1. |
Malmsey Wine
03:48
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I dreamed I got lost in Gloucester
And fell in the sea
The seagulls all screamed “Impostor!”
And pointed at me
So I sank through the turvy water
Past the sharks and the seals
I stole a kiss from the gorgon’s daughter
And soldered fists to my heels
Drown me in a butt of Malmsey wine
Crown or kin, I can’t make up my mind
I like the hunts and the balls and banquets
I like the sport and the game
But bloody burgundy’s not my color
And Patience isn’t my name
I’ve been pretending for faith and fury
I got a little too smart
Executive function has hung my jury
And run a rood through my heart
Drown me in a butt of Malmsey wine
Frown and spin the wheel to crush my spine
I’m the answer to that riddle that you rode
I won’t be littering your glittering abode
When all the deeds have been done and dusted
When every word has been said
When all the iron you wrought has rusted
I’ll still be happily dead
So many petals have fled this flower
So many hearts have gone still
Just be a lamb and unlock the tower
It’s time for one final swill
Drown me in a butt of Malmsey wine
Gown of sin and candy alkaline
Drown me in a butt of Malmsey wine
Downy skin, you cut so deep and fine
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2. |
Come Around
05:00
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Every time you come around
(Why don’t you come around more often than you do?)
Anytime you come around
I’ll chop up my heart and liver and serve them in your stew
Every time you come around my body will be there
Anywhere you rum around I’ll get down on one knee there
Every time you come around
(Why you don’t come around as often as I wish?)
Anytime you come around
Bring a plastic bag to carry home your fish
Anytime you come around I’ll stock and I’ll stow you
Anywhere you run aground I’ll tug and I’ll tow you
Every time you come around
(Why do you thumb around so often when I’m gone?)
Any rhyme you will unwound
Will die on my lips and limp away to darken dawn
Every time you come around you meddle and mill me
Any climb to claim your mound will fettle and fill me
I’ve been lost in the mirror
I’ve been a bug in your tea
Through the frost it’s much clearer
That you believed in me
Every time you come around
(Why don’t you come around too often anymore?)
Anytime you come around
Take down the broom and dustbin and sweep me off the floor
Every time you come around you swaddle and still me
Every crime and crumb unbound will coddle and kill me
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3. |
For a Girl on a Plane
03:52
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Heaven’s a heavy weight to bear
On shoulders that rub around
Harder to fathom in the air
A thousand furlongs from the ground
Castles of cups on coffee carts
Palaces wrought from pain
Nowhere to stay, no place to start
No better thing to do but rain
I never thought about the air that circulates around us
I never listened to the distance between us before
I’d rip my face right through these plains of plastic morning cloud dust
But I think I’ll close my eyes and have one more
Mayflowers wilt where maples pray
Dandelions die alone
Ploughs in my hands gang aft agley
But landing licks us to the bone
Maybe it’s not for me to learn
Secrets about your skin
What kind of wheels your pages turn
Αnd what you stick your fingers in
I never wanted you the same way that you seemed to want me
You never hurtled through my space beyond the speed of sound
And though I know you never threw the right harpoon to hunt me
My gills are filling up with blood and soon I’ll drown
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4. |
Medicine Ball
05:11
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I took a vow that I would do you no harm
Look at me now, about to chew off an arm
Bounce me a medicine ball
Pounce and I’ll jettison all of this cargo
I’ll break our embargo
Toss me a medicine ball
I’m sauced and I’ve gone through it all but your jeans
Like a brick in a blender, a cat in a pinball machine
Got a dent in my fender
You know what I mean.
I took an oath that I would humor your blood
Look at us both, rancid with rumor and mud
Pass me the medicine, doll
A glass of old Jameson solves all my sorrow
I’ll swallow tomorrow
Toss me a medicine ball
I’m lost and I’ve longed for the Fall since the Spring
Like a febrile believer, the feeble withdrawal of a wing
Never meant to deceive her
You know what I mean.
