Oh Molly (revised)

Oh Molly


Classic caramel brown
Or that sorta emerald green
Ain’t nothing ever served in rose?
The crowd is growing - swelling of cacophony
So many faces blue by the lights of their smart phones

I don’t belong here
She whispers to herself
And where she’d sleep still don’t feel like a home
The bricks are hard on
Her intern heels
Tonight she feels like she’s a thousand miles out alone

Oh Molly
Won’t you pick me up?
I’m in no shape for driving
It ain’t the bottle’s fault
I’m just blind from crying
Been taking it easy
But this year’s been hard on me
All of my heroes keep dying
It’s getting hard to breathe
From all the smoke that won’t rise off of the flags burning
Oh won’t you hold me sister
What I’d give for a goodnight’s sleep

The news show’s playing
Muted but closed-captioned
No one’s watching, still it must go on
Ruthlessly romantic – some do drink their sweet hubris
A toast to loneliness lost in the roar immediacy

And I don’t belong here!
She screams at the bathroom mirror
Forgive and forget say all her so-called friends
Yesterday’s scoundrels
Take their bows, having never atoned
Tonight she feels like she’s a thousand miles out alone

Oh Molly
Won’t you pick me up?
I’m in no shape for driving
It ain’t the bottle’s fault
I’m just blind from crying
Been taking it easy
But this year’s been hard on me
All of my heroes keep dying
It’s getting hard to breathe
From all the smoke that won’t rise off of the flags burning
Oh won’t you hold me sister
What I’d give for a good night’s sleep

I don’t want opinions, she says
I just want to be
Hard to live and let live when you’re living off me

I don’t want opinions
If you don’t have any
You only hear what you want and insist we must agree

But I need opinions!
I need transparency
A straight face in the mirror with a smart exit strategy

Yeah, I need opinions
Beyond tears in the sea
Some revitalized conviction to carry me through the defeats

And for all these opinions
Of course, some accountability
Can’t stay a thousand miles out alone, counting tears in the sea

So…
Oh Molly
Won’t you pick me up?
I’m in no shape for driving
It ain’t the bottle’s fault
I’m just blind from crying
Been taking it easy
But this year’s been hard on me
All of my heroes keep dying
It’s getting hard to breathe
From all the smoke that won’t rise off of the flags burning
Oh won’t you hold me sister
What I’d give for a good night’s sleep

Oh Molly
Won’t you pick me up?
I’m in no shape for driving
It ain’t the bottle’s fault
I’m just blind from crying
Been taking it easy
But this year’s been hard on me
All of my heroes keep dying
It’s getting hard to breathe
Hard for that smoke to rise while the sky’s falling
Oh won’t you hold me sister
What I’d give for a good night’s sleep

Oh won’t you hold me sister
What I’d give for a good night’s sleep


August 14th (revised December 9th), 2016

Dime and Dive

Dime and Dive


Ain’t you a tall glass of water
Set before a drowning man?
Or more like Chinese water torture?
A little skin buys a lot of sand

Oh, I am not really a good man
By any standards you should keep
No, I am not a good man – no, no, no
But you still go on and call me sweet

Dime and dive
Dime and dive
Dime and di-ving…
Call me up
Or come on down
Slide on over – say, “a-hello there!”
Won’t you…
Dime and dive with me?

Monk and Strindberg sit by the window
Always Halloween night in a lib-arts town
The piano’s seen its share of cat paws, don’t I know!
Some dance to rhythm – I drink to soul

And ain’t you the Lady of the River?
Some Greek myth I once was told
Never did get girls who smoke menthols – no, no, no
And can’t stand a thing but rock ‘n’ roll

Dime and dive
Dime and dive
Dime and di-ving
Call me up
Or come on down
Slide on over – say, “a-hello there!”
Won’t you…
Dime and dive with me?

All the Gumshoes eat their apples
And Femme Fatales: pomegranates
Stranger things get called martinis – ‘round here
Oh, ‘tis the season for new regrets

In walks Esmeralda bleeding
She is throwing shade like wedding rice
No sense in asking ‘bout her evening – no, no, no
She’ll only have your sympathy on ice

Dime and dive
Dime and dive
Dime and di-ving
Call me up
Or come on down
Slide on over – say, “a-hello there!”
Won’t you…
Dime and dive with me?

Ain’t you a tall glass of water
Set before a drowning man?
Or more like Chinese water torture?
A little skin buys a lot of sand

I am not a good man…
By any standard that this world should keep
No, I am not a good man – no, no, no
But still… you call me sweet

Still you call me sweet…

So call me up
Or come on down
Slide on over – say, “a-hello there!”
Won’t you…
Dime and dive with me?


