1. |
Baltimore Broommaker
02:37
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Ring my bell and I’ll awaken
From hearth and home to missing children
The flagstone flooded, rolled off the hyacinths
I’m off to see the Baltimore broommaker
I was tossed across the room
I hit the chair with a tune
Winnowed down to natural resources
I’m off to see the Baltimore broommaker
My skin is allergic to rings
We outlive the funeral home
Where our bodies go
Tied up and sewn
Down into hell we go
It was the fall of nineteen-ninety-eight
Stepping out with Ronnie’s shirt from Al and Dave
You took it from my torso with your teeth and walked away
And now I’m off to see the Baltimore broommaker
‘Neath impolite lamp light, snow fell on me and you
Left in a London landfill, two-thousand-two
Separated at birth, we tossed away our worth
I’m off to see the Baltimore broommaker
My skin is allergic to rings
We outlive the funeral home
Where our bodies go
Tied up and sewn
Down into hell we go
Alisa touched Shostakovich, your seat empty beside me
Elisa screamed her Hawkins with rattled brain and body
But I’m off to see the Baltimore broommaker
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2. |
To Have and to Hold
03:02
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We lie alongside dried-up branches
Still as the glistening rocks of Sligo Creek
The crows hold your hoven hand
At the riverbed, when we sleep
With piles of pills and vested authorities
Upholding the only things that matter
Well-worn hearts and broken bodies
Held together by the hands of cadavers
To have and to hold, but closed down like the corner store
Migraine meds, heated beds, packs of ice
You can’t always get what you want
But, once in a while, it would be nice
I was made too mulish not to move out of my own way
I’ve been sitting on this corner for a minute
Burning out while the whole house burns down
Snuffing out the heart and what’s in it
To have and to hold, but closed down like the corner store
Migraine meds, heated beds, packs of ice
You can’t always get what you want
But, once in a while, it would be nice
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3. |
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I’m waiting for my love to sleep
Through there’s little peace when they dream
They jump awake at a quarter past three and light up my screen
Just one wish fulfilled keeps this sweet old world turning
The pain flows chronically
Ever-after as their heart beats through the sunlit sheets
I’m waiting for my love to sleep
“Dive” plays on the stereo, and I think of all the places I’ve not gone
The sunset shines in their eyes, the clouds roll in, their knee shakes and their head spins
Nothing good is easy, but right now this feels easier than anything I’ve known
The pain flows chronically
Pulsing through the bloodstream till the water meets the well
I’m waiting for my love to sleep
Waiting at their bedside, glowing like a belle
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4. |
The Castaway
03:21
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You walked through the basement and fell to the floor by the latch
You reached for the sink that your fingers were too weak to catch
You coated your veins with elixirs for emptiness’ sake
You might have been found by the medics to stun you awake
The beans all did blossom but all of those blossoms were beaned
The world might have ended for us in twenty-seventeen
With no guts or gumption and both barrels aimed at the ground
The heft of the hailstorm did rattle a thunderous sound
It snows all day on the castaway
On ice they slide, into the grave they glide
I lean on the stepstool to foster a sense of who’s here
A midwintry light passed through tears in the pale wicker chair
Tied to the hinterland, unliving housemates abound
Stepped to the shore in the storm where the bravest are drowned
It snows all day on the castaway
On ice they slide, into the grave they glide
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5. |
The Eulogist
02:28
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The eulogist howls at the moon
The branches toss their leaves and cover up the heart, out of respect
Your bedroom’s light shines down Route 1
You wave your hands and fold your thumbs
Dinner’s on the stove with Percocet
Every ragbag has their day
And I had mine and threw it all away, stood in my own way
You’ll read my obituary, printed without commentary
How I live hinges on who I am to you
I build a house for no one filled with darkened rooms with bells that can’t be unrung
Where my mouth burned up in blisters
The weather got better, the curse got worse, I split and got hit by a hearse
The beam that split apart had to be sistered
Never did I know of such a person tilling soil around the ground
The courtyard cat follows your footsteps
For all that’s pure and convalescing in this world when winter turns to spring
Touched by the sun within a weeping willow grove
My heart is shattered like a broken car window along the road
Its glass shimmers under a flickering street lamp
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6. |
The Poor Clare Monastery
02:26
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The canopy swings in the breeze
The burial plot is shimmering
Too starved to feed, too parched to weep
By the Poor Clare Monastery
Soaked in honey, stung and sweet
A threadbare cloth soothes the feet
The dew-dripped grass, St Brigid’s Eve
Cross your bread and hope to leave
Knees touched to the pavement in the heat
Wrists bound to my back in plain defeat
We stretch the fog apart to see your face
