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THE ALCHEMIST
Round white tables line gymnasiums
Your wife dances with a decade on
Depressed by diamonds, anniversaries
Class reunions mark another few years gone
Slipper creak steps once she's gone to sleep
Basement lights stock your poetry like arms
Holding glasses for the theatre crowd
You are a salesman who knows nothing but dead lawns
The path you blazed was paved over as soon as you began
Glass-eyed lovers so polite to fuck
Like shaking hands, she used to shake you to the bone
At the cross streets, eyes reflected red
Broken ballets in the violence of smoke
In the arches of a burning bank
Ideas of power charred down to a corner stone
A memorandum in the face of flames
Save your symphony before you end up a drone
You trapped yourself inside
The house of a villain, eating from the enemy's hands
Crawl back to your side
Reclaim your battle cry
And swing until those fiends are up and off of your land
Flail until they meet all your demands
Charge until their blood is on your hands
But you've never been so bold
Years took some tread off the wheels
You could shake the snow but where could you go
Not any place around here
Say we leave tonight
See those Northern Lights
Starving sunrise doesn't break your gaze
Bleeding steady for the first time in the light
Sign your transfer, mark and empty stage
Blocking scenes that will take you across state lines
Intimate strangers agreed to kiss the same
Inclinations that this is a last goodbye
Girl on the platform, smiling in the rain
The train is leaving at the same time you arrive
BLACK DUCK BLUES
Bay State runner talk easy speak
Wear your pirate halo, your heart pumps gasoline
The fastest ship ever set to sea
Coast Guard cutters, sail right out of their league
In low light
In dead night
Old rum runner
Black Duck on the sea
Cheap bootlegging, that's the crime
Ditch that bathtub gin, toss that dandelion wine
New Year's Eve 1929
Pump the blood of New England's finest
In low light
In dead night
OPEN FIRE!
Black Duck on the sea
Shout no warning, flash no lights
Machine gun fire like hail into our side
A hundred rounds, maybe, two or three
I jumped overboard or they would have gotten me
In low light
In dead night
Old rum runner
Black Duck on the sea
NAPOLEON ROSES
Napoleon roses caught in your eyelids
Hung on your overcoat, rescind
Chariot cardinals, blue jays and hymnals
A fire on your post enfin
Blue tinted ruby, I'm watching what you see
The war of industry on men
Nobody knows this like you do
No one is better than you
Betrayed by the service, lost in the forest
Borders and ancient walls, there is
Nothing beyond this, wandering lawless
A steady hand, a careful miss
Napoleon roses grow in your garden
Give me time I beg your pardon
Nobody knows him like you do
No one is better than you
I watched from the tower, the cardinal in power
Turn his back on you and say
Lovely Melinda, burnt to a cinder
I will be with your someday
A shot on the mark, consumed by a spark
Dignified until the end
Napoleon roses climb up the tower in tens
Nobody knows me like you do
No one was better than you
ROSE PARADE
Go march in the Rose Parade
Head west to California
Burn all your business suits
Leave the ashes in the foyer
Run until the fiction slows you down
You may not find your way tomorrow
You may not open your eyes again
And if I do not wake in the morning
There is no soul to keep
There is nothing
There are simply two things I know
One, you die, two, I'll never tell ya
Fake your death, change your name, buy a pork pie hat
Make love to a young black woman
Run until the fiction slows you down
Go march in the deepest south
Dust off your Holy Bible
Shake your legs, grip your fingers round a snake
Hot faith in a tent revival
Run until the fiction slows you down
Chorus
Sir, if your path goes through Richmond
Take this ring and smile for me
Scrawl a story in the earth
Dance upon the Devil's ceiling
Run until the fiction slows you down
SAM CLEMENS
The crackling of leaves
Building things that just shouldn't be
All in the name of discovering how you end
Cooking the calf (golden)
Swallowed things that you shouldn't have
Now you're feeling so awful bad
Hysterical lines I stand in
Burning the leaves
Boy saw things that no one should see
Pa's so focused on economy
The bears, the rats
No maybe he'll focus back
How much longer til we shake
Everything back into place
Awake, awake
Penny for your wicked thoughts
Do you reckon we'll get caught
I sure hope not
But I think we ought to
The crackling of leaves
What will you dress as for Halloween
When there's already such scary things
In life it seems
Maybe I'll be Sam Clemens
BALLETESQUE
Stranded out in the Texas dirt
Last stand 'fore you did desert
Coward, nave, oh, I should have known
Looked away and the levee broke
You let it go
Waved goodbye as we almost drowned
White trash from a mountain town
I pulled you up and your threw me down
God bled in your hands
Waiting tables or so I heard
Still go your leash on idiot girl
Your shaky groove, no, we do not miss
Selfish fool, yeah, you do exist
We'll call you Smith
Look up here child as you fall
Lord made me a wrecking ball
And I will crack you the worst of all
God bled in your hands
You're many things, one is not a man
You are nothing without this band
I forgave all those words you said
Washed my hands of your psycho head
You're less that dead
Turned around and I was betrayed
Faced up to a tidal wave
Broke my legs but it made me brave
God bled in your hands
THE WOLF
Moneymen are talking, saying all sorts of things
Moneymen talk cause the suits don't swing
That's where I come in, dress me up and send me from town to town
I see the wolf on the grounds
I crossed a potion peddler with long black hair
I said, "I'm coming from the city"
He said, "I'm heading there.
