1.Anna Rose
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Anna Rose sleep well tonight
The stars are dancing on the carpet of the sky
Time to close your wondering eyes
Where I see the sleepiness creeping
Anna Rose it makes my heart smile
To know you give love so freely
Anna Rose it makes it worthwhile
Your love makes me see things so clearly
How it grows heaven knows
Anna Rose sleep well tonight
Anna Rose it's time to dream
I see that your imagination knows no bounds
There it flows like some magical stream
And carries you on it's journey
Anna Rose it makes my heart smile
To know you give love so freely
Anna Rose it makes it worthwhile
Your love makes me see things so clearly
How it grows heaven knows
Anna Rose dream well tonight
2.Stephen's Cross
Lyricist：Vienna Teng
He was there the night the wall came down
He lost her in the endless crowd
In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross
He sent cries aloft for his fellow man
His fingers slipping from her hand
And the rain clouds prowling overhead
She was there the night the wall came down
She faded into that newborn crowd
Like a warning of what could be lost
Through the perforated night she ran
Her fingers slipping from his hand
And she breathed in freedom before daylight turned red
They were there the night the wall was drowned
In the surging of that tidal crowd
An old world made new on the same holy ground
She found him standing looking lost
In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross
And he closed his eyes and heard no sound
But her breathing warm against his mouth
3.City Hall
Lyricist：Cynthia Yih Shih
Me and my baby on a February holiday
'Cause we got the news, yeah, we got the news
500 miles and we're gonna make it all the way
We've got nothing to lose, we've got nothing to lose
It's been 10 years waiting
But it's better late than the never
We've been told before
We can't wait one minute more
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine at city hall
Me and my baby
Have been through
A lot of good and bad
Learned to kiss the sky
Made our mama's cry
I've seen a lot of friends
After giving it all they had
Lay down and die
Lay down and die
10 years into it, here's our window
At the Vegas drive through chapel
It ain't too much for 'em all
To handle
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine at city hall
Outside, they're handing out
Donuts and pizza pies
For the folks in pairs in the folding chairs
My baby's looking so damned pretty
With those anxious eyes
Rain-speckled hair and my ring to wear
10 years waiting for this moment of fate
When we say the words and sign our names
If they take it away again someday
This beautiful thing won't change
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine
Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine at city hall
4.Hope On Fire
Lyricist：James David Batcho, David Henry, Cynthia Yih Shih
Gotta fight, gotta strike
'Cause there's no turnin' away
From what you don't want to know
Gotta see gotta be
If they're all goin' astray
Don't let them take you in tow
You're a one-man shift in the weather
You're the woman who just won't sell
Climbing up and ringing the bell
Ooh, you're gonna make your mark this time
Ooh, you're gonna set your hope on fire
Gotta leave, gotta bleed
You've gotta stop lyin' still
'Cause this is no kind of life
You don't need guarantees
You just want somethin' to build
Before you turn to the knife
When the streets are a flood like a fever
It's a holiday of the new
We're coming closer now to the truth
Ooh, you're gonna make your mark this time
Ooh, you're gonna set your hope on fire
Gotta move, gotta choose
You've got a difference to make
Don't watch it happen again
Gotta change rearrange
Something's bendin' to break
It's just a matter of when
Ooh, you're gonna make your mark this time
Ooh, you're gonna set your hope on fire
Ooh, you're gonna make your mark this time
Ooh, you're gonna set your hope on fire
Ooh, you're gonna set your hope on fire
5.Soon Love Soon
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
There'll be a fire burning in the temple of our peace
There'll be a soaring voice for our silent pleas
We will hold our broken circle and begin to pray
We will find a black and white in the gray
And we will be as one God
And we will be as one people
We will find illumination in unnatural light
You will travel a thousand miles without leaving my sight
We will find we never knew hatred ran so deep
Such a wide, wide chasm of faith to leap
But we will be as one God
And we will be as one people
There will be an evolution of the human soul
We will know that be a part is to be truly whole
We will know the pattern of centuries rise and fall
We will know that the fate of one is the fate of all
And we will be as one God
And we will be as one people
6.Shine
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
In this desert land I know some rain must fall
See where we began we've come so far
