping dog beside you
You're a poem of mystery
You're the prayer inside me

Spoken words like moonlight
You're the voice that I like

Needlework and seedlings
In the way you're walking
To me from the timbers
Faded from the winter

Promising light

Time and all you gave
I was the jerk who preferred the sea
To tussling in the waves
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Now I see love
Tracked on the floor where you walked outside
Now I seek love
Looking for you in this other girl's eyes

Time and all you took
Only my freedom to fuck the whole world
Promising not to look
Promising light on the sidewalk girls

Now I see love
There in your car where I said those things
Now I see love
Tugging your skirt singing please, please, please

Time and all you gave
There on your cross that I never saw
Well beyond the waves
Dunking my head when I heard you call

Now I see love
There in the scab where you pinched my leg
Now I see love
There on your side of the empty bed

The rooster moans

Crack of dawn the rooster moans
Wake up boy you're far from home
Serpentine the tracks in flames
Longest path the devil laid
Led you straight aboard this rusty train

Lift your head cuz you can't sleep
Bite your lip cuz you can't eat
Darkest den the devil made
Jesus weeps but he's been paid
Not to ride inside this rusty train

Buzzard's breath the rooster moans
Stow it boy you're far from home
Stow your sorrows stow your fear
What'd you do to end up here
End up on the devil's rusty train

Upward over the mountain

Mother don't worry, I killed the last snake that lived in the creek bed
Mother don't worry, I've got some money I saved for the weekend
Mother remember being so stern with that girl who was with me
Mother remember the blink of an eye when I breathed through your body

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds flying upwards over the mountain

Mother I made it up from the bruise on the floor of this prison
Mother I lost it all of the fear of the Lord I was given
Mother forget me now that the creek drank the cradle you sang to
Mother forgive me I sold your car for the shoes that I gave you

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons can be birds taken broken up to the mountain

Mother don't worry I've got a coat and some friends on the corner
Mother don't worry she's got a garden we're it planting together
Mother remember the night that the dog had her pups in the pantry
Blood on the floor and the fleas in their paws
And you cried 'til the morning

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds flying always over the mountain

Southern anthem

Just like the way that you ran to wine
When they made the new milk turn
Jesus a friend in the better times
Let your mother's Bible burn
Freedom a fever you suffered through
And the dog drank from your cup
Frozen the river that baptized you
And the horse died standing up

But when a southern anthem rings
She will buckle to that sound
When that southern anthem sings
It will lay her burdens down

Just like the way that you lost your guns
When they cut the clothesline loose
Jesus a friend of the weaker ones
Said "I'm all they stole from you"
Freedom a thistle that withered dry
Still a baby in your hands
Frozen the ground refused to die
And the guitar rose again

But when a southern anthem rings
She will buckle to that sound
When that southern anthem sings
It will lay her burdens down

An angry blade

Who left you so?
Who left you so?
Who left you so?

Striking a match for the keyhole
Dark as the evening laid
When he left you all alone

Turning to fade through the sawgrass
Tall as the only love
That you'll ever really know

Who left you so?
Who left you so?
Who left you so?

Grace is a gift for the fallen dear
You're an angry blade and you're brave
But you're all alone

Turning a shade of an angel born
In a bramble ditch when the doors
Of heaven closed

Weary memory

Found your mittens behind a box of pictures
You would wear them before I brewed the tea
That's one memory I can easily conjure
Weary memory I can always see

Found your rosary broken into pieces
Every night by the bed you'd kiss the beads
Those are moments that I can always relive
Weary memories I can always see

Found a photo of you when we were married
Leaning back on a broken willow tree
That's one memory that I choose to carry
Weary memory I can always see

Promise what you will

Lately she don't care for a warmer breeze
Or shade around the base of the maple trees
Spring was on the mountain we climbed upon
Stopped to see how high and how far we'd gone

I said "love is waiting and better days"
She smiled and placed a kiss on my waiting face
Promise what you will something good for me
Time will take it all and it will you'll see

Muddy hymnal

We found your name across the chapel door
Carved in cursive with a table fork
Muddy hymnals and some boot marks where you'd been

The shaking preacher told the captain's man
The righteous suffer in a fallen land
Then pulled the shade to keep the crowd from peeking in

We found your children by the tavern door
With wooden buttons and an apple core
Playing house and telling everyone you'd drowned

The begging choir told the captain's man
We all assume the worst the best we can
And for a round or two they gladly drag you down

We found you sleeping by your lover's stone
A ream of paper and a telephone
A broken bow across a long lost violin

Your lover's angel told the captain's man
It never ends the way we had it planned
And kissed her palm and placed it on your dreaming head

Our Endless Numbered Days

On Your Wings

God, there is gold hidden deep in the ground
God, there's a hangman that wants to come around

How we rise when we're born
Like the ravens in the corn
On their wings, on our knees
Crawling careless from the sea

God, there are guns growing out of our bones
God, every road takes us farther from home

All these men that you've made
How we wither in the shade
Of your trees, on your wings
We are carried to the sea

God, give us love in the time that we have

Naked As We Came

She says wake up, it's no use pretending
I'll keep stealing breathing her
Birds are leaving over Autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms

Eyes wide open
Naked as we came
One will spread our
Ashes round the yard

She says if I leave before you darling
Don't you waste me in the ground
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms

Eyes wide open
Naked as we came
One will spread our
Ashes round the yard

Cinder And Smoke

Give me your hand
The dog in the garden row is covered in mud
And dragging your mother’s clothes
Cinder and smoke
The snake in the basement
Found the juniper shade
The farmhouse is burning down

Give me your hand
And take what you will tonight, I'll give it as fast
And high as the flame will rise
Cinder and smoke
Some whispers around the trees
The juniper bends
As if you were listening

Give me your hand
Your mother is drunk as all the firemen shake A photo from father’s arms
Cinder and smoke
You’ll ask me to pray for rain
With ash in your mouth
You’ll ask it to burn again

Sunset Soon Forgotten

Be this sunset soon forgotten
Your brothers left here shaved and crazy
We’ve learned to hide our bottles in the well
And what's worth keeping, sun still sinking
Down and down
Once again
Down and down
Gone again

Be this sunset one for keeping
This june bug street sings low and lovely
Those band-aid children
Chased your dog away
She runs, returning, sun still sinking
Down and down
Once again
Down and down
Gone again

Teeth In The Grass

And when you give me your clothes
And when we’re lovers at last
Fresh air, perfume in your nose
There will be teeth in the grass

And when you give me your house
When we’re all brothers at last
There will be food in our mouths
There will be teeth in the grass

And when there’s nothing to want
When we’re all brilliant and fast
When all tomorrow's are gone
There will be teeth in the grass

Love And Some Verses

Love is a dress that you made long to hide your knees
Love to say this to your face
I'll love you only
For your days and excitement
What will you keep for to wear?
Someday drawing you different
May I be weaving in your hair?

Love and some verses you hear
Say what you can say
Love to say this in your ear
I'll love you that way
From your changing contentments
What will you choose for to share?
Someday drawing you different,
May I be weaved in your hair?

Radio War

Did the wine make her dream
Of the far, distant spring?
Or a bed full of hens?
Or the ghost of a friend?

All the while that she wept
She'd a gun by her bed
And the letter he wrote
From a dry, foundered boat.

And the train track will take
All the wounded ones home.
And I'll be alone.
Fare thee well, Sara Jones.

Now we lie on the floor
While the radio war
Finds its way through the air
Of the dead market square.

And the beast, never seen,
licks its red talons clean.
Sara curses the cold
No more snow, no more snow.

No more snow.

