Decapitated Society

"Someone"

Statistics . . . flat cartoons
animate the evening news
They twist and tailor
a nation's blues
And here beyond the fringe
of audience comprehension
where foxes nip at grapes
the refugees abused and aborted
watch us make the same mistakes

Polarization of the masses
puts hearts and minds on overload
You can only handle so much stress
then you block out
what you can't hold
And in the womb of security
some are torn by the sterile glove
While others paralyzed
by rhetoric and red tape
are lost to a twisted love
So which one is really better?
Wolves in sheeps' clothing
or wolves who look like wolves?
And are they telling the truth
or trying to pull down the wool?
What will it mean to me?
What will it mean to you?
Trying to build our homes
and raise our families

When someone takes a life
or someone buys a gun
or someone prays to God
that His Kingdom come
Someone shields their eyes
Someone stops and stares
Someone rolls on by and says
the problem isn't theirs

"Is The Light Burning?"

If I had been smarter
I would be with you right now
instead of sleeping
in this unfamiliar town
It took time to realize
that the light there on your face
was quietly calling me
to your embrace
Do I still have a place?

You came in the front door
I was going out the side
Your arms were open
but my hands were tied
The scales of my heart
They were bouncing up and down
I was wondering were you tired
of chasing me around?

And when I saw you just the other day
you were surrounded by your friends
Did you ask them
what they thought of me?
Will it matter in the end?

Is the light burning
in your heart for me?
Is the light burning
in your heart of hearts for me?
Is the light burning
in your heart for me?
Do I still hold the key?

"Shine"

She buries the problems
but they grow and bloom again
No one need see them
She will deftly pretend
Playing her high cards
Best foot forward every time
For who will love her
if she does not shine?

Hopelessness dogs her
but she will not give in
She will reason fear away again
A full and leaky vessel
She hides the cracks behind
For who will love her
if she does not shine?

She tries to pull herself
from difficult requests
Works to be satisfied
with just doing her best
'Til someone doubts her courage
and she struggles with resign
For who will love her
if she does not shine?

She tries to pull herself
from rejections debris
And the more she pulls
the less she seems to be free
When did this all begin?
Was there one point in time?
And who will love her
if she does not shine?

Who will love her? Shining
Who will love her? Shining
Who will love her
if she does not shine?

"Kindness"

You walk in through the door
The day is written in your face
After time I see it soften
But there are things that don't erase

You need your dignity
And it's not just pride
Kindness is like a thread
that sews you up inside

So what would it profit me-
grace that I've not spent?
It can help to mend
the hole this world has rent

And when I have this need
It's not that much to give
Consider it a plank across
this gap we have to bridge

I need my dignity
And it's not just pride
Kindness is like a thread
That sews me up inside

"Honey Moon"

Chips of diamond in circled ring
Strung like star wishes children sing
Like lights around the Christmas tree
Shining for all the world to see
And if the world were his oyster
she'd be the pearl
With fat satisfaction
he calls her his girl
Calls her his angel
all dressed in white
Tonight for the first time
he calls her his wife
And they stand there
under the golden moon
and sing a simple tune

And I know it sounds
like a fairy tail
But even when things don't go well
They strive to keep
the words they spoke
Subscribing to eternal hope
And when all else fails
there's miracles and grace
And love revived
by a strong embrace
They catch their breath
and pray and hope
Laugh and dance and talk and joke
And stand there
under the golden moon
and sing a simple tune

And there's a cluster of lights
in the northern sky
Humming a path
through the air tonight
Above hushed conversation
and breaths frosted lines
They huddle together
recounting the times
Times of sickness, times of health
Times of poverty, times of wealth
Times of quiet tenacity
Years of love and sweet mercy
They stand there
under the golden moon
And sing a simple tune

Honey moon, honey moon
Drench us with your sweet perfume
La la la la la la
honey moon

"Rain"

Distant thunder
echoing my heart beat
Muffled by a hooded sky

Timid embrace
on a shiny black street
Questioning tones and muted replies
Sliver of moon sewn in a veiled sky
Silver light pooling in your eyes
The storm smacks like a hit and run
The sky clears and then
the silence comes

Two hearts clicking
like a hundred clocks
Two minds racing
with a thousand thoughts
Ominous sky and electric air
Sparks fly and love is declared
But the human spirit is
eternal and frail
Can we accept its bounds?
It's frightening to offer oneself
without walls
But how can we love
Unless we tear down walls?

And then love
strikes like lightning
Thunder rolls like pain
Can we carry on the energy?
Can we hold onto love's clarity?
Transform it to conviction
and action with sustain
Or are we like the rain?

"Love is Not to Blame"

Cry, tell me the sad story of why
love makes you cry
Then tell me why
you're willing to let love end

Sigh, tell me the sad story of why
love makes you sigh
Then tell me why
you're looking for a friend

And you, you tell me you know
that he loves only you
You say, his love is true
Still your heart needs to mend

And you, you ache with the longing
to make it all right
To stop all the fights
When will this striving end?

I know love is not to blame
I know that love
never caused all your pain
I get so tired
of love wearing the black hat
When it's not love that hurts
It's the lack

"Carry Me Back"

Carry me back
to the red brick house
and the fields of sand
Carry me back
I just want to get back there again

I dream about when we were young
Carelessly playing in the sun
I can't travel back in time I know
Still I want to put my heart in tow

Autumn days out on the beach
Sun on the sand still warms my feet
We let the rain wash
and the wind can sweep
Sound of the waves
could lull me to sleep

Some others I know understand
Their roots were loosened
from the sand
Carried away from her one by one
Torn from the shores of
Lake Michigan

And it's one link in our
separate chains of life
Draws us together
and we hold on tight
We all remember the setting sun
Sinking into Lake Michigan

Carry me back
Back to Lake Michigan

"Decapitated Society"

We got rooms full of people
with their heads cut off
Hearts are home with their children
Rooms full of people
with anxious thoughts
Families on the brink of extinction
Intelligent people
with propaganda pressed
They're plodding along
on the road to success

We got rooms full of people
with their heads cut off
Their bodies follow behind
Rooms full of people
with packaged thoughts
and reality redesigned
Unrestrained people
with guns to accent
their constipated sentiment

Eyes full of darkness
and a wall full of light
Men lose distinction
between wrong and right

And vision is fraught with ambiguity
In a decapitated society

"Dancing in the Graveyard"

That ancient tune
Is ringing in your ears
Still you stroke the world
to soothe an inherent fear
Oh baby, you practice such denial
It's a wonder you survive
Why be part of the living dead?
You were made to be alive

It's not the sound
of long familiar tunes
It's the counterpoint
and timbre of the truth
I know that whistling in the dark
has had you dancing up until now
But baby, there's a symphony
of wind through reeds and boughs

Open the door, pull the trigger
Shift your gears
Move on to something bigger
We'll be dancing
Dancing in the graveyard
Under the moonlit sky

"Can't Close My Eyes"

I can't close my eyes
Can't keep from thinking
what you hold for me
Please let it be
a future beautiful and shining
clear and bright
And I can't fall to sleep
when the dreams that I cling to
may be coming true
May be others do
But I know that everything
is going to work out fine

And everything I've asked for
somehow seems within my reach tonight

My thoughts seem to fly
I let them slip by and encircle me
I'm praying let it be
a future beautiful and sunny
clear and bright
Hope risen in waves
My mind sees a page
That's lying blank and white
It's there for you to write
And everything
is going to be alright

Wing and a Prayer

"Put Her to the Test"

She's sewn the fifty dollars
into the pocket of a sweater
The pocket of a sweater
which is violet, violet
And it won't be long until she clips the money from its keeping
And divides it with the grocer and the self-help author

She reads the Daily Planet
And I read the daily grace
Well maybe hope will find us both
if we close our eyes and wait
Co-pay and humility
You stumble and begin to see
That truth's a rare commodity
You've got to spend it so wisely

Well maybe she's neurotic
maybe I'm the same
Maybe we're dysfunctional
and cosmic forces are to blame
But Superman is comic
And grace has come to me
So here's mud in your eye
and holy spit
And now the truth comes
and now maybe . . .