On this harbor shore we hear the ocean call
In our minds at war we have so far to go
Shine with all the untold
Hold the light given unto you
Find the love to unfold
In this broken world we choose
In unending storms we search for space to breathe
How our hearts are worn we've come so far
In this desert how we blossom and we cease
Tell your story now we have so much to know
Shine with all the untold
Hold the light given unto you
Find the love to unfold
In this broken world
Shine with all the untold
Hold the light given unto you
Find the love to unfold
In this broken world we choose
In this broken world we choose
7.Mission Street
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Mission Street is a striking dark-eyed stranger
Speaks a language I don't know but long to learn
Its cadences fall endlessly beyond the windowpane
As I sit as though awaiting some return
And my hands are cold tonight, I'm sleepless in this dark
Forgetting what it was I came to find
And it seems that I've been wrong
More than I've been right, more than I've been right
Mission Street calls out to me by name
Then hurries on before I've hardly turned my head
Promises of answers muttered underneath her breath
Like an offering of contraband misread
And my hands are cold tonight on the strings of this guitar
Looking for the chords of what I've left behind
And it seems that I've been wrong
More than I've been right, more than I've been right
Mission Street is alive at every hour
Like I've never been and fear I may not ever be
A light so steady on the mountains in the distance
A solitude so deep it might awaken me
Well, my hands are cold tonight, but the sky is bright with
stars
And I'm tearing through the veil that keeps me blind
And it seems the more I'm wrong
The more that I am right, the more that I am right
Mission Street, Mission Street
8.Momentum
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Why am I walking barefoot
Upon this road with no one around
I close my eyes to this decision
The night's like coffee to my tongue
Like waking up without a sound
I map the words out maybe you will say them
Would you help me rise up？
Touch my face and watch me try to breathe again
Would you let me do this？
Burn down the final wall
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome me yeah
All I'm asking is to be alive
For once
Always I am mistaken
I look for love, I find a storm
Of all the seasons winter befriends me
I come to you in friendship
And hold my breath against the snow
What are you thinking as I gaze into you
Forgive me the confusion
Forgive me as I realize my thoughts betrayed
You are the answer
Cry and smile the same
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome me yeah
All I'm asking is to be
All I'm asking is to be alive
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome me baby
Overcome
Overcome
Overcome
Overcome
All I'm asking is to be
All I'm
9.Passage
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
I died in a car crash two days ago
Was unrecognizable
When they pulled me from the gears
No one's fault, no one's bottle
No one's teenage pride or throttle
Our innocence is all the worse for fears
The other walked away alive
Arms wrapped now around his wife
My lover sits, the silent eye
In a hurricane of warmth and word
My mother trembles with the sobs
Whose absence seems absurd
My sister shouts to let her see
Through the cloud of crowd surrounding me
My colleagues call for silence in my name
I died in a car crash three months ago
They burned me 'til I glowed
And crumbled to a fine gray sand
Now I am nothing, everywhere
Several breaths of strangers air
And all thoughts ever written in my hand
They plant my tree out in the yard
It grows but takes the winter hard
My lover puts a knife to wrist
Says tomorrow comes, hold on a while
My mother tosses in the sheets
And dreams me holding my own child
My sister plays our homemade tapes
Laughs as tears, stream down her face
My office door now bears a different name
I died in a car crash four years ago
My tree drinks melted snow
Just eight feet tall, a pale and fragile thing
Bee stings beaches bright vacations
Sunburnt high-school graduations
A sparrow healing from a broken wing
This year a glimpse of second chances
Tiny apples on my tree's branches
My lover hears the open wind
And crawls blinking into the sun
My mother leafs through photographs
And thinks, 'Yes, she was a lovely one'
My sister can't decide her truth
Asks aloud what I might do
In a conference hall my brief efforts engraved
I died in a car crash, a lifetime ago it seems
Been a decade or two or three
They've just released a new design
Bars and bags front and behind
My fate now an impossibility
Safely packaged hurtling down
The highway hardly make a sound
My lover very much alive
Arms wrapped now around his wife
10.The Tower
Lyricist：Cynthia Yih Shih
The one who survives by
Making the lives of others worthwhile