Each Coming Night

Will you say when I'm gone away
"My lover came to me and we'd lay
In rooms unfamiliar but until now"

Will you say to them when I'm gone away
"I loved your son for his sturdy arms
We both learned to cradle then live without"

Will you say when I'm gone away
Your father's body was judgement day
We both dove and rose to the riverside

Will you say to me when I'm gone
"Your face has faded but lingers on
Because light strikes a deal with each coming night"

Free Until They Cut Me Down

When the men take me to the devil tree
I will be free and shining like before
Papa dont tell me what I should've done
She's the one who begged me
"Take me home"

When the wind wraps me like the reaper's hand
I will swing free until they cut me down
Papa dont tell me what I could've done
She's the one who begged me
"Take me home"

When the sea takes me like my mother's arms
I will breathe free as any word of God
Papa dont tell me what you would've done
She's the one who begged me
"Take me home"

Fever Dream

Some days her shape in the doorway
Will speak to me
A bird’s wing on the window
Sometimes I’ll hear when she’s sleeping
Her fever dream
A language on her face

"I want your flowers like babies want God’s love
Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come"

Some days, like rain on the doorstep
She’ll cover me
With grace in all she offers
Sometimes I'd like just to ask her
What honest words
She can’t afford to say, like

"I want your flowers like babies want God’s love
Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come"

Sodom, South Georgia

Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wishing well
And Sodom, south Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas bows
And a blanket of weeds

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

Papa died while my girl
Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
And Sodom, south Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

Passing Afternoon

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made
And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves

There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children until she lets them go at last
And she's chosen where to be, though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds

There are things we can't recall, Blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls
But my hands remember hers, rolling around the shaded ferns
Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned

There are names across the sea, only now I do believe
Sometimes, with the window closed, she'll sit and think of me
But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know
A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

The Sea and The Rhythm EP

 Beneath the balcony

Let's go out and dance, darling
Our last of days
And grace the game with a blindfold on
The cheaters came to play
And outside the soft-handed boys
Screaming cars and all their speed
Music, math, a hero beggin change
His sword across his knees

And how he prays to find a man to blame
For every sleepless night he spends
And for every well that he warned me of
But wound up falling in
And then for the kids beneath the balcony
Who disregard the rain
To make sure the king won't grant
The dead man one more day

Let's go out and see darling
What shines tonight
And temper your dream about the dying horse
With traffic, noise, and light
And somewhere the soft-handed boys,
Bleeding hearts, and worker bees
Give to the holy mother begging change
Christ across her knees

And oh how she prays to find a man to blame
For every loveless night she waits
And for every gun that she frowned upon
But still some fucker made
And then for the kid beneath the balcony
Behind the garbage can
Who waits for the king to come
And hold his sweating hand

The sea and the rhythm

Tonight we're the sea and the salty breeze
The milk from your breast is on my lips
And lovelier words from your mouth to me
And salt in my sweat and fingertips

Our hands they seek the end
Of afternoon
My hands believe and move
Over you

Tonight we're the sea and the rhythm there
The waves and the wind, the night is black
Tonight we're the scent of your long black hair
Spread out like your breath across my back

Your hands they move like waves
Over me
Beneath the moon tonight
We're the sea

The night descending

Black hair, the night descending
Baby never puts her trust in
Tight black tie too quick to laughter
Ain't no telling what he's after

Found a friend without religion
Riding on a stolen engine
Far too fast to pacify you
Ain't no telling what he's up to

In time, the night may soften
Trust that I'm still hoping, darling
Wooden coin, he called my daughter
No good knowing what came after

Met a man with missing fingers
Shaking hands with shaded strangers
Far too strong to pacify you
Ain't no telling what they're up to

Late night, the cock crows shortly
Morning through the open doorway
All us servants beg the master
Ain't no knowing what he's after

In a year of fallen angels
Broken hands and boys in danger
Pray the lord may pacify you
Ain't no telling what he's up to

Jesus the mexican boy

Jesus the Mexican boy
born in a truck on the fourth of July
gave me a card with a lady naked on the back
Barefoot at night on the road
Fireworks blooming above in the sky
I never knew I was given the best one from the deck

He never wanted nothing I remember
Maybe a broken bottle if I had two
Hanging behind his holy even temper
Hiding the more unholy things I do

Jesus the Mexican boy
Gave me a ride on the back of his bike
Out to the fair though I welched on a $5 bet
Drunk on Calliope songs
We met a home-wrecking carnival girl
He's never asked for a favor or the money yet

Jesus the Mexican boy
Born in a truck on the 4th of July
I fell in love with his sister unrepentantly
Fearing he wouldn't approve
We made a lie that was feeble at best
Boarded a train bound for Vegas and married secretly

I never him nothing I remember
Maybe a broken bottle if I had two
Hanging behind his holy even temper
Hiding the more unholy things I do

Jesus the Mexican boy
Wearing a long desert trip on his tie
Lo and behold he was standing under the welcome sign
Naked the Judas in me
Fell by the tracks but he lifted me high
Kissing my head like a brother and never asking why

Someday the waves

Waking before you I've got a fever and a childish wish for snow
Seems like a long, long time since I spun you to this borrowed radio

You pick a place that's where I'll be
Time like your cheek has turned for me

Someday the waves will stop every aching old machine will feel no pain
Someday we both will walk where a baby made tomorrow is again

Waking before you I'm like the lord who sees his love though we don't know
Seems like a long, long time since I've been above you seen and loved you so

You pick a place that's where I'll be
Time like your cheek has turned for me

Woman King EP

Woman king

Blackbird claw, raven wing
Under the red sunlight
Long clothesline, two shirtsleeves
Waving as we go by

Hundred years, hundred more
Someday we may see
A woman king
Wristwatch time
Slowin as she goes to sleep

Black horsefly, lemonade
Jar on the red anthill
Garden worm, cigarette
Ash on the windowsill

Hundred years, hundred more
Someday we may see
A woman king
Sword in hand
Swing at some evil and bleed

Black hoof mare, broken leg
Eye on the shotgun shell
Age old dog, hornet nest
Built in the big church bell

Hundred years, hundred more
Someday we may see
A woman king
Bloodshot eye
Thumb down and starting to weep...

Jezebel

Who's seen jezebel
She was born to be the woman i would know
And hold like a breeze half as tight as both eyes closed

Who's seen jezebel
She went walking where the cedars line the road
Her blouse on the ground where the dogs were hungry, roaming

Sayin' wait
We swear we'll love you more
And wholly, jezebel
It's we, we that you are for only

Who's seen jezebel
She was born to be the woman we could blame
Make me a beast half as brave and be the same

Who's seen jezebel
She was gone before i ever got to say
Lay here, my love, you're the only shape i pray to
Jezebel

Who's seen jezebel
Will the mountain last as long as i can wait
Wait like the dawn, how it aches to meet the day

Who's seen jezebel
She was certainly the spark for all i've done
The window was wide, she could see the dogs come runnin'

Sayin' wait
We swear we'll love you more
And wholly, jezebel
It's we, we that you are for only

Gray stables

Brave lady
I could see you through the mosses laid
Shameless in the sun
My lady with her porcelain and her weightless
Face, pleasing everyone

Gray stables, and the horses of the righteous
Pray daily for the brave

Lady, you were gorgeous in your weakness
Wet flowers on the ground
My lady never told me of her sadness
Bones floating in the sound

Brave lady, could see me in the darkness
Wait, nameless like a stone
My lady with her watches by the mattress
Bathes lately all alone

Gray stables and the horses of the righteous
Pray daily for the brave

Lady, would you love me if i left her
Laid breathless in the sun
My lady, like a teacup on the counter
Frail, pleasing everyone

Freedom hangs like heaven

Mary, carry your babe
Bound up tight like lips around a whimper
Your fingers over my face
Blind eyed sampson driven to the temple
And night birds digging until dawn
Freedom hangs like heaven over everyone
Ain't nobody knows what the newborn holds
But his mama says he'll walk on water
And wander back home

Mary, carry your shame
Well past all those eyes across the avenue
Fish heads running from rain
You know i'll do anything you want me to
Lamp oil lovers may say
"freedom hangs like heaven over everyone"
Ain't nobody knows what the newborn holds
But his papa's going to hide shaking gristle
And shaking like bone

Mary, carry my name
Hoof marks hacked up all i had to offer you
Looked all over this place
Lost your portrait lately when the winter blew
In like herod and them
Freedom hangs like heaven over everyone
Anybody knows what the newborn holds
But a dollar says he'll lick that devil
And do it alone

My lady's house

There is light in my lady's house
Then there's none but some falling rain
Less like a spoken word
She is more than her thousand names

No hands are half as gentle
Or firm as they'd like to be
Thank god you see me the way you do
Strange as you are to me

It is good in my lady's house
Every shape that her body makes
Love is a fragile word
In the air, on the length we lay

No hands are half as gentle
Or firm as they'd like to be
Thank god you see me the way you do
Strange as you are to me

Evening on the ground (lilith's song)

Hey man
Evening on the ground
And there is no one else around
So you will
Blame me

Blame me for the rocks and baby bones
And broken lock on our garden

Garden wall of eden
Full of spiderbites and all your lovers
We were

We were born to fuck each other
One way or another

But i'll only lie
Down by the waterside at night

Hey man
Tiny baby tears
I will collect a million years
And you can
Blame me

Blame me, i will wear it
In the empty hollow part of my garden

Garden wall of eden in the clamour
As they raise the curtain
You will

You will never make me
Learn to lay beneath the mountain

Because i'll only lie
Down by the waterside at night

 In the Reins EP

He Lays In The Reins

One more drink tonight as your gray stallion rests
Where he lays in the reins
For all of the speed and the strength he gave