She can't afford to lose it
She barely even wants to use it
She's wishing more
could come for less
Always trying to second-guess
These days, they put her to the test
They put her to the test

"Crying Ice"

(If love is like falling down stairs
Then I fell, fell . . .)

My eyes are crying ice
Tears frozen in time
Another sad goodbye
And the brush of your lips on mine

My eyes are searching you
But our glances never meet
And I watch this sequin tear
float down your velvet cheek

My eyes can see you still
Standing on the stair
But I guess I'll learn to live
With what I can't repair

Standing on the stair
A single lock of hair
slips through my fingers
I guess love will never stay
It hesitates
but seldom does it linger

"Wing and a Prayer"

What is this?
Side swipes, crippled wings
My plane is going down
What is this? Where's the DMZ?
What border have I crossed over now?

In this case the wounds of an enemy
are kinder than the wounds
of a friend
In this case
I'm forced to make decisions
I cannot make amends

I am spinning, turning,
spiraling down
Eject, eject
and there's nothing but ozone between my feet and the ground
I can't just make a wish
I'm standing in the air
I haven't got a wing
I'm sending up my prayer

"Waltz With You"

I closed my eyes
and the music became
part of you, part of me
Drew out my heart, drew in my breath
I was whispering
One and two and . . .

I can see the invisible
inside me, here with you
I can feel the intangible
inside me, when I'm here with you

My feet catch the time
and I circle about
I lift up my hands and I hold them out

And I just want to waltz with you
And I just want to waltz with you
Circling, circling, circling in
I just want to waltz with you

"The Dishes"

Approach with caution
There's a lot of damage done
If you are cautious
this job may even be fun
Though there are days of toxic waste
in coffee cups and stuck on plates

If you don't think this job is
dangerous
take a good look around
A lot of good men tried
Obviously
a lot of good men drowned
It's perilous and profound
to clean a ship as it goes down
Await my signal
and then on the count of three
We trained for this all our lives
It's no time for retreat
Although there is a black snake inner tube
coiled in the trash
and covered with food

So put on your goggles and fins
Girls, we're going in

"Snowman"

It's a childish response
with grave complications
Ice and snow creep into souls
Your socks get wet, your feet get cold

He's almost catatonic
staring through the snow
Sticks and stones
could break his bones
If there were any left to throw

He's straining to listen
but he doesn't hear a word
He wants to communicate
He needs to be heard

What did you expect to see
Looking in two eyes of coal
Pebbles wrapped in ice
or the window to the soul
Of the snowman
He's a snowman
A snowman

"Daisies in Your Bowl"

We cut into the lilac
with a pale daffodil
We draped the floor
to guard the wood
from carelessness and spill
And in the August twilight
the void began to fill
And the shadows draped
upon my bed
beneath the window sill

The generations circle
and each one atones
The sins of the father
are separate from my own
In Pilgrim's Progress
it's forgiveness that makes whole
And as time levels and consoles
I place the daisies in your bowl

The daylight came and left you
You were lying on my bed
Beneath the nervous shadows
and the papers left unread
With your bony frame recoiling from sound and scent and sight
You held your ground
'til Christmas came
And then let go of life

And so I pilfered you these daisies
I stole one from each bouquet
I didn't want to come and go
And leave behind this empty grave
I am told you'd laugh and do this
at your father's grave too
And it's this twisted sense of humor that ties me to you

"Got Me Runnin'"

Grab a book, take a look and find
Two men struggling inside
Eyes to right, no insight
I was paralyzed, paralyzed
I heard the words
my thoughts were obscured
By these two men struggling inside
With a broken heart
no place to start
I was out on a limb, I was set apart

There's no where else that I can go

So I watch the show
And it seems to flow
Still there are these two men
struggling inside
With weakened knees, only pleas
They are holding me
They are holding me

But I will lay down my cards
Show you my hand
Leave this game tonight
Leaving no place to stand
except in the sand
And I am running to you
You've got me running
you've got me running
You got me running to you

"I Own My Part"

I tried to appear noble
but confession is good for the soul
If truth can set you free
well freedom is part of my goal

And I own my own part
I own my own part
My part of your broken heart

I tried to push, I tried to pull
But you would not be led
And here in my unraveling
I am chasing my own thread
I trace patterns and I trace lines
I am tracing my own tracks
I know somehow my future
is locked inside my past

"Patterns in the Sky"

I could walk or run
still I'd feel this compulsion
To fade into the patterns of the sky

I could fall apart
I could be shaken to the heart
And I would fade into
the patterns of the sky

I would fade, fade into the patterns
I would fade
fade into the patterns of the sky

Some may fall away
Some will rise one day
and they will fade
into the patterns of the sky

I can find the hope
It is hidden in these notes
as they all fade
into the patterns of the sky

So my heart may know pain
but it will mend again
And we will fade into
the patterns of the sky

I know you came
You came for me and
I know that one day we will fade into the patterns of the sky

See Stone

"Thank You"

For broken dreams and battle scars.
For tearful drives in bucket cars.
For big mistakes that tried so hard,
Whose bones are buried in my yard.

For all the times that you said no,
For all the broken places
I have had to go,
For shoulders weary of the blame,
For me not getting my own way.

For the spending down of time,
the distilled and refined,
the having and the loss,
the counting of the cost.

My house was bitter from no care,
I cursed its history,
but that's why I found it here.
For all these parables defined,
and truth to which I'm now resigned.

For longing met with something fine.
For love I never thought
I'd have the grace to find,
For these my friends and family,
whom I embrace so gratefully . . .

"Broken Glass"

Why would we listen here?
Why do we sift these tears?
Try to pan out excuse,
And anyway what's the use?
Send in the question probe.
Find the truth couched in lies.
Pain is a telling thing,
Unravels alibi.

You think this anger
might trump anything,
anything that life can bring,
that life can bring.
How do you get up,
get out of here fast,
it's all broken glass,
All broken glass, all broken . . .

Could be the liquor now.
Might be a real bad day,
Could have been anything,
Something you do or say.

Wish you could just melt down.
Dissolve into some black night.
Who could believe all this
And you're loosing the strength
to fight.

Maybe if no one knows,
If you could just edge past,
The rubble that's in your way,
These relics of the past.

But those are some bitter pills.
They choke you if you don't stop.
You gotta break away,
Life can't be what it's not.

"Good Enough"

Good enough,
it's not good enough for you.
Good enough,
it's not good enough for you.
Though you tell me that it is
I know it's shamefully true.
It will never be quite good enough,
for you.

I can't get it right.
I can't get it right enough.
I can't get it right,
I can't get it right enough.
Though I smooth and shape and gloss and brush and touch,
I can never seem to get it right enough.

And so here I am
and this is all that I have,
and I want it to be more
than what it is.

But I'll try to tell you
what I'm thinking of,
I will try to tell you
what I'm thinking of.
About gratitude and grace
and hope and love.
Things that words speak
so inadequately of.

