LYRICS

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CALIFORNY

You and me
Trading shots
In the parking lot
Our love’s no good
But hey that’s all we got
I take you out
You draw me in
Then you sink your teeth into my skin
Let’s have this out
Let’s have this out

I wouldn’t trade you for anything
Not for all the candy on Halloween
I
I wouldn’t change you for anything
Not for all the sand in Californy

Take the car
Think of the Mona Lis
How much I hate that sneaky face
Squeeze the cut
Let it bleed
Like how the red looks on a long sleeve
When I get back
Hope you’ve packed your things
But when I hope that hope that hope it stings
Well count me out
Well count me out

I wouldn’t trade you for anything
Not for all the candy on Halloween
I
I wouldn’t change you for anything
Not for all the sand in Californy

When will we
When will we
When will we
End this whole masquerade?
When will we
When will we
When will we
End this whole masquerade?
When will we
When will we
When will we
End this whole masquerade?
When will we
When will we
When will we
End this?

I wouldn’t trade you for anything
Not for all the candy on Halloween
I
I wouldn’t change you for anything
Not for all the sand in Californy

I wouldn’t trade you for anything
Not for all the candy on Halloween
I
I wouldn’t change you for anything
Not for all the sand in Californy

I wouldn’t trade you for anything



PICK UP YOUR DAYDREAMS

Falling back down to earth
Free and unburdened
Into the atmosphere
Diving and turning
No time for pain or fear
Everything’s coming
Everything’s coming down

Pick up your daydreams oh
From so long ago
Now so far from home
Pick up your daydreams oh
Life is no story
So leave your life-story
Everything must be left 


Parked at the library
I forgot it
The stain of youth
I forgot it
I shiver and climb the roof
I forgot it
Bless this forgetting head

Pick up your daydreams oh
From so long ago
Now so far from home
Pick up your daydreams oh
Life is no story
So leave your life-story
Everything must be left
Soon there’ll be nothing left



NIGHTSHIRT

When you look at me that way
Through the panes of glass
You’d never think that we were
Just stopping to get some gas
In that diner with our plates scraped clean
You lean on me and blankly stare
If indeed the world collapses
I want it to happen when we just don’t care

You sit in your nightshirt
At the kitchen table
Shoulders bent over
In the dying of the light

In the springtime when our feet get cold
Walking through the parks
We spend the nights moving back and forth
Tandem, desperate, dark

You sit in your nightshirt
At the kitchen table
Shoulders bent over
In the dying of the light

Terrible wires tie us together
Like puppet and puppeteer 
Who is who that’s what we wonder
As we jerk here and there

You sit in your nightshirt
At the kitchen table
Shoulders bent over
In the dying of the light

You sit in your nightshirt
At the kitchen table
Shoulders bent over
In the dying of the light



NO HARMONY

I’ve been watching
the little critters stir
paws and claws out
to build a nest of new fervor
no fear of failure
no space for empty words
someday I’m leaving
this hollow shaven face

when I am alone
(house vibrating and sun naked)
when I am alone
there’s a harmony in my mind
there’s a harmony in my mind

pay the dealer
to prove you’re not insane
on the weekends
I’ve been seeing my lover
tired candles
tired hands uncurled
now the only silence
is the kind that makes me shiver

when I am in love
(and I’m asleep no longer)
when I am in love
there’s no harmony in my mind
there’s no harmony in my mind
there’s no harmony in my mind
there’s no harmony in my mind



OUR SECRETS

when you told me we’d never get married
but you still want to sleep in my bed
well you can if you want to
but where will we land in the end?

I don’t know when to walk away from you
I don’t know when to walk away from you
I don’t know when to walk away from you

if I’m scared every time that you kiss  me
does that mean I should push you away
because I don’t want  to
I still want you I still want you to be my mistake

I’ve been keeping our secrets a secret
just the way that you asked me to do
but would my friends believe me
if I asked for help to escape

I don’t know how to walk away from you
I don’t know how to walk away from you
I don’t know how to walk away from you
I don’t know how to walk away from you



BRICK AND SLATE

You had the house at the end of the lane
It was made of brick and slate
Standing by your bookshelf I said desire makes us strong
Didn’t want to know, you didn’t want to know

Soldered down the center on the line that we had made
It’s more than a give and take
I did not expect that love would take away my dreams
I just thought it’s what you do in your mid-twenties

you were tucked into the caverns of your coat
I told you lies that turned you old
you moved out to Portland and I went the other way
we haven’t spoken since and I try not to feel ashamed

Dreary in my memory I see that house of brick and slate
It stands like the pillars of fate
If I had not gone in and come out the other side
Who knows what kind of blindness I’d have to hide
Who knows what kind of blindness I’d have to hide



THE DOG AND AMERICA’S DAUGHTERS

Over one week in the summer
Every steamy afternoon
I would walk to the house of my vacationing neighbor
And take care of his pooch
I wandered the quiet hallways
And sat in empty rooms
Me and the dog and the smell of summer
And my lustful adolescent mood

I could almost see through the veil of Maya
I could almost see over the edge of the world
From page to page in six days I was made
And on the seventh all dogs go to heaven

In the dusty sunlit bathroom
Was a stack of magazines
Sitting in a brown woven basket
Like a baby floating in the reeds
They were chock full of pictures
Of women in lingerie
I had stumbled into this mans pleasure garden
And into it I too would stray

Back I went each day
To feed and play and gaze
With the dog and America's daughters
Until all of the drive went away

Each evening on the walk back home
Staggering and dazed
I found that the light was not so bright
But I would never get out of that maze

I could almost see through the veil of Maya
I could almost see over the edge of the world
Would they be diamonds on which Jesus was suckled?
The impossible could almost be seen