red jacket mine

Lyrics

Hello, Old Cloud (2008)

Afterhours
On a desperate weekday evening / Out with who knows who / You finally found a window your first would not go through / Afterhours crew / You said, “I love you, darlin’” / But she already knew / If you whispered it so softly, it never could be true / Afterhours blue / You were sweet & sour, a thorny flower / Back when I was you / Got a childlike fascination / Fingers in the fire / Just another sad piano in the hallelujah choir / Afterhours tire / I tried to do my best / I swear I did my best / I swear I did the best that I could do / Afterhours view / You were sweet & sour, a thorny flower / Back when I was you

Jesus’ House
To Jesus’ house, I made my way over and back again / With pangs of regret, I loosened his grip on my heart / Dead of the night, I ran from the light / And tore myself from his side / I’m sure of his love, but I’m so sick of being his bride / In Jesus’ house, I wondered the corridors silently / They held fascination, but also a lingering shame / He was my first; I prayed that the worst / Would pass away by and by / I knew before long that my very own Jesus would die / I would not surrender my bones and my arteries to sin / But I thought that every stone was a part of me / I guess I’m mistaken again / To Jesus’ house, I made my way in seeking medicine / He held on a platter a salve that could shatter my doubt / I cast it away; he bid me to stay / He begged me to come back home / But some revelations come easier when you’re alone / I would not surrender my bones and my arteries to sin / But I thought that every stone was a part of me / I guess I’m mistaken again

22 Rose Petal Place
Swallow swords to have your way / 22 years to the day / I appoint myself wizard of paragraphs in paperbacks / Yellowing and acid-burnt / Neglected on the racks / I remember you / Without a parking space / Stems and wilted blooms left in a broken vase / I remember your face / 22 rose petal place / First frost / I lost my baby / You’re all grown up and look at you now / Take the horse and leave the farm / Just let me guide you by the arm / I remember you / Without a parking space / Stems and wilted blooms left in a broken vase / I remember your face / 22 rose petal / I remember you without a parking space / Stems and wilted blooms left in a broken vase / I remember your / I remember your / I remember your face / 22 rose petal place

Blessed Are
Tell me something, panda bear / How do you keep the pace? / With your thousand-meter stare / And longer in the face / The air is thinning out - entanglements abound / But you will always be around / Won’t you help me, mother dear? / The devil’s on the make / All the ignorance and fear / Is more than I can take / The winds buffet me - destruction knows my name / But you will always be the same / Blessed are the broken hearts who won’t accept the blame / BREAK / Blessed are the broken hearts who won’t accept the blame / The winds buffet me - entanglements abound / This feeling’s always been around / The air is thinning out - the devil’s on the make / This fragile finish starts to flake / Blessed are the broken hearts / For theirs is what’s at stake

Time to Slow Down
Wake each day with my ass kicked / Bite my nails into the quick / The coliseum’s in decline / And I’ve been making enemies on my own time / Balk at elementary stuff / Race to trap a dream to wrap my weekend around / But sometimes you can’t stop / Sometimes you don’t have time to slow down / Coricidin’s not enough / Need a cigarette to puff / You’re talkin’ circles ‘round the judge / And every kingdom fated to fall still won’t budge / Balk at elementary stuff / Conversations dance around the thing they’re about / But sometimes you can’t stop / Sometimes you’re on your own / And your song becomes a drone / Think you’re better off alone / STEEL SOLO / My parents call and ask for you / And I’ve been asking, too / Balk at elementary stuff / Changing shit to try and fit your fantasy-life / But sometimes you can’t stop / Sometimes you don’t have time to slow down