My boy wrote me said troubles coming tomorrow, high noon"
I got no time, red eyes on the moon
It hasn't been this bad since my grandpa was a kid
He made it through, he never told us what he did
The Cumberland is rising, the wind blew out both of our candles
I hear the wolf at the handle
I seen a big black dog and a big black cat
A big black bear swing a big black bat
Come across my path, the river knows my time is coming soon
I got no time, red eyes on the moon
Bare feet and bleeding running through the corn
Even that stalwart old scarecrow's taken cover from the storm
All I head growing up was more, more, more, more, more
Now I hear the wolf at the door
The king is raising panic, orders from the company clout
Don't listen to a word of the speaker of the house
I met Miss Nancy once, she was working upstairs at the saloon
I got no time, red eyes on the moon
When all the world is sleeping I think about my wife
I can't stand the woman but she's the love of my life
If I get out alive I'm gonna get to a farm house and call her
I hear the wolf in the parlor
Numbers knockin everybody off of their feet
But numbers can't fight, can't bite, can't eat
Your house ain't made of numbers, ain't no bottom line in your spoon
I got no time, red eyes on the moon
Some slick white boys up in New York City
Did a greedy little jig now the world ain't so pretty
But it's all the same, the trees are still green, ain't there still wheat out in the fields
I tell the wolf he must yield
BOWS IN YOUR ARMS
Mama, come here I'm seeing ghosts
Gold eyes and paper thin souls
We broke this ground with clean hands
When we were done we took the Capital
But I like the way you say my name
A rich kid'll pick you up again
"Just close your eyes! Close your eyes!"
You want money, you can taste the fame
Bows in your arms
I had no part in this
Blood in your eyes
This white face, it's the last thing you'll kiss
I turned it down
It must be good when it makes you sense
I turned around
I traded culture for convenience
The farm is burning and your banging keys
You are dead and you are coming with me
But I'm alive, I'm alive!"
And I am right! Oh no, I sold those rights
Bows in your arms
I had no part in this
Blood in your eyes
This white face, it's the last thing you'll kiss
Deny all you want
But you were a part of this
Bows in your arms
And numbers in your fist
Bows in your arms
I had no part in this
Blood in your eyes
This white face, it's the last thing you'll kiss
Deny all you want
But you were a part of this
Bows in your arms
And numbers in your fists
I said, No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
Bows in your arms
And numbers in your fists
TIDAL WAVE
Tidal Wave...
Tidal Wave...
Blessed are the ones who take to heart the words they hear
The old cowboy quartet will sing for now the end is near
Pour the wine from seven cups, Do that Armageddon swing
Seven trumpets wailing down in New Orleans
Dance the brimstone boogie, take your faith to higher ground
I will stay and take the wave for in my head I have no seal
Even big black Ceberus has run into the hills
Tidal Wave...
Tidal Wave...
