1. |
Boyfriend
03:16
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Everything suddenly hard
Everything was right at hand
I didn't know how to stop
even if I wanted to stop
And I wanted to be the one
who said good morning baby
Maybe that meant boyfriend
maybe just a means to an end
Leave our living wet and winded
Newfound foes so well befriended
Everything I touched and held
Everything within ready reach
You were battened against me
Flattening any pretense I was free
Everything same as the start
Everything splintered into shards
It was too much of a tight squeeze
Me underneath you begging please
Everything behind bated breath
Everything alight until a little death
Inhalations thrusting together
exclamations against a bellwether
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2. |
Context Collapse
02:55
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I am what I am I know what I know
but that was only a few moments ago
I was what I was please don't hold it against
because I'm no good at keeping up pretense
If you haven't heard the bad news
We thought we got the last laughs
It played a little like a twelve-bar blues
Eternally redeemable for gags and gaffes
After the pratfalls come those that's-alls
Folks consume it as enjoyment perhaps
These jokes never stop writing themselves
as seen previously on context collapse
Who knows if I'll get to be something new
So long as my future is written it's untrue
Maybe I'll see you somewhere down the line
Does never work for you? Never works for me just fine
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3. |
Dark Sound
05:19
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Frosted windows in a brick wall
Sunlight filters into our little loft
I laid down flat till I heard you call
instantly insistent, urgent and soft
Even as you told me I was nothing less than holy
You showed me an old well, a fish leap, a dark sound
You felt free to flirt in a T-shirt as if you didn't know me
So I let you pretend until you found new ways around
So whatever juts just sits and struts, whatever's lost is found
Plants in pots battened by breezes
Chairs at a desk with lamps nearby
You turned to me deliberate as Jesus
defending sinners against devilish lie
I felt you dare to love me in my disarray
You tried to let our lips lead us through it
So I rolled my thighs and not my eyes
at your woo instead of the way I view it
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4. |
End Friend
03:26
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Our past lives too recent
Our memories too decent
They won't stop showing up
Even when we take a day off
This was a night when it was right
We didn't know it was our final show
Drinking our fills and chasing our thrills
Never ever hoping to put the end in friend
Now we stare out of a window
Time accelerates still too slow
It won't stop tumbling toward
Though we flail and fumble forward
This was a day when we could say
we didn't dream we might ever seem
out of our heads off of our meds
Never ever hoping to put the end in friend
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5. |
Fill
03:54
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It's not the color of your hair if you know what I mean
Against that purple sheet I can enjoy how it's bluish green
It's not the color of your nails but as long as I can see 'em
That polish matches the sheet: both should be in a museum
It's your gazing eyes that hold me still
I'm gasping for air like a hooked fish gill
Itch you scratch giving an endless thrill
Pulling me in for the win I can't get my fill
It's not the direction I can follow when we spend time
Gravity stops having me I'm losing rhythm and rhyme
It's not the direction you give me subtle as it smooths
but a connection I can't even mention how it soothes
Gentle but steady until
encouragement feels like torture
Heels over head until I see red
and have never been more sure
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6. |
Held
02:50
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I will remember when
I once was an instrument
fitting between hands,
a vow mouthed by a bride
Held by the note heard
struck and amplified,
not so much making music
as living before I died
Breath in my lungs
moving air against skin,
bare as the product
of any original sin
Centuries from now,
the most I'll get to be
is a wrinkle in a child's brow
seen from some other side
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7. |
Makeup
03:57
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I was used to a bare face
Never let any emotions trace
more than a wrinkle in space
until our love began lingering
You were a variable dose
Out of control coolly composed
always each element you chose
made you into this bigger thing
You showed me makeup
Tenderly slowed my rush
Held up a mirror to my cup
Handed over your cleanest brush
Showed me how your cover-up
hides your holler in its hush
Makeup took more than a minute
Makeup might run but you didn't
You were used to a blank wall
Meant to meander and sprawl
but still trying to stand up tall
when it wasn't even necessary
