1. |
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|
Long-knighted, short-sighted
Mayweed of the median
Bomber's moon conceding to the dawn
Side cycle
The turnpike'll
Shake your hand and heart
If I just knew where to start, I'd be gone
Am I still on your mind?
You ask me that all the time
Now I'm never falling back asleep
The ladder's in tatters
Stranding me downstream of
What I used to dream of in the aughts
Proto, neo, classic, modern man
Just tell him where to stand and what to eat
Am I still on your mind?
You ask me that all the time
Now I'm never falling back asleep
What I seek in the corners of my dreams
It could feed the candle quarters
Till it's easier on me
|
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2. |
Armistice Day Eve
03:52
|
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|
There were stockpiles of grain during the Holodomor
And your wave of emotion was a thousand miles offshore
I let all the heat out when I open the door
What were any of us waiting for?
4 in the morning on Armistice Day Eve
Your granduncle Elgin was poisoned in his sleep
His lungs turned to paper while the delegates convened
And now 102 years later, it's occurring to me
That I don't wanna live without you
The skyline reminds you of the lives you fell behind
June of '72 when all the water left the line
The stain upon the stucco and the bruise upon your mind
You swore that you loved them but you left it all the time
Every single memory that I ever cured and preened
The only way that anyone is ever truly seen
Silent night, daytime dream
Are you there? Were you waiting for me?
Me, with my plaster on my lath
And my heather in my grass
Towing that path
Of least resistance
Two teeth missing
Still insisting
I don't wanna live without you
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3. |
Ganglion
02:59
|
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|
I woke up by dumb luck
And you came across
Like an arrowhead on fire
Askin in mid-flight
"Where was the funeral pyre?"
From my ganglion to yours
With my face upon the floor
Don't debate me, baby
I've been here before
Blood sheds at random
But hearts break by design
Either ripples outwards
All the same, all the time
From my ganglion to yours
With my face upon the floor
Don't debate me, baby
I've been here before
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4. |
Bullfrog
03:18
|
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|
Nobody waits in the communion line because they like the taste of the host
They're there to be moved and you knew we were too, so you conjured flesh outta flour
Always a self-effaced lad, you secretly had you the power
But by some great defect in these orangutan brains of ours you couldn't believe
That someone who truly knew you could fully love you without reserve
It's like our faculties jackknife when people don't act like we're cursed
But instead you put your money in your teeth
And now you're never gonna get to be
Maudlin in the Falklands
Or play Battleship in Reykjavik
Or cry all night
I just know somewhere out there in the firmament was the perfect arrangement of words
That you were dying to hear, but all goddam year my night vision had been on the fritz
So I'll pray that sentence to you in the instance it's fixed
Yeah instead you put your money in your teeth
And now you're never gonna get to be
Maudlin in the Falklands
Or play Battleship in Reykjavik
Or get dissipated in Saint David's
Or hawk keychains in Tenerife
Or cry all night
|
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5. |
Trouble in Hand
02:42
|
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|
In '32 they triturated you while you were praying on a land bank
In '71 they dipped your first son into defoliants at Don Muang
In '83 the NLRB was all but pissing on your wingtips
Donald Dotson and the interests screwing you into a vise
But in your mind you'd already gone to where the porch it rots
And there's a heart in everyone soaking in soda pop
You like that tassel taped on the bludgeon of power? Do you like your autumn like your summer?
Born in the same town you'll die in dumber
In 2010 all your money was spent--you hit the reverse on your mortgage, moved your bandsaw into storage, kicked your last son out his room
But in your mind you'd already gone to where the porch it rots
And there's a heart in everyone soaking in soda pop
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6. |
Conrail
03:01
|
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|
Pretty sad girl, offering a glance for pills
Pretty sad girl, throwing her battered heart into the hills
Pretty sad girl, on her way to somewheres better
Pretty sad girl, she'll take you to the next planet over if you let her
Somersaults in a singlet
Letters in a ring
Purple and white
Consolidated Rail
Hot on your trail
Every night
It's open waters when you're in your brain
Wouldn't you rather be constantly entertained?
Pretty sad girl, she been gone so long
Even the devil keeps getting her name wrong
Somersaults in a singlet
Letters in a ring
Purple and white
Consolidated Rail
Hot on your trail
Every night
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7. |
Cattawa
03:17
|
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|
Hum a tune into my ear
Until I disappear
Until my will is faint
Loblolly and Goldenrod
You called me Bullfrog
You warned me about these chains
If I was a weatherman, I could believe only the darkest storms reveal the finest rains
But instead I'm an idiot
Beating his brains on a cocktail of Bush-era, pandering inanities
I know the time is past
The lines burned in the grass
Cannot contain the truth:
That I'm never gonna find another friend like you
If I see 102
End of the day, it's still unaddressed
Aren't you ever gonna give it your best?
Keep forgetting your hairshirt at the laundromat
Cinnamon and lanolin
I know you've been away too long
I wanna be like you
I wanna have one too
I hang my head
And drag me outta bed
I never wanna feel like this again
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8. |
Lossy Rip Blues
04:24
|
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|
Everyone went off to war
Everyone got addicted to dope
Everyone woulda hanged hisself if it weren't for the price of rope
Everyone got an STD
Everyone set the banshee free
So now it's just ole you and me with our sad sick revelry
We can't wait to see the fish in the fountain
We can't wait to see the snow on the mountain
When we were young and sat in class
Through backwards letters glued on glass
We tried to get outside of our surroundings
We invested in some exercise equipment
A lizard brain spillway in the event it
Started into how we oughta be
Crushing all our enemies
While we're bailing water out the basement
Out there where the tarmac turns to gravel is
A weather-laden, seven-segment abacus
A jewel out of our childhood
It might as well be firewood
Faded, aberrated on some magnet
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9. |
Slow River
04:00
|
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|
Slow river, half-withered
Mayweed of the median
Bomber's moon conceding to the dawn
Side cycle
The turnpike'll
Shake your hand and heart
If I just knew where to start, I'd be gone
Am I still on your mind?
You ask me that all the time
Now I'm never falling back asleep
The ladder's in tatters
Stranding me downstream of
What I used to dream of in the aughts
It was flare jeans, square screens
Meg White made of Legos
I watched it with the dagos
Down the block
Proto, neo, classic, modern man
Just tell him where to stand and what to eat
While he runs through
On street view
Till his finger's got a side stitch
The road is just a black itch
I can't reach
Am I still on your mind?
You ask me that all the time
Now I'm never falling back asleep
What I seek in the corners of my dreams
It could feed the candle quarters
Till it's easier on me
|
||||
10. |
Armistice Day Eve
03:18
|
|||
|
There were stockpiles of grain during the Holodomor
And your wave of emotion was a thousand miles offshore
I let all the heat out when I open the door
What were any of us waiting for?
4 in the morning on Armistice Day Eve
Your granduncle Elgin was poisoned in his sleep
His lungs turned to paper while the delegates convened
And now 102 years later, it's occurring to me
That I don't wanna live without you
The skyline reminds you of the lives you fell behind
June of '72 when all the water left the line
The stain upon the stucco and the bruise upon your mind
You swore that you loved them but you left it all the time
Every single memory that I ever cured and preened
The only way that anyone is ever truly seen
Silent night, daytime dream
Are you there? Were you waiting for me?
I don't wanna live without you
|
||||
Ben Harrington Ohio
Ben Harrington was a college dropout from New Canaan, Ohio, who hated coming home. He died in 2011.
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