Boxes

shatterproof

hey lover, make a promise: if you're leavin' on this train, when you get to where you're going you'll remember my name... and how i stood up to your father, and the back of his hand. that motherfucker said i'm fit for no one and you're fit for a king. but these dashed hopes can be mended with tape or a kiss on the cheek that makes the days go faster that turns catastrophe from nothing into strength. hey lover, where'd you run to? will i see you again? and did you know, your dreams got sold, to someone who needed them. but all the time i was walkin' in the dark looking for your face, i never found you, and i don't need you again. i'm leaving on this train, yeah. these old bones can be mended with tape or an excess of drinks that makes the night go faster that turns catastrophe from nothing into strength...into strength. and all these broken that hate us healing

 

i am indebted to/or have a bone to pick with orson scott card

caught in the aftermath. resigned like an enemy. i was drowned in a whisky glass. your lips told me everything. i know who you are, i know what i am, i know how this makes us look. but, we could have been home, lying in bed touching each other or just fucking instead. but, we became ghosts, and danced with the dead, yeah we devoured the others who pretend to be lovers. one hundred nineteen memories got lost in the back of the ear. we walked along the last of these rain soaked streets and we disappeared.

i'll take my spoons with me when i leave

please sit down my love it's time we had this talk. i never used the words you want to hear. but if i ever did, we never would have found the reasons this would just not work for us. and all these silent memories like the drugs we took when you couldn't find your feet. and every day we celebrate a new religion bound by opportunity. another war, an endless battle where we push and pull until there's nothing left. and now i roam these rooms looking for another move to make that will take me nowhere. but after thirty years a hundred thousand beers i still have questions, but no answers. and all these violent memories like the drunken night when i broke the bedroom wardrobe. and everyday we celebrate a new belief in our undying apathy. another war, an endless battle where we kill each other over and over again. i could still imagine you, as you move across this room, with almost nothing on at all. i can't remember what happens next, it's blank and blurry and all the brilliant parts dissolve all the brilliant parts dissolve. and every day we celebrate the underlying death of everything we are. another war, an endless battle where we kill each other over and over again.

rotten 

hey libertine, you colored in the lines you’ve always read between but all your hard work still paid off. i know, ‘cause i was just like you not that long ago. hey silver bird your wings have gotten so beat up and worn by others who take flight and soar without your light. i know, ‘cause i was just like you. i didn’t want to get caught between a wicked world and an empty dream. i never thought i’d get stuck between a wicked heart and a dying queen. hey broken girl, your mouth has been a source of pleasure and a cause of pain for so long. do you think it works? i don’t know ‘cause i am not like you.

 

for betty

i worked on the river from 9 until 9. you would wait by the shoreline and pray for my life. i said, "someday we'll escape from this sad little town and run free like young children who would never be found." we moved to the north of the home where we kept old boxes and sadness our bones and our breath. i said, "maybe we're happy, in this said little town, where our lips part for anger, and our hearts make no sound." i stayed in the river and you walked from the shore to the edge of the city through the vast unexplored i screamed, "don't leave me stranded, in this sad little town!" but, my voice was a whisper that would never be found.

 

drained of youth

brave soldier why are you so helpless, drained of youth? lost soul. worn thin. tired heart. thick skin.

Recorded at home in 2009