One more kiss tonight from some tall stable girl
She’s like grace from the earth
When you’re all tuckered out and tame

One more tired thing the gray moon on the rise
When your want from the day
Makes you to curse in your sleep at night

One more gift to bring we may well find you laid
Like your steed in his reins
Tangled too tight and too long to fight

Prison On Route 41

There’s a prison on Route 41
Home to my father, first cousin, and son
And I visit every weekend
Not with my body but with prayers that I send

I’ve a reason for my absentee
And no lack of love for my dear family
But my savior is not Christ the Lord
But one named Virginia whom I live my life for

And if I don’t mind to her
I’d rot in that prison for sure
Yeah, she’d toss me aside
And I’d surely wait to die

By decree, law, or demand
So unlike my uncle, grandpa, and great aunt
Whom I’d most likely see every day
If not for the righteous grand Virginia’s way

There’s a prison on route 41
Home to my mother, stepbrother, and son
And I’d tear down that jail by myself
If not for Virginia who made me somebody else

And I owe it to her
I’d rot in that prison for sure
Yeah, she’d toss me aside
And show me the way to die

By the precepts of her purity
So unlike the habits of my whole family
Whom I only see down on my knees
In prayer by Virginia whom I live for to please

A History Of Lovers

Louise only got from me innocent poetry
Although she played to not listen
But still I can hear myself speak as if no one else
Ever could offer the same

Some say she knowingly tasts like a recipe
Although so foolish and willing
I said Babe I can picture you bend as if wanting to
Bow as the curtain went down

Coddle some men, they’ll remember you bitterly
Fuck ‘em, they’ll come back for more
I asked my Louise would she leave and so cripple me
Then came a knock at the door

“I came for my woman,” he came with a razor blade
Bound like us all for the ocean
I hope that she’s happy I’m blamed for the death of
The man who would take her from me

Some they saw in me innocent poetry
Some, some they’ll never be certain
But still it’s been written, a history of lovers
Given and taken in ink

Coddle some men, they’ll remember you fittingly
Cut ‘em, they’ll come back for more
I asked my Louise would she leave and so cripple me
Then came the knock at the door

Louise came to rescue me; listen, the irony:
Blood made her heart change its beating
I hope that she’s happy I’m blamed for the death of
The man she found better than me

Red Dust

Dust gets red, and red dust plays
On the wind near Daniel's place
Danny's sick and smaller boy
Rhythm lingers on and on
On and on, on and on

Dust gets dead the sun gone down
Danny's boy lies in the ground
Guitar on the dead boy's chest
Devil's granting a last request
Play on and on, on and on

Sixteen, Maybe Less

Beyond the ridge to the left, you asked me what i want
Between the trees and cicadas singing round the pond
"I've spent an hour with you, should i want anything else?"

One grinning wink like the neon on a liquor store
We were sixteen, maybe less, maybe a little more
I walked home smiling, i finally had a story to tell

And though an autumn time lullaby
Sang our newborn love to sleep
My brother told me he saw you there
In the woods one christmas eve, waiting

I met my wife at a party when i drank too much
My son is married and tells me we dont talk enough
Call it predictable, yesterday my dream was of you

Beyond the ridge to the west, the sun had left the sky
Between the trees and the pond, you put your hand in mine
Said, "time has bridled us both, but i remember you too"

And though an autumn time lullaby
Sang our newborn love to sleep
I dreamt i traveled and found you there
In the woods one christmas eve, waiting.

Burn That Broken Bed

How do you bust the clouds
Press on your back been hanging in the air
I wanna scope you out
I wanna touch your mouth when you're up there

When are you coming back
Bird on a branch will come back home to sing
When are you coming back
Bringing it back and singing what you bring

How do you bust the clouds
Head on the ground and feeling what you've seen
I wanna scope you out
I wanna be your eyes and show you me

When are you coming back
When are you gonna burn that broken bed
When are you coming back
I wanna see you drifting overhead

Dead Man's Will

Give this stone to my brother
Cuz we found it playing in the barnyard
Many years ago

Give this bone to my father
He'll remember hunting in the hills
When I was 10 years old

May my love reach you all
I locked in myself and buried too long
Now that I come to fall
Please say it's not too late
Now that I'm dead and gone

Give this string to my mother
It pulled the baby teeth she keeps inside the drawer
Give this ring to my lover
I was scared and stupid not to ask
For her hand long before

May my love reach you all
I locked in myself and buried too long
Now that I come to fall
Please say it's not too late
Now that I'm dead and gone

Shepherd's Dog

Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car

Love was a promise made of smoke
In a frozen copse of trees
A bone cold and older than a body
Slowly floating in the sea
Every morning there were planes, the shiny blades
Of pagan angels in our father's sky
Every evening I would watch her hold the pillow
Tight against her hollows, her unholy child
I was still a beggar shaking out my stolen coat
Among the angry cemetery leaves
When they caught the king beneath the borrowed car
Righteous drunk and fumbling for the royal keys

Love was our father's flag and sewn like a shank
In a cake on our leather boots
A beautiful feather floating down
To where the birds had shit on empty chapel pews
Every morning we found one more machine
To mock our ever-waning patience at the well
Every evening she'd descend the mountain stealing socks
And singing something good where all the horses fell
Like a snake within the wilted garden wall
I’d hint to her every possibility
While with his gun the pagan angel rose to say
"My love is one made to break every bended knee"

White Tooth Man

Said the plain clothes cop to the beauty queen
“I’ve seen nothing but a spoke in a wheel”
So she gave up her crown to a kid with a crutch
And they both felt cheated after closing the deal
And the white tooth man I ran with him
Got all cut up from pissing out in the weeds
And a fight upstate with a broken blade
And a wife whose finger never wanted a ring

Said the plain clothes cop to the Indian chief
“I’ve made nothing but an honest mistake”
The postman cried while reading the mail
And we all got trampled in the Christmas parade
And the white tooth man who sold me a gun
A map of Canaan and a government bond
Said “I love this town, but it ain’t the same”
The ski mask ripped as he was putting it on

Said the plain clothes cop to the holy ghost
“i’ve heard nothing if it wasn’t the wind”
And we all got sick on a strip club meal
While the statehouse was frying all the witches again
So the white tooth man with his kids in the car
And a wad of money that was already spent
Said “I love my dog but she just ran away,
She’ll keep running like the world never ends”

Love Song of the Buzzard

In the failing light of the afternoon
Lucy in the shade of the dogwood blooms
Yesterday the solace of a poison fish
Tomorrow i'll be kissing on her blood red lips

And no one is the saviour they would like to be
The lovesong of the buzzard in the dogwood tree
With a train of horses laughing through the traffic line
And the cradles unimaginative sense of time

Springtime and the promise of an open fist
A tattoo of a flower on a broken wrist
Lucy tells me jokingly to wipe her brow
With a pocket map to heaven and the sun goes down

Carousel

Almost home
When I missed the bottom stair
You were braiding your grey hair
It had grown so long since i'd been gone

And the perfect girls
By the pool they would protest
A cross around their necks
But our sons were overseas
We all know 'bout the hive and the honey bees

Almost home
With an olive branch and a dove
You were beaten on a Persian rug
With your bible and your wedding band
Both hidden on the TV stand

And the cruel wind blew
Every city father fell
Off the county carousel
While the dogs were eating snow
All our sons had sunk in a trunk of Noah's clothes

Almost home
We got lost on our new street
While your grieving girls all died in their sleep
So the dogs all went unfed
A great dream of bones all piled on the bed

And the cops couldn't care
When that crackhead built a boat
And said "Please, before I go
"May our only honoured bond
"Be the kinship of the kids in the riot squad."