Sarah
Sarah, my ever-lovely terror / Bind me by my arms and keep me wide awake / I fear you - I shudder when I’m near you / When you put that gun to my throat, my whole body aches / It takes time to comply with your demands / Cross off each item by hand / Dead, I’ll dream of what our love could’ve been / I hope that someone will remember me then / Colder - and incrementally bolder / The sight of my blood makes you hot and red behind the ears / Dearest - my vision ain’t the clearest / But when I was wincing in pain, I swear I saw tears / It took years to comply with your demands / Cuffs around both of my hands / Stretched to my limit, impossibly spent / My need for direction met your need to vent / And as for my life, I don’t care where it went at all / SOLO / September the first, I begged for your worst / Now under the ground I lay / You pine in the night for someone my height / To kneel at your feet and say / “Oh Sarah, have your way”

Family Man
The only witness to my crime / Was the greatest coward of our time / He made his way mistakenly into my sight / And doubled back into the night / In solemn secrecy I crept / And covered places where I stepped / I traveled solitarily through lands unkind / But one thought never left my mind / “Should every hillside be so steep?” / Accompanied my restless sleep / And every time the dusk would drown what day remained / Nothing lost and nothing gained / To work a stretch of land and raise a home by hand / To answer truthfully makes little sense to me / I have no golden mean or bounds to live between / Regardless of your plan, I’m not your family man / I’ll walk beside you if I can / For as long as I can stand

Kissing Cousin
The air was thick with the smell of regret / The shores of my appetite were already wet / The pendulum swung between salvation & sin / I cried out to my Beatrice to come fetch paper & pen / I took your words as best I could / I prayed for peace, I prayed for good / Tried to ignore each overture / Recovery grim, redemption sure / Easy does it, kissing cousin / I don’t think you’ll make it through this night alive / Your velvet skin - take me to bed / “Your mother’s kin” is all I said / This temperature will boil my brain / I have no cure to ease your pain / Easy does it, kissing cousin / I don’t think you’ll make it through this night alive / The clock it tolls my final hour / Your blushing youth in fullest flower / I don’t think you’ll make it through this night alive / Easy does it, kissing cousin / I don’t think you’ll make it through this night alive

Don’t (Settle Your Debts on the Phone)
It’s a friend of confusion and an eyesore / The prophets foretell of the fall of Graham-Bell and the mother of whores / The users are many, the pleasures are few / A lover’s upset and you start to forget just who’s calling who / Don’t settle your debts on the phone / Call it strange intimation / Feel a tug on your line / It’s a shame when a man takes a pair of tin cans and connects ‘em with twine / Don’t settle your debts on the phone / There’s a time in the night when you open your mouth and nothing sounds right / Fire on your tongue and ice in a glass / Don’t settle your debts on the phone / You’ll wind up abject and alone / Don’t settle your debts on the phone

Philistine
You caught me by the hair / But it made me smile anyway / Obstinate and mean - philistine / The haste that you displayed / As you licked my carcass clean / Condescension queen - philistine / Said “a dream is always sad / Either make-believe or bad” / The person I first met / Was the meekest that I’d seen / But now you prance and preen - philistine / Great pretender hit her stride / Found a jacket-tail to ride / Keep it under wraps / With senses keen - philistine / STEEL SOLO / Said “a dream is always sad / Either make-believe or bad” / Keep it under wraps / With senses keen - philistine

Early Followed You
Early followed you, now what’s a mother hen to do / Now her every adult son’s gone off to war / Put a sandwich in his grip and wish your baby a safe trip / Keep your courage as you wave him out the door / Gray baggy pants / Great grizzled hands / And a child’s laugh / Old Sam, he wanted you, but your family did, too / Little choice between them and the bomb / You got drunk and took a fall, back to Delta after all / Had a baby that became my mother’s mom / Gray baggy pants / Great grizzled hands / And a child’s laugh / When I awoke, you were miles from a phone / The words you spoke were actually my own / When I awoke, you were miles from the earth I won’t forget, for what it’s worth / INSTRUMENTAL CODA

Starboard Meets the Sound EP (2006)

