1. |
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The algorithm has been kind to me,
Or so the numbers have me thinking.
And if I can contain the message,
I will drink gas station cappuccinos on the road,
I’ll make a quilt for everyone who ever showed me
Sympathy.
Oh I’ll be a star, come 23.
But can I still return to wilderness
If ever I should go astray?
And if the rotting becomes copious,
I will make a topiary from my brittle bones;
I’ll populate the empty plots with microphones;
I’ll learn to play gin rummy with the garden gnomes and
Then I’ll lay
Down upon the grass beside the midway.
Oh in the podunk caterwauling of the breeze,
Low rhododendrons seem to weep for want of bees,
And in the wake of Hyades,
Here comes the dribble and the pitter-patter from above;
The storm is near.
I can wait it out another year.
The algorithm has been kind to me,
Or so the numbers have me thinking.
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2. |
1965
03:32
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1965 - you were 24 -
I remember drives down the Jersey Shore,
And the linen frocks you wore
When you’d pass, unannounced, through the door.
Late September came with the marigolds -
It’s a waiting game with those types of colds,
So you said, “Wait a while, porcupine,
I’ll be here, I’ll be fine.”
[I’ll be waiting there, waiting there.
I’ll be waiting there, waiting there.]
Smoking in the hall of St. Adelaide’s
With the Kashmir shawl that your grandma made -
You’ve been sleeping twenty hours
Through the day, in a bed ringed with flowers.
[Chorus x2]
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3. |
Little Songs
03:14
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Little songs are all that I have to offer,
Little more than something to fill the coffers.
Barely marketable things I wrote while I was walking
And it makes me kinda nervous feeling like I’m singing to the void.
Some days, I think I could’ve been a lawyer,
Something more equipped to combat the horrors,
Really anything that gives me some more sense of purpose
Cause it makes me kinda nervous having to defend being unemployed.
Little songs for the end of the universe
Little songs when the depression’s getting worse
Little songs that all sound just like “Let It Be”
Little songs that have little to do with me
Little songs for the hipsters in 40 years
Little songs that get 4 likes and disappear
Little songs taking themselves so seriously
Little songs that all end in a major key
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4. |
Baucis and Philemon
03:12
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"There is a warm heart beating somewhere in Greece,
Somewhere the gods would kindly grant us peace.
One thousand doors we came to, one thousand shut.
Blessed be the ones residing in this hut.”
Said Philemon, “We have more than enough to spare!”
Though it’s profuse to call what they had threadbare.
He filled a beechwood basin, bathing their limbs,
She lit a fire as the sky went dim.
Seeing their bowl was ever-filled to the brim,
They begged indulgence and they sang their hymns.
Offering a goose, their guardian, Jupiter refused.
Said he, “For you’re deserving of our gratitude,
Take to the mountain ere we have destroyed this place,
Leaving a temple fit to satisfy your grace.
Is there anything you’d ask?
Give us any plea or task,
Anything you want or lack
Before I go.”
“I think so…
For if we should die apart,
Pray bestill my beating heart,
I would not know where to start,
So let us go
In tow.”
“It’s so.”
“Rest now my love, dear Baucis, let come the leaves.
Sup of the earth below these hallowed eaves.
My love for thee is like no other before,
And, like the trees, will grow forevermore."
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5. |
The Constant Rodeo
02:36
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I'll meet my quota today,
For once in my life I'll really earn my pay.
I'll tell Samantha that she
Can finally be proud, as proud as she can be.
I got caught up in the long con years ago,
Thinking that I could outrun
All the boxes and the falling dominoes
That determined what I've done.
I'll eat as much as I want:
A marshmallow-covered, chocolate-filled croissant.
I'll start a series of talks -
A step-by-step course on building building blocks.
I'll be part of something real
And I'll feel how it feels
To have purpose like the spokes on a wheel.
I got caught up in the long con years ago
And I'm here to tell you all
We've been living in the constant rodeo
And each clown has got to fall.
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6. |
Catherine
02:14
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Catherine - let’s fly to New Orleans,
We’ll have a Halloween for two.
Catherine - no need for metaphor,
I lived that way before I met you.
I’ll call you by your name,
You’ll call me by mine.
When I’m tired of the game,
Remind me everything’s fine.
Catherine - you’re up in galleries,
I’m counting calories again.
Catherine - I did alright alone
But I was never known way back then.
It took me all I had to find you
But I had to find you
I had to find you
I had to find you
Catherine
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7. |
Huckleberry Hollow
02:08
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Pale sun rising, covering the meadow in gauze,
The meadowlarks diving, and buttercups bow awaiting applause
In Huckleberry Hollow.