House by the Sea

There is a house by the sea
Two jealous sisters, they're waiting for me
And one is laid on the floor
And one is changing the locks on her doors
And i've been buying the time on my knees
And i’ve been selling their blankets to bleed

Around the house by the sea
The scent of roses and raspberry leaves
And there is smoke in my clothes
Too much time with just smoke in my nose
And i've been making the meaning they lack
And i've been burning that book they come back to

There is a house by the sea
And an ocean between it and me
And like the shape of a wave
The jealous sisters will sing on my grave
And i've been living to run where they've led
And i've been dying to rise from their bed

But i've been sparing my neck from their chain
And they've been changing the sound of my name
And i've been swimming to them in my sleep
But i've been dreaming our love and our freedom

Innocent Bones

Cain got a milk-eyed mule from the auction
Abel got a telephone
And even the last of the blue-eyed babies know
That the burning man is the colour of the end of day
And how every tongue that gets bit always has another word to say

Cain bought a blade from some witch at the window
Abel bought a bag of weed
And even the last of the brown-eyed babies see
That the cartoon king has a tattoo of a bleeding heart
There ain’t a penthouse Christian wants the pain of the scab but they all want the scar
How every mouth sings of what it’s without
So we all sing of love
And how it ain’t one dog who’s good at fuckin’
And denying who he’s thinking of

Cain heard a cat tumble limp off the rooftop
Abel heard his papa pray
And even the last of the black-eyed babies say
That every Saint has a chair you can borrow and a church to sell
That the wind blows cold across the back of a master and the kitchen help
There’s a big pile of innocent bones
Still holding up the garden wall
And it was always the broken hand
We learn to lean on after all
How God knows if Christ came back
He would find us in a poker game
After finding out the drinks were all free
But they wont let you out the door again

Wolves (Songs of the Shepherd’s Dog)

Wolves by the road
And a bike wheel spinning on a pawn shop wall
She leaned on her coloured hair
Like a butterfly wing in a summer rainfall
And the roll on the kitchen floor
Some fucker with a pocketful of foreign change
Song of the shepherd’s dog
A pitch in the dark in the ear of the lamb who was going to try to run away
Whoever got that brave?

Wolves in the middle of town
And the chapel bell ringing through the wind-blown trees
To wave to the butcher’s boy with the parking lot music everybody believes
And then out like a dying bird in the ?? in the corner of the penny arcade
Song of the shepherd’s dog
Waiting around the jack call of the rooster
On the rooftop waiting for day
And ain’t nobody’s gonna say

Wolves at the end of the bed
And a postcard hidden in her winter clothes
She beat in the back of a truck
To the trailers when we trying to find the bullet hole
And then run down the canopy rows
Some mother and a baby with a cross to nail
Song of the shepherd’s dog
Little brown flea in the bottle of oil for your woolly wild hair
You'll never get him out of there

Resurrection Fern

In our days
We will live
Like our ghosts will live

Pitching glass at the cornfield crows
And folding clothes
Like stubborn boys across the road
We'll keep everything

Grandma's gun and the black bear claw
That took her dog
And when Sister Lowry says “Amen,”
We won't hear anything

The ten-car train will take that word
That fledgling bird
And the fallen house across the way
It'll keep everything:
The babies' breath, our bravery wasted, and our shame

And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Both our tender bellies wound in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern

In our days
We will say
What our ghosts will say

We gave the world
What it saw fit
And what'd we get

Like stubborn boys
With big green eyes
We'll see everything

And the timid shade
Of the autumn leaves
And the buzzard’s wing

And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Our tender bellies all wound around in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its resurrection fern

Boy With a Coin

A boy with a coin he found in the weeds
With bullets and pages of trade magazines
Close to a car that flipped on the turn
When God left the ground to circle the world

A girl with a bird she found in the snow
Then flew up her gown and that’s how she knows
That God made her eyes for crying at birth
Then left the ground to circle the earth

A boy with a coin he crammed in his jeans
Then making a wish tossed in the sea
Walked to a town that all of us burned
When God left the ground to circle the world

The Devil Never Sleeps

Dreamin’ again of a train track ending at the edge of the sea
Big black cloud was low and rolling our way
Dog at the barbed wire barkin’ at my buzz-cut friends
Friend with a switch blade shinin’ in the summer rain
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
Everybody bitchin’ there’s nothing on the radio

Dreamin’ again of a city full of fathers and their white clothes
Chatterin’ boys and a chicken at the choppin’ block
All of us lost at the crosswalk waitin’ for the other to go
Didn’t find the field but boy you’re really waterlogged
Someone bet a dollar that their daddy wasn’t comin’ home
Everybody bitchin’ there’s nothing on the radio

Dreamin’ again that it’s freezin’ and my mother’s in a flower bed
Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds
Changin’ her face like a shadow on the ground
This is what ???
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
Everybody bitchin’ there’s nothing on the radio

Peace Beneath the City

Here’s a prayer for the body buried by the interstate
Mother of a soldier, a tree in a forest up in flames
Black valley, peace beneath the city
Where the women hear the washboard rhythm in their bosom when they say
"Give me good legs and a Japanese car and show me a road”

Sing a song for the bodies buried by the riverbank
A well-dressed boy and a pig with a bullet in the brain
Black valley, peace beneath the city
Where the white girls wander the strip mall, singing all day
“Give me a juggernaut heart and a Japanese car and someone to free"

Say something for the body buried like a keepsake
Mother of million mouths with the very same name
Black valley, peace beneath the city
Where the women tell the weather but never ever tell you what they pray
They pray "give me a yellow brick road and a Japanese car and benevolent change"

Flightless Bird, American Mouth

I was a quick wet boy
Diving too deep for coins
All of your street-light eyes
Wide on my plastic toys
Then when the cops closed the fair
I cut my long baby hair
And stole me a dog-eared map
And called for you everywhere

Have I found you
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping
Or lost you
American mouth
Big bill, looming

Now I’m a fat house cat
Nursing my sore blunt tongue
Watching the warm poison rats
Curl through the white fence cracks
Pissin’ on magazine photos
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold and clean
Blood-of-Christ mountain stream

Have I found you
Flightless Bird, grounded, bleeding
Or lost you
American mouth
Big bill, stuck going down

Around The Well

Dearest forsaken

( Passing afternoon EP )

To my dearest forsaken
Who the earth now has taken
Empty, the bottle drains no more

It is true that i loved you
Despite the harm that i own you
Wash out the river has you boy

Here on the eve of too long
Where you'll think i've done wrong
Waking in fear of you no more

I'll put my trust in the savior
Fielding forces of nature
Strength of the stump i tied you boy

To my dearest forsaken
Dearest vow i have broken
Afraid of your angry hands no more

I'll put my trust in the savior
River may help me later
Sleeping my lost love for you boy

Morning

Hard light, take the wings of the winter
Song bird, they were strong hands that held her
Miles above ground, we can’t see you now

Morning took the reins from the rider
Strong hands on the lap behind her
They tear her nightgown, we can’t see you now

Loud As Hope

Darling behave, though your boy is gone, or so we’ve heard
I feel you would rise if it was a song who’d say these words
Summer comes with its color all to take your breath away
Winter turns all the summer’s love to grey

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ah, ah, ah, ah

Darling behave, though the barnyard won’t say where he’s gone
I feel you would sing if the orchard let on what went wrong
Summer comes, yeah, as loud as hope and takes your breath away
Winter takes what the summer had to say

Peng! 33

(Yeti Compilation #2 / Stereolab cover)

Curiosity was far greater than our fear
It felt so simple, so prodigious at the same time

Incredible things are happening in the world
Magical things are happening in this world

Across the river there are all kinds of magical instruments
While we really keep on living like monkeys

Incredible things are happening in the world
Magical things are happening in this world, yeah

Sacred Vision

( Sound Collector #8 Compilation )

“There’s no way to temper your thirst
With lasting’ impressions or pictures of home
There’s no way to grow that don’t hurt”
She growled from the station then hung up the phone

There’s no sacred vision like her
No eye-crushing mountain or jewelry to wear
There’s no granted wish I prefer
Then she to be with me, for us to be there

“I’d rather to be all alone
Forgiveness is fickle when trust is a chore
It’s not every sin that’s atoned”
I heard her speak softly then heard her no more

Friends They Are Jewels

Dreamless sleep will fall like a deep, poisoned well
On the steeple birds and this red-light hotel

So lay your pistol down, Granny
The company men never came to you
But don’t unknit your brow, Granny
The mice in the yard ate the potted plants you grew

Pour your bitter tea for our sweet, liquored host
Perfect polished stones but this breeze beats you both

So lay your pistol down, Granny
The duty of men never fell to you
When you unknit your brow, Granny
Your friends, they are jewels, twice as beautiful and few

Hickory

( Our Endless Numbered Days Bonus CD )

He kissed her once as she leaned on the windowsill
She'll never love him but knows that her father will
Her fallen fruit is all rotten in the middle but her
Breast never dries when he's hungry

The money came and she died in her rocking chair
The window wide and the rain in her braided hair
A letter locked in the pattern of her knuckle
Like a hymn to the house she was making

Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but my hickory root there

She kissed him once cause he gave her a cigarette
And turned around but he waits like a turned down bed
And summer left like her walking with another and a
Sound of a church bell ringing

The money came and he died like a butterfly
A buried star and the haze of the city lights
A gun went off and her mother dropped her baby on the
Blue feathered wing - we were lucky

