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leaving Philadelphia was not fantastic it was fine
a hundred drops of cider in the basin of my mind
a hundred mountains wider as the train begins to grind
and so I am the guide for all the stations underlined!
I am still drunk!
how could the shining railroad leave a route so undiscerning?
hot kids in a corsage around the fountain, they are yearning
a hundred tiny chapels have a hundred lessons turning
where a hundred crucifixions leave a hundred young hearts burning
inside the train the kids with colored pencils in their hands
a hundred perfect drawings of the bright and blurring land
so I am crumpled in my seat next to the oldest man
I too am just a paper flower colored with a crayon
O Philadelphia no bell should ever splinter like the sound that squeals from rusting wheel
in summer dark or winter light
then ten short hours wasted, I was in love inside your burlap sack
of garbage heat and pavement sheets that shimmer when you squint
the sight is real
I am still drunk!
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2. |
Runes
04:40
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Gracious with the car, with the bike, with the footsteps
a hundred miles south in the rain on a mattress
a coin inside your mouth and my brain deattaching
a joining of the routes on some separate mapquests overlaid
and this one runs around so fast
and this one you cant keep
and this one clutches at you in your sleep
o on the road sign trembling:
the letters almost assembling
spacious for a while in the span of a season
it is not your home i am here for a reason
and looking for an out, back, clunky, swerving
hoping to be caught in the walmart searchlights circling
and this one i can have it
and this one i have won
and this one costs the small price of having fun
o on the glowing sign
lit runes etched line by line
so may chimes sound before you
and mabel’s ring around my neck
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3. |
Dream Design House
04:42
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the basement leads in thru the backyard
open and prone to attack
those gutters / ghettos were born to be lonely
culling the rose from the rain / rows from the reign
i bike slow and stay on the prowl
[Regina Spektor:] but i have dreams of orcas and owls
Earth turns away ninety degrees in the dark
and i’m keeping up
Then you couldn’t see it
oh well it’s not gone
all the sweat we sleep in
only having fun
No curve can be writ like a poem.
those oceans break off at the stars
a system is bound to confuse me from holding a brother in arms
so if you can feel it
all is not gone
you know that to breach it
it only turns me on
Is not a diagram
Is not a want
on the night when the water skippers
skitter cross the pond
i wish for fiberglass wings
and you to be safe in your car
don’t know what is outside the free way
it doesn’t feel very far
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4. |
Good Luck!
02:35
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Though I had lost my fun
I thought I knew what I was missing
and traveled flightless into towns that would not welcome me
and understanding on the way back home
Though words exhausted in the sun
The night has just begun to glisten
so venture careful with a token by your side
to end up in a parking lot you know
If you’re out 5 nights in a row
I wouldn’t wonder why you can’t afford what you owe
Those fingers crossed will come undone
That is no reason to stop wishing
Or keep a gemstone in the pocket of your carry-on
The stone that keeps the nose above the trees
No sudden jump down from the fog
Just before the wheels are whistling
And bending under all the superstitious weight
The plane will pull its arms into a row
You make your plans up as you go
So would you want to try your luck taking it slow?
Should you want to try or give up, you’re faking control
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5. |
Downstate Prairie
04:05
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O your shirt so worn
the moths make shapes in stitches
like those rows of corn that flank the ditches
so run where the taps run warm
in cold view
hungry for a storm to tell you off
no more borrowing the collar and the trouser and the boot!
no more visiting the orchard and absconding with the fruit!
hand in hand…
so were holding on the love of clovers that apprehension fools
blowups in the pool and warmer water
things that people do to pass the time
slowly
[elizabeth bishop]:
“But on the Navy Yard aerial I find
better witnesses
for love on summer nights.
Five remote lights keep their nests there; Phoenixes
burn quietly, where the dew cannot climb.
