1. |
After The Bomb
03:59
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Nothing makes the past better than disasters
Nothing hits cities like transformative instants
Something remains fewer gods fewer masters
Something more than struggle and resistance
She lies besides him as they drift into sleep
Time is the only thing between her and harm
She wonders how long it'll last and how deep
So she contemplates their lives after the bomb
Nothing like missiles falling from nighttime sky
Nothing left behind not even historical narrative
Something in meantime we're left to wonder why
Something about attention we only too willingly give
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2. |
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Every name we call yourself or others
comes easily because of what we’re told
But our sisters and brothers and others
are more than our senses of hot or cold
All identities are mistaken
they camouflage or concede to power
And all identities are mistaken
be they hard or soft or sweet or sour
We tax the universe with taxonomies
Latticeworks of language law and limit
to glean a bit of profit from economies
to take more from a label than we give it
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3. |
Bodies
03:16
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Physics says nature abhors a vacuum
But often that's a city's unnatural state
Nothingness fills the space between
Bodies in motion bodies lying in wait
Bodies often bangles occasionally beads
Bodies are means to the ends of needs
Thickest of bonds and slimmest of reeds
Brightest blooms worth time among the weeds
Biology says nature runs its fucking mouth
Never keeps cities in check in proper fashion
Lives for entropic environments heading south
Bodies cruelly killing until bodies lie in state
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4. |
Choose
03:08
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You said one thing #OnHere and then another
Then someone responded said they disagreed
Massive retaliation may feel more than worth the bother
But baby is it really what you want or need?
Just because everyone’s fighting a battle
doesn’t mean that some don’t deserve to lose
You may be called but that don’t make you cattle
Remember you get to choose
The thing is you're smarter than this specific situation
You’re also longer lasting than a mere moment
You may be open to others’ forthright frustration
but you need not foam at the mouth or foment
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5. |
Deadline
04:27
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We would call it a daily miracle
We could call it a daily planet
Not the enemy of the people
Learning how best to inhabit
Other times and other places
Old departures new arrivals
Recognitions of stranger faces
Strategies surpassing survival
I wouldn't make up the body in the street
Any more than the body you occupy and fear
I wouldn't take time so precious and sweet
If it weren't worth your laughter or tears
I wouldn't race my deadline to fool or fake it
Life's more beautiful than even I could make it
We started around campfires
We lit stories kept the dark away
Not for nothing did we ever aspire
Than to cobble together one more day
Out of wishes hopes and dreams
We might grasp but never quite reach
Fueling our whispers and our screams
In service to lessons impossible to teach
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6. |
Early Spring
04:34
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There’s a banner atop the roof two houses over
Blue plastic sheeting gently waving in the wind
Today I hear no workmen cowering undercover
Constructing a palace they’ll never get to live in
And the living tell the dead of hotter days ahead
But the dead never answer to anything that’s said
Should autumn come later and winters grow greater
Why shouldn’t there be an early spring?
