THE SAME SKY
Clouds of white
Shifting through the sky
I am in the grass
Waiting for my life
I lost my way
And now I’m headed home
Just for the shelter
And a place to call my own
I’ve been under dark clouds I’ve been under clear
Scavengers and doves use the same sky
Drops of water
Beating on the roof
I am inside
I don’t dare wonder why
Clattering clusters
Dropping in their time
Without a concern
Without waiting for a sign
I’ve been under dark clouds I’ve been under clear
Scavengers and doves use the same sky
Looking up at the wings and underneath they’re dry
Scavengers and doves use the same sky
MODERN WARFARE
So many songs about it
Whisper it and shout it
Through the humming engines
Get me through the modern warfare
Get me through the modern warfare
Politicians fight it
Conjurors and psychics
Peek through the velvet curtains
Get me through the modern warfare
Get me through the modern warfare
TAKE ME
Take me wherever it is you go
Take me wherever it is you go
It won’t do me in
I’ll take your medicine
I want the side effects
And all the benefits
Believe me I really want to go
Trust me I really need to know
I’ll take the roaring fans
Or just the guest list
I’ll grab the microphone
And shout you into it
Take me wherever it is you go
Take me wherever it is you go
We’ll take the side road
We’ve often traveled it
If you’ve got a heavy load
I’ll take my end of it
INFIDELS
We all feel the hand upon our throats
The fools believe what the infidels don’t
Cursed, the rooms I’ve wandered through
The motel beds and the frat parties too
Because I wasn’t there
Gone for some fresh air
Oh you see I sensed success
Failure, love and all the heavy scents
But oh but luck can change
When pushed too hard you make believe
To see something you could never see
Because I wasn’t there
Wishing pools and deeper wells
Guys and dolls and dizzy spells
We all feel the hand upon our throats
LEAVE ME ALONE
I’ll tell you everything I know
I’ll give you all my money
All I ask is leave me alone leave me alone
Warden of your own cell
Guilty behaviour
Lock them out lock you in
Don’t leave me alone
If you fall down beside me I’ll show you all the love I’ve lost
You closed your eyes and went to sleep
In the belly of the whale
All you said was “leave me alone, leave me alone”
They say that love is like a rose
But it’s nothing all that special
Covered in thorns
Leave it alone
If you fall down beside me I’ll show you all the luck I’ve had
If you fall down beside me I’ll show you all the love I’ve found
THE HILL
What if we want to be loose?
Start a fight or make a truce
You’re too young to be so old
If you’ve got to roll, roll down the hill
What if we want some tension?
Where do we push and where do we pull?
How much pressure or how much slack?
When do we quit and how to get back?
What if we want to go back?
Make some new rules or plans of attack?
I’m a lot like you
I live for the moment, and then I forget what to do
MAP
Give me a map and I’ll find my way home
Show me the long way and I’ll go
I’ll tell you about it and I’ll wake you when I’m done
Just don’t let them say that I’m no fun
Two little birds on a branch out front
Trying to make themselves heard
It’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever heard
And I don’t even care about the words
When the sun comes up and the moon goes down
That’s the time to take a look around
What’s with the symbols in your sad-sack poems?
Walking the thin line of sense
Doesn’t matter where it’s printed doesn’t matter what it says
Cross the ocean just as long as it’s read
The moon goes down when the sun comes up
Can someone explain why they don’t get stuck?
I don’t want to retire with my hands all tied
I don’t want to be left in the sun
I’ll read you my memoir and I’ll wake you when I’m done
Just never let them say that I’m no fun
What’s so wrong with the sounds I hear?
I just want to make your troubles disappear
TREES
Just ask the Sycamore, or the Juniper
The old Oak, the Redwood and the Fir say the same
You can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
Even the cactus and the evergreen
Lining your forest or your desert scene
They say you can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
Mighty up above shining down on us all day
There must be something we can do
Soaking up your beautiful rays and drops from on high
You make the trees so happy they reach for the sky
You feed the animals and you keep them warm
The wise old owl and the calf just born
They say you can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
On a dusty and arid or a humid and stifling day
There’s always somewhere we can catch some shade
Under the trees, the sweet green glowing leaves
The trees are so happy they reach for the sky
Meet me in the summer and we’ll take a walk
With your generous manners and your beautiful talk
You say you can’t go wrong with the sun and the rain
Mighty up above shining down on us all day
There must be something we can do
Soaking up your beautiful rays and drops from on high
You make the trees so happy they reach for the sky
TAMBOURINE
Who is this person?
I want to pretend I’ve never seen him before
Step into the mirror and straight out the other side
Somebody said
You can impress them if you try
Walking on the tightrope
With your shoes untied
They tell me my laugh is hard to miss
Kind warm and soft when it fits
These days my laugh has got a cutting edge
So be careful with it
What is this music?
I want to pretend I’ve never heard it before
Step into the headphones and go outdoors
What is that sound
Coming from the ground coming from the trees?
Take me out of my nightmare and into the breeze
You know my laugh is like a tambourine
Beautiful when it finds a place in the mix
Or nasty when it doesn’t know where it sits
Head of the class top of the heap
Baby I’m a new man in the clothes of a sheep
If there’s anything you don’t want to change keep it aside
Because a man will build himself on the trusted and tried
Maybe on my deathbed I’m going to worry about the things i said
Maybe on my deathbed I’m going to laugh out loud
Maybe on my deathbed I’m going to worry about my cash-flow
Maybe on my deathbed – who knows?
FLOWERS IN THE CITY
Flowers in the city stand up to the nastiest abuses
Getting trampled by the drunks and if that’s not enough
You turn your head for half a second
And someone’s carrying them away to make somebody stay
But we don’t have that problem
We’ve been drinking up the rain cause it’s been falling
And when the sunshine comes it brings the birds and bees
We always aim to please
Flowers in the city stay pretty even in among the weeds
Soaking up the smog and turn it into something we can breath
Sometimes we have to suffer our reflections
In the eyes of others unsuspecting
Pizzicato petals dropping on a concrete meadow
One by one by one by one
He loves me not, she loves me just enough
Flowers in the city stay pretty even in among the weeds
Soaking up the smog and turn it into something we can breath
BONES IN THE RIVER
So you’re still looking pretty good
But you’re getting sunk with every sip you take
Drink it up you can’t make it all night
But the motions just get easier to fake
Don’t you remember in the dream love
Bones getting jostled in the stream love
Bones in the river passing through
The truth is still down there somewhere
But the fact is that it’s difficult to take
You fish it out and make your sense of it
But to say it might be just a big mistake
Don’t you remember in the dream love
Bones getting jostled in the stream love
Bones in the river passing through
You packed your bags and you hopped upon a train
And the catastrophic misery was gone
Familiar key and an infectious refrain
The ever-soothing rhythm of the song
SCOREKEEPER
Scorekeeper Scorekeeper you didn’t make the rules
Nobody knows where the lines are but you
Scorekeeper Scorekeeper there’s nothing you can do
The winners win and the losers lose
Scorekeeper Scorekeeper you never break the rules
There’s beauty in making the game run true
Cool weather, warm weather, the game goes on
You tried to make the shadows go long
Scorekeeper Scorekeeper you didn’t make the rules
Nobody knows where the lines are but you
Scorekeeper Scorekeeper there’s nothing you can do
The winners win and the losers lose