I tell Johnny, "Boy, I love you more than the sun.
It's feeling so funny withholding my heart and telling no one
In Huckleberry Hollow."
He tells me, "Charlie, I don't see how
Telling a soul would help things now.
Just hold my hand and everything's fine
Here in the meadow, Here in our time."
Distant thunder rolling in from over the hill,
The clouds buckle under; I've never seen heaven looking so ill
In Huckleberry Hollow.
We hum the tune to Shenandoah
Over the howling winds that blow.
We pray by morning it'll be past,
Then to the hills we carry at last.
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8. |
Cradle-baker
01:50
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Cradle-baker kneading on the sheets,
Gently snoring in the moonlight, moonlight.
Ballerina shadows overhead
Swaying to the distant sirens - I’m waiting for a call
To let me know when she gets to Montreal;
And even though she’s a frequent flier,
Pilots get tired...
Motor-purring, Sascha leaves the room
And I feel my iPhone buzzing, buzzing.
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9. |
Do You Ever Miss Stars?
03:02
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A rusted fleur-de-lis sits high on the garden wall
Above a canister of Everclear grain alcohol.
I take the hammock and prepare for a long-distance call.
Someone is running from something -
Weight of anxiety’s crushing me.
I left the company a year ago, more or less,
After near 7 years of feeling perpetually depressed;
My parents took me in and ever since, who could’ve guessed,
Nothing has changed for the better.
Anna has called and I tell her this:
Do you ever miss stars
The way that I do?
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10. |
Cape May
02:34
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Strip of satin overflowing
Out the hatchback, on the parkway,
Waving like a little child
As she pulls off into Cheesequake.
The attendant does his service
Without speaking, without looking.
She takes off with no eye contact
On to Cape May, no more stopping.
Up ahead, the rain clouds gather,
Just a few drops, then it’s buckets
As the Sufjan Stevens CD
Starts replaying with the trumpets.
She remembers Cracker Barrel,
Playing checkers with her father,
And the fighting with her sister,
How they threatened her poor mother.
She is rounding exit zero,
Her thoughts racing, her heart pounding.
Lying down, the sun starts peeking;
With a breath, she begins crying.
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11. |
Oilman
02:00
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Centuries old are the bones that bring me here
I am no more than a common buccaneer
Great is the gall in calling the haul mine
Now and withal I’m robbing you all blind
After a while the well just sort of dried
All it could muster was stale and ossified
Buzzards ahead, mahogany red sky
Two copperheads I watched as they sped by
But it’s all that I love and it’s all that I know
And it’s all that I care about
Though it is losing its glow
It is all that I care about
Though it is causing me woe
It is all that I care about
Black runs the blood within my veins
Crude is my wine
And knowing all that will remain
I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine
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12. |
You Left Me
01:50
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You left me, sweet, two legacies,—
A legacy of love
A Heavenly Father would content,
Had He the offer of;
You left me boundaries of pain
Capacious as the sea,
In between eternity and time,
Your consciousness and me.
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13. |
Dupont's Round Fight
01:58
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In time and measure perfect moves
All Art whose aim is sure;
Evolving rhyme and stars divine
Have rules, and they endure.
Nor less the Fleet that warred for Right,
And, warring so, prevailed,
In geometric beauty curved,
And in an orbit sailed.
The rebel at Port Royal felt
The Unity overawe,
And rued the spell. A type was here,
And victory of LAW.
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14. |
Jonathan Hero
01:40
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Jonathan fears being left on his own.
Lately he’s taken to jogging
Hoping that someone will notice his pain,
Frowning at all who pass by.
Jonathan resents most everything
But most of all his appearance.
He would be dead but for telling himself
Maybe someday things will change.
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15. |
Arizona Lemon
03:09
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Arizona lemon tea, 99 cents from CVS -
I haunt those aisles - little boy, buttonup shirt and sweater vest.
On Saturdays - synagogue, upper west side in the freezing rain
I’m thinking of going to Arizona on the next plane.
2012 - all of my cousins are there, my sister too.
We’re in the pool, wearing my Illinois shirt to hide from view
All of the scars - I’m ashamed! I’m ashamed of them! I’m ashamed of me!
I’m not that shy, not a man of very few words; I’m somebody.
Arizona lemon tea, 99 cents from CVS -
They scan the bars and would I like a receipt? I answer yes.
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16. |
Villa Charlotte
02:12
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