December 9, 2016

Revelry

Revelry


Home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry

Raise up the maypole, throw some bones on the fire
Something exotically appropriate appropriated
Don’t want to think about the world beyond the privacy trees
Tattooing laurels over scars it’s left behind

Singing, home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry

My troubles slipped when met with ginger lips, naked beneath curls
When they returned I was alone, far from the fire
I want to dance! I said dance! I swore that I never would
But feeling mortal makes me want to feel alive

So I sing, home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry

Home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Finally home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry

I’ve come to terms that I will never be a father
I’ve come to terms that my wants don’t align with my needs
I’ve come to go – I couldn’t leave you if I were never here
I’ve come to realize I get lost when you find me

Home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry

Home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Finally home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry

Singing, home
Revel, revel
Home
May we be…
Home
Revel, revel
To live in revelry


December 5, 2016

Feel Like Death

Feel Like Death

There she goes
Rice-paper ego
There are no frames in the gallery
She’s got me on rumors
With no eyewitnesses
She’s got me by my feeble will to resist
When you say – something that slips between my ribs
And I just let it

I’m not still in love with you
But you feel like home - with a tinge of regret
I’m not still in love with you
But you feel like home
You feel like home when you don’t… feel like death

Have you seen her?
Man, why you got to play me like that?
Has the town crier given back your ears?
She’s got me in sound bites
Chewed up out of context
She’s got me by my anxious will to object
When you say – and this is how you’ll be remembered
I just can’t forget it

I’m not still in love with you
But you feel like home - with a tinge of regret
I’m not still in love with you
But you feel like home
You feel like home when you don’t… feel like death
Feel like death
Feel like death
Feel like death

There she goes
An albino Alamo Joe
She calls all of her victories defeats
Still got me in her cross-hairs
But that’s the safest place to be
You’re fucked when she comes in on memories
(Could sucker punch a Houdini)
You just say – something that slips between my ribs
And I always let it

Cause I’m not still in love with you
But you feel like home - with a tinge of regret
I’m not still in love with you
But you feel like home
You feel like home when you don’t… feel like death

And I know
I make you feel like death
Feel like death
Feel like death
Feel like death


November 19, 2016

Slip Away

Slip Away

Well I think I’m gonna to slip away
Out the backdoor through the alleyway
The parties only started
But I wouldn’t be caught dead
Papering the walls waiting for you to say
How much you wish that I would stay
No babe, I think I’m gonna slip, slip, slip-slip away

Girl, ain’t you the queen of the day?
All the king’s horses are pulling your sleigh
Venus had her furs
Carmilla had her girls
You’re gonna leave them all talking when there’s nothing to say
And all the princes serve their heads on a tray
But honey, I ain’t no prince, so I’ll just slip-slip away     

You say you’ll settle for the top of the world
When you’re still crawling
But you know – who you are
How to wear – who you really are
And you’ll be damned if you don’t bring the whole room to pause

But not me!

No, I think I’m gonna to slip away
Out the backdoor through the alleyway
The parties only started
But I wouldn’t be caught dead
Papering the walls waiting for you to say
How much you wish that I would stay
No babe, I think I’m gonna slip, slip, slip-slip away

But we had good times
Thought them the best of times
But you said happy endings
Are endings that aren’t at the end

So I’ll just slip, slip, slip-slip away
I’m gonna slip, slip, slip-slip away
Slip, slip, slip-slip away
Slip, slip, slip-slip away…


November 16, 2016

Abstract Love

Abstract Love

We’re all adults here

In a fishbowl of abstract love

With such grand ideals

All the best of intentions

Just to lose our way

Rudderless and impulsive

Fight or flight, kiss or wait

Fit it in some narrative

We’ll understand when we’re older

We keep telling ourselves

You’ll get it right if you keep telling yourself…

As I grow older

I am starting to believe

That adults are only children

With a license to be…

Left unsupervised

Left unsupervised

Frail as soap bubbles

Suspended on a glass ceiling

We think it’s inclusive

We forget it’s just a time and place

Until we lose our way

Sand to glass, then glass to dust

Words alone can’t maintain

Warmer ties than usefulness

We’ll understand when we’re older

We keep telling ourselves

You’ll get it right if you keep telling yourself…

(What you want to hear)

But as I grow older

I am starting to believe

That adults are only children

With a license to be…

Left unsupervised

Left unsupervised

And you know you can’t have your pity parade

From the arms of a rock star

But you keep crying

She’ll never talk you down

It was so, so gallant when he held your hair back

But that’s what he’s good at

He holds things back

He’ll never talk you down

You know they’ll never talk you down

As I grow older

I am starting to believe

That adults are only children

With a license to be…

Left unsupervised

Left unsupervised

But we’re all adults here

In a fishbowl of abstract love

And it’s all sincere

It’s all sincere…

It’s all sincere

And we’ll never talk you down

 

December 5, 2016

Belly Spiders

Belly Spiders


Things of late, I can’t comprehend
Too out of touch with the heartland
So sure I knew my place and the plan
Until it all fell through
Until it all fell through

Sister, fear for your family
Horror stories, every day I read
They’re tearing the clothes off of Lady Liberty
And all that I can do
Is to say to you

Won’t you come my way?
I’ve got some good blood with you
Come on and come my way
I’ve got some good blood with you
Through the night please stay
Get some things off your chest
Been all belly-spiders – since you last left

Cousin, pray for your family
They wear their wool and they bare their teeth
If compassion is not a lamb’s currency
Then who their shepherd be
To the slaughter leads

This is not the same old fight
We let the vultures don the referee stripes
They’re shouting, “sieg heil” in the Reagan Building – ‘ight!
What we gonna do?
What are we gonna do?

Won’t you come my way?
I’ve got some good blood with you
Come on and come my way
I’ve got some good blood with you
Through the night please stay
It’s been so hard to take rest
Been all belly-spiders – since you last left

So won’t you come my way?
I’ve got some good blood with you
Come on and come my way
I’ve got some good blood with you
Through the night please stay
Tomorrow will need our best
Been all belly-spiders – since you last left


December 2, 2016