Good enough,
it's not good enough for you.
Good enough,
It's not good enough for you.
Though you tell me that it is,
how can that be?
when it never seems
quite good enough for me.

"Parallel Universe"

In a parallel universe,
I pile food up on a plate.
In a parallel universe,
I need to gain a little weight.
I drive my golf cart everywhere,
try not to exercise.
People say I'm much to thin,
especially my hips and thighs.

And when those scientists
in Switzerland
with all their little black holes
suck worlds inside out.
I'll be doing' OK but the parallel me
will have some doubts.

In a parallel universe,
a sad and bitter me,
is writing spiteful little songs
in a minor key
In a parallel universe,
I sing in bars and suck in smoke,
but the parallel me, (I must admit)
really knows how to tell a great joke.
In a parallel universe,
I'm a tall cool sleek brunette,
in a parallel universe,
that's as blonde as you can get.
And while I may not have a clue,
I got a big house on a hill.
I never have to clean the thing,
my children always will.

In a parallel universe,
I go out walking in the snow,
for an  hour every day,
and ya know it barely shows.
In a parallel universe,
everybody gets the flu,
while in our little universe,
No body do!
(and that's perfectly
good English here)

In a parallel universe,
when they suck us inside out,
will we suck us outside in?
or just shake it all about?
And if we do the hokey pokey
and we turn ourselves about.
Will we land on the up side,
while all those cats get down?

Curious

"Time"

It was the cradle of creation
The sun warmed sugar sand
Where order met her anarchist
And carved a holy land

And she said never say never
Forever is a long long time
Never say never
Forever is a long long time
And time changes everything
Everything
Everything but truth
Time changes everything
Everything
Everything but truth

Beside the ancient ruins
A jury of their peers
Succeeds in its confusion
To probe and interfere

So I came here to the cradle
To sift the sugar sand
To wade into the breakers
To be baptized and born again

"Mercy"

You fell into the stained glass window
And climbed the tree of life
And all the fragments came to order
There in the splintered light
And in the sweet communion
Where deep calls unto deep
You wrapped your dreams in swaddling clothes
And laid them down to sleep

You have my complete devotion
Is this what you ask of me?
I'm so in love with you it's humbling, just . . .
Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy on me
I feel your fingers trace the scars
I thought were hidden from your view
I am surprised to hear you call them blessed
And say they brought me here to you

You sacrifice your skepticism
And me, I sacrifice my fear
But I insist it wasn't pain, no-
It was grace that brought us here

I pour out my heart's confession
I light the wick and blow it out
I've come to kiss the face of hope
Here in the shadow of my doubt

You know I've never been this bold
But it's a risk I've come to take
The fervent prayer of love:
"Don't let this be a big mistake"

"Works of Love"

From the dawn of time
From Adam's seed
The broken, disillusioned, disenchanted plead
In indiscretions shadow, in the face of a lie
The brutal take no prisoners, the children cry
Do the works of love

From empty arms and disappointed lips
Indignant strangers and political rifts
Where men swallow humility and strut with pride
Where the dollar is the standard
God is something that you buy
Where the fatherless widows are the soup du jour
Men who took all they could get are still asking more
Where the children starve and don't have the strength to cry
You can see it in their silence, you can hear it in their eyes
Do the works of love

I know that human is as human does
If we do our best we can rise above and do the works of love

All of us spinning on a planet of despair
Men light off signals and they send up flares
From people who can not meet their simple needs
You can feel their anxiety and hear them plead
Do the works of love

I know that human is as human does
If we do our best we can rise above and do the works of love

"Jonah and Geppetto"

Jonah and Geppetto in the belly of a whale
Hey lookie here boys we've lost the wind in our sails
Bring me Pinocchio and the prodigal son
And a boat to row until help can come

And we'll row across the wishing well
We'll row across the wishing well
We'll row across the wishing well
And pray for a miracle

Star light, star bright
First star I've seen tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might
But if wishes were fishes we'd all eat tonight
Light a fire in the belly of the whale
Take these problems by the tail
Try to choke this enemy
Fight our way back to the sea

Jonah was unwilling and taken by force
Geppetto was searching and way off course
Who knows where help is found
In a world turned upside down
We all need a little rescue
Need somebody to come through

"Widening Sky"

Under this widening sky
The heavens seem brass
You beg for mercy, mercy
No reply yet

Under this widening sky
The earth seems iron
And it hurts when you fall
When you fall hard
Kiss it good bye, now

Step like a dinosaur
Step big step out
There's an ark of hope in your sea of doubt now
Don't ask me why, don't ask me why
Don't ask me why under this widening sky

Under this widening sky
Tears roll down faces like a river
In a hard hard hard rain
Under this widening sky
Fists pounding, voices breaking
It's a crying shame now

Under this widening sky
It's been a long wait
But you get your reply
Under this widening sky
Speak bright angel, stay close to me
And it will be all right

"Walking Wounded"

Gray skies, silver trees
Frosted panes and pain
I am not calling you
The silence is deafening

The gray sky reigned over us
And we could not talk at all
And even if I try I know
My words would only fall, only fall

And it's not how I wanted it to be
It just somehow got away from me
Now you're out there, God knows where

This rocking road comforts me
I'm going away
You won't stop hurting yourself
Regardless of what I say

And your passion is an open grave
It's rushing you in
It takes you past the speed of sound
And words alone can't win
Words alone can't win

You are one of the walking wounded

"Curious"

If we go to foreign soil to beat down the dogs of war
Does this protect our homes from anything
Sniffing around our doors?

And if we send our sons and daughters off to fight our wars
Is there anything left home worth fighting for?
And if all our good intentions simply pave the road to hell
Are the parking lots there paved by apathetic souls as well?
I am curious, curious, curious

When politics and policy spawn rebellion and strife
Why is this nativity stolen by a fascist midwife?
Time in, time out again

And when we narrow down the global vision to just me and you
How is it that the politics of power
And the power of love get so confused?
They get so confused

Okay, so everybody simply wants to be loved, well alright
So why are our relationships riddled with
Vindictiveness and spite?
What if love came naturally and I'm not talking about lust
What if mercy were a river - would it rise up and swallow us?
Come and swallow us

But instead we spend our mercy like we've got too many debts
And we are brutally unkind with no visible regret
And I think that innocence is raped
The soul is stripped of its immunity

And if we send our sons and daughters off to fight our wars
Is there anything left home worth fighting for?

"Hold on Me"

All of this hopelessness and fear
Wish I could make it disappear
Only ever meant to be your friend
Only ever meant to be your friend

Guess it's the poverty of our hearts
We practice love but in the dark
Now there's nothing I can do
No way I can comfort you

And this has got a hold on me too
Even when I turn my back to you
This has got a hold on me, oh
This has got a hold on me too

And this has got a hold on me too
I tried but you would not let me through
This has got a hold on me, oh
This has got a hold on me too
This has got a hold on me too

Hurts to see you in this state
Isolated in your pain
I try to draw close but you push me back
Push me back and
I wish I could help you through these times
Turn your tears all into wine
There's nothing I can do
No way I can comfort you

"Someone"

Statistics, flat cartoons, animate the evening news
They twist and tailor a nation's blues
And here beyond the fringe of audience comprehension
Where foxes nip at grapes
These refugees, the abused and aborted
Watch us make the same mistakes when someone . . .

Takes a life or someone
Buys a gun or someone
Prays to God that His kingdom come
Oh someone
Shields their eyes
Or stops and stares or someone
Rolls on by and says the problem isn't hers

Polarization of the masses puts hearts and minds on overload
You can only handle so much stress
Then you block out what you can't hold
And in the womb of security some are torn by the sterile glove
While these others paralyzed by rhetoric and red tape are lost
To a twisted love when someone . . .

