Your Love is an Oasis

 

I'd do just about anything just to see you smile

Do just about anything just to see you smile

I'd do just about anything just to see you smile

Baby that's just my style

 

Ask me why I won't do that, oh baby that's not my style

Ask me why I won't do that, well, baby that's not my style

Ask me why I won't do that, oh baby that's not my style

No that's just not my style

 

In my life your love is an oasis

In my life your love is an oasis

When I'm dry you come to me like water

In my life your love is an oasis 

Your love is an oasis 

 

These old dry bones'll moan and groan if you leave 'em alone

These old dry bones'll moan and groan if you leave 'em alone

These old dry bones'll moan and groan if you leave 'em alone

So please don't leave me alone

 

Baby you can drive my car, drive it all night long

Honey, you can rev my engine, run it all night long

Be sure you don't go too far and don't be gone too long

Baby you can drive my car, honey

 

In my life your love is an oasis

In my life your love is an oasis

When I'm dry you come to me like water

In my life your love is an oasis 

Your love is an oasis

 

I love ya 'neath the sun and moon, in the morning, in the afternoon

Love ya 'neath the sun and moon, in the morning, in the afternoon

Love ya 'neath the sun and moon, in the morning, in the afternoon

'Neath the sun and the moon, honey

 

In my life your love is an oasis

In my life your love is an oasis

When I'm dry you come to me like water

In my life your love is an oasis 

Your love is an oasis

 

Back to top

Tall Man, Small Man

 

Hey Mr Tall Man ive seen you around

Peekin over fences all over town

Changin every burned-out light bulb you can see

Rescuin little girls' kitties from the trees

 

Me? I was born just a regular joe

Five feet n ten from my head to my toe

But now and then you know we standard-size guys

Like to fantasize that we're otherwise

 

And if I was tall like you

I tell you what I would do

 

I'd cast a shadow from Kansas City to Kalamazoo

Stay in the back row for photos, at picture shows too

I'd decline to climb ladders, helping hands I'd refuse

And maybe, Mr Tall Man, even tower over you

 

I would never call shotgun, it would be understood

Every shot a slam dunk, id be the king of the hardwood

Breathin rarefied air with all my inches to spare

And when the ladies say hey! hows the weather up there?

I'd say it's sunny, honey it's always sunny

And with my long legs gobblin up the spaces between

I'd stroll around lookin down at the tops of things

 

For stimulatin conversation I could visit the zoo

You see the giraffes and I would always see eye to eye

And because they can fly the birds can come too

For a nice big slice of pie in the sky

 

Now a feminist can hate me, chide and berate me

Call me rude, call me crude, but even a middling-height dude

Will surely understand when I say a lady

Loves lookin up to her man

 

I know a small-minded fantasy is all this will ever be

But shed me no tear from altitudinous eyes

Cuz though I said goodbye to my loftier dreams

 

Still if I were tall like you

I know just what I would do

 

I would never call shotgun, it would be understood

Every shot a slam dunk, id be the king of the hardwood

Breathin rarefied air with all my inches to spare

And when the ladies say hey! hows the weather up there?

I'd say it's sunny, honey it's always sunny

And with my long legs gobblin up the spaces between

I'd stroll around lookin down at the tops of things

 

Back to top

 

Come to Me 

 

Come to me

When the night falls too fast

Bring company!

Every ghost from your past!

We'll wave our hands through them like smoke

And peer through them like glass

Drop what you're doin baby

Come to me

 

Come to me

The day promises to be long

I'm not sayin' we

Can make rights out of wrongs

But if you teach me all the flowers' names

I will sing you nameless songs

Drop what youre doin baby

Come to me

 

Oh I'll run to you

In the hour of your strife

Straight to your rescue

To pull out the knife

No trouble at all

To come over and save your life

 

Please dont go

Please stay with me a while

Doesn't it show?

I'm so high on your smile!

These feelings might be real

And I just wanna put them up on trial

Drop your other plans baby

Stay a while

 

These feelings might be real

baby, stay a while

 

Back to top

 

footsteps

 

Just after midnight, im all alone

Walkin slow and im halfway home

Suddenly I hear footsteps fallin behind

I try not to pay them any mind

 

But isnt it strange at this late hour

That anyone else would be walkin this road?

I try not to let my mind spin out of control

It's just somebody with somewhere to go

 

But deep in my legs I feel this urge to run

 

What would I do?