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6. |
You are Forgiven
04:48
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so what i got too drunk ran out of jokes and fumbled?
i am not taking questions
forgiven on the curb in the beam on the night
that your home is a car i want to race
the whole way back to the start
where youd shake under me in dilate dreams
so what the springtime heat leaves glitter in the grass?
then it won’t take much to lay me
on a bed of silt and soil and sand
and your home is the place i’ve never been though
i could be convinced that there’s nothing to me quite as beautiful
when we want different things
there is no pride
so dumb the security
when we find infinite things
when we’re known
for a little while
and know
that your love is a place i want to stay a longer time than it takes me
to drink from your mouth in the morning bed
there is dust in the sun
you are nice to me and you say interesting things
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7. |
Slow Wheel of the Year
03:19
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glowing on the shuttered roof all crossed off
love to smell a yawning afternoon dry out so soft
chicken wire and rubber boots for this new bleary dawn
holding out to steal the dew from neighbors lawns
so i know
youve got
this far
slow in golden rose and blue a stone is struck
an omen floating into view or how that truck
almost didn’t notice you and squealed with luck
one million by one million rule each time your room
gets stuck
you’ll walk
so far
patiently braiding His name
in phases: in patience, in pain
or is it empty is it empty the same?
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8. |
Hymn
01:41
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acting at the end like i planned it
i don’t, i’m just
remembering at the start
when you spoke i was turned the other way
laughing in the lake like a banshee
i won’t adjust a feather ripped from the ark
far from shore / sure
they put blessings in the waves
keep the oven on
keep the light on in your room
i’ll be there late
happiness is all that i plan for
a bolt of luck, a memory’s
all you want
and your words
close and open every day
these things come over everyone
with the hands i have
with the woman that i am
i come to know this love
there’s a post it note
there’s a photo in your room
that hums each time you pass
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9. |
Capital Cowboy
02:49
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old enough to know that crap
i don’t look good in the photographs
but at home
i’m marilyn monroe
time won’t take another path
just like it said in my zodiac
so then i’m thrown
there’s someone on the phone
and he rides in cheap blue leather and he knows hey hey hey
that our lives will keep getting better and slow hey hey hey
while you drink and hold and laugh
will you take plenty of photographs
on the road?
the kids are left alone,
lined up in the laundromat
it is no wonder they want to go home
stoned in the snow
they’re grown before we know
and he rides in cheap blue leather and he knows hey hey hey
that their lives will keep getting better and slow to the day
poor me, you do it for me
cursing at the drug store staff
and what he puts on the phonograph
steely dan
there’s dinner in the pan
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10. |
Happy Birthday
04:32
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out from the harbor
folded in the footwaves—(i dont even try)—
and i listen closely like spit between some tiny teeth
as flat as the sky:
i could only hope to board
a boat that does not learn the ports
from starboard or no other sort of guide
just for a moment, a shirt sleeve and a bottle against the tide
go cradle closer! how does it still happen
is it falling river light?
all scattered twine the cracking rocks, and creeping up the blackened docks
—and all this trouble opening—the barnacles have broken in my shoes
stand in your ground:
an electric kettle in my room
won’t know it is you
when we get dressed in silence or are
bleaching all the linens in the tub
there’s a fire in the den,
there are turkeys in the pen,
there is use
and every dinner still worth doing even if i keep on moving
still, you are forgiving
and when i am ill i go to reconcile
what grazed my temples
- on a train ride?
- in bar harbor?
- long ago?
and the sweat that keeps me swift
and the bet that yields the gift
o my G-d
ooh my G-d
how could i be so ungrateful?
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11. |
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so winds will pull my sails
to wine-dark waves
and wash into the grey
the losses and the gains
i’m not sure
maybe it’s a normal feeling, like
heaven help all the dog walkers in the park
love is still as the tides coming in tonight
don’t say it
don’t say it
don’t say goodnight
if i should find your love’s
unweathered reign
unholy in the sea
i will never be the same again
i’m not sure
this is just passing dream where
we stay together and we’re walking in the park
love is still as the blades of grass at night
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