1. |
Amber Lampshade
02:57
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If you were well and in your bed
It’d be you up in the middle of the night instead of me
Some undergrad across the street
Dancing to the bottle rocket beat
In the August heat
And do you get up when you can’t sleep?
Sit under the amber lampshade
Watch the shadows from the maple tree
Cross the faces of your family
I thought I knew you, what did I know?
Knew the blue jewel on your finger
Said that I could have it when you go
Then you gave it to me last winter
Some undergrad who stayed through summer term
Bored and burning when it’s banned to burn
And do you get up when sleep won’t come?
Write a line of two of some new poem
Open the blinds on the maple tree
Under the streetlight dreaming shadow dreams
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2. |
Handy Girls
04:25
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Pickup truck with one headlight
Ratchet straps are nice and tight
Remember when we lost bales on the road?
The guy behind us picked them up and off he drove
Blue tarp and orange twine
Colors of the sky and sun when day is fine
Handy girls can fix it is her favorite line
And I wish that I could make her happy all the time
Walking through the dark woods with her hand in mind
Neighbors have cable TV and they don’t mind
If we come over Wednesday nights watch for a while
She likes CSI
I like American Idol
Loggers marking up the trees with bright pink tape
We untie the ribbons and throw them away
But they’re back again the next week just the same
Do our best to turn the sad things into a game
Across from the Deming Library are the cheapest cigarettes in the while county
She drove so fast down the two lane highway
Yelling at the dog again to quit her whining
Walking up the back trail to meet the fence
If I stand just so I can’t see anything
But the blue mountains of another country
Tall yellow grass and the sky high above me
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3. |
Affinity
05:05
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No such thing as an excess of gentleness
At least not for me
Me, me, me
I get so hard on you
When I think you are getting too close to the truth
To the truth
Truth, truth, truth
I want to take you down
Before you let me down
I want to take you down
Before I let you down
It’s hard for me to believe
In something I have felt but never seen
Never seen
Seen, seen, seen
To love and be loved by you
To still feel tied, a willing bind, an affinity
Enduring, enduring
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4. |
Choose
02:54
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Coming out of the water
Saw two friends getting in
Could have been a bird or a stranger
Watching from the shore
Watching my sweet friends
Take a moment in
To witness myself
Not seek the eyes of someone else
I get to choose
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5. |
DMV
03:28
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I got my period at the Roseville, Minnesota Department of Licensing
They called my number while I was in the bathroom trying to find a quarter for the tampon machine
The office walls are painted with red roses like a bouquet for everyone
Congratulations baby, you finally got your fucking registration done
I can’t think of a single day that doesn’t deserve it’s own parade
Though we’re far too tired to organize that kind of display of public praise
So friend I will tell you now, that you make me feels so proud
It’s a carnival of obstacles, nobody’s got it figured out
I took the bus all the way down lake street to get to the H&R Block
5 years of ignoring my taxes, all they did was pile up
I got off the bus, he got off right after and said “I won’t chase you if you don’t run, but you look like a runner if I ever saw one”
I can’t think of a single day that we should not celebrate
We’ll dress like it’s a funeral and we’ll all eat birthday cake
I know the world never claimed
To keep anybody safe
But friend I wish that you did not have to be so brave
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6. |
First Love Waltz
06:08
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Did you take me for a rebel?
still searching for her cause
with my hair cut freshly short
and my cat eyeliner drawn
fully decked out in school colors
choir robes of green and gold
in the florescent cafeteria
I felt something taking hold
I met you in the winter
you were gone by spring that year
and in your absence grew a feeling to which nothing could compare
It had the quality of an injury, I was too afraid to look
To see the wound I knew would only make it start to hurt
When you came back I tried to be the kind of friend you'd like
But the trying ate at me, I could never get it right
I didn't want to want you
but there was nothing to be done
driving me around in your dad's old Honda from 1981
That summer we'd go swimming
beneath the railroad bridge
climb down the rocks and barnacles
as the tide was coming in
watched the water drying on your skin
for once I could sit still
nothing ever felt as true or bright, as shining or as real
I tried to tell you everything without saying a word
sometimes I thought you'd understood but I never knew for sure
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7. |
Mary Ellen
03:21
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Mary Ellen, patron saint of public transportation
And guardian to those who check their email at the library
Being a pedestrian is a spiritual practice
Mary Ellen keeps the archive with no index
Hunger strike, Desert Waves, war crimes corrupt and depraved
Mary Ellen reads their names
Just a girl from Binghamton who wanted to become a nun
But the spirit intervened
Said Mary Ellen, you’ve got other work to do for me
At last the judge decreed, community service for 6 weeks
I came along once or twice
She told me, following some rules should be the crime
But it’s worth it to do the time
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8. |
Reggie
03:54
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Is there anything more funny than human beings living life on earth?
Not that I have a good sense of humor, I’m still made that death comes sometime after birth
Somebody is a trickster and I’m their little sister
I was born with hurt feelings, taking everything so seriously
Our upstairs neighbor died and now the trash is overflowing in the alley
Full of his rough draft love letters handwritten in the 1970s
I want to laminate them, or I want to carve them into stone
Oh my dear Victoria, I’ve been waiting for you so long
In my hands now I carry all the waste that we’ve lately made
I’ve got nowhere to put it down, all the alley has become his grave
I sneak my garbage into someone else’s dumpster
So I can lay one burden down
All the the things we make and buy and burn and bury
Live forever in the ground
I hope a wind comes screaming down the alley
And sets the letters free to melt down in the snow
As for everything to which I hold so tightly
I know that one day I’ll have to let them go
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9. |
Mary and Elizabeth
03:09
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Mary comes in through the back gate
She knows this place
She knows this place
Elizabeth is on her knees gardening
Hair in her face
Cheeks rosy red
She said, haven't seen you on Sundays
Will god forgive you? Will god forgive you?
Mary stands, hand holding hand
She said I came for salve and not a sermon
Salve given, Elizabeth inquires, are you sure you want to go?
As the gate closes
Mary, you're just as cold as the bones you find in the rocks, but your twice as fragile
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10. |
Sun Star
05:11
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I heard that the sun is just a star that shines all day
One day it’ll go out
With a flash too bright to see,
Moving at a speed too fast to count
This will take a long time and for now the sun, the star is fine
You’re like the sun
You’re like a star that shines all day
And when you go out,
Separate and multiply,
I don’t know what happens next
I don’t know what happens to the light
One day it will go out
One day one day one fine holiday as many there be in a year
We all went down to the old church yard, some glorious words for to hear
We all went down to the old church yard, some glorious words for to hear
(outro from “Little Musgrave” trad ballad from England 17th century, we learned it from a Jean Ritchie recording).
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