1.
As we fight
The neighborhood young people in
love
Have a form of speech, a dark one,
Which you can not use with your
new skirt
Who turns in early. Friend,
Speak it honestly, again
As the late night,
With all of life’s intimate,
grave mysteries,
Calls the late night
By satellites, planets and planes,
whispering.
Well our whispering days are done,
But aren’t we getting closer
as we fight?
And the louder our voices get,
The quieter it makes this starry
night
It makes this starry night.
Home Skillet,
Does she calm your dad?
Aren’t you bored?
Can you really stand being
constantly adored?
Each day spays night
Not another lonely life
Sunrays are straight, old, white,
Powerful, empty and severe.
You can’t be yourself here
There is a way that clinically sad
Students in love talk, my darling.
Despite the business smile on your
face,
You’ve not forgot it, friend
You have only gone to bed
In the late night,
Where life is implicitly true,
once again.
In the late night,
Le ballon rouge, missles and moons, overhead.
Well, our unified life is done
But aren’t we getting closer
as we fight?
And the louder our voices get,
The quieter it makes this starry
night.
It makes this starry night
In this new world,
Do you not wake up at three,
wondering?
In the late night,
Without you sensing my thoughts,
They may not mean a thing.
You, all those you know,
And all those who those you know
know,
The way of all flesh go.
Go with one you really love.
Go with one you really love.
2. Dulce et decorum
Young Lee, gather the strength of
knowing
Your friends are standing by.
Your cadence is bound, not broken,
Shivering true at night.
To the stage where the lies
explored you,
Say goodbye honestly
Vigilant bulrushes kneel before
you,
Surround and guard you Lee
Earlier this week,
Half of you was his to make
And half of you was him
But the mist invades the holler
And your voice, it speaks
Young Lee’s thoughts again
Take the turnpike and take your
daughter,
Bruised mute, but now you can
Say the truth: it is sweet and
proper,
If hard, to leave a shitty man
As yourself, Lee
And your mouth, it speaks.
Time goes
over and back.
Lee, do not relapse,
It’s time, Lee
Lee, do not relax
It is...
3. Call for papers
How many times have I cut your
hair?
Inches of reddish fringe landing
on gold-leaved trees
From the bathroom window, falling
through the lakeside air,
With unselfconscious words - but
now, I freeze
Weighing facts, cataloguing
dreams,
And I end up saying the exact
wrong things
I open up with the most awkward
talk,
Cause you’re single now.
Writer’s block
From a ‘call for
papers’
Call for papers,
call for papers,
call for papers.
How many times have we stayed
indoors,
All of us, after school was dark
and armed?
In the piano room they don’t
check anymore,
You and I out-spoke the rest, but
now we aren’t
Weighing facts, cataloguing
dreams,
And I end up saying the exact
wrong things
I open up with the most awkward
talk,
Cause you’re single now.
Writer’s block.
Drop the facts, drop all the
dreams,
Any album ending as our friends
all leave
I bare my soul with the most
awkward talk
Cause you’re single now.
Writer’s block
From a ‘call for
papers.’
Call for papers,
call for papers,
call for papers.
Nothing!
4. The tall grass
Like tall grass
When a snow storm comes,
I can’t stand
Straight or try to run
To lean on someone you
Need someone, but
Please say you’re not in
love with me
Cause you’re so afraid of
growing old
Please say you’re not in
love with me
Cause you need a living thing to
hold
That just makes the world more
cold
The clouds burst
And the valleys drown
And floating
Is as good as ground
You know how unlike love that
sounds, so
Please say you ain’t in love
with me
Cause I’m the only thing
left to try
You are not in love with me
Because otherwise you’d want
to die,
And you need me to get by
5. Lost province
Lost province
Anything good come from that
place?
Lost province
Handy for the bosses’ bath
waste
Lost one, sweet dark one
Flooded country, flooded creeks
Walk, son
The song about you
Is not entirely about you:
You’re older than the
mountains, too,
And all white names
No genes to give our kids,
Just enchanted sadness
Every time we almost kiss,
Need is a strange new state
Lost province
Looking for our dad again
Lost province
Vandalia ‘04 Le Pen
Lost one, sweet dark one
Flooded country, flooded creeks.
Walk, son
The song about you
Is not entirely about you:
You’re older than the
mountains, too,
And all white names
No genes to give our kids,
Just enchanted sadness
Every time we almost kiss,
Need is a strange new state
Kids fighting in the late night
Some lie under stage light
Awkward after-parties
Blow the lights in town
Girl, don’t hide your
strange side
6. One day, far off, if the
world forgot
One day far off, if the world
forgot all about rock,
One day late in Summer camp with
an 80 pound heart
One day then, the very dust we
walk would rise and talk
We’d say,
‘We missed you, too
The blues weren’t enough to
get us through’
One day far off, if the record
grooves went dull and flat
One day far off, if we had no
shoeboxes or rats
One day far off, if nothing inside
us said attack
‘Come back
We missed you too
The blues weren’t enough to
get us through’
One day far off, if all the
guitars went down in flames
One day far off, if the old roles
never rearranged
One day far off, if in our teenage
years nothing changed
‘Come back.
We missed you, too
The blues weren’t enough to
get us through’
One day far off, if the towering
drums just folded in
No,
bow, kneel, angel of death
One day far off, if we all went
back to work again
Don’t
lead, trail, angel of death
One day far off, something there
would say it’s not the end
It’s
not yours, you’re its
‘Come back.
We missed you, too
The blues weren’t enough to
get us through’
One day, if there were no faint
androgynerds to woo
One day, if these crowded streets
were only safe and new
One day far off somewhere
there’d be grass roots growing through
‘Come back.