She's coming apart right before my eyes
The one who depends on the services she renders
To those who come knocking
She's seeing too clearly what she can't be
What understanding defies
She says, 'I need not to need, or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go
I need not to need, I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow'
She turns out the light
Anticipating night falling tenderly around her
And watches the dusk, the words won't come
She carries the act so convincingly
The fact is sometimes she believes it
That she can be happy the way things are
Be happy with the things she's done
And now, I need not to need, or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go
I need not to need, I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow
Reach out, but hold back
Where is safety？
Reach out and hold back
Where is the one who can change me？
Where is the one？ The one
Reach out, but hold back
Where is safety？
Reach out and hold back
Where is the one who can save me？
Where is the one？ The one
I need not to need, or else a love with intuition
Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go
I need not to need, I've always been the tower
But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow
I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow
The danger and the power, the friend and the foe
11.Decade And One
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Once when I was thirty one, I woke in the dead of night
And heard the vastness of the snowfall outside
Slipped downstairs in my bare feet, soon forgotten freezing
And pour a milk glass full to wait out the tide
It's been a decade and one
Been a decade and one, my friends
A decade and one, since I
As the white went down, I thought of the child upstairs
I thought of the God upstairs that I couldn't believe
I thought of the chosen man asleep on his side of the bed
How green becomes wood in a family tree
Been a decade and one
Been a decade and one, so soon
A decade and one, since I stood
So proud and so unsure
Ebony glowing by the window there as always
Fingers kissed the keys, oh so tenderly
Cool ivory returned in kind
I thought of anger and adulation
And the taste of dreams realized
And the waste dreams realized leave behind
Decade and one, a decade and one
I said out loud, a decade and one
And I am here and I am here still standing
12.Say Uncle
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Everyone agrees it came too soon
It was only meant to be an intersection
You kept fear of death in the back pocket of your jeans
In the palm of your hand, affection
It came like a sudden gust of wind
Leaving them bewildered to ask how
I recall last time we met you said we'd meet again
The irony is only bitter now
These days everyone cries, 'Say uncle'
They want to touch your spirit lest it die
For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table
To form a healing circle for our new demise
These days everyone cries, 'Say uncle'
I retrieve the memories quickly as I can
Add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds
Your body gone, we shall keep the man
I close my eyes and hope they do not fade
These remnants of a voice and of a smile
Images of landscape cloaked in forest green
Like your life unfolding mile by mile
A fierce embrace, a word of thanks
A cheerful whistle and hours in a van
Somehow these pieces must bring back the man you were
Though the ocean claims your ashes on the sand
These days everyone cries, 'Say uncle'
They want to touch your spirit lest it die
For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table
To form a healing circle for our new demise
These days everyone cries, 'Say uncle'
I retrieve the memories quickly as I can
Add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds
Your body gone, we shall keep the man
These days everyone cries, 'Say uncle'
They want to touch your spirit lest it die
For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table
To form a healing circle for our new demise
These days everyone cries, 'Say uncle'
I retrieve the memories quickly as I can
And add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds
Your body gone, we shall keep the man
13.Lullabye for a Stormy Night
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Little child, be not afraid
Though rain pounds harshly against the glass
Like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger
I am here tonight
Little child, be not afraid
Though thunder explodes and lightning flash
Illuminates your tear-stained face
I am here tonight
And someday you'll know that nature is so
The same rain that draws you near me
Falls on rivers and land, on forests and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you'll see in the morning
Little child, be not afraid
Though storm clouds mask your beloved moon
And its candlelight beams still keep pleasant dreams
I am here tonight
Little child, be not afraid
Though wind makes creatures of our trees
