1.Everybody Talks About Friends

Everybody talks about friends
Like the divine right of kings
Everybody figures they’re meant
To be happy and everything
Everybody, everywhere
‘Round the posies in a big ring
I just sit here and I stare
Thinking bout a ghost ship
Sailing on a windy sea
Thinkin’ bout the short life
Of a worker bee
And whether anybody knows me
I don’t see why I’m so lonely
But I got a funny feeling
That it’s my fault and I
Want so bad to
Rise above it
Do you think that maybe there’s a way?
Does a class five hurricane ever say I know you
And you’re okay?
In the backyard in the
spring
My honeysuckle will bloom
And stand like a Soldier in Greece
At attention at the unknown tomb
I keep waiting to hear
When the mockingbird’s song’ll resume
A whistle like the tip of a spear
Singing like a cell phone
Sounding like a minuet
Feeling like the mojo
That isn’t in you yet
But it’s the song you can’t forget
The National Weather Service warned
Everybody in town before It blew ashore

2.Far Off Shapes

I have a local retail store; it’s a haberdashery
Haberdashers sell hats and we do so happily
Day after day, It’s wake and make my way to my place of work
On the way, I wave to the maids, bricklayers, and the soda jerk
And I think that I should sweep the walk
So I do but no one stops to talk
Far off shapes are difficult to see
Long, long ways between you and me
Frank the Bear was a prominent citizen in my home town
But nobody really much liked havin’ him around
It wasn’t that
Frank wasn’t charming or a patron of the arts
Or that Frank wasn’t kind when he went to the auto parts store to buy parts
But Frank would eat someone every once in a while
And no one could forgive his bloody smile
One thing follows another
That’s what mother said
If snake kills mongoose’s brother
Snake will turn up dead
I’m not saying nothing ever makes sense That would be too much
All I’m saying’s when two things are close,
That doesn’t mean they touch

3.No One Was Prepared

I set out across the desert with a camel
And a red rider wagon full of water for the hot days
Hank came along with a hanging bag of handsome clothes
He said he needed something for crazy crazy parties
Nancy called before the cell phone service flickered out
Like a candle at the start of a rainstorm
She said something about her granddad right before he died
Saw a light, and said now maybe we can transform
No one was prepared
I tried hard to remember what she told me that he said
But the words wouldn’t come when I was half gone
Then when suddenly I’m utterly defeated I can hear
Every word I ever heard, but I’d forgotten

4.O, How The Mighty Have Fallen

Oh how the mighty have fallen
Out of our memories like
Cancelled TV shows
And losing candidates for the presidency
Oh, how the mighty have fallen
We used to cower, bow, or tremble
Now we just laugh at the very thought of what they held to be sacred in their lives
Soothe my troubled heart
Oh how the mighty have fallen
From the skies where they once criss-crossed
In fighter jets, and sweater vests,
Smoking cigarettes at a swank martini bar
Oh how the mighty have fallen
On some forgotten hill
They try to end their lives
And have to cry for help from the stranger who wanders by
Don’t tell anybody
I don’t want the word to get out
Don’t tell anybody
Give me just a minute I think that I can figure this out
Soothe my troubled heart

5.He Was Never Seen Again

I sent the message
But the message wasn’t heard
A carrier pigeon
But he would not take a bird
I wrote a note   I wrote it out by hand
And if he ever read it
Well, he did not understand

Because he got into a plane
He took the plane into the fog
He took the fog into the mountain
He was never seen again

I worked for ten years
On my grandfather’s farm
Just to be near him
But he had an awfully long arm
So I gave a tenth of
My money to the church
And I carved out my longings
In the bark of that old white birch
In what ways am I like him
The question rattles in my brain
I never thought about it much but
I should also ask how we are not the same

6.Beauty Will Break My Heart

He was lying on his bed
Closed his eyes and then he said
Time to dress the wound, I guess
She was in a rocking chair
Trying to enjoy the air of her home
One more time
Maybe Beauty will break my heart
Maybe I will finally fall apart
After all the leaves have fallen
Down on the ground, and I’m done stalling
I will lean against a dying tree,
And let the beauty break come break me
Stars in heaven, rouse yourselves
Dress up like the Christmas elves
Make me toys Make some noise
Ah, but that’s not how it works
Neither benefits nor perks
They will shine
But they’re not mine
Cinched up belts and buckles
Tightened down just so
Bozo, George and Chuckles
All the funny guys put on a show
But I think beauty will break my heart...