We missed you, too
The blues weren’t enough to
get us through’
7. The senile rings
When I was 17,
I had a telling dream
It told me
Told me unpopular things.
You see, once when I was 93, I had
a telling dream
Told me to go around with
Lee-Anne. Here I am.
Once I thought my work would be my
end,
But mystery is every day again,
On a highway driving straight into
the sea
Stand in the
Wait for me
Are we only going to hold hands?
Are you gonna die or can we dance?
O, you dance alright, now be
someone
We only get to fight while we are
young
On the
Are you gonna die or can we kiss?
O, you kiss alright...
There’s a question threading
through the dark,
And its answer put me back to work
There is something bright in
glowing now
Fit for this Earth to revolve
around
On the
I had a telling dream
Bordering on epiphany
It told me to go around in rings,
And here I am with rings
Do what you need in rings
Do what you need
8. Claire
Claire, complicated every way but
your name
Never waved the white flag in our
war games
Whitecaps out there where your
ashes fell might suggest
That you’ve called a truce,
but it’s a storm I guess
Claire, did you see me in the
paper today?
Pictured walking through a crowd
around Shea
Though it shows a thousand faces,
I’m the only
One with empty blue eyes where you
used to be
Lost in a trance
And scared
Right there: I’m the one
without you, Claire
Same old dance
With thin air
Right there: I’m the one
without you, Claire.
On a constant wake, on a twitching
sea,
Flood back in my memories arguing
In your shadow years, I will
always be
Loyal opposition. Mess with me if
you can, Claire
You were always only half aware of
our friends
Not a word for things on which too
much depends
But do you look down on me in the
crowd at shows? You can
Spot me by these weightless arms
and unheld hands
Lost in a trance
And scared
Right there: I’m the one
without you, Claire
Same old dance
With thin air
Right there: I’m the one
without you, Claire.
9. Stormy sky (skate or
die).
I was next.
You were the boy all the girls
were asking to
skate and destroy their lives,
but you knew me first,
and hurt me worst.
Now I need you like
like the stormy sky
way out on the ocean needs to
dehumidify,
but can’t,
because there’s too much
water everywhere.
The tears just rise back to its
eyes.
So I rumble and glow
I keep the future primitive
To let you know
You’re free
To make Barbry Allen out
of me
I need you like
like the stormy sky
way out on the ocean needs to
dehumidify,
but can’t,
because there’s too much
water everywhere.
The tears just rise back to its
eyes.
10. Burden down
La la la la...
Kids fighting in the late night
Some lie under stage light
Awkward after-parties
Blow the lights in town
Girl, don’t hide your
strange side
Rain your burden down
His faith in you is thick and thin
He leaves you in your dreams no
end
Don’t follow, don’t
follow
Kids fighting in the late night
Some lie under stage light
Awkward after-parties
Blow the lights in town
Girl, don’t hide your
strange side
Rain your burden down
You’d fight out of a sinking
car
Can’t you shed the
floodlight where you are?
How many times
Times can you be scarred?
...la la la la lost world, lose
this burden
That cold is from your need for
friends
This does not need to be the end
Don’t follow, don’t
follow
Kids fighting in the late night
Some lie under stage light
Awkward after-parties
Blow the lights in town
Girl, don’t hide your
strange side
Rain your burden down
La la la la...
11. Go from my window (Flooded
interstate) | Words
by John Dowland, except in parentheses
Go from my window, my love
Go from my window, my dear
The wind and the rain
Will drive you back again
You cannot be lodging here
(As the dark tides fall around)
Go from my window, my dear
Go from my window, love go
The wind and the rain
Will drive you back again
You cannot be lodging here
(As the dark tides fall around
Cause all along the flooded
interstate
As the dark tides fall around
I got a crutch that’ll
separate
All the dead weight from the
ground)
12. No stars
Coloring on an autumn day, slow
Like you were recognized and paid,
slow
Recess out on the statue hill,
slow
Take in the sun and friends
Take your time on the way back
down, look
At the grass where the wrinkles
show
How were you supposed to know?
Help me to get out of,
Help me to get out of
The model business with a
vomiting heart, yes please
Help me to get out of,
Help me to get out of
The factory lights
There are no stars without
darkness
You’re afraid work works the
world
Not the other way around
From now on you can play
When the sun is down
But when you try you’ll find
You need to sleep instead
You’ll dream of this time
last year, slow Anatole
All the children were torn away -
wait
Draw the lungs deeper shades of
grey - wait
Smuggled in, weak and underage -
wait
Do what they say for now
Hands sifting wreckage piles, rush
Breathing smoke while the boss
goes off
You can’t piss, you can only
cough
You never thought you would ever
be
Nostalgic for those beige minutes
of school
Breaking up the week
But that quiet, humble glow
Won’t keep the lucky people
lucky, so
Grow up fast, slow Anatole
Cough: Help me to get out of,
Help me to get out of
The model business with a
vomiting heart, yes please
Help me to get out of,
Help me to get out of
The factory lights
There are no stars without darkness
13. The gravel dew
It saw you wake before the sunrise
You thought you left without a
sound
In fact, you stumbled on the
gravel road,
With the dew, which heard it all
and cried:
Who will make you lost in
wonder now?
Who will take your side?
It heard you try to change your
world
Your burning questions, poorly
phrased
(pretentious marriage song) about
Problems you do not understand
Na na na na...
Stay and try again
It saw you climbing with her own
eyes,
So proud and never looking down,
Muscling old logic on the forest
and
Stray creatures on the
mountainside
Who will make you lost in
wonder now?
Who will take your side?
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY ISOL. RIGHT FRONT PAGE PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID STUART LEONARD, LEFT BY PAUL.
STEVE DAY
TECH. LYRICS AND MUSIC © 2001 - 2007 ALSACE