Blind and whistling just around the corner and there's a
Wind that is whispering something
Strong as hell but my hickory root there

Waitin' For A Superman

(Flaming Lips cover)

I asked you a question
I didn't need you to reply
Is it getting heavy
And then realize
It's getting heavy
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be

Is it overwhelming
To use a crane to crush a fly
It's a good time for Superman
To lift the sun into the sky
Cause it's getting heavy
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be

Tell everybody
Waiting for Superman
That they should try to
Hold on the best they can
He hasn't dropped them, forgot them or anything
It's just too heavy for Superman to lift

Swans And The Swimming

( Our Endless Numbered Days Bonus CD )

“Take me again," she said, thinking of him
“To the pond with the swans and the swimming"
Far from his room the familiar perfume
How it left her aware she was naked

The lesson she learned when her memory serves
Is to marvel with love at the sunset
And walking away at the dark end of day
She will measure and break like a habit

Oh, how the rain sounds as loud as a lover’s words
And now and again she’s afraid when the sun returns

“Take me again,” she said, thinking of him
“I don’t care for this careful behavior”
A brush through her hair, children kissing upstairs
Keeps her up with her want for her savior

The sun on the sand, on her knees and her hands
As she begs for her fish from the water
But turned them away, she’s a whip and a slave
Given time she may find something better

Call Your Boys

( Subpop Singles Club 7" )

Call your boys now that the table's set and shining
No one's seen any of them in many days
Call your boys they shut a buzzard on a Chrysler
And you still taste all that you swallowed before grace

And you'll forgive even the time they burned the hen house
And ran from you ran to the hills with burning hands

Setting sun framed in the doorway right behind you
Several chores, surely some lessons left to tell
Setting sun was in the hills and now before you
Set your boys each with their shining silverware

They'll bury you under the wood beside the carport
They'll bury you some neon stop along the way

Radio fuzz on the fence post by the pasture
Long ago Liza and you would dance all day
Now you lay buried, the stern and sacred father
And sacred earth under the billboard in the rain

For one last toast here's to the brave who went before us
Who died in vain, died in a movie for a dream

Such Great Heights

(Postal Service cover)

I am thinking it's a sign
That the freckles in our eyes
Are mirror images
And when we kiss they're perfectly aligned
And I have to speculate
That God Himself did make
Us into corresponding shapes
Like puzzle pieces from the clay
And true it may seem like a stretch
But it's thoughts like this that catch
My troubled head when you're away
When I am missing you to death
When you are out there on the road
For several weeks of shows
And when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
"Come down now" they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
"Come down now" but we'll stay

I've tried my best to leave
This all on your machine
But the persistent beat
It sounded thin upon listening
And that frankly will not fly
You'll hear the shrillest highs
And lowest lows with the windows down
When this is guiding you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
"Come down now" they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
"Come down now" but we'll stay

Communion cups and someone's coat

( Passing afternoon EP )

Talk of yesterday and
She will show her
Brothers photographed
In callous clothes
Say tommorow and
She'll say come find me
On a beach, and there will no moon
But say today, and she will kiss your face
And maybe forget

Talk of yesterday like baragain shoe strings
She will kick the car and find her friends
Say tommorow and then
She'll describe some old communion cups
And someone's coat
But say today and she may look your way
And lead you home

Belated Promise Ring

( Japanese import of "our endless numbered days” CD )

Sunday morning my Rebecca sleeping in with me again
There's a kid outside the church kicking a can
When the cedar branches twist she turns her collar to the wind
The weather can close the world within its hand

And my mother says Rebecca is as stubborn as they come
They both call to me with words I never knew
There's a bug inside the thimble, there's a band-aid on her thumb
And a pony in the river turning blue
They say," Time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"
My Rebecca says she never wants a boy
To be barefoot on the driveway as they wave and ride away
Then to run inside and curse the open door

I once gave to my Rebecca a belated promise ring
And she sold it to the waitress on a train
I may find her by the phone but with a fashion magazine
She may kiss me when her girlfriends leave again
They say, "Time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"
I think I could never love another girl
To be free atop a tree stump and to look the other way
While she shines my mother's imitation pearls

Sunday evening my Rebecca's lost a book she never read
And the moon already fell into the sea
Saw the statues of our fathers in the courthouse flower bed
Now they blend with all the lightnin' tattered trees
They say, "Time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"
My Rebecca said she knew I'd want a boy
A dollar for my boardwalk red balloon, to float away
She would earn a pocketful to buy me more

God Made The Automobile

God made the automobile to pass all the pretty girls
The smoke by the side of the road, the blues lovin' boys in tow
To drive to the end of the day and bow to a borrowed flag
To ride all the brave and the blind, and men without men in mind

To pass all the things He made and then never bothered to name
And no one will tell the truth, and no one will hide it from you
Like birds around the grave

God made the automobile and I made a little boy
To pass on the blissfully young, the snake with a forked tongue
To praise on the wanting for time, and makes in the sleepless waves
The fear of the Black and the Jew, and blood for the camera crew

And passes the things He made and then never bothered to name
And no one can tell the truth, and no one can hide it from you
Like birds around the grave

Homeward, These Shoes

( Japanese import of "our endless numbered days” CD )

Homeward the new road meanders
Washed out the old road as to what did I bring
Flowers, a verse about spring time
Perchance in the tree line she's awaiting for me

Homeward these shoes worn to paper
Thin as the reason I left here so young
Homeward and what if I see her
There in the doorway I walked away from

White house asleep on the hillside
Firm as a habit I struggled to shed
Homeward with heaven above me
Old road behind me, a door up ahead

Sinning Hands

( Our Endless Numbered Days Bonus LP 7" )

Midnight, and her eyes
Hide like kittens, new and wet
Mine are sinning hands
On her lying on my bed

The river still may rise
Wild and water take us both
Mine are sinning hands
Take our bodies, take our clothes

Bloodless moonlight, may my lady
Give her lovely skin and bones

Midnight, and my bride
Treads in distant water now
Mine are sinning hands
And my teeth have fallen out

The river still may rise
Though it took more than it gave
Mine are sinning hands
On a broken windowpane

Bloodless moonlight, like my lady
Gave me only skin and bones

No Moon

( Our Endless Numbered Days Bonus LP 7" )

Black dog bit through the keeper’s chain
Small and angry when the Devil came
Sold my soul like a pocket knife
There was no moon, there’ll be no milk as sweet

Tomcat curled on a rabbit cage
Brittle fingers in the potter’s clay
Sold my soul and I laid her down
There was no moon, there’ll be no milk as sweet

Blue bird laughs on a fallen tree
Sunset burns on a quiet sea
Sold my soul and they ran me down
There was no moon, there’ll be no milk as sweet

Serpent Charmer

There's a woman hater with a broken record player
And a dusty compass, off to map the country's new behaviour
Strange words, and we all roll back into the river
Brave boys in the empty coats of men

There's a kitchen timer, distractions and reminders
Look, a roly-poly slowly crawling across your family china
Strange words, and we all roll back into the river
Dead dogs only want to live again

There's a serpent charmer with a pair of shoes and wander
A speeding ticket, you got leading that last lamb to slaughter
Strange words, and we all roll back into the river
Good girls come and kick you in the shin

There's a hopeful hunter with a hapless sense of wonder
And a million claw marks on the rock he hid his money under
Strange words, and we all rolled back into the river
And made men only want to live again
(close your eyes, you can too) [in reverse]

Carried Home

( Boy with a Coin EP )

The kettle burned ‘cause I left it too long
When we were kissin’ with the radio on
The cat was chokin’ on a rattlesnake bone
The town had gathered ‘round the soldier boy
Carried home, carried home
The sick kids ate a bowl of red clay
And every summer day was endin’ in rain
The late judge teetered in a john boat
The town had gathered ‘round the soldier boy
Carried home, carried home
The broken window and the pretty blue sky
And cold water for my swollen black eye
We shook some money from your mother’s old clothes
When all had gathered ‘round the soldier boy
Carried home, carried home…

Kingdom of the Animals

( Boy with a Coin EP )

Jenny was gone and the moon blooms all shinin’
As we dragged our panic up and down the riverbed
Sweatin’, wild, and weird in our Sunday clothes
Jenny was gone, though I thought that I knew her
And the rain came howlin’ out of Virginia
Blue tick blowin’ the water out her nose
Jenny and me in the front row and singin’
About how heaven calls the kingdom of the animals
All and all revealed to us one day
Jenny and me on the hilltop and peekin'
At all their upturned bottles
Jumpin’ like a leopard’s jawharp
Teasin’ the brushfire in its rage
Jenny came back and the wet road was still shinin’
And our eyes an angel clear and coronal
Clothed in all that's prodigal and strange
Jenny came back and I thought that I heard her
Murmur something about no men in Virginia
Spat on the ground like a letter tossed away
Jenny and me in a dead truck and turning
Over just where heaven calls the kingdom of the animals
Scratchin’ our heads where the wolf would go to lay
Jenny and me as the moon blooms were closing
Both her wide-eyed brothers runnin’ like shepherds
Dreamin’ the heat of the fields all in flames