I tried on primer put on paint
as I lied about never and ain't
you held the patience of a saint
so that camouflage seemed less scary
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8. |
Multiple
03:25
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I'll tell you when I'm tired
I'll tell you when it's hard
When I'm way too wired
When to stop and start
You tell me when to touch
and when it's all too much
for your multiple moments
for my multiple moments
And we'll try to hold them
Try to make them count
without holding them against each other
I'll tell you when it's good
I'll tell you when it isn't
When I'm feeling young
When I'm insufficient
You tell me what to take
and what we get to make
for your multiple moments
for my multiple moments
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9. |
Neighborhood
04:36
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From inside I see the light on every corner
Slip outside and weather getting warmer
Branches waving against western wind
Bushes blooming in need of tender trim
Settle in after the paperwork is good
and welcome to the neighborhood
Let us come make ourselves understood
You're welcome in the neighborhood
Cul-de-sacs and courtyards on the road
Cozy little bungalows lawns freshly mowed
Gardens and sheds and porches and chores
Blinds on windows keeping outsiders outdoors
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10. |
Riding
02:34
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We can't say the stallion
remembers the cowgirl
with fondness or pleasure
with meaningful measure
even if we keenly study canter
for any trace of equine banter
We can't say the riding
was better or worse
re-viewed from the future
or re-wound in reverse
We can't say the cowgirl
came in under photo-finish
without a camera shutter
to study pace and stutter
even if we let the gal gallop
tra-la-la but she ain't no trollop
she will pack an unholy wallop
somewhere scalawags eat scallops
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11. |
Secret
03:32
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What you do isn't who you are
Which one of us was it said by the car
watching other children run around
gently holding onto what we just found
I came to you in the still of night
We know what we did wasn't right
But loosened lips can't hold on tight
to a secret hidden in plainest sight
What you are isn't what you ask
Since others may not take up the task
it only takes one to ponder and scheme
but two for deliberate deeds from dreams
What you ask isn't what you receive
rewards like swords sharper than believed
resist the urge to trace with fingertips
and miss the tide that rides relationships
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12. |
Stark
02:53
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I stood at the door
and I knew no more
as you pretended to sleep
Shutting me out
with steady breath
as you pretended it was deep
You gradually gave me
an instant education
I watched your behavior
for an unknown duration
I laid down to rest
and I knew no more
but pretended I still cared
Welcoming you in
was a little warm death
but intimacy was left undared
You gradually gave me
light before it all went dark
subtle hints that offered glints
of nakedness no longer stark
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13. |
Summer
03:45
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We're neither pure nor unalloyed
We're neither an object nor the void
Barely adult but not unadulterated
Off the clock but aware of time obliterated
A season that we long for,
can it even linger too long?
Can it overstay its welcome,
can we miss if it's never gone?
We taste it raw we take it strong
That's how summer becomes a song
We're neither prone nor panting
We're neither gigging nor gallivanting
Civilians in skivvies sweating shimmying we sway
until reveille revealing the land of the lay
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14. |
Timeline
03:53
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It don't get to be history yet
if we're still talking about it
it remains in play it's not okay
It's no dead letter bet
even if loved ones' breathing
ceases after untimely leaving
You know better than
to treat as truth a timeline
Better than to accept
adaptations of the adept
from those who thought you slept
You know better than
to take what's on offer
Better than to believe
living only as portrayed
when it could be shaped and made
It's not a future seized
without trying all the keys
to undo locks to awe and shock
It's not about what others
falsely believe secured
but what was unfairly endured
It's your timeline
No it's not fine
Seize it and say 'it's mine'
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Saint and Kings San Pablo, California
I’m a singer-songwriter using guitars and keyboards to craft distinctive dispatches from intimate interiors, vast exteriors and all points in between. Drawing on years of pop, soul, indie, folk and dance-music fandom, I try to turn observations and narratives into succinct sonic snapshots. ... more
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