If it were more than my imagination?

What would I do

If my darkest fear came true right now?

 

Behind me I see the silhouette

Of a man in the dirty yellow glow of a streetlight

Hands in his pockets, hood over his head

 

He looks strong and tall

I try not to feel

Scared and small

But my nerves arent made of steel

 

And how long has he been followin (me)?

I start walking faster now

The moon is down, there's no one else around

He starts walkin faster

 

And what will I do?

If it's more than my imagination

What will I do?

If he jumps out of the night right now

If I run

Will he run me down?

If I scream

Will I be heard?

If I fight

Will I be strong enough to overcome a madman?

If I comply will he spare my life?

Or will I vanish quietly into the night?

 

Will I be the next helpless girl gone missin?

Will I be the subject of another search mission?

Will I be the latest pretty face on the tv news?

That's a fate that I refuse

 

So with the nine and the one already dialed

I wrap a fist around my keys

Adrenaline rushin through my veins

I'm ready as ill ever be

 

Ready to kick, ready to claw

Ready to yell until my voice is raw

Not goin down tonight, it's not my turn

I'm ready to fight, ready to learn

 

What I will do

If it's more than my imagination

What I will do

If he jumps out of the night right now

If I run

Will he run me down?

If I scream

Will I be heard?

If I fight

Will I be strong enough to overcome a madman?

If I comply will he spare my life?

Or will I vanish quietly into the night?

 

My heart is like a hammer

Every nerve on fire

I can hear him coming closer

Now he's right behind my shoulder

 

Then he walks on by

Softly humming a tune

He just walks on by

And vanishes quietly into the night

 

With trembling hands I catch my breath

and get my legs back under me

How long have I been standing here

It feels like eternity

 

Now it's well after midnight im almost home

Walkin fast and im all alone

When suddenly

 

Behind me I hear footsteps

 

Back to top

flowers for julia

 

My body is at war with itself

Blackness from my lungs slides down my drain

Livin and dyin on morphine and cocaine

Is  hardly better than the pain

 

In dreams I still lead armies across rivers  to hell

The newspapers called me a butcher in those days

Now the blood is a powder, it covers the fields

While I cough mine onto the page

 

Oh Julia! I am a dyin man

Writing takes all the strength in my hand

Where I held wildflowers from the Rio Grande

Julia! Just for you

Pressed into my letters

Blazing star 

Trailing windmill

 

My country is at war with itself

White hood, black blood, a wheel of vultures flying high

Peace will come, I can feel it in my heart

But I'll never see it with my eyes

 

Cuz ten smokes a day is killin' me they say

I surrender my pen, more than ready to die

Maybe someday you will find me in that sweet river valley

Where angels, not bullets, fly

 

Oh Julia! I am a dyin man

My old hand is out of my command

Never again will I send flowers from the Rio Grande

Oh Julia! Just for you

Dressed in heaven's own hues

Golden wave

Menadora

Wild olive

Wild petunia

 

Back to top 

mercy

 

You're only human

What did you expect of yourself?

No super power, no angelic perfection

Just a mortal like everybody else

A little mortal like everybody else

 

I ain't sayin you didn't blow it big time

I'm just sayin show yourself a little mercy

 

Doin it for the first time

This crazy little game called "Happy Ever After"

Only yesterday you were a child

Did you think you'd be a master by now?

Did you think you'd be a master?

 

 I ain't sayin you didn't fuck it up, yeah

I'm just sayin show yourself a little mercy

 

Some debts can never be paid

They can only be forgiven

 

The blood shed between you and me

So long ago is permanently lost

And now it pains me more to see

You nailin yourself to that cross

Why are you nailin yourself to a cross?

 

I ain't sayin you never really hurt me

I'm just beggin show yourself a little mercy

 

A little mercy can go a long way

 

Back to top 

My Eyes Are My Own

 

A shadow scared me yesterday

As  scuffled through a dream

Angels lie in wait behind their wings

They will carry me away

 

Tomorrow I might find a letter

From my grandfather to his son

What do you do when you realize there was a time

That your father was young?

 

We are all the dream of a sleeping soul

We are islands in a sea of diamonds

We are distant stars shining yesterday's light

But my eyes are my own, I will not share them

Oh my eyes are my own I will not share them

 

You are a bottle bearing a message

Come find your way to my shore!