Arms of a Thief

Mr. Henry and the muscle man, yeah
With shoes on a night there was no road to stand
Like a letter in a stolen purse
She was bored of her weight, she was bored of her words
The daughter of a soldier told the fallen priest
"That's a cold, cold place in the arms of a thief"
And reaching out to touch the steering wheel
She said, "Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, all right?"
Aye, all right

Mr. Henry and another guy gave her gold
On a night that it fell from the sky
And like a body when the buzzard came
She was bored of her look, she was bored of her name
The daughter of a lawyer told the fallen priest
"That's a cold, cold place in the arms of a thief"
And tapping at the air with her heel
She said, "Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, all right?"
Aye, all right

Mr. Henry was a dying man with a vice
And a tongue that she didn't understand
Like the water when the sea got rough
She was bored with the breeze, she was bored of her luck
The winner and the loser told the fallen priest
"That's a cold, cold place in the arms of a thief"
And holding everything he made her steal
She said, "Leave me alone but just don't leave me here, all right?"
Hey, all right

The Trapeze Swinger

(In Good Company Soundtrack)

Please, remember me
Happily
By the rosebush laughing
With bruises on my chin
The time when
We counted every black car passing
Your house beneath the hill
And up until
Someone caught us in the kitchen
With maps, a mountain range
A piggy bank
A vision too removed to mention
But

Please, remember me
Fondly
I heard from someone you're still pretty
And then
They went on to say
That the pearly gates
Had some eloquent graffiti
Like "We'll meet again"
And "Fuck the man"
And "Tell my mother not to worry"
And angels with their gray
Handshakes
Were always done in such a hurry
And

Please, remember me
At Halloween
Making fools of all the neighbors
Our faces painted white
By midnight
We'd forgotten one another
And when the morning came
I was ashamed
Only now it seems so silly
That season left the world
And then returned
And now you're lit up by the city
So

Please, remember me
Mistakenly
In the window of the tallest tower call
Then pass us by
But much too high
To see the empty road at happy hour
Leave and resonate
Just like the gates
Around the holy kingdom
With words like "Lost and Found"
And "Don't Look Down"
And "Someone Save Temptation"
And

Please, remember me
As in the dream
We had as rug-burned babies
Among the fallen trees
And fast asleep
Aside the lions and the ladies
That called you what you like
And even might
Give a gift for your behavior
A fleeting chance to see
A trapeze
Swing as high as any savior
But

Please, remember me
My misery
And how it lost me all I wanted
Those dogs that love the rain
And chasing trains
The colored birds above there running
In circles round the well
And where it spells
On the wall behind St. Peter's
So bright with cinder gray
And spray paint
"Who the hell can see forever?"
And

Please, remember me
Seldomly
In the car behind the carnival
My hand between your knees
You turn from me
And said, "The trapeze act was wonderful
But never meant to last"
The clown that passed
Saw me just come up with anger
When it filled with circus dogs
The parking lot
Had an element of danger
So

Please, remember me
Finally
And all my uphill clawing
My dear
But if I make
The pearly gates
Do my best to make a drawing
Of God and Lucifer
A boy and girl
An angel kissin on a sinner
A monkey and a man
A marching band
All around the frightened trapeze swingers

Na-na
Na-na-na
Na-na
Na-na...

Non Albums Tracks

Ab's Song

(Marshall Tucker Band cover)

And if I died at twenty-three
Would you bury me in the sunshine?
Please let me know that you’re still mine
Though I’m gone
My love for you is oh-so strong

And when the grass grows over me
Let me know you still love me
Never put nobody else above me
Then I’ll know
My love for you will always grow

A Book Unfinished

You returned the book unfinished about a girl with raven hair
And a gentleman, her lover, who presented her a mare
Which she rode across the country, leaving him to tend the land
Which had turned to drier quarter when it met his lonely hands

No more weeds left in your garden
No more green and no more stone
No more guilty left to pardon
Only evil of your own

Blind man found a baby, and the virgin kissed a man
From the farmland proven fertile since the rain returned again
But you returned the book unfinished to your friend around the bend
Who had scribed a closing passage but you never reached the end

No more sparrows in your garden
Since you lost your telephone
No more guilty left to pardon
On your hilltop all alone

Beauty And Family

Reading letters
Ancient coins
And pockets full of earth
Chance I'll see you
Next December

Bathtub running
Joining hands
And naked as a bird
That's a vision
I'll remember

Pull the covers of the bed
The papers of the ground
Now a baby
Walks where you do

Take her book off of the shelf
And put your teacup down
Know my hopes
Lay beside you

You're camera set in motion
Take a picture of the ocean
Catch the seagull up above
Make a whisper of your love

Put your hair and watch it grow
This time durates the floor
You're a beauty in the family
Spend your money for the month
He can afford you more
Keep your courage like memory

You're camera set in motion
Take a picture of the ocean
Catch the seagull up above
Make a whisper of your love

Blue Leaves

Strength like a stone, a texture you know
And sewn in your children's quilts you made
Can you be meek, lowered and weak
Possibly tired as to see

Her eyes upon you under blue leaves at night
And what will you do with your new kind of sight?

Cluttered asides and marginal lines
Home to the closest jewels you owned
Strength like a stone, a pressure you’ve known
Better than footsteps leading home

And eyes wanting you under blue leaves at night
But you never knew until they sank out of sight

California

The postman passed me twice now, I have waited an hour
Blue sky churning black now, needled rain with the power
Of magnified abandon, soaking through to my moving
And vivid truth I’m doubting all the while that it's proven

Have you thought you might should be in California
Your tactile look of honesty, I know they’d love you, oh-oh-oh

A hundred thousand choices, words are stronger inside me
And wrote on angry voices spoken even and calmly
Do you pretend I'm docile, played it hard for to badger
Or disregard me futile, even for to remember

Have you thought you might should be in California
An actress of your quality, I know they'd love you, oh-oh-oh

Calm On The Valley

There's a rooster, a hen, a black dog
By my kid in the yard
And I've tattooed the head
Of the woman I've wed on my arm

We sit on the lawn
And she winks and she yawns
At the sound that the setting sun makes
As it lights up the lake and goes down

And you ease my troubles with your hands
Like the night puts a calm on the valley
Moved my shaking castle from the sand
When you gave me your soul for to marry

Dum da dum, da da dum . . .

The cicadas in tune ain’t too noisy for you
But too fast, as the night eases in
Like dark wine on our skin and the grass

Now the moon's high above
You're the woman I've loved for so long
It's the last goodnight kiss and
These moments I miss when you're gone

Carissa's Weird

( Bonus 7" with vinyl of The Creek Drank The Cradle LP )

Is there a race involved?
You run and hide, you get two stars
Last night two fat skinheads whistled at her
But she sleeps it off
A whiskey scent on her kitten’s fur

And when it’s time to go
I’ll push her high as she wants to go
Red pants down, she’s pissing out by the car
And though she’ll never know
Carissa’s weird but I love her so

Cold Town

Magazines and paperbacks, the perfect rainy day
Jenny's packed the car by now and probably on her way
Rise and put the kettle on, this feeling calls for tea
Tommy get the telephone, it wouldn't be for me

Spring feels so far away when you're unforgiven
Now that Jenny's away it's a cold town to live in

Evening brings a breaking rain, the dog goes back outside
Tommy says that I should sleep in, just to past the time
Close the door and cross the room, the moonlight wanders in
Crawl in bed with her perfume, the rain begins again

Cowgirl In The Sand

(Neil Young cover)

Hello, cowgirl in the sand
Is this place at your command?
Can I stay here for a while
Can I see your sweet, sweet smile

Old enough now to change your name
When so many love you, is it the same?
It's the woman in you
That makes you want to play this game

Hello, ruby in the dust
Has your band begun to rust?
After all the sin we've had
I was hoping that we'd turn back

Hello, woman of my dreams
This is not the way it seems
Purple words on a grey background
To be a woman and to be turned down

Expecting To Fly

(Buffalo Springfield cover)