AUTUMN'S IN THE TREES
Autumn's in the trees
It's good to see something wearier than me
I hope I turn red
Before I'm dead
Love is on the scene
You might not think but this is serious to me
I've broken the locks
You could tear me apart
You're a babe with a knife
A pounding heart and a vampire for a wife
She's kissing your neck
Please get out my friend
Have you seen the spring
With open eyes, now lift yourself and see
The world on your own
Don't follow no ghost
Autumn's in the trees
You might not think but this is serious to me
To live your whole life
For the sunshine
TOUGH YEAR (Hard Waltz)
I got hard legs from wandering
Hard troubles from North and South
Hard doubts about everything I once held dear
It's getting cold again
It's been a hard, tough year
I made a fortune in New England
Took it back to the place I was born
That beautiful state I sang songs about
She changed on me
She let me down
So I kept on southern bound
Lost my mind in a tent
Screamed into the gulf
And then I turned around
I spent miles and months recovering
From the wounds of weaker spines
Discovered two traitors on my payroll this whole time
It made me dizzy with pain
It's been so hard pulling out the blades
Two in my back, about six on my mind
I got hard scratches from those rats
hard legs from coming back
Hard doubts from the money men
I just want my head clear
It's getting cold again
It's been a hard, tough year
I was weak and I wanted my old woman
Made it back to the county line
But when I got to my old street
Put my hand on my old car
It didn't feel right
I stared up through the branches
Saw champagne on my windowsill
The coldest wind ripped across my face
I knew she hadn't stood still
To give up and bow out hurts a man's pride
And how can you quit the love of your life?
But when I loved you darling I was never alive
I got hard scratches from that girl
Hard lessons from the world
Hard doubts from expectation
I just want my head clear
It's getting cold again
It's been a hard, tough year
I sold ambition to a sailor
I sold a life raft to a saint
Who gave it back to me straight away
I sold Bibles in Nevada
I sold whiskey in Vermont
I sold her memory to my conscience at three times the cost
And her ghost keeps dragging me on
I saw a Mustang on the tracks
Too wild for its skin
I felt fire in my fingers
I tasted blood in my gin
I got hard legs from wandering down
Hard troubles from North and South
Hard doubts about everything I once held dear
It's getting cold again
It's been a hard, tough year
Girl In A Tree
Hello, hello, you have a reason to come down now
Hello, hello you have a reason to get out now
They called it love but somewhat innocent
He went through hell he said that you were heaven sent
Hello, hello, you have a reason to come down now
Hello, hello you have a reason to get out now
Her name was June just like the month you wed
He came so close, you came and then you left
And I don’t know why nobody told you
They bought and they sold you
And I don’t know why nobody told you
No one said stop
You should have heard what he said
It was the beauty in between your breaths
He still feels you in bed
Just like a phantom limb
And I don’t know why nobody told you
They bought and they sold you
And I don’t know why nobody told you
They under controlled you
Your walls came crashing down, fell to the ground
I got heart like you never seen
My love goes out to you
I know that you feel it too, for the girl in the tree
Modern Plays
Wendy has her common sense, a child of intelligence she grew
She does not own an open stance as an arctic preservationist, that’s true
You can not thwart a boy in love, he won’t put politics above
A sympathetic smile and blonde hair
You appreciate her loyalty and emphasis on family and defense
Who you are, the girl it’s not her fault
Fight ‘em off, the county is too small
You met her in art history and accepted her philosophy by June
Rachel was a lovely kid
You were proud of all the work she did a year below you
You disagree with her views on God
And the mission trips that she goes on
But she’s still the sweetest kid that you’ve ever known
Who you are, the girl it’s not her fault
Fight ‘em off, the county is too small
Fighting over straws
Win and I’ll withdraw
Excuses To See You
I was searching for something left of your heart
Along the dusty roads that we’d worn
Not a bright ray of hope
Just a cold silhouette of two kids that had come undone
She said, “Nothing’s going to bring you back,
To the boy I used to know.”