Starboard Meets the Sound
“Keep your lamp trimmed” / “Keep doubts away” / “Live like tomorrow could evaporate today” / That’s what they said / And I listened well / I was transfigured for an instant, then I fell / I was transfigured for an instant, then I fell / Sound the knell for me / ‘Cos I’m going underground / Trading pence for crowns / ‘Cos darling we’ve run aground / Vessel down / Starboard meets the sound / Hand on my heart / And hope to die / I’ve got a notion there’ll be no sad goodbye / I’ve got a notion there’ll be no sad goodbye / Sailors die at sea / And I’m going underground / Trading pence for crowns / ‘Cos darling we’ve run aground / Vessel down / Nearly drowned / Rabbits’ feet won’t save you when the ship begins to seize / Burning alms and golden calves do nothing to appease / And oh, the stench of your disease / Has got me on my knees / The bough will break / As we careen / We’ll hurtle faster toward the banks of fiddler’s green / So batten down / Cling to the mast / You’ll be forgotten with the gods of ages past

Second Chance (for a Third Square Meal)
I tied my shoes tight before I left home / But couldn’t find my comb / I wanted breakfast, but couldn’t bear make myself decide / Missed my spot on the last bus ride / I practice patience three times a day / By giving you your way / A single instance where my complacency serves me well / Don’t tempt the tortoise to leave its shell / Tonight, we will fight, still as stone / At dawn, break up on speakerphone / You said, “Dear, this life is an orange, but you’ll never get past the peel” / Second chance for a third square meal / Concentric circles, each to his own / And scared to be alone / We stir our coffees with the appendages of our choice / Never heeding the other’s voice / Tonight, we will fight, still as stone / At dawn, break up on speakerphone / You said, “Dear, this life is an orange, but you’ll never get past the peel” / Second chance for a third square meal

Every Time That I’ve Tried
Last Friday night, my senses were sharper than dull / Chose not to fight, defenseless to magnetic pull / It’s Tuesday noon / And I know that you should’ve been mine / Too little, too soon / ‘Cos I’m high all the time / And I’m done with my pride / I’ve got scratches and scrapes / For every time that I’ve tried / SOLO / Live on my own, no one visits / And I never go out / Keep to my own damn business / I’m happy without / A lord above to make me feel sick of myself / No use for love / Now that I’m high all the time / And I’m done with my pride / I’ve got lines on my face / And bags ’round my eyes / And I love repeating these lies / ‘Bout a man and every time he tries / Last Friday night, my senses were sharper than dull

You Owe Me That
I asked about your day / And you replied by staring at your tray / You gave it to me straight / I was good, but nothing next to great / Our fates were individual / We’d peaked and fallen flat / I know when I lose / I think you owe me that / Several months gone by / No succor, no explanation why / Still I kept my pride / And I held it like a dagger in my side / Denied the thing most dear to me / I bowed and doffed my hat / I know when I lose / I think you owe me that / There was nothing I could say / So I kept my impulses at bay / I knew I wasn’t getting you back with some pitiful display / I could tell you more / ‘Bout a weeping drunk who’s lying on the floor / But it’s too late now / You’ve moved on, and I’ll discover how / Allow me one last dignity / And spare me from this chat / I know when I lose / I think you owe me that

Kozy-Mo
The sky was awful dark / And the rain was coming down / If memory serves fantasy enough / A leaf took to the air / And it landed in her hair / That’s when I knew that she had called my bluff / I was playing smart / My cards were at my chest / But then I tipped my hand to the girl I love the best / And heard her strange request / “Can we name our baby Kozy-Mo? / And hang a rattle from her baby toe? / Understand, dismiss me out of hand / And you just don’t have the love to be my man” / As I began to mull, objections turned up null / And I could see my darling start to pine / I swallowed up my shame / And I took that baby’s name / And glued it to the latter part of mine / Took my darling’s hand / And placed it in my coat / She made the strangest face as she watched me clear my throat / And pledge my life devote