You stand mighty and tall like a lighthouse

You cry like a melancholy foghorn

 

We are all the dream of a sleeping soul

We are islands in a sea of diamonds

We are distant stars shining yesterday's light

But my eyes are my own, I will not share them

Oh my eyes are my own I will not share them

 

We are all more fragile than we suppose

Ready to crumble when a cold wind blows

We all fall down like petals from a rose

But my eyes are my own I will not spare them

Oh my eyes are my own I will not spare them

 

I will not spare them beauty 

And I will not spare them pain

I will not spare them thunder

And I will not spare them rain

I will not spare them grief 

And I will not spare them joy

I will not spare them darkness

And I will not spare them love

 

We are all the dream of a sleeping soul

We are islands in a sea of violence

We all fall down like petals from  a rose

But my eyes are my own, I will not share them

Oh my eyes are my own, I will not share them

 

Back to top

 

 

The best is yet to come

 

When all the flowers in your garden bend low

Beneath the weight of April rain

When you're restless like the seasons

And all you can do is turn again

 

Around to face the past ashamed

And you cannot bear the pain

 

Don't you know you don't have to 

Find your own way around the dark

I'll be there to guide you

Don't you know you don't have to

Find your own way to heal that broken heart

I can show you how to

And don't despair my love

The best is yet to come

 

When you're tired of time alone

And love in vain is all you've known

When for all your seekin

You cannot find

A way to ease your worried mind

 

And when you feel 

Like all is lost

And you dare not count the cost

 

Don't you know you don't have to 

Find your own way around the dark

I'll be there to guide you

Don't you know you don't have to

Find your own way to heal that broken heart

I can show you how to

And don't despair my love

The best is yet to come

 

When you're sick and you need a helping hand

I will be your medicine

When you're sinking deep into thick quicksand

I  won't let it take you in

 

Don't you know you don't have to 

Find your own way around the dark

I'll be there to guide you

Don't you know you don't have to

Find your own way to heal that broken heart

I can show you how to

And don't despair my love

The best is yet to come

 

Back to top

 

A Quiet street

 

What did I expect to find

When I came back to this old street of mine

The queen of hearts right where I left her

In the spokes of a rusty bicycle wheel

 

The body of the bird

I wept over for days, the spot of blood

On her wing colored my dreams

Ugly hues I'd never seen

 

My old glove with the hole in the palm

From the day I caught a falling bomb

The tiny house in the giant tree

Where my first love first loved me

 

Now there's nothing but a quiet street

Even the memories are almost gone

Nothing here but a quiet street

And two old feet to walk along

 

Half a century ago

My mother barely more than a girl

Did I think I would hear her calling

Me in from my infinite little world

 

Where shadows could be outrun

Words were magic and war was just a game

My mother died almost ten years ago

How could she ever call my name?

 

How could my birthday balloon

Still be rising into the sky?

How could the church choir still be singing

In The Sweet By and By?

 

When there's only this quiet street

Even the memories are almost gone

Nothing here but a quiet street

And two old feet to walk along

 

What did I expect to find

When I came back to this old life of mine

What else but a quiet street

For two old feet to walk along

 

Back to top

 

orbit

 

You're up there in my sky

A bright and shining star

Even with a weary eye

I see how beautiful you are

 

But just too far away

To engage in gravitational play

I wish there was a way

To get closer to your rays

 

To erase all the light years

And stay together right here

Always

 

I wanna be in your orbit, baby

I'd give anything for it, baby

Even if it's only for one night

I would give anything to be your satellite

Anything to move around you

LIke a needle in a groove around you

To feel your heat and see your light

 

On a dark and moonless night

From a deep and cloudless sky

Kaleidoscopic light

Into my telescopic eye

 

And though not remotely near

The signal's comin clear

All the way from there to here

Through a haze of atmosphere

 

We could start a revolution

Around your heart of fusion

And light

 

I wanna be in your orbit, baby

I'd give anything for it, baby

Although I'm free I'd much rather be

In the sweet captivity of your gravity

Anything to spin around you

And say that I have been around you

And get a little taste of your energy

 

I wanna be in your orbit, baby

I'd give anything for it, baby

I don't need to be a permanent moon

I'd settle for only one December to June

Anything to twirl around you

To whirl my little world around you

If only from midnight to noon

 