I swear to the lord I still walk the same road
I’m not the one with the new dress on
Hearts on fire, they burn for miles true
I’ll give you twenty seven reasons why I’m coming home
But they’re all just excuses to see you
I addressed my fears in a stamped envelope
I haven’t had the courage to send
It sits right in my back pocket caked in dirt and regret
Next to the tickets to the last show we saw
Hearts on fire, they burn for miles true
I’ll give you twenty seven reasons why I’m coming home
But they’re all just excuses to see you
The music plays soft up in the loft
Where I used to dance with you
Graham sings for the streets
Of an east coast city where you are
You should have been my Emmylou
Hearts on fire, they burn for miles true
I’ll give you twenty seven reasons why I’m coming home
But they’re all just excuses to see you
We faced the wrong direction
And I know I’ll look there again
But til another man learns the lines on your hands
I’ll be there
I just thought you should know
Girl From The Northern States
I was not troubled by the distance of your friend
She got close to Tennessee but she won’t be back again
Was it the thought of love or the rolling hills
That she could not take?
The sweeter air is just too fair for a girl from the northern states
The honesty of looser tongues, to you I will not preach
But city pains stake dying claims
To the kind face of southern speech
As soon as you can please get past Baltimore
Cuz you’ll never see nothin’
As green as Virginia flying past your door
She wrote you back
She said she’s sorry that you couldn’t come up north
Now she’s majoring in post-modern sin
With some guy you’ve never heard of before
Everybody Looks Better In Black And White (a reference to film)
Everybody looks better in black and white
See the beautiful kids in the snow tonight
Under the streetlights
She dances until morning takes her back to her place
She loves falling asleep in the sunlight
Everybody looks nice on Friday night
We almost missed the movie but she didn’t mind
I told her what matters to me
Yeah, you’re what matters to me
You don’t have to care but I’m the biggest fan that you got
I tell you how great you are
I try to show you how great you are
But my words don’t cut it cause you’re prettier than all my songs
A perfect day in an awful town
When you call to watch the sun go down
From my room
She’s Not Waiting Here This Time
I was raised in a ballroom against the shadows of dead stars
All my friends turned privates, their idleness their arms
I was caught up too so I followed suit and went off in to the night
I had a love that I left for what
She’s not waiting here this time
Her compassion could move a painting, I couldn’t care for what I had
I left her sad and waiting so many times she should have left me for dead
Any boy can fall in love, it takes a fool to say goodbye
She was weeping on her parents porch
She’s not waiting here this time
And as the moon shines I’ve lost a new love but the fault’s not hers or mine
At first sight I sang true love but we both know that true love is blind
My bones aren’t set and she is younger yet, I only loved her when she was crying
I burned this slow and now I have to go
Hope she’s not waiting here this time
I used to wake up on Sundays to watch my hometown on her perch
Miss virgin teenage America in a white dress outside this church
She was simple once, but only once, soon she made the headlines
Man of God gets no parole
She’s not waiting here this time
I grew up like an idiot just because it was my turn
My ignorance is blanket and my brand new legs are burned
I had my doubts but I schooled them out, I took the key, lord, I saw the light
But now and again I look to my left
She’s not waiting here this time
I am afraid of conviction, I am afraid of falling apart
I am afraid of talent, I am afraid of my art
If it’s written verse or a sculpted bird, babe, just stay outside the lines
You have your muse but if you play it safe
She’s not waiting here this time
I loved a woman in a window, I am a card that’s never played
To my woman in the window, may black hair always frame your face
Our houses stood in the same woods, I only spoke to her twice
Courage don’t take no second chance
She’s not waiting here this time
I have been tricked by shelter, I have been kept within range
I’ve killed myself and crippled my faith for twenty years and change
But I woke up today with all of my debts paid, I am no longer your child
You can offer me anything
I’m not waiting here this time
She Comes And Goes
I call your house
When I know you’re not home
And catch the machine
Just to hear your voice
You got a lovely smile
And a lovely soul
You’re the sweetest thing
Under soft approach
And I will drive to your house every night
To prove to you anything you might doubt
But she comes and goes
I touched your voice
While you were asleep
It belongs in stone
Or on a movie screen
And I will be there anytime you call
And if you should slip I will break your fall
But you come and go
She comes and goes
And this is my final plea for you to stay
When you say you know
You come and go
You come and go
I walked you home
And you walked me through
Said I could spend the rest of my life
With a girl like you
Real Love (at the end)
You got a letter back and a heart attack just from walking out the door
It’s slowly sinking in, it’s a sick feeling that you’ve been here before
You wrote, “My day’s gone by and I’d rather die than collect checks from a war.”
