Pick Your Prize

Oh my love, we’ll surely meet our demise
At the beck and call
Of each bittersweet prize
And we’re losing time
To build our bridge on that fault line
We’re mounds of sand
Blocking our own silver mine

And don’t it feel
Like we’re driving nails into our wheels
To make obvious
Our own contraband

Oh my love, your courtesy a travesty
Your words wound up
Each pass a dying spring
We could have guessed
Our only path to be a mess
But we laughed instead
Because there was no water left to tread

And we’re growing old
Stockpiling our houses with fools gold
You can’t measure strength
With the tools you’ve used to inflict pain

(chorus)
And you can’t rest on your mountain of hope
When you’ve built it on a fault line
Twisting each little vice around your tight rope

Prairie smoke, you’re my only mourning cloak
And the madness that
Your wake will invoke
And I’m sore but strong
I’m anticipating rest
I’m mad but done
Chasing around my own death
And I’m not broken yet
And you have run as far as you can get
Careless love
Is still love all the same

Oh my mind is both malleable and kind
Be gentle this time
‘Cause I am standing at your door
With roses and wine
We’ll sway into the night
We’re reckless and blind
We are happy to be poor

And when we fall
When we run our mouths about each close call
It’s because the truth
Is that we know nothing at all

(chorus)
And you can’t rest on your mountain of hope
When you’ve built it on a fault line
Twisting each little vice around your tight rope


( )

I’m leaving tonight I’m not running away
But I have distance enough to safely say
I’ve got a real bad feeling
That you have a real bad feeling

And the wind in my arms wraps slowly around me
Slides down my back gracefully
I’m embracing knowing that
You and I will never experience such a symphony

Do you remember watching the arrival of concrete skies
From the back of an old van in the middle of the night
Do you remember feeling so small in the pouring rain
Do you remember never wondering if we’d see each other again

(chorus)
So here’s an ode to you my friend
Time is gracefully changing us
We may turn and we may bend
But tomorrow silently urges us on
And I’ve got nothing to lose
When I remember just how lucky I am
Some things aren’t up to us to choose
We just have to go on and do the best we can

Most nights I’m busy taking inventory in my head
An overworked stranger has stolen my bed
I hold my own for the sake of holding on to something
I hold my own for the sake of saving what’s left

And you and I are in a contest to see who can mask the night
Whose turn is it to make due, who’s going to make it right
We folded ourselves until we couldn’t fold no more
Then we blamed gravity for holding us down
We blamed weather for shutting the door

And I still keep my arms open
I still suspend
The notion that one day
You’ll be at the other end
It’s funny how the moment you stop keeping score
You realize what’s really there
You come away with more

(chorus)
So here’s an ode to you my friend
Time is gracefully changing us
We may turn and we may bend
But tomorrow silently urges us on
And I’ve got nothing to lose
When I remember just how lucky I am
Some things aren’t up to us to choose
We just have to go on and do the best we can


Because I Can

I’m on a mission to find
A way to show you who I really am
I’m going to tell my ego never mind
And it’s not that I need to, it’s just to know I can

And tomorrow is knocking at the door
And we have got to keep our eyes on
Because tomorrow is holding up the horizon
And when we’re up for more
We’ll go out and show the world together because we can

I didn’t know that you were under my skin
Holding on to me and my shadows
Excuse these hands if they are reaching too far
It’s just who I am
And where you are

I’ve got these visions in my head
And I call you up to say do you understand
Trust in yourself is what you said
You are never gonna get there if you don’t believe you can

I hear her footsteps trail behind
She comes in and asks me can I stay awhile
You know I’ve got nothing but time
And I said take what you need, just let me see your smile

Hold on is all I know
Patiently time follows time
Take my body from these sands
Come to me as you are
And meet me where I am

You are polished so perfectly
And in my eyes there is just no other way around this light
And you can take any part of me
Just know you are also leaving with this heart of mine

Last night I wished myself away
And I took my shining star and then I ran
Didn’t know I would end up here today
So I’m going to try to find you here
Because I can


Movin’ Up

I’m shaping up and I’m moving on
Just give me a steady beat
And a good pair of shoes and then I’m gone
‘Cause this train has taken far far far to long
To leave the station
So I guess I’ll have to be patient
Brush the sky with my heels
And tiptoe along

And time you’ve taught me everything that I know
Time you’ve taught me nothing at all
And this goes to show that we spend our lives
Waiting to rise up to bigger things
Only to realize later
What waiting really means

(chorus)
So I’m going to keep on moving up
If this dream never ends
Mr. sand man wake me up
I’m falling into the sky again
So I’m going to pretend I’m not drifting away
Because I like it this way

Sing it softly sing it sweet
But don’t sing anymore of those lullabies
Because I’m already fast asleep
Just beam me up
You can send me straight to space
I’ve got rocks and roots
Breaking through my socks and my shoes
I’ve got to get out of this place

