1. |
The Birch House
03:31
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Leaves are frozen to the ground
The whites of our coats
the ice in our throats
and we have gone to our birch house
sleeping in the moonlight
Lips are trembling inside the walls
of peeling white wood
a feeling of 'should'
And I hope that you feel the same
because I’m touching your shoulder
But here, so far from the steeples
and painted horses
I could have found a place to lay my head
if you had loved me instead
Hail is pouring from the sky
It knocks the walls down
the branches all drown
and I know that I’m trapped inside
and I won’t make it out
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2. |
Calloused Hands
05:45
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Those bright blue eyes that hold your years
like calloused hands hold butterflies
so warm and worn and worldly-wise—
a dream I will not realize
So I come to you clawless
holding out my arms
and hoping you’ll choose to jump
because I cannot capture you
or enrapture you
unless you want me to
So would you keep this lost black sheep?
I’ve nowhere else to go but to sleep
And one thing I’ve learned
is that your concern runs deep
but must be earned
Those days I do not see you
you lay dormant in my thoughts
With furrowed brow, you haunt me now,
pen scratching lines of poem
You are waiting, weeping, wounded
So would you keep this lost black sheep?
I’ve nowhere else to go but to sleep
And one thing I’ve learned
is that your concern runs deep
but must be earned
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3. |
Hunter
03:56
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I’m a hunter
and you are such easy prey
I’m a hunter
my deer, you’ll give yourself away
I’ll leave you paralyzed
with wounds that I’ll cauterize
so you’ll have to choose
whether to live or to die
by my side
I’ll lure you in
with love, lust and sin
to feel your hot breath on my skin
I’ll lure you in
with love, lust and sin
to feel your hot breath on my skin
that’s how it all begins
Because I’m a hunter
and you are such easy prey
I’m a hunter
my deer, you’ll give yourself away
I’ll leave you paralyzed
with wounds that I’ll cauterize
so you’ll have to choose
whether to live or to die
by my side
I’ve lured you in
with love, lust and sin
to feel your hot breath on my skin
I’ve lured you in
with love, lust and sin
to feel your hot breath on my skin
that’s how this all will end
Because I’m a—
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4. |
Like a Child
03:39
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I hide my head under the covers
I feel my hot, wet breath in the dark
You whisper like a wounded lover
making static sparks
You strip the sheets and cry,
“Why do you always have to act like a child?”
And I touch your blushing cheek
as I try my hardest to smile
for you
You brush my hand off with your chin
my fingers pale and cold in the light
I hope someday to be forgiven
but I know it won’t be tonight
I rip the sheets and cry
Why do I always have to act like a child?
And I’m such a fucking creep
that I throw up shame and black bile
I’m sorry that I did this to you
I’m sorry that none of it was true
These weren’t the plans I’d laid
it’s just that I was afraid
to be unmade
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5. |
Pinch
04:09
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I could never find the words to say, “I don’t”
But how much can you really say with words alone?
When I was ten, I knew
that I could never have you
so I resigned to
pretend the lie was true
Here lie the lies that tied me to this life
I finally sigh goodbye to my dear wife
she cries
But I know why the sky is rife
with overcoats and old rye
When we were wed, I knew
that I could never love you
but I’d resigned to
pretend the lie was true
And now I pinch myself to sleep
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6. |
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You unbutton your collar
in your faded three-piece suit
glass of scotch in hand
the serpent and the fruit
We all give in
when given the option
Who’s to say it’s sin?
You strike a crimson matchhead
and breathe in the sulfury smoke
You light your cigarette
a punchline without a joke
We all breathe in
like breathing temptation.
Smoke becomes oxygen
And the devil’s not to blame
he just gave us the choice
If we couldn’t make the right decision
then why do we have voice?
Your hand slowly quivers
The ice clinks against your glass
The bite gives you shivers
tomorrow we shall die, but alas…
We all wear thin
where skin has been broken
exposing where we’ve been
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7. |
Heart of Bronze
04:07
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You started a fire in
the hearth of my heart
the windows bound in briars
that pull the panes apart
We slept in the moon
We slept like children
Your heart of bronze
brought back the smell of the marshy ponds
where we used to chase the corpse candles
and steal the ivory frogs
We fell in love
We fell into the water
And we floated up with the leaves
into the trees that wrote us an elegy
We wrote our love in the breeze
with peonies that fell along our symphony
We broke down onto our knees
like all the thieves whose loves never shall be
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8. |
The Soft War
04:44
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This soft war melts the sinewy tether that
held us together when our faces burned red in the sun
And I remember crying into your collar
And when we fell in the cool clear waters of
Saddleback ridge the week before your father was dead
I held your hands under the water
And we kissed in the sun
like we’d never have to leave anyone
and you asked me, “On a scale from one to suicide,
how sad would you be if I died?”
But everything of beauty I see in this world
to me has to be just a little bit sad
That’s why I’m fighting through love’s squalor
And now I pick the lint from your hair and you
Whisper a sigh though I know you’re just hiding a smile
I’m still your lamb for the slaughter
But we can make it home
We can live inside the ending of a poem
And I never felt like I was any good
Until you touched the back of my neck and said you would
And I haven’t cried in eight years
But I’ve been trying for at least three
And if you changed your mind, I swear to God
The strangest thing would happen: we’d be in love
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9. |
The Next Five Minutes
03:07
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Down in the snowy woods
A cabin in the moonlight
We saw
A deer trace a winding path
Through the backyard
And our thawing hearts
We kiss in the trees
Oh, we keep our lips steady
And I’ve always been ready
But I waited for your blessing
You sing me lullabies
With melodies so simple and sweet
That I can’t help but fall asleep
There’s no one to interrupt
We have all the time we need
Even if that’s only
The next five minutes
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