There’s a dude down in Texas an amateur forecaster
Who saw old people in cities afraid of the skies
And my thoughts turn to him when I hear of disaster
and all who would drape long emergencies in lies
Picture a woman walking in snow
with a loaded long gun at her side
Mocking worldly warmth another notch
Picture a man in that gun’s chamber
begging that warmth back with a wish
that will never be answered on his watch
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7. |
Elder Game
04:18
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I might be willing to live forever
Even though you get on my nerves
We’ve a bond I'd be sad to see severed
as it’s one we’ve grown to deserve
We don’t have to be old to play it
But sticking around’ll get us there
We can pre-game like kids of course
Before life’s bartender gets to boot us
Shall we position the cart before the horse
I think the elder game is what suits us
You might be up for a rocket flight
Taking me with you for one cool trick
Shooting so fast into interstellar night
Slowing down until clocks barely tick
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8. |
Fun While It Lasted
03:14
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One more going-away event
By now they become uneventful
Sorry we were unable to attend
Understand we do not resent you
Once we charged it to the game
Knew not to take it personally
But your departure changes the same
As well as heartily hurtsome to see
Well it was fun while it lasted
Moments of joy and pleasure
Not so much sustained rapture
Merely fleeting gently treasured
At the start of your tenure
Showing initiative and interest
An adaptability of demeanor
helped you ace many a test
Over time your talents led you
to pursue other opportunities
to purse your lips for other tunes
to push off into prettier cities
Took your profits in the business
All you could be bothered to capture
But you’ll no longer be in this
since it was fun while it lasted
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9. |
Installment Plan
04:19
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I prefer bottles instead of flasks
Easy answers over difficult asks
I prefer raindrops under lamps
No painless deaths give me gasps and cramps
Give it to me on the installment plan
If you end me man throw your bullet softly
Just toss it at me like a stone you skim
On a surface whim like it's nothing personal
I prefer cans to fancy china plates
Skis into trees instead of roller skates
Non state actors over nation states
Settling for better rather than making great
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10. |
Language
03:01
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She grew up tough with a tender heart
in a family finished before it could start
from a neighborhood always told no in part
By other neighborhoods on maps and charts
But she's learning a language
letter by letter word by word
And anybody who doubts her
Can go fuck what they heard
She figured out quick how to fight the chill
How to leave the table after getting her fill
Learned how to woodwork for a cheap thrill
Making her own tables and a way out of will
And she's learning a language
letter by letter word by word
Reassembles feather by feather
To speak if not like fly like a bird
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11. |
Out Of Time
04:11
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It’s a little warm out for an apocalypse
but it looks like they might just pull it off
Big guns get fancy triggers get fancier
We all fall down with every germ-laden cough
I just hope I’m not out of time today
Errands to run and some bills to pay
Sleep if I must til I greet a new day
a better go-getter way to slay my prey
In the meantime I mean time to kill
You say you don’t come here for crying
I could offer you something to imbibe
survive, and it’s next round you’re buying
I just hope you're not out of time today
Empires to ruin and some thrills to party
Don’t crumble to dust before a brand new day
don’t miss a better go-getter way to slay
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12. |
Reliving
03:54
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The ominous siren sounding
An alert from the top of the hill
Adrenaline flooding resounding
Only it's just another monthly drill
I dreamed of moments with meaning
Purpose instead of clumsily careening
I woke up to moments I kept on reliving
Missing my chances for taking or giving
The phone in the pocket buzzing
A message from a lover or a leader
Consider either nuzzling or muzzling
Then decide not to answer, so neither
Not the same life as when I was younger
Not the same rent or friends or even hunger
Not the same body under not the same clothes
Just the same time always ticking
towards ends no one ever knows
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13. |
Ruin
04:37
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Once I used to shower in your riches
Now you’ve left me covered in my rags
Neither of us knew what we were doing
Back before I was one of your bitches
Now you’re only one of those harpy hags
The unpursued the world was once pursuing
A reputation destined to end up in
I was lowlife hurrying hard after high times
You were insecure about securing the bags
We bet the better life was ours for the pursuing
Missed out on misdemeanors and high crimes
Hit up every hiding place go gigging for gags
Capitalize for attention with billing and cooing
Only sleight of hand if someone’s viewing
We scammed until we lost all our charms
Pride went before the last of our humble-brags
No one in the audience for cheering or booing
Even we’re afraid to be in each others’ arms
One of us zigs and the other one zags
We grimly grip and pitch in hopes of wooing
This prestidigitation, baby, who were we fooling?
Ruin! That is if it’s a series of nights
Ruin! if you rig all the fights
if you run all the lights
if you’re doing it right
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14. |
You Know
04:37
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What if I told you that love isn't made-up
What if I said care is more than a notion
So what if your heart is injured and laid up
I bet it's still capable of dreams and devotion
I won't lie I've had an eye or two on you
That is why I'm hoping I could be yr boo
It's important that I know that you know
What if I acknowledge I'm no perfect prize
What if it appears I've work to do on my health
What if I'm afraid you'll rightfully roll your eyes
I'll be fine but I still want your love for myself
I need to know that you know how I feel
I need to know that you know I'm the real deal
That it's okay if you don't feel the same
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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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