So which one is really better?
The wolves in sheep's clothing
Or the wolves who look like wolves?
Are they telling us the truth
Or trying to pull down the wool?
And what does it mean to you?
What does it mean to me?
Trying to build our homes and raise our families
When someone . . .

"Angel Baby"

He called you angel baby
He saw heaven in your eyes
Certain you'd give him everything
And he'd give you wings to fly

Sooner or later, earth angels fall
They never really had wings at all
You did your best, you hit the wall
You're not an angel baby after all
Sooner or later
Sooner or later
Sooner or later, they fall

Just because you weren't everything
Doesn't mean you've failed
Just because you've gone and hurt someone
Doesn't mean you're damned to hell

So put your feet down on the ground
It really is okay
Don't have to know it all
Don't have to have a thing to say

"Gravity"

Gravity
All that I know life can be, still
Gravity
Holds me down unwillingly
When I would rise above it all
It would make me fall
You know it's deep below the surface
Like a never-ending call

And sanity
Can slip away unwittingly
While gravity
Draws away the life I need
To this kite without a wind
The world is falling in
And It's chemistry and physics
Still I can't accept the limits of gravity

Gravity
The stars are set up in sky
I'm asking simply why can't I be partners
In their glory
With their sparkle in my eyes
Gravity

Gravity
Still if I follow, maybe he can
Blow the winds of liberty
Tear the strings that tangle me
Please break the laws of gravity
And let my spirit fly away

Outpost of the Counter-Culture

"Outpost of the Counter-Culture (Hometown)"

You can shop "incognito"
and leave "foot prints" behind
"Cinderella" might have moved
but I think she left
her glass slippers behind

Come up for the coffee
The curious do
Or come on down for dinner
we're the mid-west Disney of food

Mecca of the party pilgrim
of the curious and lost
Outpost of the counter-culture
where we wrestle with the cost
Valhalla of the Harley
And the stealth rocket bike
Queen bee of the gothic things
that go bump in suburban nights

Playground of the theme bars
California of the "burbs"
Epicenter of everything
everything that's just too hip
to be left obscure

I start up at the north end
Up by the "S.O.S."
Walk past the profit angels
and crews cleaning up
from last nights guests

Past the homeless at home
In the new morning street
Looking to score a little caffeine
or maybe some place to soak up some heat

In my hometown paper
I wake up and I read
About some heroin overdose
at a hotel just blocks from me.

While out here in my backyard
I hear the marching band drill
Before the empty bleachers
our kids are hammering out their skills
And so I put on my sweatshirt
And I pull on my tennis shoes
And I walk through the streets
of my hometown
as if there were nothing here to lose

"All I Can Change"

The rub of expectation
Is that someone has to give
And when you're in its power
You can't live and let live

Behold the velvet hammers
Hands splayed across the keys
Learning the hard way
all I can change is me

Well I tried to move the heavens
And I tried to move the earth
Bullied it with prayer
Badgered God with his own words

Wrestling with an image
Of  the way life ought to be
The world is broken
All I can change is me

I am among those taken in
By hucksters who "knew truth"
And I've seen a lot of brokeness
From truth's merciless abuse
It's bitter as a new wine
But it finally sinks right through
In the long run
all you can change is you

"My Love (My Heart Knows)"

My love is a cage
My love is a humbling place
My love is the second to last place
on earth you'd want to go

And my heart knows

My love is a safe
My love is some smothering place
My love is the place of last resort
you only go there when you're forced

And my heart knows

And you know better you know best
What you don't know you can guess
Discount love's blessing as a curse
As if my love had no worth

My love is a jumper cable
My love is a big tow truck
You'd rather walk for hours
than call and have me pick you up

My heart knows

My love is a porch light
You turn it off I turn it on
My love is a lighthouse
that you eagerly sail away from

My heart knows
My love is a scolding teacher
My love is some spelling bee
Your head is on the desk
"Hey, just don't pick on me"

My heart knows

My love is a big white flag
My love is a reckoning
My love is an unlocked door
when you are ready to come in

You can come on in

"Good Enough"

Good enough
it's not good enough for you
Good enough
it's not good enough for you
Though you tell me that it is
I know it's shamefully true
It will never be quite good enough
for you

I can't get it right
I can't get it right enough
I can't get it right
I can't get it right enough
Though I smooth and shape and polish brush and touch
I can never seem to get it
right enough

And so here I am
and this is all that I have
and I want it to be more
than what it is

And so I try to tell you
what I'm thinking of
I try to tell you
what I'm thinking of
About gratitude and grace
and trust and love
Things that words speak so
inadequately of

Good enough
it's not good enough for you
Good enough
It's not good enough for you
Though you tell me that it is
how can that be?
when it never seems quite good enough
to me

"Extraordinary"

I make a fool out of me
trying to make things bend
Prisms and prayers
who's going to bend in the end?
Still in this place
this emptying of my soul
Teaches me sometimes
you open when you fold

Extraordinary in this ordinary world
Extraordinary to this ordinary girl
Extraordinary in this ordinary world

It's the light on your ocean
that's clouding your eyes
It's an ocean of questions
that's fishing out all the lies
It's a great big love
that waits to open wide
That Red Sea of your heart
and those tightly closed eyes

Khrushchev's shoe is banging
on the table inside
And Amelia is longing for her sky
The vision of Martin
meets the blindness of Saul
and it slams into this simplicity in us all

"Bent and Broken Reeds"

Pebbled clouds
Broken sky
Beauty can't nullify all this grief
and its strong undertow

No goodbye
No fair chance
To settle her world she was too young
to think she would go

No one ever does prepare for this
No Last Supper no betrayal kiss
Broken hearts, bent and broken reeds
Where is the Mercy

Neighbors talk
Neighbors look
They take pulses and cook and they grieve and they hold on to life
Share the pain share the food
A sweet laugh or two
All the stories and the sacred advice
God, what good can ever come from this?
Bending aching stunning kind of shift
Broken hearts, bent and broken reeds
Asking for Mercy

Watch denial
Muscle through
What did I say to you?
Oh, yes, nothing hangs heavy as grief
In the lungs in the soul
Though you try to console
You don't know but just try to believe

And make the few odd choices
that death leaves
All we have to hold is love's bright seed
Broken hearts, bent and broken reeds
Begging for Mercy

"Thank You"

For broken dreams and battle scars
For tearful drives in bucket cars
For big mistakes that tried so hard
Whose bones are buried in my yard

For all the times that you said no
For all the broken places I have had to go
For shoulders weary of the blame
For me not getting my own way

For the spending down of time
the distilled and refined
the having and the loss
the counting of the cost

My house was bitter from no care
I cursed its history
but that's why I found it there
For all these parables defined
and truth to which I'm now resigned

For longing met with something fine
For love I never thought
I'd have the grace to find
For these my friends and family
whom I embrace so gratefully

"Waiting for the Cosmic Shoe to Fall"

The first of January along I-65
It's 48 degrees under cobbled skies

Sun leaks through the mortar
Water through God's hands
To wash the grasses rose
tangerine and tan

I want to lay your body down
and make this earth our bed
Pull the flax and tangerine
up over our heads

With great economy
White wafers dot the sky
Winter is waffling
and she can't make up her mind

Or maybe she's like me
With "bitter patience"* and restraint
Waiting for some perfect moment
to throw off all restraints

But there's a little pinch of fear
and a voice that fairly shouts
"For heaven sakes show some decorum, you can't let all that emotion out!
'Cause he might use your love as license, he could bait you with your words.
Maybe it's better left unsaid, unheard!"
*Emily Dickinson
And so we drive along
And thread the merging dark
And in the blackened road
our lights are the only spark
And in miles of conversation
all I ever had the nerve to say
was, "Hey, what a great sky
and what technique would you use
if you were gonna paint it that way?"

