1.This Tornado Loves You
my love, i am the speed of sound
i left the motherless, fatherless
their souls dangling inside-out from their mouths
but it's never enough
i want you...
carved your name across three counties
grounded in with bloody hides
their broken legs will lie in the ditch till you stop
stop it
stop it
stop it
stop this madness
i want you...
i have waited with a glacier's patience
smashed every transformer with every trailer
till nothing was standing
sixty-five miles wide
still, you are nowhere
still, you are nowhere
nowhere in sight
come out to meet me
run out to meet me
come into the light
calm the boxcars, to the engine
through the smoke, into the sky
your rails have always outrun mine
so i
picked them up and crashed them down
in a moment close to now
cause i miss
i miss
i miss
i miss
i miss
i miss
i miss
i miss
hang it, sigh yourself to sleep
when i break the springtime
across still sheets
my love, i am the speed of sound
i left the motherless, fatherless
their souls dangling inside-out from their mouths
but it's never enough
my love
i'm an owl on the sill in the evening
but morning finds you
still warm and breathing
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
what will make you believe me？
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
this tornado loves you
what will make you believe me？
2.The Next Time You Say Forever
I hear the tiniest sparks in the tenderest sound.
Diving music, drowning the sound.
waltzing with the hairs upon my arms.
And your fire flood alarm, and you tremble, and you stumble,
and you scrape up your palms.
I can't stay here to hold your hand.
I've been away for so long.
I've lost my taste for home, and thats a dirty fallow feeling.
To be the dangling ceiling.
From the roof came crashing down.
Peeling in the heat. Vanish in the rain.
The next time you say forever, I'll punch you in your face.
Just because you don't believe it, doesn't mean I didn't mean
it.
You never know when I'll show you the never.
You never know when I'll show you the never.
3.People Got A Lotta Nerve
So the saying says
An elephant never forgets
Standing in the concrete cave
Swaying side and sing
They walked over the ocean
And their dreams they dreamed awake
Until the lights grew dim
Until the cop cars came
Everybody tells me this is crazy, yes I know
But I'm a man man man man, man man man eater
But still you're surprised prised prised when I eat ya
You know they call them killer whales
But you seem suprised
When it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank
Where you can't turn around
It took half your leg and both your lungs
And I craved I ate hearts of sharks, I know you know it
I'm a man man man man, man man man eater
But still you're surprised prised prised when I eat ya
I'm a man man man man, man man man eater
But still you're surprised prised prised when I eat ya
It will end again in moonlit song
It will end again in moonlit song
4.Polar Nettles
He takes his dinner in the bath
Lovesickened and infirm
The orderly found him there
Flayed on the marble stairs
Hat still in hand, his smoking remains
Blown out by a kiss from Nurse Someday Soon
Someday soon
Someday soon
Some way soon
Some, some, some
His eyes are closed he mouths her name
The rosary her lips and tongue
She is the centrifuge that throws
The spires from the sun
The Sistine Chapel
Painted with a Gatling gun
Someday soon
Someday soon
Someday soon
Someday soon
Someday soon
Oh, the nettles set on end
Move like starlings up a cliff
And ten are of a foggy touch
The forcefield 'round their frosty hairs
Whose shape recalls the wicked spade
That buried him but on his lips
The last rites of Nurse Someday Soon
5.Vengeance Is Sleeping
I didn't know what a brute I was
I dipped my cigarette and rode the bus
Vengeance built me hastily
And I drag the clanging notion I was nobody, nobody
Nobody
All I had was my invention
And my love it fitted on you
Oh, look what thoughts can do
What thoughts can do
If you're not by now dead and buried
You're most certifiably married
Oh, married
I'm sure you're sleeping sound
With a mistress of the hours
The hours that grind your life to dust
Oh, easy loves
You keep lap pets
Denied them you are powerless
Whatever keeps you sleeping through the night
I'm not the man you thought I was
My love has never lived indoors
I had to drag it home by force
Hired hounds at both my wrists
Damp and bruised by stranger's kisses on my lips
But you're the one that I still miss
You're the one that I still miss
And the truth is that it comes as no surprise
I'm not the man you think I am
I'm not the man you think I am
6.Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth
When she's on her best behavior
Don't be tempted by her favors
Never turn your back on mother earth
Towns are hurled from A to B
By hands that looked so smooth to me
Never turn your back on mother earth
Grasp at straws that don't want grasping
Gaze at clouds that come down crushing
Never turn your back on mother earth
Three days, two nights away from my friends
Amen to anything that brings quick return
To my friends, to my friends
I'll admit I was unfaithful
From now on I'll be more faithful
Never turn your back on mother
Never turn your back on mother
Never turn your back on mother earth
7.Middle Cyclone
Baby, why'm I worried now,
did someone make a fool of me
'fore I could show 'em how it's done？
Can't give up actin' tough,
it's all that I'm made of.
Can't scrape together quite enough
to ride the bus to the outskirts
of the fact that I need love.
There were times that I tried,
one for every glass of water
that I spilled next to the bed,
wretching pennies in a boiling well
in a dream that it once becomes
a foundry of mute and heavy bells.
They shake me deaf and dumb
say, 'Someone made a fool of me
'fore I could show 'em how it's done.'
It was so clear to me
that it was almost invisible.
I lie across the path waiting,
just for a chance to be a spiderweb
trapped in your lashes.
For that, I would trade you my empire for ashes.
But I choke it back, how much I need love...