Blast me with sand
Smoke in my hand
I’m getting stronger
Lungs are lasting longer
Grind up the seeds
We all have our needs
I’m neither snake nor staff
Not by half
Bounce me a medicine ball
Jounce me, I’ll jettison all of my slumber
You’ve still got my number
Toss me a medicine ball
I’m cross and I won’t take your call but you’ll see
Like a bat in a barrow, the midnight is mourning for me
Neither straight nor an arrow, you know…
Bounce me a medicine ball
An ounce of your venison’s all I can handle
Let’s blow out the candle
Pass me that medicine ball
Molasses, my reticence crawled through this ring
I’m a stone in a pool, not a pony you pull on a string
Now they know I’m a phony
And you own everything
Bounce me a medicine ball
Denounce me, I’ll jettison all of this cargo
How far will this car go?
Toss me a medicine ball
I’ve lost and the swans have the gall just to preen
Like a wolf torn and tender, a raven so craven and keen
Think I’ll go on a bender
You know what I mean.
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5. |
An Angel
03:05
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I’m the portrait, the parchment, the porn, the pen
You’re the bottle, the bootlegger, born again
With one foot cleft in two, dividing seas
Where kestrels and calamities come in threes
An angel frowns and cuts the keys
I’m a worm, I’m a star that fell down from space
You’re a nightmare of whirring wings, eyes without a face
We’re the hail and the fire, dripping gore
Stripping nails at the door
With one hand on the hearts of cats and kings
The other draping darkness on Saturn’s rings
An angel smiles and hooks its wings
Be not afraid; there is so much worse than this
With me you’ll never have to fake a kiss
Be not afraid; there is so much thirst to come
Pray you endeavor not to leave a crumb
If you believe, babble on the edge and plunge
Bring bitter vinegar to soak your sponge
If you believe, scrabble through the hedge for me
But you might not endure the things you see
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6. |
The Queen of Cats
04:16
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(Thank you, Zora)
Love is α tender thing, sometimes it’s a blossom
if you want your finger bit, poke it at a possum
Love is too rough, too rude; love is primed for pricking
pierced me sore and broke its shaft, purring, finger-licking
I don’t care how good the music is, you can’t dance on every set
You’re soaking wet
Love is a senile sea: it shifts and rants and rambles
takes its shape from the shore it meets, barleycorn and brambles
I don’t care how good the music is, she doesn’t dance to every song
Just hums along
Love is the queen of cats, a roguish mathematician
beetle brow and blushing mask betraying our condition
I don’t care how good the music is, she won’t dance until we’re done
Go have some fun.
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7. |
Empty Glass
02:17
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(Inspired by Gilberto Gil's "Copo Vazio")
Let’s all get something clear:
The glass that’s sitting empty is full of atmosphere
Let’s all get something clear:
That the empty air of a funereal face is full of empty atmosphere
Emptied of all that resides there in that space formerly full of beer
Let’s all get something clear, let’s make it plain:
The the empty air of a funereal face is full of pain
Let’s all get something clear:
That glass that’s sitting empty is full of atmosphere
That the air in the glass is there where last was wine
That the wine’s always trying to find and replace the pain
That the pain occupies about one half of the truth
All that we’ve lost and we can’t ever regain
Half a basket of bread, half a pile of chaff
Half a bathtub of tears, half the sound of her laugh
All the magic of a tragic love too hard for two poor hearts to maintain
All the magic of a tragic love too hard for two poor hearts to maintain
Let’s all get something clear:
The glass that’s sitting empty is full of atmosphere.
