Recent Songs: Giving Smoke (and Stealing Mirrors)

Giving Smoke (and Stealing Mirrors)


Who stole the fire
Just to give it away?
Shenandoah is burning
Fly a little higher
What dreams like these will make of us
California, don’t belong here

It’s not a new story
No matter how sweetly you tell it
This town’s like a stage premiering Hamlet
The grease on his hands
Stains six little red painkillers
As you tell your father the stars are calling you

But who stole the fire
Just to give it away?
Shenandoah is burning
Fly a little higher
What dreams like these will make of us
California, don’t belong here

Look into the water
Until there is nothing to look back
And tell me again of your beauty
Motor oil like a rainbow
In a pothole filled with dirty rain
Tell me again of your beauty

It’s not a new story
No matter how sweetly you tell it
The chain-smoking of bummed cigarettes
So free as a bird, babe
Everything’s free and no one is paid
If it’s reassuring then you’ll chain-smoke it

And who stole the fire
Just to give it away?
Shenandoah is burning
Fly a little higher
What dreams like these will make of us
California, don’t belong here


April 26, 2016