RAFTERS (2011)

To Be Young

Oh it was white sand and deep blue waves
We were running up to shore
Sun glints on sparkling faces
I don’t feel or see anymore
To be young

We’re just leaves, leaves, floating on down the stream
My job, my house, my clothes, my whole social scene
So high are the stakes, every move we make
Sends us down, down, down in that stream

Here in the only life I’ll know
Those summer days rush out like warm air from my lungs
That’s just the way the story goes
For all I’ve learned I still wish I didn’t know
All I didn’t know, oh, when we were young

When I was young I told myself I’d keep my friends
They were good and I was true, it didn’t need to end
Oh how they’ve risen they fallen
Like the sun circles round
Guess I’ve done just as well as anyone
Hard to accept it, I’m just anyone

But here in this only life I know
Those summer days rush out like water from the lawn
It’s just the way the story goes
Stand in line now and talk about the day
When we were young

My conscious could’ve sunbathed
Every day in my bright blue mind
Now it’s crowded with guilt and purpose and
I just want it all aligned

Here in the only life I know
Not taking orders I don’t know which way to go
That’s just the way the story goes
And I’ll be damned if I’m to live it out alone
Here in the only life I know
With any waste of time it hits so close to home
It’s just the way the story goes
And I’ll be damned if I’m to live it out alone
I won’t live it out alone

We’re just leaves, leaves, floating on down the stream
My job my house my clothes my whole social scene
So high are the stakes, every move we make
Sends us down, down, down in that stream
And one day, one day, one bright clear day
I think we all might just disappear
Sink on down in that river cold and clear, my dear
On down like leaves in an icy stream
On down like leaves to the bottom of an icy stream

 

Do Not Resuscitate

The furnace needs fixing
The fire inside fades
And you know more than all, without a crispy fall
A winter has his way with me
At dead, dry leaves I’m shouting,
And dead, dry limbs I’m counting out
The furnace needs fixing
And I’m left out alone

Fall away
These winds will suffocate me
Fall away
And frost will freeze my bones
Fall away
This winter’s gonna break me
Do not resuscitate me

Well all of these hollows
And all these things I’ve claimed
And all of these swallows
And the gables they vacate
They’re dead daydreams I vomit
And dead dry names I often call myself
The furnace’s sickness
It never had a face, not me,

Fall away
These winds will suffocate me
Fall away
And frost will freeze my bones
Fall away
This winter’s gonna break me
Do not resuscitate me

All of my friends are gone
Looking right through you
I woke up this morning
I pulled back the blinds
I drew the figure, I traced the smokey lines
How quickly they’ve faded, my signal has died
How quickly they faded

The only way
These winds will suffocate me
Only way
The frost will freeze my bones
Only way
This winter’s gonna break me
If you don’t resuscitate me.
Will you resuscitate me from this code?
Save me from this cold
Save me from this cold
Save me from this cold

All of the shadows
All of the signs
All of the shadows
All of the signs

 

The Hollow

I wanted to find a hollow
A place to fill the empty in my mind
My silence had me caving inwards
I longed for us to speak between the lines
And when I’d find my hollow
I’ll leave every trace of it behind
I’d of known you’d follow
But this hollow was for me alone to find

Or so I thought
Or so I thought, oh what a fool

Oh what I was, oh what you are,
These are the strangest times
Has my young love faded out of sight?
Oh where we were, oh where we are,
They’re not so far apart
We’ll set off for that hollow at first light,
Yeah we will

At last we reached the hollow
We’ll sink down in the moss upon the ground
My compass had been helter-skelter,
A fly in a fish bowl buzzing round
Your heart against my chest a-humming
You sing your song of sorrow to me now
But my songbird shall not wallow
Drawn back to this secret we have found

And I hear the water rushing down below
It doesn’t matter now

 

Rafters

Ceiling tiles are falling down
Selling secrets between now
And defeated pasts on last defense
The walls can’t keep the warmth in here
This busted house of cans of beer
Aluminum, some plaster and some fear

There are her bones, there are the fossils
There near the sewer pipe
There, between floors, between wars
There on a two-by-four
Harmonic notes still humming from her lyre
Just set my little soul on fire

In the shape of my latest sin
In the wake of soon moving on
Though this house is crumbling down
She’s whispering her last words now

Did he love her there on the floor?
When he pressed his mark in that knotted board, pressed an oath in that knotted board
Just two names, one shape, tangled minor chords
A heart around their sweet accord, wrapped around their love and stored.
The first day, got away, then so many more
A decade past, and then a score
Now winter falls, decay and dark creating art show the world just where you really are

Oh sweet Louise
Since ‘83
While paneling and pyramids fall down
Oh, sweet Louise
Now I believe
In rafters in this beat-up, blue-neck town
In turning tides in me
In hidden vows

There are her bones, there are the fossils
There near the sewer pipe

There are her bones, there are the fossils
Unfinished song only I complete
There on his throne, here in their castle
My Pygmalion ivory
Here on my own, like this home
The landlord collects his fee
I’m growing old, so alone
These ceiling tiles are falling down
I’m seeing what I’ve got to see

Oh sweet Louise
Since ‘83
While paneling and pyramids fall down
Oh, sweet Louise
Now I believe
In rafters in this rugged Worcester town
In turning tides in me
In hidden vows

 

Hell and High Water

Through hell and high water we have said we’d swim,
Of all we’ve thought, for all we’ve seen we’re in
Through hell and high water

Over under, we would take the bridge
That salty wonder takes us bit by bit
And we’re its plunder, like the Cape’s thin wrist
And left to ponder, fold or flex a fist?

Through hell and high water

When storms bring waves and
When waves bring tides in
Are we bold enough to think we’d win?
When storms bring winds and
When winds bring the hurricane
There’s nowhere she wants she’s never been

Our levy’s so much stronger now from testing them
But are they strong for what we will begin?
Peninsula is fading
Oh, bright city’s gauging
While the old man’s hardwood floors remove again

When storms bring waves and
When waves bring tides in
Are we bold enough to think we’d win?
When storms bring winds and
When winds bring the hurricane
There’s nowhere she wants she’s never been
The wise men open up and let her in
So open up your door and let her in

Bridges falling down,
Be patient
In this tidal town
Keep wading

When storms bring waves and
When winds bring tides in
Are we bold enough to think we’d win?
When storms bring winds and
When winds bring the hurricane
There’s nowhere she wants she’s never been
The wise men open up and let her in
That sea ain’t waging war
It’s just another storm
That sea will leave and you’ll be standin’