"Try Anyway"

There's not enough alcohol in this world that you could drink it down
There's not enough sugar in this world that we could make it sweet
There aren't enough tears to wash it down there's not enough soap to wash it out
But we try anyway

There's not enough money in this world that you could buy it off
There aren't enough bullets in this world that you could wipe it out
There aren't enough unkind words to say there aren't enough hateful thoughts to feed
But we try
We try anyway

Who'd want to poison their own soul?
Who'd want to bankrupt their own hearts?
Who'd want to pass it to the heirs
cradled in that velvet dark?

There's not enough Novocaine
to numb that pull
There's not enough flesh
that you could plug those holes
There's not enough tape to shut it up there's not enough wood to shut it out
But we try, we try anyway

All the mistakes mankind makes
All of the hope and the light we squander
All the potential we ignore
All of the lessons we learned so late
Oh, we try anyway

I know that you think that you can't quit
I know that you think that's not for you
I know you want and that you try
I know that you fell off every time
Try, try anyway

And when you string a day into the world
And when you find that years have passed
Don't let that be enough
there's so much more you can give back

"Parallel Universe"

In a parallel universe
I pile food up on a plate
In a parallel universe
I need to gain a little weight
I drive my golf cart everywhere
try not to exercise
People say I'm much too thin
especially my hips and thighs
And when those scientists in Switzerland with all their little black holes
suck worlds inside out
I'll be doing OK but the parallel me
might have her doubts

In a parallel universe
there's a sad and bitter me
writing spiteful little songs
in a minor key
In a parallel universe
I sing in bars and suck in smoke
but the parallel me (I must admit)
knows how to tell a really good joke

In a parallel universe
I'm a tall cool sleek brunette
in a parallel universe
that's as blonde as you can get
And while I may not have a clue
I got a big house on a hill
I never have to clean that thing
my children always will

In a parallel universe
I go out walking in the snow
for an hour every day
And you know what? It barely even shows
In a parallel universe
everybody gets the flu
while in our little universe
ain't nobody do!
(and that's perfectly good English here)

In a parallel universe
when they suck worlds inside out
won't we suck them outside in?
and then turn ourselves about?
And if we do that hokey pokey
and then turn ourselves around
Will we land on the up side
while all those cats get down?

Love Big Us Small

"Song of Absolutes"

They're absolutely right
You're absolutely wrong
And absolutely all their friends
will play along
And they may eat crow
'til the cows come home
And you can absolutely bet
that they won't eat that crow alone

But what do I know
What do I really know
Well I know mercy will find you
Unforgiveness will bind you
Children grow and it's hard to let 'em go
Hard to let 'em go

She wants the absolute best
That's absolutely not you
No, the brass ring absolutely will not do
And she may eat crow
at the end of her day
But she won't eat that crow alone
And that may be the price you pay
There's absolutely been
great damage done
To absolutely everyone
And at the end of the day
when they level that field
It may be the crow's
the only crop it yields

"Tarzan Tells All"

Well the airwaves spit out buckshot
And every pellet's meant to sting
To turn observers to aggressors
No matter who you bruise
or break or bleed

Well it's insidious at worst
And this is ignorance at best
To broadcast anger at the speed of light
'Til you've accused someone half to death

But I'm sitting here
on what just might be
the biggest exposé to date
So I'll put it out on the internet
I'm gonna put it in books and video tapes
Tarzan tells all
Love big, us small
Well we're out here with these flashlights
And we will use them just like thugs
To beat the hell out of the darkness
Until there's no one left in there to love

Well you can ape the mannerisms
And you can say "you wrong, me right"
You can press the letter of the language
Lose the simplest insight

But down here in this naked light
There lies a darkness
that's yours and mine
And there's a great big pile
of jagged rocks
That we all throw from time to time

"Put Her to the Test"

She's sewn the 50 dollars
into the pocket of this sweater
The pocket of this sweater
which is violet, it is violet
It won't be long until she clips the money from its keeping
And divides it with the grocer
and the self-help author
And she can't afford to lose it
She barely even wants to use it
She's wishing more could come for less
Always trying to second guess
These days, they put her to the test
They put her to the test

She reads the Daily Planet
And I read the daily grace
Maybe hope will find us both
if we close our eyes and wait
Co-pay and humility,
you stumble and begin to see
That truth's a rare commodity
You've got to spend it so wisely

Maybe she's neurotic,
maybe I'm the same
Maybe we're dysfunctional
and cosmic forces are to blame
Superman is a comic
But grace has come to me
So here's mud in your eye and holy spit
And now the truth comes
and now maybe . . .

"Daisies in Your Bowl"

We cut into the lilac with a pale daffodil
We draped the floor to guard the wood from carelessness and spill
And in the August twilight
the void began to fill
And the shadows draped upon my bed beneath the window sill

Generations circle and each one atones
The sins of the father
are separate from my own
In Pilgrim's Progress it's forgiveness
that makes whole
And as time levels and consoles,
I place the daisies in your bowl

The daylight came and left you
You were lying on my bed
Beneath the nervous shadows
and the papers left unread
With your bony frame recoiling from sound and scent and sight
You held your ground
'til Christmas came
Then you let go of life

So I pilfered you these daisies
I stole one from each bouquet
I didn't want to come and go
And leave behind this empty grave
I am told you'd laugh and do this
at your father's grave too
It's this twisted sense of humor
that ties me to you

"Spirit So Big"

I brought my father with me
I took him in my purse
He would have done the same for me
If things had been reversed

But in these photos
In the way my brothers hold their hands
In my sister's quick remarks
His legacy still stands

And the spirit gets so big
and the body gets so small
The spirit clutters all life's corners
and it spills into life's halls
And the spirit gets so big

Half drunk, half full of poetry
The pilgrim touched the train
Bound for freedom, bound for glory
He touched her face again

And in her silence and at his distance
How was he to know
Something woke him from his dreaming
Told him he must go

Between here and eternity
Lies this frail dissolving line
Between the call of heaven
And this corner that was mine

Between the silence and the distance
How are we to know
Something wakes us from our dreaming
Tells us we must go

"Rain"

Distant thunder, echoeing my heartbeat
Muffled by a hooded sky
Timid embrace on a shiny black street
Questioning tones and muted replies
Sliver of moon
Sewn in a veiled sky
Silver light pooling in your eyes
The storm smacks like a hit and run
The sky clears and then the silence comes

And then love strikes like lightning
Thunder rolls like pain
Can we carry on the energy?
Can we hold onto love's clarity?
Transform it to convictions
And action with sustain
Or are we like the rain?

Two hearts clicking
Like a hundred clocks
Two minds racing
With a thousand thoughts
Ominous sky and electric air
Sparks fly and love is declared
But the human spirit is eternal and frail
Can we accept its bounds?
It's frightening to offer oneself
without walls
But how can we love
Unless we tear walls down

"Waltz with You"

I close my eyes and the music became
part of you, part of me
Drew out my heart, drew in my breath,
I was whispering one and two and
My feet caught the time,
and I circled about
I lifted my hands and I held them out

And I just want to waltz with you
I just want to waltz with you
Circling, circling, circling in
I just want to waltz with you

I can see the invisible
inside me, here with you
I can feel the intangible
inside me, here with you
My feet catch the time,
and I circle about
I lift my hands and I held them out

"Someone"

Statistics . . . flat cartoons
Animate the evening news
They twist and tailor a nation's blues
While here beyond the fringe
Of audience comprehension
Where foxes nip at grapes
The refugees abused and aborted
Watch us make the same mistakes
While someone . . .