I wanna be in your orbit, baby

 

Back to top

 

heroin's child

 

You're just a shadow at play

You're the invisible girl

You'd swear she doesnt even know you're in the house

Until she locks the bathroom door

 

The way she often does

After the shadow man has gone

Maybe she'll hide in there all night until dawn

Maybe she'll lock you in your room

 

You dont have to live a lifetime

You dont have to live a lifetime right now

You dont have to live a lifetime

Not a lifetime

Just a moment more

 

She will lie there all day

In some unreachable world

While you make supper for the baby and yourself

And every hour or two

 

You feel her for a heartbeat

Just like she taught you to

Palm up, two fingers on the wrist

No danger youll wake her

 

You dont have to live a lifetime

You dont have to live a lifetime right now

You dont have to live a lifetime

Not a lifetime

Just a moment more

 

Do you ever have nightmares?

Do you sleep without a care?

Do you ever have nigmtares?

Or only these dreams?

 

Dreams of running away

She can read it in your eyes

“You wouldnt dare, you ungrateful little shit!

Who else could love you like I do?”

 

Now the shadow man is at the door

Youre invisible again

Someday youll no longer be heroin's child

For now youll stare down at your shoes

And burn holes into your shoes

 

You dont have to live a lifetime

You dont have to live a lifetime tonight

You dont have to live a lifetime

Not a lifetime

Just a moment more

 

Back to top

 

rotten town

 

Another day in this rotten town

What you're lookin for when you look straight down

Youll never find it

Youre just behind it

Joy is bound to remain unfound

 

Faces pale 'neath a whte streetlight

Oh it's church in the morning and the bars at night

An old rugged cross on an old brick wall

Obscenities graffitied on a bathroom stall

 

Oh this rotten town

It cant get much worse than this rotten town

 

The devil's not a stranger, he lives next door

In the eyes of your kids, he's on channel four

He's in the bloody thoughts and the fantasies you

Entertain when nobody sees you

 

He's in the little lies you toss like quarters

Disgused as the guy that's dating your daughter

The devil's not a stranger, the devil's all around

The devil's everybody in this god-forsaken town

 

Oh this rotten town

It cant get much worse than this rotten town

 

My best friend Carlos got a deal on a Harley so

In a month we're bound for Dodge City

From there it's farther West or bust

Where Tucson lies on the night like stardust

 

There's whiskey and wine and wild, wild women

I'm gonna rob and steal what nobody's given me

Not too worried about gettin into heaven

It doesn't bother me to be unforgiven now

 

I might be hell-bound

But at least I'm leavin

This rotten town

 

Back to top

A little every day

 

One house – many rooms

One line – always opposite sides

One bed – two dreams

One love faded with no tears left to cry

 

But I remember when you were my girl

Ive got letters and pictures to prove it

But it doesn't matter now

Old histories of a heartbreak

A moment falling in

A lifetime crawling out

 

As I withdrew and left

You all alone with the time

I just got tired of takin

Helpless as gravity

Slowly took hold of the smile

You got so tired of fakin

Til finally we let the passing days undo

The love we both got tired of makin

 

A little every day

A little more every day

 

And so you found yourself

Longing for moments alone

Without me in the picture

While I hated myself

Feeling no pain with you gone

From my dreams of the future

Trapped in prisons made

Of promises to stay forever

 

While time grows tall

Hearts grow hard

And love grows small

 

But I remember when you were my girl

Ive got letters and pictures to prove it

But it doesn't matter now

Old histories of a heartbreak

A moment falling in

A lifetime crawling out

 

As I withdrew and left

You all alone with the time

I just got tired of takin

Helpless as gravity

Slowly took hold of the smile

You got so tired of fakin

Til finally we let the passing days undo

The love we both got tired of makin

 

A little every day

A little more every day

 

Back to top

 

dear mom and dad

 

Mom and Dad, it's your boy

You know the one you rarely hear from

I heard a Nanci Grffith song today

And it made me think of you

 

I try to picture your faces

Imagine what you're doin

Maybe watching all the birds come and go

Outside your kitchen window

 

I know sometmes 've been angry with you

And said words meant to sting you a little

We all carry the weight of remorse

But we're stuck with the past 

And it's time we made our peace with that

Our days are short and it's time we made our peace so

 