And their branches to hands, they're not real, understand
And I am here tonight
For you know, once even I was a little child and I was afraid
But a gentle someone always came
To dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep for fears
And to give a kiss goodnight
Well, now I am grown and these years have shown
That rain's a part of how life goes
But it's dark and it's late, so I'll hold you and wait
'Til your frightened eyes do close
And I hope that you'll know
Everything's fine in the morning
The rain'll be gone in the morning
But I'll still be here in the morning
14.Enough To Go By
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
I'm at your back door
With the earth of a hundred nations in my skin
You won't recognize me
For the light in my eyes is strange
It was years ago, God knows
When you strained to tell me your whole truth
That you were not mine to save
That you could not change
Oh, would it be enough to go by
If we could sail on the wind in the dark
Cut those chains in the middle of the night
That had you pulled apart
Would it be enough to go by
If there's moonlight pulling the tide
Would it be enough to live on
If my love could keep you alive
I've built a lot of castles
Built a lot of blazing speed of light machines
But it doesn't matter, you know
They all crumble in the winds of change
So I turned back to breathing
I learned a few good reasons to cry
And I finally called home
Praying you weren't out of range
Carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you, I swear
Carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you
Oh, would it be enough to go by
If we could sail on the wind in the dark
Cut those chains in the middle of the night
That had you pulled apart
Would it be enough to go by
If there's moonlight pulling the tide
Would it be enough to live on
If my love could keep you alive
So will you let me come in
The mosquitoes have found me
And they're crowding 'round my blood
At least offer me a drink or a breaking of the ice
I'm wanting your anger
I only want to see if I can shake you out of sleep
And bring you out under this flooded sky
At any price
So carry the weight
Carry the weight of me in your heart
Carry the weight
Carry the weight of me
Oh, would it be enough to go by
If we could sail on the wind in the dark
Cut those chains in the middle of the night
That had you pulled apart
Would it be enough to go by
If there's moonlight pulling the tide
Would it be enough to live on
If my love could keep you alive
If my love could keep you alive
15.Between
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
We are not together here
Though we lie entwined
To make room for the other presence
We both draw back in our minds
I have a prophecy
Threatening to spill into words
This growing certainty
Of over
There once was a time
I was sure of the bond
When my hands and my tongue
And my thoughts were enough
We are the same
But our lives move along
And the third one between
Replaces what once was love
Freedom is being alone
I fear liberation
But something more alive than silence
Swallows conversation
No pleasing drama
In subtle averted eyes
The swelling fermata
As the chord dies
There once was a time
I was sure of the bond
When my hands and my tongue
And my thoughts were enough
We are the same
But our lives move along
And the third one between
Replaces what once was love
There's no denying
We feel the third one, we do
I'm tired of hiding
And so are you
There once was a time
I was sure of the bond
When my hands and my tongue
And my thoughts were enough
We are the same
But our lives move along
And the third one between
Replaces what once was love
16.Gravity
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Hey love, is that the name
You're meant to have for me to call
Look love, they've given up believing
They've turned aside our stories of the gentle fall
But don't you believe them
Don't you drink their poison too
These are the scars
That words have carved on me
Hey love, that's the name
We've long held back from the core of truth
So don't turn away now
I am turning in revolution
These are the scars
That silence carved on me
This is the same place
No, not the same place
This is the same place, love
No, not the same place we've been before
Hey love, I am a constant satellite
Of your blazing sun
My love, I obey your law of gravity
This is the fate you've carved on me
Your law of gravity
This is the fate you've carved on me, on me
17.1br／1ba
Lyricist：Cynthia Yih Shih
1br／1ba hrdwd flrs w／vw of trees
1br／1ba prkg space 4 xtra fee
My little flock of boxes and I
Surrounded by a painted white unknown
Soon as this wall in my heart comes down
I'm gonna make it feel like home
1br／1ba, A／C was fine till yesterday
1br／1ba, 89 degrees today
My upstairs neighbors are making sounds
That I never want to hear
I hope they're just moving furniture around
And really liking their ideas
18.Unwritten Letter #1
Lyricist：Cynthia Yih Shih