Because here you’re not going to find your happiness
In your dollar bills
You’re not going to find your satisfaction
In your castles on the hills
You are not going to find your love and romance
In those cheap thrills
You’re not going to find those answers you’ve been searching for
In no bottles of pills
And if we don’t keep on moving up
Then our dream will never end
Mr. sandman please wake us up
Because if you don’t then we might all depend
On whatever is easiest to control
But I wonder what about our minds
What about our souls

(1st verse repeat)


Lost & Found

That cold stone was a borrowed home
And I bantered with restless years alone
You and I and the seeds that we lie
Gently fall to place
Silence grows the night

Tiptoe in I have lost my skin
What is armor if holding your true love sin
I was on the lam pulling rocks from the dam
To cast to the sea
You never tried to catch me

(chorus)
What fool’s callous charm
Can call me from my hiding and make me disarm
And my god I’ve lost
Every coin that I’ve tossed
And now I’m hard up broke
Raging through the lost and found

Old love your careless garden
Your bathtub full of saints
Your bones full of rain
Each night I fill the holes you punch
Through the earth
Just to be rendered
Simple again

When they come this time
I won’t run jump or climb
I’m going to sit right here
Hell’s fire or heaven’s shine
And all those ghosts in my bones
Are going to have to make it alone
Pieces of me
Cashed in
Set free

That cold stone was a borrowed home
And I bantered with restless years alone
You and I and the seeds that we lie
Gently fall to place
Silence grows the night

(chorus)
What fool’s callous charm
Can call me from my hiding and make me disarm
And my god I’ve lost
Every coin that I’ve tossed
And now I’m hard up broke
Raging through the lost and found


Vacancy

I’m mapping out history
So I’ll need your time line please
Your house full of bees
We are courting every little light
That urges us
To pick up our knees and fly
To the next set of guidelines
I’m yours
You’re mine
Until our faces are just billboards
Painted signs

Stuffed my heart into my throat
And walked alone
From the train station
The only place that I called home
Was shuddering
In it’s foundation
And I left you to forget
The growing tumult to the west
My only vice surrendered paving
Weather systems through my chest

And I am tired
Of questioning
Your right and my wrong
‘Cause it don’t mean
Well it don’t mean a thing

Part of me that cold corner
That you used to build a bridge
And that same part of me left guessing
Why you live the way you live
Now I am pushing cobblestones
I’m erasing everything I’ve known
Belly up to brick and mortar
Building monuments alone

See the paint under the blinds
Unfold my latency
My crooked vines
See your savior a sea of wine
And hold me up
I’m still alive
And I am a torrent of delay
A madcap history of dried clay
Watch it shatter through our arms
Fold in two
And wash away

Until it’s gone
A memory
What you think
And what you see
They are different things

Got myself a rowing boat
A forest home
A bed of grass
And I’m going to pull it down to the shore
And set it to
A sea of glass
And I’ll dedicate each new sight I find
To the laughing hands of time
Beauty cast here vote through turmoil
Unmarked thread to unwind

And you can have it all back
Your tangled web
Your mess of canons
Armed and eager to attack
And I am lost
But I’m not scared to invite
The only solace that I know
To let me be
Tonight

And it’s my favorite kind
Of irony
Just how unkind
You can be
Well it’s delicate seam
Your spotlight
Vacancy


Black & Blue

Did you see me count the grain
Spread sun on my crops
And gather rain
Get caught up in my stories
Of mounting glory and pain

He said I’ve seen this side of the world alone
I’ve seen the darkness
Pour cement through my bones
I’ve walked barefoot for miles
Black and blue
I said I’ve been there too

I’ve gotten lost in my own home town
But when I’m far from home I’ll find my way around
Sometimes it’s easier to have no place to go
Than what we know

(chorus)
Love like beauty never knew
When I’m lying next to you
Chase your holy dreams untold
Sneak your veils right from their molds

Missed my bus in Santa Fe
When another lonely traveler came my way
We drank and talked for hours
And that’s the farthest I’ve traveled in one place

Empty bus stop at ten past two
I hitched a street sweeper home
And forgot my shoes
In the overhead compartment thinking
Man I’ve got nothing to lose

What a careful map
What a small town
I’m long overdue at the lost and found
I’ve got old pictures and rocks
And broken locks to bury now

(chorus)
Love like beauty never knew
When I’m lying next to you
Chase your holy dreams untold
Sneak your veils right from their molds


Surefire

My circuit breakers trapped in silence
Room temperature passive violence
Folding captive turn me off
Nomadic sleep in ancient lofts

I heard my wounds make up my mind
From a bottle of moonshine

Your steadfast heels
Your bag of dice
Your pied piper kingdom of mice
Awash in empty river beds
My cracked earth
Smooth stone watershed