Takes a life
Or someone buys a gun
Or someone prays to God
That His kingdom come
Someone shields their eyes
Someone stops and stares
Someone rolls on by and says
The problem isn't theirs
Polarization of the masses
Puts hearts and minds on overload
You can only handle so much stress
Then you block out what you can't hold
And in the womb of security
Some are torn by the sterile glove
While others paralyzed by rhetoric
and red tape
Are lost to a twisted love
While someone . . .

So which one is really better
Wolves in sheep's clothing or
Wolves who look like wolves
And are they telling us the truth
Or just trying to pull down the wool
And what does it mean to you
What does it mean to me
Trying to build our homes
And raise our families, when someone...

"Shine"

She buries the problems
But they grow and bloom again
No one need see them
She will deftly pretend
Playing her high cards
Best foot forward every time
For who will love her
If she does not shine?
Hopelessness dogs her
But she will not give in
She will reason fear away again
A full and leaky vessel
She hides the cracks behind
For who will love her
If she does not shine?

Who will love her?
Shining
Who will love her?
Shining
Who will love her
If she does not shine?

She tries to pull herself
From difficult requests
Works to be satisfied
With just doing her best
'Til someone doubts her courage
And she struggles with resign
For who will love her
If she does not shine?

She tries to pull herself
From rejection's debris
And the more she pulls
The less she seems to be free
When did this all begin?
Was there one point in time
And who will love her
If she does not shine?

"Love is Not to Blame"

Cry, tell me the sad story
Of why love makes you cry
Then tell me why
You're willing to let love end
Sigh, tell me the sad story
Of why love makes you sigh
Then tell me why
You're looking for a friend

I know love is not to blame
I know that love
never caused all your pain
I get so tired
Of love wearing the black hat
When it's not love that hurts
It's the lack

And you, you tell me
You know that he loves only you
You say his love is true
Still your heart needs to mend
And you, you ache with the longing
To make it all right
To stop all the fights
When will this striving end?
When will the striving end?

"God Have Mercy"

This is the bubble of my hope
It's also the blister of my fear
The inkwell of prayer the reservoir of tears
This is what makes me unsure
And this is what makes me unclear
But tomorrow we shall see
how these things telegraph through me

May God have mercy
and come and heal you and me
Come and comfort
Come and steel you and me
Against the ghosts and the insecurities
God have mercy
Come and heal you and me

This is what makes me unsure
'Cause I don't know what to do
I need to know it's not just me
It's really me and you

So now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
I don't know what to do
I just know that I love you

"I Own My Part"

I tried to appear noble
but confession is good for the soul
If truth can set you free,
well freedom is part of the goal

And I own my own part
I own my own part
My part of your broken heart

I tried to push, I tried to pull
But you would not be led
And here in my unraveling
I am chasing my own thread

I trace patterns, I trace lines
I am tracing my own tracks
I know somehow my future
is locked inside my past

"Wing and a Prayer"

What is this?
Side swipes, crippled wings
My plane is going down
What is this?
Where's the DMZ?
What border have I crossed over now?

I am spinning, turning, spiraling down
Eject, eject and there's nothing but ozone
between my feet and the ground
I can't just make a wish
I'm standing on the air
I haven't got a wing,
I'm sending up my prayer

In this case, the wounds of an enemy
are kinder than the wounds of a friend
In this case, I'm forced to make decisions,
I cannot makes amends

"Patterns in the Sky"

I could walk or run,
still I'd feel this compulsion
To fade into the patterns of the sky
I could fall apart,
I could be shaken to the heart
And I would fade into
the patterns of the sky

I would fade into the patterns
Fade into the patterns of the sky

Some will fall away
Some will rise one day
and they will fade into
The patterns of the sky
I can find the hope,
it is hidden in these notes
as they all fade into
The patterns of the sky

I know you came for me
and I know that one day
we will all fade into
The patterns of the sky
So my heart may know pain,
but it will mend again
And we will fade into
the patterns of the sky

"Snowman"

It's a childish response
with grave complications
Ice and snow creep into souls
Your socks get wet, your feet get cold

What did you expect to see
Looking into eyes of coal
Pebbles wrapped in ice
or the window to the soul . . .
Of the snowman, the snowman,
the snowman

He's almost catatonic,
staring through the snow
Sticks and stones could break his bones
If there were any left to throw
He's straining to listen,
but he doesn't hear a word
He wants to communicate,
he needs to be heard

"Decapitated Society"

We got rooms full of people
With their heads cut off
And their hearts are home
With their children
Rooms full of people
With anxious thoughts
And families on the brink of extinction
Intelligent people
with propaganda pressed
Plodding along on the road to success

And vision is fraught
With ambiguity
In a decapitated society

We got rooms full of people
With their heads cut off
Their bodies follow behind
Rooms full of people
With packaged thoughts
And reality redesigned
Unrestrained people
With guns to accent
Their constipated sentiment
Eyes full of darkness
in a world filled with light
Men lose distinction
between wrong and light

"Got Me Runnin'"

Grab a book, take a look and find
Two men struggle inside
Eyes to right, no insight
I was paralyzed, paralyzed

But I will lay down my cards
Show you my hand
Leave this game tonight
Leaving no place to stand
except in the sand
And I am running to you
You've got me running
You've got me running
You've got me running
You've got me running to you

I heard the words,
my thoughts were obscured
By those two men struggling inside
With a broken heart, no place to start
I was out on a limb, I was set apart

There's nowhere else that I can go
There's nowhere else that I can go

So I watch the show
And it seems to flow, still there
Are these two men struggling inside
With weakened knees, only pleas
They are holding me
They are holding me

"Can't Close My Eyes"

I can't close my eyes
Can't keep from thinking
What you hold for me
Please let it be a future
Beautiful and sunny
Clear and bright
And I can't fall to sleep
When the dreams
That I cling to may be coming true
Maybe others do
But I know that everything
Is going to work out fine, work out fine

And everything I've asked for
Somehow seems within my reach tonight

My thoughts seem to fly
I let them slip by
And encircle me
I'm praying let it be
A future beautiful and sunny
Clear and bright
Hope risen in waves
My mind sees a page that's
Lying blank and white
It's there for you to write
And everything
Is going to be alright, be alright

Wounded Me, Wounded You

"St. John Reads the 21st Century Want Ads"

Ad #1:
Man with money and axe to grind
Will use violence to speak his mind
Minus mercy minus grace
Loads of money loads of hate

Ad #2:
Man with greed and simple plan
will use magic and slight of hand
to stroke the left and buy the right
blind the middle before they know to fight

Ad #3:
Complex people with worried eyes
Will try to carry out their lives
While plans are made and carried out
Without their questions amid their doubts

St. John responds:
I'm doing my best, to do my best
The best that I can do
The best thing I can do right now, is to love

"Wounded Me Wounded You"

Was your heart built on a Friday
by some lost assembly line?
Too much stress, too much dissention
too much weary overtime
You were broke from the beginning
You can not hang that on me
So let's start with good intentions, "words of wisdom:"
"Let it be . . ."