There you stood on the edge of your feather
Expecting to fly
While I laughed, I wondered whether
I could wave goodbye
Knowin' that you'd gone
By the summer it was healing
We had said goodbye
All the years we'd spent with feeling
Ended with a cry
Babe, ended with a cry
Babe, ended with a cry

I tried so hard to stand
As I stumbled and fell to the ground
So hard to laugh as I fumbled
And reached for the love I found
Knowin' it was gone
If I never lived without you
Now you know I'd die
If I never said I loved you
Now you know I'd try
Babe, now you know I'd try
Babe, now you know I'd try
Babe

Fistful Of Roses

A fistful of roses ain’t the best thing I could do
I called by the clothesline, and the fish pond Called out for you
You want an urgent, bent-guitar string kind of man
And you built a bridge now for to find him, if you can

And Betsy, I see you now that you’re gone
Gone where I hate you, tell me I’m wrong
Wrong that I sent you over that bridge
And far from me now, although I don’t know how

Betsy, I miss you, can’t you see that I’m in pain
Might you, if I promise, if I behave, come again
Would you, if you came back, be beside me by the stairs
We’re so far past the bridge now, though Faded, I see you standing there

Foot Of The Manger

Awake through the night, and this flood water ‘round her
Reminds her of the time and low country boys
And their bottles without her, though she’s on their minds

Hands in black mud, at the foot of the manger
She’ll always be young and free to be wrong
A black lamb licks the dirt off her feet with it’s tongue

We are blessed, aren’t we, in the shade of these large auburn leaves
Unexpectedly we arrive where we’re all meant to be

Awake through the night, and she prays in the morning
For distance from harm and low country boys
With their wealth of protection and mean battle-arms

Hands in black mud, as she sits by the manger
And closes her eyes, the wind blows outside
A black car pulls the gravel and wants her to ride

So who will she love, with her head lowed like ashes,
The sky lost tonight, the wind blows outside
A glass jar in the window, her shape blocks the candle light

God Gave A Stone

She belongs back in western Kentucky
Or maybe somewhere in Tennessee
Far from home there’s a way to her body
Though she’s wind-blown and slightly

Long ago there were plums on the table
Where momma smoked in the afternoon
The guilty played half-asleep in the stable
And she would wake when she’d heard you

Papa was gone but he’s still in the mud
And the river runs thick with his innocent blood
And God gave a stone but it rolled down the hill
It’s the shape of His breath, or Her breath if you will

She belongs back in western Kentucky
Or even somewhere in Tennessee
She was born though the womb wasn’t ready
To give it’s love to the strength in this street

Papa was gone but he’s still in the mud
While the river runs thick with his innocent blood
And God gave a stone but it rolled down the hill
It’s the shape of His breath, or Her breath if you will

Long ago there was warmth from the kitchen
Across the baseboards through every room
She belongs back in western Kentucky
And I will pray maybe she’ll see it soon

Her Tea Leaves

( Bonus 7" with vinyl of The Creek Drank The Cradle LP )

Come the evening of my days
The dark birds in the trees and in her garden
I think I’ll be there somewhere too
The yarrow by my head where I have fallen

And she will lick her thinner thumb
And ringless finger too and douse a candle
And though she never gave a thing
The way she said my name, we’ll be together

When autumn comes, she’ll be there
Jasmine still in her hair
Her tea leaves dry by the sea

Many men behind her door
Have heard the bathtub run and longed to love her
And though she doesn’t wait for me
We never ask the time when we’re together

In My Lady's House

There is light in my lady’s house
And there’s none but some falling rain
This like a spoken word
She is more than her thousand names

No hands are half as gentle or
Firm as they like to be
Thank god you see me the way you do
Strange as you are to me

It is good in my lady's house
And the shape that her body makes
Love is a fragile word
In the air on the wrinkly lane

No hands are half as gentle or
Firm as they like to be
Thank god you see me the way you do
Strange as you are to me

It's The Same Old Song

(Four Tops cover)

You're sweet like a honeybee
But like a honeybee stings you've gone
And left my heart in pain
And all you left is our favorite song
The one we danced to all night long
It used to bring sweet memories
Of a tender love that used to be

Now it's the same old song
But with a different meaning since you been gone

Oh, a sentimental fool am I
To hear a old love song and wanna cry
But the melody keeps haunting me
Reminding me how in love we used to be
I keep hearing the part that used to touch our hearts
Saying together forever, breaking up never

Precious memories keep lingering on
Every time I hear our favorite song
Now you've gone, left this emptiness
I only reminisce the happiness of when
We used to dance to the music
Make romance to the music

Judgement

Day walks out and there's no sound
There's a candle burning by me now
Light enough for to see the things beyond me
Door is wide as a rise on me
So the night comes in and starts to breath
The only name that I really know

Tell me did he think of me
At a drop of rain, or when you see
When it rakes as it moves across the water
Judgement comes when I'm all alone
Like a spyglass on the furthest coast
Favored now that it's left behind

When you talk to me you could swallow me

Nighttime brings me a place I fear
Where I hear your words and feel you near
Fingers only to find a frozen memory
Sometimes clothes chosen long ago
A direction down a gravel road
Makes you wish you could take him back

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

Days walk on and when there's no sound
I go straight to you and find you down
Kneeling next to the water where I left you
Knee-deep now in the creek I made
From the landscape lost I want to save
Save it now or be punished more

When you talk to me you could swallow me

Nighttime brings me a place I fear
Where I hear your words and feel you near
Fingers never to find a warmer memory
Sometimes friends we knew long ago
Or affections we set free to go
Find you right where you ran to hide

Love Vigilantes

(New Order cover)

Oh, I've just come from the land of the sun
From a war that must be won in the name of truth
With our soldiers so brave your freedom we will save
With our rifles and grenades and some help from God

I want to see my family
My wife and child are waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see

You just can't believe the joy I did receive
When I finally got my leave and I was going home
Oh, I flew through the sky, my convictions could not lie
For my country I would die, and I will see it soon

When I walked through the door my wife she lay upon the floor
And with tears her eyes did soar, I did not know why
Then I looked into her hand and I saw the telegram
Said that I was a brave, brave man, but that I was dead

Love You This Hound

Walk on lightly far from sorrow
Walk and meet me, we'll meet tomorrow
Watch me growing, watch me dying
Hear my laughing, my hound a-crying

Walk on lightly, live what you do
While you're walking I'll be beside you
Watch you growing, watch you dying
Hear me love you, this hound a-crying

Minor Piano Keys

Say, say something nice to her
Fragrant and sturdier
Delicate hands for shoulders sliding down
Days, days like a summer rain
Blink and they’re gone again
Soaking she sits alone, outside and down

Prays, prays for a soldier boy
In fire and angry noise
Under the thumb of the Lord
And waits, quilting and quietly
Her minor piano keys
Slip through the screen of the door

Say, say what you mean to her
Washing her colander
Eyes on the stranger cresting ‘round the bend
Days, days like the winter snow
Linger ‘til heaven knows
Naked she sings the table grace and then

Prays, prays for her soldier boy
In fire and angry noise
Under the thumb of the lord
And waits, quilting and quietly
Minor piano keys
Slip through the screen of the door

Mothers Of The Rodeo

Mothers of the rodeo
Like anyone who’s watched a lover go
And their blood thrown down
Torn and tossed around
Baby, say you’ll stay with me
We’ll build a bridge across it carefully
Just let them lie, don’t throw
At least our river goes

Do, do, do, do . . .