I heard they made you run
From your willow trees and sun

(chorus)
Surefire layers on my wall
Retire your army one and all
And my love
Each moment caged in glass
A landscape flying past

Your faded leather saddle straps
Your conscience owes
Your heart a tax
Your misunderstood travel guide
A canvas folded up inside

You’re living underground
The orchard outside of town

I met your match three years too late
Along a tired interstate
We carefully extracted seeds
From seven dying apple trees

We married on the breeze
Your cracked bark and my leaves
We searched for hours on our knees
For a thousand sand rubies

(chorus)
Surefire layers on my wall
Retire your army one and all
And my love
Each moment caged in glass
A landscape flying past


Seep

Lead me away this empty trail
Bird seed and bread crumb
Lonesome stale
For heaven’s sake let’s sleep awake
God’s laughter in our arms to make

The giants waiting by the pass
Will surely know we’re made of glass
This night worn heavy on our backs
Moonlight over the railroad tracks

We sat and sweltered years before
Our imagined silhouette reborn
A fantasy in golden form
Our accidental
Danger zone

Our demons burial at dawn
Wax paper leaves to lay upon
Angels wait for signs of good
To lead a light into the wood

Fallen fortune must you bleed
Your bittersweet into each seed
A masquerade of darkened deeds
Push past your shallow banks and weeds

(chorus)
We sat and wondered years before
Our imagined silhouette reborn
A fantasy in golden form
Our accidental
Danger zone


Pavement

Lay your shields and stones to rest
Your holy tyrant manifest
Spare your sacred bones and lock them
Safely away in a chest
How long can we beat
On our own troubled feet
Must we drag them and tire them
Endlessly on the street

I lost my home to a whole majesty of chrome
God’s eyes tangled up
In the last orchard left alone

Old temples of lost pain
Holding court above your head
With some hope wrapped up in chains
For you to carry to your bed
Well I fell five times in a row
Down that same old dusty hole
And if it don’t kill me I think I need
To fall five times more

I hide my love in a glass bottle set to sea
What tide could wash
A gentle hurricane through me
(chorus)
All the black and white
On our hands tonight
Fade away by the banks
Of the river side
Take your sweet long last
Attach it to this mast
And laugh at the sweet unknown
And what madness did carry us home

Let that old solace breathe
Before you rapture writhe and leave
Make believe you aren’t captive
To each god willing deed
And teach me for a spell
From the bottom of your well
How you jumped every time
And were caught before you fell

A rust carriage torn
Sail each port to sell
Your cast and part born
By high winds
And deep swells

In the field where we lay
On that monumental day
I swear I pummeled through the wreckage
Of blackened piles
And bales of hay
And how long can we sweep
Our only hearts into the deep
Lock and seal all of the caverns
And forever secrets keep

A safety zone
Of feathers soil
Skin and bone
Paint paradise
Break it in
And call it home

(chorus)
All the black and white
On our hands tonight
Fade away by the banks
Of the river side
Take your sweet long last
Attach it to this mast
And laugh at the sweet unknown
And what madness did carry me home


Whistle Song

Sweet bounty of time
You better not let me ask
You out this time
Just float me to the shore
And please don’t be slow
The day are passing faster than we know

I caught your hand
You’ve always got me running just as fast as I can
But I dream you still and only god can understand
How you bust the sky in two before you land

Cashed in my land
To buy a truck
And drove for days awestruck
By the moments that I’ve erased from my brain
It seems I’ve spent
My entire life just running away

So goodbye so long
I never knew you well
Years pass and we’ll laugh
Some comfort back into ourselves
And hold safe each memory
Of a lifetime set free
In each other’s arms

And when I catch that break
I’ll spend my dollars up
And get a shack by the lake
And wait for the second half of me
To come on down
And show me everything that I don’t know
About grace


Low Level Flight

Don’t Look I’m stealing away
With the rising sun welcome to today
And I know less than before but I’ve got more to say
I’ll put it sweetly where you lay
Watch me unravel will you stay

What a lavish will to cross
Set a string of words to bank and toss
And I can bat blindly and laugh at myself
As you balance on the wing
Tending wild gardens in the spring

(chorus)
I’ve held my ground alone
Shone light to darkness on my own
My arms are open now come on home

What shaken path can afford
No mercy for an open door
We’ll drag our losses one by one
And laugh at yesterday
Because yesterday is done
Yeah, yesterday is done

Crawl over the green and shine a light
Move your mountain of worry with all your might
Because I’m blowing through the barricades and caution signs
Just to see your eyes tonight
My wanderlust, low level flight
Wanderlust, low level flight

(chorus)
I’ve held my ground alone
Shone light to darkness on my own
My arms are open now come on home