Dear mom and dad

I'm sorry I got mad

You gave me the best

Childhood ive ever had

And sometimes it was hard

And we hurt each other pretty bad

But its all good

And im glad youre my mom and dad

Never once been sad

That youre my mom and dad

 

Mom and dad I hope youre well

In body mind and spirit

Rest assured I am the same cuz I know

Its what you want most of all

 

And its mostly thanks to you

You gave me everything I needed

And though I left home wth a scar or two

It didnt ruin my heart

 

and now I'm older than you were when I was born

Fighting many of the battles you were fighting then

In a world unforgiving and wild

It's hard to grow a flower let alone raise a child

It's hard to grow a flower let alone raise a child

so

 

Dear mom and dad

I'm sorry I got mad

You gave me the best

Childhood ive ever had

And sometimes it was hard

And we hurt each other pretty bad

But its all good

And im glad youre my mom and dad

Never once been sad

That youre my mom and dad

 

Mom and Dad all I wanted you to know is

I forgive you and im sorry and even though in this

Hard life nothin's harder than family

In that lottery I feel pretty lucky oh

In that lottery I got pretty lucky so

 

Dear Mom and Dad

Im sorry I got mad

You gave me the best

Childhood I ever had

And though sometimes it was hard

And we hurt each other pretty bad

Its all good and im glad

You are my mom and dad

Ive never once been sad

You are my mom and dad

 

Back to top

Surprise

 

I never thought id write a song for a girl

Never thought id get along with the world

I thought love would never give me a whirl

Never thought id write a song for a girl

 

You really did a number on me

Did me easy as 1, 2 3

All the way to infinity

You really did a number on me

 

Love is like a sunrise

Happens before your very eyes

Still somehow a surprise!

 

Youre as cool as the moon above

Hot as noonday in the summer of love

When boys daydream what they dream of

As cool as the moon above

 

You taught me the only truth I know

No holy book ever told me so

Never heard it in birdsongs or rivers that flow

You taught me the only truth I know

 

Love is like a sunrise

Happens before your very eyes

Still somehow a surprise!

 

Livin's got much treasure in store

Alone has some, together has more

I'm never far from your front door

Livin's got such treasure in store

 

Love is like a sunrise

Happens before your very eyes

Still somehow a surprise!

 

Back to top

 

everybody wants to go to heaven

 

Everybody wants to go to heaven

But nobody wants to die

So everybody's lookin for a way to get there

In somebody else's ride

 

Everybody wants to be

Cosmic number one

Everybody wants someone else

To pay for all the fun

All the fun

 

The strong do everything they can

Whle the weak suffer what they must

And time grinds the halls of so-called

Justice into dust

 

Everybody wants to be

The snake among the doves

Everybody wants everyone else

To give up all the love

All the love

 

I never wanna go to heaven

And I just cant wait to die

The only reason im still alive

Is just to be your ride

 

Youre my idol, my god

My blazing sun, my number one

The only thing I live to do

Is give you all my love

all my love

 

Back to top

 

DEsert Rose

I was a young nuclear scientist

From a small farm n the Midwest

You were a city girl, a pacifist

 

You said you lost your daddy when you were four

He crossed the sea to fight a great war

And never returned from that foreign shore

 

Somewhere between your hours in picket lines

And mine splittin atoms, workin overtime

We fell in love and married in 1939

 

Three years later to the day

Watchin the sunset and our little boy play

Came a letter from the army of the USA

 

It said take your wife and child and go

To the hills of socorro, new mexico

Leave by night, let no one know

 

To the dry land, where no one goes

To the white sand, where no wind blows

To the ground, where no flower grows

Make a miracle, a desert rose

 

Whle you waited for me in a lonely room

I filled chalkboards with equations of doom

Risin over the desert like a rose in bloom

 

Around sunrise I would stagger in tired

And fall into dreams of a world on fire

While you dreamed of a life outside barbed wire

 

you said I just cant take this life anymore

I never married a master of war

Youre harder now then you were before

 

It's like this bomb is a part of you

Tickin away in the heart of you

And Im damned if it destroys me too

 

Damn the dry land, where no one goes

Damn the white sand, where no wind blows

Damn the ground where no flower grows

Damn your miracle: your desert rose!