Nightfall we're brushing past your town
Destination not you my one
And the driver doesn't know way down
How deep these bright-eyed feelings run
I've no intention of confessing today
I need to make distance awhile
But miles don't make your image fade
They don't erase this secret smile
Everything reminds me
Wet gray gold-lit street
Shop displays near-lovers meet
I feel the grasp of your hand still
This your face now in the glass
Breathing whisper what is this
Bent so close we nearly kiss
Although we never will
Strange that there's no hurtful need
Used to be my only sign
On my mind would make me bleed
Why is it that I'm feeling fine
Why is it this warmth within
No candlelight that causes burn
Memories of you begin
Well welcome friends, glad you've returned
Everything reminds me
Music surging bedroom dance
Crazy spinning sultry glance
I inhale your presence still
These your arms of daring grace
Encircle me what pact is made
Desire is your masquerade
Want me you never will
You gave me truth, I chose illusion
Now we are used to this confusion
But I know
Yes, I know this story has to end
Never groped for a connection
Never hoped for more affection
For I know
I know I am your friend, only your friend
19.Daughter
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Well, it's you and it's me
Me with a drink in my hand
The ice is tinkling like a wind chime
And late afternoon settles over the land
And you're talking about things
Interesting just slightly
And things that matter too much
To say any way but lightly
Did you know you're so beautiful
On the edge of summer？
That years from now
I'll cry to remember
How very close you were
Knowing this, will I reach for you？
Knowing this, will I reach for you？
The way you want me to
Well, it's time to be wise
Wise in the ways of the heart
To come out from under the covers
This voluntary state of apart
From the faces, Oasis
In this Sahara of sorrow
These graces that hold me
It's from you that I borrow
20.Eric's Song
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Strange how you know inside me
I measure the time and I stand amazed
Strange how I know inside you
My hand is outstretched toward the damp of the haze
And of course I forgive
I've seen how you live
Like a phoenix you rise from the ashes
You pick up the pieces
And the ghosts in the attic
They never quite leave
And of course, I forgive
You've seen how I live
I've got darkness and fears to appease
My voices and analogies
Ambitions like ribbons
Worn bright on my sleeve
Strange how we know each other
Strange how I fit into you
There's a distance erased with the greatest of ease
Strange how you fit into me
A gentle warmth filling the deepest of needs
And with each passing day
The stories we say
Draw us tighter into our addiction
Confirm our conviction
That some kind of miracle
Passed on our heads
And how I am sure
Like never before
Of my reasons for defying reason
Embracing the seasons
We dance through the colors
Both followed and led
Strange how we fit each other
Strange how certain the journey
Time unfolds the petals for our eyes to see
Strange how this journey's hurting
In ways we accept as part of fate's decree
So we just hold on fast
Acknowledge the past
As lessons exquisitely crafted
Painstakingly drafted
To carve us as instruments
That play the music of life
For we don't realize
Our faith in the prize
Unless it's been somehow elusive
How swiftly we choose it
The sacred simplicity
Of you at my side
21.The Atheist Christmas Carol
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
It's the season of grace coming out of the void
Where a man is saved by a voice in the distance
It's the season of possible miracle cures
Where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown
Where time begins to fade
And age is welcome home
It's the season of eyes meeting over the noise
And holding fast with sharp realization
It's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention
You are safe here you know now
Don't forget, don't forget
I love, I love, I love you
Don't forget, don't forget
I love, I love, I love you
It's the season of scars and of wounds in the heart
Of feeling the full weight of our burdens
It's the season of bowing our heads in the wind
And knowing we are not alone in fear, not alone in the dark
Don't forget, don't forget
I love, I love, I love you
Don't forget, don't forget
I love, I love, I love you
Don't forget, don't forget
I love, I love, I love you
Don't forget, don't forget
I love, I love, I love you
22.Feather Moon
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Feather moon
Scarlet sky
Living clouds
My blinded eye
Waters black
Wood in snow
Dead of night
How bright you glow
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
Seven sins
God of stone
All is true
Down to the bone
Feather moon
Scarlet sky
I love you endlessly
Not knowing why
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
Breathe in breathe out
Exhale and inhale
...