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8. |
Firefly
02:45
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Firefly
Alighting on my elbow, lucky
You and I: serenity and sweat
Eye to eye
Your cousin buzzing and no matter how I cry
You won’t let me forget about the promise that I made
To steel my mind and somehow still the blade
Firefly
Thrust tender and electric
Stars are stealing by the muddle of my mind
Porphyry sky, panselinated tendrils
Reaching down to pry my fingers from the railing
Roll me breath by breath
And buy me luminescent time
With tokens cashed at your death
Five hundred universes learning to rhyme
Thickets thrash and burn in Key Lime lantern glow
Crickets psalm the lives of saints that writhe and dream the dark below
Firefly
The headlights send us reeling and my mouth is dry
You shudder on my shoulder
Don’t you blink, goodbye
Collecting falling planets but my pocket’s full of holes
Firefly
I never could have held you
Prayers have passed me by
Your finger flipped me over
Just don’t ask me why
I always seem to come back to this place again
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9. |
Hoodoo
03:52
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(Inspired by Zora Neale Hurston's "Mules and Men")
Well, I lay my body down and I saw a dream
And then I pointed all my toenails to New Orleans
Jedidiah got his ring from the Queen, you know
And Dr. John taught Miss Laveau
So I went up to the Duke with a swampin’ fee
He lit up a cigar and he said to me:
“If you wanna see the wonders the world got on
You gotta dig that Conquerer John”
And he said that’s hoodoo
Careful, girl, what you do
When you tryin’ to get through to reach the other side
Don’t you know that’s hoodoo
Candles black and blue, too
Cher, gris-gris de beaucoup
And I’ll be your guide
Dr. Jenkins put a light on a wish of mine
And we sealed it with a pint of palmetto wine
A pinch of soil from a grave and we mixed it right
With sugar sweet and sulphur bright
I did the dance of Death with miss Kitty Brown
He sat upon his throne in his scarlet crown
He took me with his tongue in his teeth of hate
And Mother Kitty poured the whiskey straight
And she said that’s hoodoo…
The Frizzly Rooster ground the pepper and let me in
I touched the coral on his altar and drank his gin
He told me “If you want to learn to walk alone
You gotta get that Black Cat Bone”
So I filled a pot with water as dark as rue
Drew a circle on the ground with an iron shoe
Tossed old Tom into the cauldron and boiled him down
And wore the midnight like a gown
And I said that’s hoodoo…
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10. |
The Person Who Died
02:33
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I’m so sorry I couldn’t yet be the person who died
I’m so sorry I wouldn’t let you be the first on the slide
I’m so sorry you had to sift through those crumpled receipts
I’m so sorry that I can’t gift you these rumpled-up sheets, you say
I’m so sorry I fed this troll on the sin of denial
I’m so sorry about the holes in my cinderblock smile
I’m so sorry the rot still clings to the heel of my shoe
I’m so sorry I thought to bring up that reel that we used to play
I’m so sorry I’m not your Spock and you were never my Pike
I’m so sorry we never spark despite the matches we strike
I’m so sorry I won’t lie down in the street where you sleep
I’m so sorry I stick around and trick-or-treat while you creep away
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11. |
Little Sparrow
03:38
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Wake up, little sparrow
Don’t build your house in the snow
Look alive, little sparrow
Your brothers and sisters flew south
They all flew south long ago
If I were a sparrow I’d fly these doubting wings to the sea
To feel the waves wash over me and spin me away
Lift your eyes, little sparrow
To junkyards and salt springs and sweat-soaked overalls
Open wide, little sparrow
Discomfort and harm aren’t the same
They aren’t the same thing at all
If I were a sparrow I’d fly these doubting wings to the sea
To feel the waves wash over me and spin me away
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12. |
Maybe
02:58
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Maybe I swang a little too slow
Maybe I sang too high or too low
Maybe I lost what never was mine
And maybe you tossed a velvety line
to that bird in my chest, black and blind
Maybe my eyes aren’t done with your looks
Maybe my spine is still bound to your books
Maybe it’s true that I shuffled my feet
But maybe the glue that held bones to meat
Melted morrows and all
As I recalled those first dreams about loving you
Brightly,
Through lashes and snow
That your face is a place I’ve been dying to go
For a life and a day
So I’d like you to stay
Before we whisper farewell, faerie fey
Maybe the fun that we spent didn’t last
Maybe I’m done paying rent to the past
Maybe the blue that we sip from’s the sea
Maybe it’s you or maybe it’s me.
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Paddy League Tallahassee, Florida
Subtropical panamericana from a strange peninsula perpetually in bloom
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