 

t minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Every night another fight that couldn't be won

You were punishin me for what I'd done

 

'Til you couldn't even look my way anymore

Or laugh with me like you did before

And our love became our own cold war

 

So no surprise to rise before dawn

To find that you and the boy were gone

And I was alone with what I'd sewn

 

In the dry land, where no one goes

In the white sand, where no wind blows

In the ground, where no flower grows

With my miracle, my desert rose

 

Back to top

 

will i ever find a place in this world?

Some people die right where they were born

They sacrifice all to the gods of hearth and home

They bury their souls in the old familiar mold

So they can die right where they were born

 

Some people die a million miles away

From any chance they'll hear the name their mama gave

They say they came from nowhere and they're headed for the same

So they can die a million miles away

 

Some people live a loop that never ends

Set out to find themselves and find themselves back again

Part-time orphans, halfway prodigal children

Oh, they live a loop that never ends

 

Will I ever find a place In this world, in this world?

Will I ever find a place In this world?

Somewhere I can stay

Where I don't have to pay

Will I ever find a place in this world?

 

In my father's house there is no room for me

In the arms of the one I love there is no room for me

The house of god is for those who still believe

In my father's house there is no room for me

 

If I'm damned to die all alone

A pilgrim, a stranger, unwelcome, unknown

A man from elsewhere everywhere I go

If I'm damned to die all alone

 

There's a tree by a river dark and deep

Where the grass is soft and the water is sweet

Where the stars smile down on me while I sleep

By a tree, by a river dark and deep

 

Will I ever find a place In this world, in this world?

Will I ever find a place In this world?

Somewhere I can stay

Where I don't have to pay

Will I ever find a place in this world?

 

Back to top

 

i won't give up on you now

 

I can see in the fall of your shoulders

In your eyes that look older than eyes ever should

This fight has you feelin alone and defeated

You wanna walk away and leave it for good

 

But youre not the only one

Who's ever been down so far

More than once in my time

Ive been right where you are

 

And I wont give up on you now

I know youre gonna win this battle somehow

Youre down for the moment but not for the count

And I wont give up on you now

 

So dont you worry that ill stop believin

As though ive never seen you bleedin before

We're not even close to my point of breakin

Just when you think I cant take anymore

 

I will always bend

Im an all-weather friend

I was there at the start

Ill be there at the end

 

Cuz I wont give up on you now

I know youre gonna win this battle somehow

Youre down for the moment but not for the count

And I wont give up on you now 

 

Ive seen you move bigger mountains than this

Slay giants and whisper peace to a tempest

Swindle the devil out of your own soul

So I know youll come out of this fight more than whole

 

Youre a livin, breathin

Reason to believe

And if your strength ever fails

Come lean on me

 

Cuz I wont give up on you now

I know youre gonna win this battle somehow

Youre down for the moment but not for the count

And I wont give up on you now

 

Back to top

 

God Bless You On Your Birthday, USA

 

Red, white, and blue confetti falls

On the fourth of july parade

overhead cuttin through the open sky

The fifty-seventh airborne brigade

 

Look! here comes uncle sam!

And there's lady liberty

His trouser buttons all undone

A bottle where her torch should be

 

Over the blare of mariachi bands

You can hear the bagpipes whine

Teenage lovers steal more than a kiss

Behind the coca-cola sign

 

Everybody's waitin, wavin flags

Through the slowly fallin dark

For the fireworks to turn the sky

Into a banner spangled with stars

 

Somewhere some wasted soldier

Blows slightly out of tune

'My country tis of thee'

On a battle-hardened kazoo

May those stars and stripes forever wave

And may we all be so brave

and god bless you on your birthday, USA!

 

Here comes the mayor, he's flashin a smile

From a blue 62 cadillac

His wife is glarin from the passenger seat

At his new girlfriend in the back

 

Here's the fire engine, the orphanage

And the high school marchin band

And some dude in an Elvis suit

singin 'Wish I Was in Dixie Land'

 

It started in philadelphia

Where it ends cant be told

Im goin home before the grand finale

The night is young but I feel so old

 

Hey lady liberty

Will you spend the night with me?

Dont you know its independence day

And i'm in need of settin free

 

Now a crowd of many colors

Sings uncertain harmonies

Something about amber waves of grain

And mountain majesties

May your stars and stripes forever wave

May we all find our way

And god bless you on your birthday, USA!

 

Oh god bless you!

Happy birthday, USA!