The water surrounds the town, reflects your grace
You stepped to the shed, to shed what’s there
To gift your heart like Saint Clare
Dipped in the stream along Dogue Creek
Blessed you are for making me
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7. |
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I laid down on a hard bed between a niche and a ditch
I threaded my needle and closed up a stitch
I filled my cup with a dream, you deemed the dream obscene
I laid down on a hard bed between a niche and a ditch
Bags drifted down the river, through the pipes to the sea
There was sleet on the sheetrock, debris from the trees
The hail touched down to the gravel beneath my feet
Senility buried my brain, through the pipes to the sea
I counted my failures and rang up my debts
Lit by the cruel moon, bereft of the chest
I plotted my exit and all of the rest
I counted my failures and rang up my debts
I fell through the graveyard, battered and thrown
Caught on a nail, my clothes came unsewn
I lent my ear to the tones of the bones
I fell through the graveyard, battered and thrown
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8. |
The Well Ran Dry
02:45
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The well ran dry, however wide
The skin so pallid, the mouth so dry
From glares that gleamed across the face
Of pinhole ears that know no grace
To plant the heel, to slow the stride
To watch the stars, distill the night
Deliver me from sewn-up dread
The water lilies cloak the dead
Ovations void of bond and worth
My wraith walks tall under the earth
Not much to see, the ink does fade
Without the shade, within the grave
Cold soil warms itself to you
What you withhold leaves you, too
The right to feed, the right to live
Your life and words I do forgive
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9. |
Ruby's Restaurant
02:50
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The fortune teller by Ruby’s Restaurant
Throws a look, cold as Vermont
The drizzle glistens on the porch
The paint chips fall, you’re holding court
Your license revoked, your symptoms rose
Your hand pressed to the stove
The cold wind sways you, the floors are swept
You cross yourself and hold your breath
The moon pours light into your eyes’ cove
You linger in a weeping willow grove
You scratch your neck, you tap your feet
Autumn leaves, winter sleets
The Christmas lights are cold and wet
A twilight twine marks your neck
Your flesh and bones carried away
Grim and gray, held by the clay
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10. |
Christmas in Virginia
02:21
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The porch light’s on for you
I can almost hear you cough
There was little we could do
To keep the wheels from falling off
The bricks hold echos here
They house an orchestra of crickets
Short of breath, let down
Holed up, held up in the wickets
You remember when you lived here
The pattering of feet
It’s Christmas in Virginia
In the afterworld it’s Halloween
You dropped a button in the plate
To have a place on New Year’s Eve
You drove right through the gates
And now you whistle through the trees
Floating through the chapel
There’s no good place to land
Are you still somewhere around here?
Do you still know who I am?
You remember when you lived here
The raindrops on the street
It’s Christmas in Virginia
In the afterworld it’s Halloween
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11. |
Over the River
09:25
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Raised from the basement, slighted and struck
In a weather-worn house where no side is up
An asthmatic nurse, staving off the hearse
With meds in the bed and an inhaler in the purse
Spat on and muzzled and bruised down your face
Walking through hell like you own the place
Hiding out underground, sleepless and stealth
With no one to nurse the nurse back to health
Over the river, under the moon, I go over the river with you tonight
Ghosts pushing strollers past spirits on the corner
Down past the alley where there’s something to live for
Guard dogs in the backs of brown wagons without plates
Banged-up and battered and pressed up to the gates
Taking another forlorn shot to kill off all the pain
Where ulcers bleed out into droplets of rain
Crossing the tracks and biting your tongue
In life and in death, soldiering on
Over the river, under the moon, I go over the river with you tonight
Fighting the rocks and the pills and the wine
Off the road to recovery with darling Clementine
Containing the pain and ghosting away
The bells cracked apart on this Christmas Day
It’s Bloomsday on the beach, the waves swallow the air
It’s Flag Day in prison, it’s neither here nor there
With sunset-hued eyes suspended from the ceiling
Can we get another take? Once more, with feeling?
It’s four in the morning, you see your stilted breath
The twilight in your eyes unveils a glimmer of death
Parched out on pavement where you tore Babel down
It’s all over now, send in the clowns
In the old rugged house, there’s no place like home
There’s a glass mausoleum in the closet in your room
Sunk into sheetrock, you’ve spent all your luck
Over the rainbow, under the bus
Over the river, under the moon, I go over the river with you tonight
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Teething Veils Washington, D.C.
"These songs—sepia-toned yet searching, eccentric yet melodically inclined—add up to something that feels like its own universe, sometimes wistful, sometimes the kind of menacing only achieved via a late-career Tom Waits death rattle." -Wash CP
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