Mothers of the boys in grey
Palms and kisses that were blown away
Like this cask and drum
Music borne from blood
Baby, say you’ll stay with me
I’ve lost my money and my family
Well I’ve got friends beside
We drink by riverside

Satan and the Holy Ghost
Like any mother of the rodeo
From the flaws they’ve found
Much like no one else
I’ll be waiting faithfully
Until baby says she’ll stay with me
Let their bible burn
Around this river’s turn

Mr. Soul

(Neil Young cover)

Well hello Mr. Soul, I dropped by to pick up a reason
For the thought that I caught that my head in the event of the season
Why in crowds just a trace of my face could seem so pleasin'
I'll cop out to the change, but a stranger is putting the tease on

I was down on a frown when the messenger brought me a letter
I was raised by the praise of a fan who said I upset her
But any girl in the world could have easily known me better
She said, “You're strange, but don't change,” and I let her

Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

So in a while will the smile on my face turn to plaster
Stick around while the clown who is sick does a trick of disaster
For the race of my head and my face is moving much faster
Is it strange I should change, I don't know, why don't you ask her

Is it strange I should change, I don't know

Our Friends Shine

Yeah, you know this place
And your friends shine around you now
Yeah, you know this place
And their hands make the safest house
That you know, yeah, you know
And the sun’s sinkin’ slowly down
Over time, over time, and again

Yeah, you know this face
And it sleeps right beside you now
Yeah, you love this face
And it speaks from inside you now
Like your own, yeah your own
And the sun’s sinking slowly down
Over us, over time, and again

Yeah, we chose this place
Though I don't recognize the ground
It's a lonely place
That our friend's shine around us now
And they glow, yeah, they glow
Like the sun sinking slowly down
Over us, over us, once again

Phoenix

You're a raven on a tractor wheel
They don't feel the world the way you feel, no
You spread your wings like a phoenix, girl
Burnin' out like a song you heard and forgotten since

Rattling Bone

A skull and a jewel on a wooden cane
A rattling bone on a boat, on the waves you sail away
I will lay awake ‘til all your power’s gone

Whippin’ the pig ‘til it broke the gate
A table and chair by the creek though his house was washed away
I will lay awake ‘til all your power’s gone

God is asleep in the bed we made
Suckling bitch on the porch, and no stick might draw away
I will lay awake ‘til all your power’s gone

Love in the shape of the close of day
Kissin’ the face in a dream that i thought i tossed away
I will lay awake ‘til all your power’s gone

Hobble and wade in the love we gave
Passing your lip from the wine that we raised then threw away
I will lay awake ‘til all your power’s gone

Chuckling lamb by the anchor weight
Shuddering wolf on a ship, on the waves you sail away
I will lay awake ‘til all your power’s gone

Sleeping Diagonally

(Six Parts Seven cover)

Somehow when you laid here by my side
Somethin’ whispered words like rain is falling
Heavy, and she hated, loved to fight
Someone from the sun-cracked sidewalk calling out, “Yoo-hoo”

“Hey, uh huh”

Sometime I may trade this bone-tired fist
Somewhere I’ll remove this mattress lying
Heavy as a healing word and wind
Someone from the sun-cracked sidewalk calling out, “Yoo-hoo”

Smokestack Lightning

(Howling Wolf cover)

Ah-ha, smokestack lightnin'
Shinin' just like gold
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo

Ah-ha, tell me, baby
What's the matter with you?
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo

La dah, da da da da la dah

Whoa-oh, tell me, baby
What's the matter with you?
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo

Whoa-oh, stop your train
Let her go for a ride
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo

Ah-ha, fare thee well
I'll never see you no more
Why don't you hear me cryin'?
Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo

Ah-ha, who been here baby since
I been gone, a little bitty boy
Girl, be on . . . a-whoo-hoo
Whoo-hoo, ah-ha

The Specter Of Jasper County

The girl down the street saw my ghost on the road
But I sailed the backyard asleep in my boat
Both paddles broken, no sail for the wind
A bathtub, a bottle, to drown myself in

And she ran through the town like the end was upon us
Screaming like birds above angry high seas
The newspaper boys pulled a high-dollar favor
And my drunk brother sang of where they could find me

The girl told the preacher her vision of doom
He petted the Book said, “It’s slightly too soon”
A flashbulb, a nudge and I left my best dream
And rose like the specter of Jasper County

The Sun Will Rise

What if you were told that the sky would fall tomorrow night
Would you run and hide or go and play?
What if you were told that a boy named Cain was right outside
Would you run and hide or go and play?

A smile will bring a smile, a pail filled with rain
Your mothers milk will dry, the sun will rise again

What if you were told that your lover's hands were dead and cold
Would you run and hide or go and play?
And what if you were told the only point to life is to get old
Would you run and hide or go and play?

The sun will rise again and again and again

The Wind Is Low

You, strong as a virgin birth
Me, keeping your every word
Two dots where a single was
Three, counting the little one

We sail in the smallest boat
Sleep just when the wind is low

You see from the sparrow's height
Me, seeking you every night
Two sailing towards the sun
Three, counting the little one

The Years Seal Their Beauty

Settle down my frazzled bride
You might frighten the children awake
With that tempest you hang on your face
You raise your fist and it trembles there
Like a branch tapping the window pane
In the summertime before the rain
In the summertime before the rain

Come lay thee down my supple bride
The years seal their beauty in you
Like our time with our mothers can do
But how long now since we’ve been in school?
And we drew who we wanted to be?
We made love to our sincerity
We made love to our sincerity

Sitting down, my frazzled bride said,
"God takes the anger I save
When I save it to throw in your face"
But winter’s here with it’s memories
And it’s clear that we don’t want the truth
It’s just comfort I’m wanting from you
It’s just comfort I’m wanting from you
It’s just comfort I’m wanting from you

This Solemn Day

You returned the book unfinished
About a girl with raven hair
And a gentleman, her lover
Who presented her a mare
Which she rode across the country
Leaving him to tend the land
Which had turned to dry a quarter
When it met his lonely hands

No more weeds left in your garden
No more green and no more stone
No more guilty left to pardon
Only evil of your own

Thousand Miles

Pull the braid from your hair, so it falls down your back
I just passed Spartanburg, cigarettes on the dash
Will you wait on the swing, in the front of the house?
Or the steps of the porch in a white cotton blouse?

Thousand miles that I drove, thirty more left to go
Will you cry when you wake, when you see me today?
Is your father at home? Does he know where I’ve been?
He don’t like me because I remind you of him
Let’s just drive to the point, watch the sky lose the light
I’ve been gone far too long not to kiss you tonight

Thousand miles that I drove, thirty more left to go
Will you cry when you wake, when you see me today?

Na na na
Na na na
Na na na
Na na na...

Two Hungry Blackbirds

Lovers accustomed to tragedy
See every kiss in the window across the street
Breezes and blessings passing by, ah ooh-oh

I'm in the shade of the dogwood tree
Not the one where you told your name to me
Two hungry blackbirds land near by, ah ooh-oh

If I could be over you when the sky starts falling
Would you be happy under me?
If I could be under you if the earth was burning
Could you be trusted over me?

Spoke to a mother whose baby drowned
Gave me advice, or a rumor she once heard:
“Heaven's a distance, not a place,” ah ooh-oh

Gave her an ear from the corn we grew
You were away but she gave her thanks to you
That was a year ago come May, ah ooh-oh

If I could be over you when the sky starts falling
Would you be smothered under me?
If I could be under you if the earth was burning
Would you be cryin’ over me?

I could hear kids in the yard next door
Cats in the brush when the calendar fell down
Wait by the shade-tree one more year, ah ooh-oh

Poetry tempered with tragedy
Tempted and pulled when you cry upon my sleeve
Two flocks of blackbirds meet the air

Wade Across The Water

I saw you wade across the river
Winter coat across your shoulders
Calling out, what did you say?

If I wade across the water
When I rise will you be there
Holding on or turned the other way?

I saw you wade across the river
Handkerchief in your fingers
Just in case, well, just in case

If I lose to the water
Lose it all for you, lover
You were all I wanted anyway

Watch And Chain

Lost my watch, watch and chain, but time's not lost
This time we walk together beside the slow black river
Water-walking over mud you whisper something
Something good in my ear, so I stop so I can hear:

"Darling, I'm the one to blame, I threw your watch and chain
To where I don't know inside the tall grass meadow
You'll forget, forget in time, remember this:
Your hand in mine forever, beside the slow black river"

Lost my watch, watch and chain, to her today
But time it has no meaning when her and me are walking
Darling, I'm the one to blame, I love you still
and timeless now forever
Together by the river

We All, Us Three, Will Ride

(Will Oldham cover)

In a small far room the bed is set
With trinkets all surrounding
Yet alone it rests, so dry it sets
With souls aside abiding
There moves legs warm, and close inside
No, no leg braces a hello
And pictures on walls where paint is lame
Where sinks are friendly running

Reflect, reflect metal cast
My toe has long been swollen
My knees are blue, my eyes are too
My love has not forgotten
We’ll come, we’ll come, oh he will come
And make me have a baby
Then i foresee we all, us three,
Will ride and all together

The hills have eyes, their trees have lives
Disjointed like a hero
No saga told, no things unfold
To make the ride much finer
The length is fine, his hand in mine
Does someone hear our chatter
A lover's laugh, a bleeding calf
A dog out in the harbor

Your Blue Eyes

Blue light setting lotus-style in your a-frame in the countryside
Stillness slides the door and walks inside
Candle on the windowsill burnt wickless through our low-lit meal
Heaven only knows what you hide
In your blue eyes, in your sly smile

Tangerine on both your hands smells strong as the tobacco-can
Roll me up a smoke if you don’t mind
Touch me like that afternoon when your friends would all be over soon
And you said, “What the hell, we’ll make the time”
With your blue eyes, in your slight smile