 

Back to top

Ennui

 

Every day is a brand new day

Still every day's like every other day

Same long faces, same old horse-play

Why do I bother?

 

Vanity, vanity! All is vanity!

What goes up is up for gravity

Tryin hard to keep my sanity

So far no good

 

The million-footed rain is fallin down again

But the fire keeps on burnin

My bridges down

 

So I'm standing on the edge of a precipice

I'm way too old for this

Must be on some divine hit list

Too old for this

 

I am a man of many addictions

Fact of the matter is the fix is a fiction

The quest to fix everything that's broken

Is just one more

 

Funny how the tables turn the way they do

Aint it funny how trouble

Turns over on you

 

Take me back to the days

When I was just a boy

And the world was just a toy

 

Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere

Now I'm lookin at the long way home

That's alright, I've got all the time in the

World for my own

 

Sweet serenity is callin me again

But the world keeps on turnin

My head around

 

Back to top

Less Blue

 

I'll just find trouble

If I go lookin for love

But I do love trouble

Seems I cant get enough

 

Im no romantic

But is that really so true?

If Im no romantic

Then why am I blue?

 

Someday I'll find you

And I'll believe you're true

And color this faded heart

A shade less blue

 

Here with this bottle

Like some detective with a crime

Head down and hellbound

To get to the bottom in time

 

Now Im just talkin

Crazy and lettin off steam

But its better than prayin

It beats interpretin dreams

 

Someday I'll find you

And I'll believe you're true

And color this faded heart

A shade less blue

 

Now the moon's just hangin

All big and bright up above

And the stars are shinin cold

Perfectly content without love

 

But Im not a moon

And Im not a star

Nowhere as old or as cold as they are

Not nearly as steady

Not nearly as far

 

But it's not like we've got

Nothing in common

We do!

Like some moons and some stars

I shine blue

 

Maybe I don't need you

Don't need you to be true

Or to color this faded heart

Any less blue

 

Back to top

 

Underdressed

 

Im staring down at your body

It's weirdly still and quiet

And im talking to your spirit

Even though I dont believe

 

In heaven or hereafter

Persistence of consciousness

The hell you told me I was bound for

Every chance you could get

 

Now im remembering the coffee

You brewed for me one morning

I never did like coffee

You never really knew me

 

But I was pleasantly surprised

By your kindness because it was so rare

So I swallowed every bitter drop

Until the cup was bare

 

Im starin down at your body

Your cold, lifeless body

Nothin left to bow down to anymore

Nothin left to live up to

 

No angry god of my childhood

Just the shell of a mean old man

 

And I swear you retain

In your posthumous expression

A vestige of disdain

Chalk it up to projection

 

Hunched over your bible

You found the words to justify

Doin harm to a child

but those words were only lies

 

When I was small I thought you were strong

Now im big and I can see you were only stern

Thats a world of difference

It took me years to learn

 

Now here I am at your funeral

And Im not exactly wearin my Sunday best

But its funny I dont feel at all

Underdressed

 

Back to top

WOULD WE KILL JESUS

Would we kill Jesus

If he came back today?

Would we shut up and listen

To what he had to say?

If we heard him knockin'

Would we invite him in?

Or would we find him guilty

All over again?

 

Since he walked the hills of Galilee

We haven't much changed

So I bet his message

Would also be the same

Would we mock him and spit on him

And cry 'shame, shame, shame!'

Might we even kill Jesus

In Jesus's name?

 

I know we'd never nail him to a cross

We've got other ways to silence wiser men

Make him poor, make him pay

Make him face his judgment day

Make sure he can't rise again

Again

 

Would we give him the needle

A double-deadly dose?

Strap him down in the electric chair

Burn him like toast?

Or in front of a firing squad

Make him a holy ghost?

If he told us we got to start lovin'

The ones we hate the most

 

I know we'd never hang him out to die

Plenty other ways to punish honest men

Call him crazy, call him odd

Call him enemy of god

Make sure he'll never rise again

Again

 

If he showed us the pearls of heaven

Would we trample like swine

Or offered us the living water

Would we yell for more wine

And what if he told us

That every single day

We've been killin' each other

In so many little ways

 

When we crucify what we don't understand

Or make another taste the poison in our pain

Sayin' words meant to wound, belittle, or deceive

It's like we're killin' Jesus all over again

 

So would we kill Jesus

If he came back today?

 

Back to top