23.My Medea
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
Inside the labyrinth walls
There lies a tiny child who sleeps alone
And as the daylight falls
The wind becomes so wild across the stone
For I have made her prison be
Her every step away from me
And this child I would destroy
If you tried to set her free
So, come to me my love
I'll tap into your strength and drain it dry
Can never have enough
For you I'd burn the length and breadth of sky
For it's my thoughts that bind me here
It's this love that I most fear
And this child I would destroy
For I hold her pain most dear
No haven for this heart
No shelter for this child in mazes lost
Heaven keep us apart
A curse for every mile of ocean crossed
For I must die for what I've done
A twist of fate a desert sun
For I see what I destroy
Sweet reflection knife into me
For I see what I destroy
I can see what I've begun
24.Shasta
Lyricist：Shih Cynthia Yih
So far so good
You're coming to the bend at the end of the road
You put a hand to the belly that's foreign more
With every day like an oversize load
And you're thinking about clouds, the color of fire
And the scent of an orange peel
The way Mt. Shasta explodes into windshield view
And your hands, steady on the wheel
So far so good
Coffee motel, coffee diner, coffee go on
Styrofoam is drying like the tears that once did flow
Starting 10 o'clock and ending at dawn
And you can't go back but you're going back
And you don't know what you'll say
You've got half formed sentences
Explanations for a life half broken away
And they just may
They'll take you in their arms
And then take out their knives
So you drive on, thinking
So far so good
But you can't go on much longer like this, you know
You're all alone in this world, no, that's not true
The nice Christian lady told you so
She was handing out pamphlets by the clinic door
Saying, 'Jesus knows what you've been through
Take the savior into your heart, my child
There's love waiting for the both of you'
Well, you don't believe but you have to believe
It's still crumpled there in your back seat
Were you the hero or the worst kind of coward back there
Putting pavement back under your feet
Couldn't stand the heat
Couldn't stand the thought
Of ghosts with a negative age
Turn the page, okay
So far so good
You try to sing along to the radio
But it's not your language, not your song
It's from some other time ago
And you're thinking about how someone died that day
But then again, maybe this life is like a sleeping mountain
Waking up to shape the land
Calm, calm, let it come
Let it come back to you
Calm, calm, breathe on out
You know, you know what to do
25.Nothing Without You
It's the quiet night that breaks me
I cannot stand the sight of this familiar place
It's the quiet night that breaks me
Like a dozen paper cuts that only I can trace
All my books are lying useless now
All my maps will only show me how to lose my way
Oh, call my name, you know my name
And, in that sound, everything will change
Tell me it won't always be this hard
I am nothing without you
But I don't know who you are
It's the crowded room that breaks me
Everybody looks so luminous and strangely young
It's the crowded room that's never heard
No one here can say a word of my native tongue
I can't be among them anymore
I fold myself away before it burns me numb
Oh, call my name, you know my name
And in your love everything will change
Tell me it won't always be this hard
I am nothing without you
But I don't know who you are
26.Pontchartrain
Sunday, dark water draining north
The heat swells and bursts like plague
Sunday, every so faint, slow tambourine
Glides onward toward the grave
Who drew the line？
Who drew the line between you and me？
Who drew the line that everyone sees？
Darling, lake Pontchartrain is haunted
Bones without names, photographs framed in reeds
Darling, what blood our veins was holding
The overpass frozen, fires ablaze at sea
Who drew the line？
Who drew the line that cuts to the skin, buries me in？
Tell me who drew the line
Darling, don't close your eyes
Lie as darkness hardens
Lie of our reunion
Oh, lie if god is sleeping
Oh, I believe you now
Darling, lake Pontchartrain will cradle me
And all you left behind
Listen, ever so faint, slow motion tambourine
Is marching back through time
27.Now Three
City fast asleep
Clouds up on the hill
So quiet, so still
Dreams of rain in sheets
Dreams of ice and wings
So delicate, these things
Love is a word so small
Let it fill up 'til I can't see at all
I want to be blind
Only my hands to guide me
Bring all of you inside me
City fast asleep
Lights hum in the gray
Like her breathing will someday
Strangest beauty cries
One and one, by and by
Now three of us here lie
Love for one so small
Come fill me up 'til I can't see at all
I want to be blind
Only my heart to guide me
Gather all the world inside me
28.Love Turns 40
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell
Because the myth is not supposed to retire
We'd rather it lit itself on fire
Or overdosed in a 4-star hotel
She's holding a truth that she'll never reveal
Because truth this time is an ugly child
And mother and daughter may reconcile
But their faces will never heal
'Don't go' she says but he's sleeping
She says it to herself
'Don't go' she sees herself rising
Packing a suitcase with all of her shoes
But something keeps you faithful
When all else in you turns and runs
Love turns 40
The morning comes
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell
Because we were once cinema gods in the night
And now all we've got is lunch hour light
Where nothing photographs well
'Don't go' she says but he's sleeping
She says it to the dark
'Don't go' she sees herself rising
Dressing in silence for nothing to lose
But something keeps you faithful
When all else in you turns and runs.