You were following your own heart
burnt your bridges from both ends
You sucked down pain like cigarettes and tried to hold it in
Well I don't want to see you treat yourself that way again
let those ghosts out of the closet
you don't owe a thing to them

You can't re-write your history
Some things just won't amend
And you can't expect some sunset
to tie up your loose ends
Well I can see your future standing right in front of me,
We can find our way together if you'd just "Let it be"

Wounded you, wounded me
Love's the catch, love's the key
Open the door and we'll walk through,
Wounded me, wounded you

"Blessed Are They"

Blessed are the powerless
Blessed are the poor
Blessed are the ignorant who never know the score
And blessed are the preyed-upon
Whose bodies bear the scars,
Whose memories are nightmares
and whose ways have all been barbed

Blessed are they
Who need help along the way
Blessed are they

Blessed are the missing
Blessed are the lame
Blessed are the ones we lost the day the locust came
Blessed is the hole that's left and blessed are the souls
Of all the numb and grieving that will not be consoled

Blessed are they
Who need help along the way
Blessed are they

Blessed are the peacemakers sifting for the lost
And blessed are the gracious who anchor all the tossed
And blessed are the generous who give with every breath
Who see the broken everywhere just waiting to be blessed

"Simple Truth"

We hold on tight to what we found
Each of us claiming higher ground
Take our turn at who's to blame
Fuel the fire fan the flames

We all have our broken parts
And we all have our broken dreams
We all want the things we want
And no one comes out clean

This is love that's all it is
It's not always easy it's not always bliss
It's not a curse, love, it's a gift
This is love that's all this is

Don't know what
don't know what I can say
Except there's no excuse
We all fail, we all fail at love
That's just the simple truth

"Cliche"

Cold hands, warm heart
That's a good cliché to start
One and only, only one
Love's clichés have just begun

Bobbing around on a big sea of love
Pulled by the tide and the pale moon above and anyway

Love hurts, love heals
Love's conflicted that's the deal
Love's a flame, love is blind
Why can't love make up its mind?

Your heart's in your throat then your heart's in your hand
It's full then it's sick then it's theirs to command and anyway

Sweeter than honey then weak in the knees
and all of that junk about birds and the bees and anyway

Won't matter what you say
When you fall in love you fall into cliché

"Judgement Day"

I bow my head
Fast and pray
On my knees
Cry and beg
"Oh, please God, take away"
But here we are
Judgement day

I try to do
The best right thing
Like some lunatic with plates all balancing
But I ran out
And down they came
And I woke up to the sound of Judgement day

Opened my mouth
With the wrong words
So the first phrase was the last phrase that you heard
I can "go to hell" that's what you say
Here we are
Judgement day

Judgement day
Divides the goats from lambs
And you are what you are and I am what I am
Judgement day
Will tell us where to go
The wheat or tares we sow are ours to raise
'Til judgement day

"State of Sin"

I know this guy who's from the south
Sings about how he was raised
Singing songs of Jesus' love
Living in a state of grace
But I come here from the north
Up near Detroit, Michigan
And I have struggled all my life
Living in a state of sin

Once we came here to Detroit
Nothing ever was the same
We were never quite that sure
We were happy that we came
But I bought my first guitar
Found my voice and some good friends
Found that Jesus came to save me
From the pain that I'd been in

And my Mom taught me to be kind
And to always try my best
Life may not bring what you want
Make good choices with what's left

And I was raised to go to church
Wash my hands and say the grace
Do the dishes fold the clothes
Hold the planets in their place
Raised to know that talk is cheap
And that love demands action
And that we are not alone
In the landscape of our sin
Life is thinner than we know
May we all find grace within

"That's The Day I Fall"

It's an exercise in trust and faith . . .
close your eyes and fall . . .

The day that love unfolds its flawless perfect arms
The day that fury fails and finally buys the farm,
That's the day I fall

The day acceptance calls me
Like an easy chair
The day reality serves a world that's fair
That's the day I fall

The day surrender calls just like a victory
The day vindictive souls when pierced bleed mercy
That's the day I fall
When that trust recieves me like a bed
When I can stop my running and covering my head
That's the day I fall

That's the day I shed my dragon skin
Let you sink your cleansing claws within
That's the day
That's the day I fall

"Dressed To Kill"

Well I am dressed to kill
I got no qualms about pulling that trigger
And since perception is everything
I must be precieved as being so much bigger
I'm boarding up the windows nailing shut the doors
I'm just not sure yet how to barricade yours
I am dressed to kill
I got no qualms about pulling that trigger

Roll over, roll over I am fixin' to just play through
Big plans, big clubs, big deals that don't include you
I want you off the land I want you off the air
Want you stuck in some ghetto
or some vacuum somewhere
Roll over roll over I am fixin' to just play through

Good golly Miss Molly don't be outgrowing those seams
Just go to your corner relax and stay lean
Don't you eye the gravy, I'll give you the bone
if that's what it takes to make you just go home
Good golly Miss Molly who needs a choice anyway?

Ooo Baby baby, shut up, we're tryin to sing
If you don't quiet down you might ruin everything!
Take your 15 minutes and get out of town
'til I can figure out how to shut you down
Good golly Miss Molly
who asked you to the dance any way?
I said . . .
I'm dressed to kill I got no qualms about pulling that trigger

"Come On, Come On"

Push her buttons with your will
Lack of approval, lack of love
You want to tower over her
And give your guidance from above
You suck the life right out of her
Like some cosmic jelly roll
No, you never laid a glove on her
Still you bloodied up her soul

So come on, come on, I'm itchin' for a fight
And I think that I can take you if you come on out tonight
Come on, come on, or I'll come in after you
For all of the ugly things
That I've watched you put her through
Come on, come on

I don't think that she'd say "go"
And I don't think that she'd walk away
Still I'm watching this frustration growing bigger every day
Tryin' to drive her like a family car
Well, that's not what love's about
And she's left in ashes like a cheap cigar
She's burning inside out

I want atonement out of you
Some enlightened change of view
From a would-be body snatcher
Who tries to shuffle in her shoes
And not some self-righteous thug
With his head up in the air
And his pedal to the metal of the engines of despair

"Special Place In Heaven"

Well, there’s a
Special place in heaven
for wives of men who will not dance
who sat there near the dance floor
begging for just a chance
Whose husbands said
Oh no, no, no not under any circumstance
will I ever, ever go out there and dance

And there’s a good band cranking
and a guitar wailing and they circle on the floor
and they dance until their new feet hurt
get healed and dance some more
and all the women whose good men said no
not under any circumstance,
finally get to go out there and dance
And there’s a special place in heaven
for wives of men who love remotes
who never land on channels,
instead they like to float
And the women get to watch something
with some laughter and romance
and then they grab their shoes, go out and dance

And there’s a special place in heaven
for men whose wives write songs
where they get to tell their stories
and say what’s really wrong
where they can lie there on the davenport
romancing their remote
or do what ever else might float their boat

And there’s a cold drink waiting
and a good game playing
and a pillow for their head
where no one nags about anything
and you rest in peace instead
and when the game is over
you can sit in with the band,
join the beat but never have to dance.....

"Love How Did We Ever Wind Up Here"

Let him blah, blah heaven
let him talk, talk love
sculpt what use to be from what never was
just don’t take it so to heart
don’t let him tear you all apart

I’ve seen you skipped across the landscape
and sink like stone
closed inside to survive the path you’ve known
so hard when you see no way through
but to do what you don’t want to

Chorus
Oh Love, gather us in wounded arms
baptize us in sacred tears
Love, how did we ever wind up here?