It’s been a slow decline since Margaret died in ‘84
Oh yeah, the new thing came and you acknowledged change
but that’s the same ring that you’ve worn
And after all you saw you still believe in God in a faith that has never torn
Your two regrets are how late you met her and the son that wasn’t born
But you held it in and you loved that kid as much as you loved his Ma
I hated God and men for his suffering as his last movement gripped my hand
He said, “Considering that this is the end, Jules, you know I’ve been a lucky man.”
Oh and I love you now like you loved me then, we just got the timing wrong
But I won’t give up, so honey, don’t give up
Paper Ships
If you go down with this ship I will salute you from the shore
But there’s no confidence in my eye, kid, there’s no winning
And don’t believe the history, ‘cause there’s no love song in a war
Unless love is a bullet in your best friend
And there’s a poem in your mouth but you won’t ever let it out
Steal some ink, sugar move out to the country
Don’t you waste your time painting the handle of a gun
Because your colors will be shown when you are fighting
There’s a kid my age who died today
Take the gold off your gate because property is hate
If it’s their blood on your estate
If it’s their give that you take
Now mama, I’m singing for your mistakes
When I See Your Eyes I Swear To God That Worlds Collided
When I see your eyes I swear to God that worlds collided
Stars stopped and turned mesmerized
There is beauty in those years that can’t be changed
The eight by tens of picture frames
Photographs I’ve rearranged a thousand times in scrapbooks that I’ve saved
Once we were young and thin
We grew up slow now we’re close as kin
Sailed to you on a fated wind
And you are beautiful and any boy would be a fool
Not to fall in love with you on looks alone at first sight
Don’t you know that you are the best friend I have found in such a long time
This could be, I could be bound to turn out all right
And darling you even say all the wrong things right
Now I’m looking for, look for the late nights
True as the years have proved, such a lie to say I knew
Have the grace that time has strewn
A modest gift to say that you’re the only thing
In this school or overcrowded town
I couldn’t do with out, I couldn’t be without
Don’t you know that you are the best friend I have found in such a long time
This could be, I could be bound to turn out all right
And darling you even say all the wrong things right
Now I’m looking for, look for the late nights
We have reached our Ghent
My heart was born when yours was sent
Discovered fire by accident
I’d say I’m doing all right
Blue Skies
I want to sing at mid-afternoon
In a park somewhere deep inside this town
Over patches of green, a crowd gathers round
And they don’t know our name or the songs that we sing
But they stand there just the same
And blue skies will cover this town
You’ll break in the light just to dance in the sound
And loose ends, what you mean to me now
You’re coming up heads but you still fall to the ground
I walk on the streets but the city does not sing to me
Like a clear blue sky back home in Tennessee
And I want to grow old in a small wooden house
And learn how to dance in the arms of a chance
That maybe you and me we can live for romance today
And blue skies will cover this town
You’re cut from the start you’d be lucky to drown
And loose ends what you mean to us now
You’re coming up heads but you still fall
Oh yeah, you fell to the ground
And blue skies will cover this town
You watch from the hills as the fires go down
And dirt breaks, oh, so close to us now
It’s been such a while since we noticed
The bugs on the ground
Goodbye Town
There go my blues again, I got it bad
Cause I’m leaving this town I know so well
Goodbye mama and goodbye dad
I’ll be back soon as I can
Hello, busy people on busy streets
Goodbye, lazy river in my kitchen window
Hello, new tomorrows and heavy dreams
Goodbye, my best friend and all my favorite things
Six steeples and a grocery store
You won’t be seeing me no more
The farmer’s fair and football games
I miss singing songs from the front porch swing
Goodbye mama and goodbye dad
I’ll be back soon as I can
Hello, busy people on busy streets
Goodbye, lazy river in my kitchen window
Hello, new tomorrow’s and heavy dreams
Goodbye, my best friend and all my favorite things
Starless nights aren’t so romantic
A pink carnation and a limousine
Expensive gowns don’t mean a things
Hello, busy people on busy streets
Goodbye, lazy river in my kitchen window
Hello, new tomorrow’s and heavy dreams
Goodbye, my best friend and all my favorite things
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