Love turns 40
The morning comes
29.Transcontinental, 1：30 A.M.
Wait, don't let this line go slack
Don't go alone into the cold
Wait, don't give up on this yet
I know that there's more you haven't told
Wait, my love
Just one more thought
Wait, my love
I haven't got time in my life
To watch you drive out to sea
So please, wait
Don't let this line go slack
I want to bring you back
To where I know you
Wait, don't give up on this yet
I want you to let you let me hold you
Wait, my love
Just one more thought
Wait my love, I haven't got time
In my life to watch you drift away
But I've all kinds of time if you'll stay
I know we're transcontinental, 1：30 a.m.
And there's not even a wire
Just a whispering in air
I know we're transcontinental, 1：30 a.m.
But I'm here
30.Whatever You Want
He's a company man, your right hand
13 years and counting, no detectable ambition
A model of efficiency, far as you can see
He knows every loophole, the art of fine print
Massages the numbers 'til they fit
And every time you ask him for another vanishing act
He half-smiles as if to say
Whatever you want is fine by me
Never a real moment together but she understands
You're an important man, another late night
Don't know if you're coming home or when
She's alone again
But she goes on curating your domestic museum
She disappears in her loyalty
She is a dress wearing a face in the doorway
Opening her arms out to you
Whatever you want is fine by me
No one would dare to question you
Oh no, no one would dare to stand up
But in the night she leaves the papers in a tidy pile
Evidence for her reasons
And in the night he takes the main accounts
And pulls the files, detailing every treason
I am the last one you'd ever suspect of setting the fire
But as you switch on your TV tomorrow morning
You'll hear me saying quietly
Whatever you want is fine by me
Whatever you say, I'll do what you ask me
Whatever you say but do you know who's listening？
Whatever you say, you know it's over
31.Blue Caravan
Blue, blue caravan
Winding down to the valley of lights
My true love is a man
Who would hold me for ten thousand nights
In the wild, wild wailing of wind
He's a house 'neath a soft yellow moon
So blue, blue caravan
Won't you carry me down to him soon？
Blue, blue caravan
Won't you drive away all of these tears
For my true love is a man
That I haven't seen in years
He said, 'Go where you have to
For I belong to you until my dying day'
So like a fool, blue caravan
I believed him and I walked away
Oh my blue, blue caravan
The highway is my great wall
For my true love is a man
Who never existed at all
Oh, he was a beautiful fiction
I invented to keep out the cold
But now, my blue blue caravan
I can feel my heart growing old
32.Recessional
'It's so beautiful here' she says
'This moment now' and this moment now
And I never thought I would find her here
Flannel and satin, my four walls transformed
But she's looking at me, straight to center
No room at all for any other thought
And I know I don't want this
Oh, I swear I don't want this
There's a reason not to want this but I forgot
In the terminal she sleeps on my shoulder
Hair falling forward, mouth all askew
Fluorescent announcements
Beat their wings overhead
Passengers missing, we're looking for you
And she dreams through the noise
Her weight against me
Face pressed into the corduroy grooves
Maybe it means nothing
Maybe it means nothing
Maybe it means nothing
But I'm afraid to move
And the words, they're everything and nothing
I want to search for her in the offhand remarks
Who are you, taking coffee, no sugar？
Who are you, echoing street signs？
Who are you, the stranger in the shell of a lover
Dark curtains drawn by the passage of time？
Oh words like rain, how sweet the sound
'Well anyway' she says, 'I'll see you around'
33.I Don't Feel So Well
I don't feel so well
I thought you should know before you fall
I don't call them back
I thought you should know before you fall
I saw it begin to dawn on us both
And somehow it wasn't surprising
And so you're preparing to swear every oath
But all the while I'm realizing I can't love you there
I thought you should know before you fall
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