When pain pulses through your body
 you draw the lines
barriers and circles and warning signs
write them out in angry marks
etch them right across your heart

The bitter halo that you wear wears you down
it’s faded now but it’s still around
and who could tell what God only knew
somehow grace would see you through

Just let them talk, talk heaven,
let them blah, blah love
sculpt what use to be from what never was
just don’t take it so to heart
don’t let it tear you all apart

"Rodeo"

Was that a push or a please?
Was that a busy body or a busy bee?
A predator with patience or a lamb of a guy?
A truthful response or a well planned lie?
Shouldn’t I know by now?
This isn’t my first rodeo, this isn’t my first rodeo.
It’s a barrel of fun for all the
clowns in the front row
but it isn’t my first rodeo,
it isn’t my first rodeo...

Is that the proverbial bull
or thunder under my floor?
And everything that you said,
was that meant to be ignored?

Chorus
Guess I should have listened
 to my own divining gut
Cause when you swallow those words
they hurt when they come back up

"When Planets Collide"

He’s got his finger on the pulse
of the brutal bottom line
monitors the input, output
and all the vital signs
Prioritize the heartless needs,
sort by weight and size
and who’s pulling all those strings
when the planets collide?

He tips his spoon with little words
he knows will part your lips
heaps on his agenda
Gets you to swallow all of it
knowing what you want
Only costs a lie
and you won’t know what hit you,
when planets collide

The bleached white coats of influence
with their monograms of greed
convince you it’s your duty
open up and bleed
So we rupture jobs and money
and we hemorrhage human life
and who does all this profit
when the planets collide?

Oh he loves a sucker
suckers come so cheep
They don’t question motives
suckers are such sheep
You shepherd them and shear them
then you take them for a ride
Collateral damage done
when the planets collide

"Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained (Let Go)"

Nothing ventured, nothing gained
one foot forward two feet back again
But I got all my shiny pretty things
and all the baggage I can bring

All the fallacies I swallowed whole
all the cotton candy and the fools gold
Bits of metal, bars of jade
pearls formed round mistakes I’ve made

Chorus
Let go, let go
hang on to the good I’ve found
put all the other garbage down
let go

Got all these parcels at my feet
some ripped open some
tied up nice and neat
and you lay out love like currency
buy everything that comes with me

Chorus

Bridge
Me and my graceless clumsiness
through crowded isles of witnesses
whose patience I’ve left worn and frayed
trying to dodge out of my way

Chorus
So nothing ventured, nothing gained
one foot forward might fall back again
take all my shiny pretty things
cast them in with what life brings

Chorus

"Strangers"

Sometimes I talk to strangers,
 sometimes they talk to me
Sometimes I listen, sometimes they listen for a fee
And it’s a soulful isolation
that makes strangers of us all
and I stopped reading your letters
and I don’t pick up when you call


Chorus
And time, casts it’s spell and disenchants
plays it’s tune and we all dance
And I don’t know just what’s in store
I need your arms on this dance floor
let’s not be strangers any more

I push through papers
you wait on words
wait to see if I’ve digested anything I’ve heard
but my feet just keep on moving
and my thoughts are somewhere else
and I don’t hear your silence
I just keep talking to myself

I’m burning through my time
and I’m not sure if I’m on track
but time just edges forward
and there’s no going back
and I know I can’t redeem the things
I’ve squandered or I’ve lost
and I paid more than I needed to
and still haven’t covered the cost

"Thump, Thump, Thump"

I am driving down the road I hear a thump, thump, thump
must be my girlfriend in the back of my trunk
unlock the lock, pull out the key
like a jack in the box she’s jumping out at me

Chorus
And she says honey, honey, honey
will you marry me?
I’ll make you the man that you long to be.
Love on demand meals one two three
O honey, honey, honey
won’t you marry me, honey, honey, honey,
marry me.

So we hit the neon strip at 4 am
and viva Las Vegas was our wedding hymn
I pulled out the Polaroids and I held her tight
we got a mirrored room, but she turned out the light

Then we rented a trailer at Flamingo Park
but it wasn’t too long before things fell apart
Beer caps on the floor,
she never kept the place clean
and she’s hitching rides to work
from some young James Dean

Well the truth is she never kept her promises well
and our life together was a living hell
Now I’m driving down the road
I hear a thump, thump, thump
It’s James Dean’s lover,
she’s bouncing in my trunk

"A Woman In Her 40's"

I said you’re old enough to be her father
and if you were, you’d never let you get a date
Then he muttered some crap about innocence and having a clean slate
And I said you just know an older woman
would be hip to all your tricks
She’d have far to much experience
to let you get away with this

Chorus
Cause a woman in her 40's
is in her Popeye years
She stood all she can stand
and she am what she am
And a woman in her 40's is a force to reckon with
cause she’s not taking any shit

Then he said “ok, ok, so I’d like the package
maybe I’d like a brand new box
And I said well yeah, so would a toddler cause they don’t know what they’ve got
and your thinking with your markers
that you might make her your corvette
But some day that girl will turn 40 and she’ll wash her hands of this

Bridge
You know we all change on the outside
and some of us change within
Growing up is a real good thing and it’s not some mortal sin
and while your looking for a lover
you’re gonna miss a real good friend
You got to read between the lines
stop your skipping to the end

Cause a woman in her 40's
is a force to reckon with
cause she’s not taking any shit

"Holy Wars And Politicians"

We try to sort through the unthinkable
not get caught up in the undertow
if and when to compromise
We say we know what the truth is here
We say we know the other guy
only uses the word truth to dress a pack of lies.

Chorus
And God’s name gets dragged into the rhetoric
and claims get made on heaven’s will
and a thousand sacrificial lambs get killed
O God may your will be truly done
on earth as in heaven
and save us all from Holy wars and politicians.

Can you hear my heart is beating
like a screen door in the wind
There’s a fear that this whole thing
might somehow come unhinged
Sunami to the left of us
falling sky off to the right
they say “you gotta put the fear of God in ‘em
to set the balance right”

So can you tell me where the truth resides
with so much spin and so many lies
And which argument would Jesus buy
if Jesus wore my shoes?
I pray for peace, I pray for mercy
I pray forgiveness for us all
for it’s the innocent among us
who are set to take the fall.

"Ain’t Love Grand"

Innocence looks good on you
if only it were true
Some folks fool easily
your fool I used to be
Martin Luther said, sin bold
so you did what you were told
got caught, denied, denied
and then called that truth a lie

Chorus
And now you get to eat
the bitter with the sweet
pay the piper his due toll
And it’s not up to me
to try and understand
Ain’t love grand, ain’t love grand.

There were 99 bottles of beer on the wall
and you tied your best to drink ‘em all
lost track a few beers in
so you had to start again
But he who turns and walks always
lives to fight another day
Life can be cruel
love can be blind
and you can’t afford to loose your mind

Now life’s not how it looks in those brochures
and the facts get harder to ignore
Life can turn back on you
spicy things usually do
and when you burry things alive
they just tear you up inside
Sometimes things never go our way
Sometimes you have debts to pay

"Where The Lost Seek The Lost"

Well it’s so tragically romantic
these messes that you make
it’s such blissful melancholy
in which you marinate
Well the beauty of this misery
comes clean in tears of clarity

Chorus
Where the lost, seek the lost to be found
Where the lost, seek the lost to be found
They shake their whole world upside down, upside down
where the lost, seek the lost to be found

I’ve watched the way you let your demons
trip you into flame
You’re so easily seduced by bonds
so ignorant of chains
bids a bright and shiny misery
and it glares so much you may not see

The landscape of an unmade bed
can look a little bleak
especially when question marks
are talking in their sleep
but if you cling to only what you know
then it may never let  you go