8.Fever
In an open field at dusk
to footfalls I awoke
marching ants across my temples
their feet had no intention
they followed some magnetic drum
prisoners of their destination
from the slats of the factory come
where once they did make rails
old Death's peculiar songs
he didn't know I was listening
so he crowed out nice and long
to the spiders and the lumber
and the dust of his conquest
and his hunger and his lust
I heard his feet rejoice
I heard him tap his cane
as if he had his own review
on stage at the F and M
I caught his words in my open mouth
I gagged and choked and spit them out
I heard him turn his heated ear
my tiny heart beat in his ear
I was already running
oh, I heard him coming
shrapnel spitting from his wheels
his sobbing arms raked for my heels
I dove and rolled and hid my face
and I said these magic words：
my dove is home
her breast is warm
my dove is home
and I said these magic words
and fell down, down the anthill for days
my dove is home
her breast is warm
my dove is home
my dove is home
her breast is warm
my dove is home
9.Magpie To The Morning
The magpie comes a-calling
drops a marble from the sky
tin roof sounds alarming
wake up child
let this be a warning says the magpie to the morning
don't let this fading summer pass you by
don't let this fading summer pass you by
Black hands held so high
the vulture wheels and dives
something on the thermos yanked his chain
he smelled your boring apex
rotting on the train tracks
he laughed under his breath
because you thought you could outrun sorrow
take your own advice
cause thunder and lightning gets you rain
run an airtight mission, a Cousteau expedition
find a diamond at the bottom of the drain
a diamond at the bottom of the drain
mockingbirds sing in the middle of the night
all his songs are stolen so he hides
stolen from the mouth of the whiporwill, screaming car alarms
he sings I'm four years special
he knows you're afraid of the dark
come on sorrow, take your own advice
hide under the bed, turn out the light
the stars this night in the sky are ringing out
you can almost hear them saying
close your eyes now kid
close your eyes now kid
morning's teeth are lit
they are waiting
they are waiting
10.I'm An Animal
you could say it's my instinct
yes, i still have one
there's no time to second guess it
yes, there are things that i'm still so afraid of
but my courage is roaring like the sound of the sun
cause it's there to bod its mane
and will reveal them and no one
now i'm an animal
you're an animal, too
pick up that rock
i do my best but i made a mistake
yes, there are things i'm still quite sure of
i love you this hour
this hour today
and heaven will smell like the airport (airport)
but i may never get that or prove it
so let's not waste our time thinking how that ain't fair
i'm an animal
you're an animal, too
you're an animal, too
11.Prison Girls
Where am I tonight？ La, da, da
My hotel room won't remember me
And this dream will die, die by morning
And this dream won't remember me
Awakened by a droning voice
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
Is it a lady or is it a man
Humming helicopters through the blades of a fan
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
On my feet to chase it down
The lights were spokes and rungs away
I stumbled back and hit the floor
Long shadows crawl beneath the door
To a passage so poorly lit
There's moths flying away from it
Who am I tonight？ La, da, da
My hotel room won't remember me
Darkness enter prison girls
Pushing mops and kicking pails
Now's my chance
I clasp my chest
And declare unto my audience
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
Prison girls are not impressed
They're the ones that have to clean this mess
They've traded more for cigarettes
Than I've managed to express
Filing past miles long
The cheek is frozen to the floor
The prison girls have filled their beds
Their thoughts too dry above their heads
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
I love your long shadows and your gunpowder eyes
12.Don't Forget Me
In the wintertime keep your feet warm
But keep your clothes on and don't forget me
Keep the memories
But keep your powder dry too
In the summer by the poolside
While the fireflies are all around you
I'll miss you when I'm lonely
I'll miss the alimony too
Don't forget me, don't forget me
Make it easy, only just for a little while
You know I'll think about you
Let me know you'll think about me too
And when we're older and full of cancer
It doesn't matter now, come on get happy
'Cause nothing lasts forever
But I will always love you
Don't forget me, please don't forget me
Make it easy, only just for a little while
You know I'll think about you
Let me know you'll think about me too
13.The Pharaohs
you were married in the mirrored hall when i was 16
you spoke the words, 'i love girls in white leather jackets'
that was good enough for love, it was good enough for me
i listened in when you thought you were lost
caught in those fangs on a tornado sprawl
who knows what you know
i only heard what i wanted
you said i was your blue, blue baby
and you were right
you said i was your blue, blue baby
and you were right
wondered the halls of the nighttime
my body burned, my legs ached
but you never came to bed
you just left me there awake
you kept me wanting wanting wanting
like the wanting in the movies and the hymns
I want the pharaohs, but there's only men
I want the pharaohs, but there's only men
you said i was your blue, blue baby
and you were right
you said i was your blue, blue baby
and you were right
14.Red Tide
There's a smell here that stands my hairs on end
Dog hair in the heater, gas pumps and cedar
And jackknifes on the nine
and seabirds choked on fishing line
Clouds are a hush but the chainsaws mush
on to Custer and Columbia
Salty tentacles drink in the sun but the red tide is over
The mollusks they have won
There's a smell here of gravel and cigarettes lit
When the match made them sweet
When the engine turned over and beat up our street
Oh, that was the day to remember
I remember because of the fires that leapt
From the caves of the things that have not happened yet
When I think of it now they smell to me quite sinister
I want to go back and die at the drive in
Die before strangers can say
I hate the rain
I hate the rain
15.Marais La Nuit
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