school night

ani

she went over to his apartment
clutching her decision
and he said, did you come here to tell me goodbye?
so she built a skyscraper of procrastination
and then she leaned out the twenty-fifth floor window
of her reply
and she felt like an actress
just reading her lines
when she finally said
yes. it's really goodbye this time
and far below was the blacktop
and the tiny toy cars
and it all fell so fast
and it all fell so far

and she said:
you are a miracle but that is not all
you are also a stiff drink and i am on call
you are a party and i am a school night
and i'm lookin' for my door key
but you are my porch light

and you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you
you'll probably think this was
just my big excuse
but i stand committed
to a love that came before you
and the fact that i adore you
is but one of my truths

what of the mother
whose house is in flames
and both of her children
are in their beds crying
and she loves them both
with the whole of her heart
but she knows she can only
carry one at a time?
she's choking on the smoke
of unthinkable choices
she is haunted by the voices
of so many desires
she's bent over from the business
of begging forgiveness
while frantically running around
putting out fires

but then what kind of scale
compares the weight of two beauties
the gravity of duties
or the ground speed of joy?
tell me what kind of gauge
can quantify elation?
what kind of equation
could i possibly employ?
and you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you
you probably think this was
just my big excuse
but i stand committed
to a love that came before you
and the fact that i adore you
is just one of my truths

so i
i'm goin' home
to please the one i so love pleasing
and i don't expect
he'll have much sympathy for my grieving
but i guess that this is the price
that we pay for the privilege
of living for even a day
in a world with so many things
worth believing
in

when you fall

anaïs mitchell and rachel ries

Don't hold me tonight
I can't stand this any longer
Don't say everything's alright
When you know there's so much wrong
And don't say that you love me
When you don't talk to me at all
You're only here with me
Cause I'm there for you when you fall

At night I sit here drinking
In front of the television blinking
The dog's out in the kitchen
She'll tip the garbage over again
Outside the air is steaming
I am barely even breathing
It's still as a graveyard
So if it's so hard
Why do I keep on trying

Don't hold me tonight
I can't stand this any longer
Don't say everything's alright
When you know there's so much wrong
And don't say that you love me
If you don't talk to me at all
You're only here with me
Cause I'm there for you when you fall

Last night I had a dream I saw you crying
Your face was frozen in a shadow
And as I reached out to hold you
You were so cold
I paint these little pictures
With a temporary poison
Each one just like the other
I wonder why I even bother
Cause you don't say that you love me
You don't talk to me at all
You're only here with me
Cause I'm there for you when you fall
You're only here with me
Cause I'm there for you when you fall

orion

by anaÏs mitchell

you were dead when they found you
on the floor of your apartment
you were dead, and your drum set
stood there shining in the dark
shining like stage lights
shining like your eyes
shining like orion in the night

you were small time back in austin
where the drummers are all poor
you were rocking out this dive bar
there were bottles on the floor
and a couple lonely people
and the bartender and i
remembered what it is to be alive

hey, orion, he’s falling
catch him if you can
hey, orion, he’s calling
amen, amen, amen

were you dreaming of the big time
when you fell down all alone?
could you see the velvet curtain
and the silver microphone?
could you hear your own heart beating?
did you hear it getting slow?
could you hear your own heart
playing rock & roll?

hey, orion, he’s falling
catch him if you can
hey, orion, he’s calling
amen, amen, amen

gram parsons in a hotel
buddy holly on a plane
and you, in your apartment
with your drum set shining
shining like stage lights
shining like your eyes
shining like orion in the night

hey, orion, he’s falling
catch him if you can
hey, orion, he’s calling
amen, amen, amen

the slant

by ani

the slant
a building settling around me
my figure female framed crookedly
in the threshold
of the room
door scraping floorboards
with every opening
carving a rough history
of bedroom scenes
the plot hard to follow
the text obscured
in the folds of sheets
slowly gathering the stains
of seasons spent lying there
red and brown
like leaves fallen
the colors of an eternal cycle
fading with the
wash cycle
and the rinse cycle
again an unfamiliar smell
like my name misspelled
or misspoken
a cycle broken
the sound of them strong
stalking talking about their prey
like the way hammer meets nail
pounding, they say
pounding out the rhythms of attraction
like a woman was a drum like a body was a weapon
like there was something more they wanted
than the journey
like it was owed to them
steel toed they walk
and i'm wondering why this fear of men
maybe it's because i'm hungry
and like a baby i'm dependent on them
to feed me
i am a work in progress
dressed in the fabric of a world unfolding
offering me intricate patterns of questions
rhythms that never come clean
and strengths that you still haven't seen

origami

by ani difranco

i am an all powerful amazon warrior
not just some sniveling girl
so no matter what i think i need
you know i can't possibly
have a need in this world

come and come for that sweet sweetness
i'll be your never ending vending machine
i could never need to be alone
never need to be my own
as much as you need your queen

i know men are delicate
origami creatures
who need women to unfold them
hold them when they cry
but i am tired of being your savior
and i am tired of telling you why

and since when did this me me me
become the be all and end all of me
oh listen to you talk to me
long time love has got to breathe, babe
you got to let it ebb and flow
if you want a ball to bounce
you gotta let it go
just let it go

i know men are delicate
origami creatures
who need women to unfold them
hold them when they cry
but i am tired of being your savior
and i am tired of telling you why

shroud

by ani difranco

i had to leave the house of fashion
go forth naked from its doors
cuz women should be allies
not competitors
and i had to leave the house of god
cuz the cross replaced the wheel
and the goddesses were out in the garden
with the plants that nourish and heal

i had to leave the house of privilege
spend christmas homeless and feeling bad
to learn that privilege is a headache
that you don't know that you don't have
and i had to leave the house of television
to start noticing the clouds
it's amazing the stuff you see
when you finally shed that shroud

i had to leave the house of conformity
in order to make art
i had to be more or less true
to learn to tell the two apart
and i had to leave the house of fear
just about as soon as i could crawl
ignore my face on the wanted posters
stuck to the post office wall

i had to leave the house of self-importance
to doodle my first tattoo
realize a tattoo is no more permanent
than i am, and who
ever said that life is suffering
i think they had their finger on the pulse of joy
ain't the power of transcendence
the greatest one we can employ

unrequited

by ani difranco

he had all kind of reasons
why she was unable to love him
she was just too young
she was too high strung
she was afraid of commitment
but all of the theories
that he recited
played like the song
of the unrequited

baby, how long's it been now
since you held me to your chest
and told me that you love me
more than all the rest
it's such a shame that you won't talk to me
cuz i won't repeat after you
i believe that there is more to life
we coulda loved each other through
but i was afraid of commitment
when it came to you

i'll tell you, if there is one instinct
i just can't get with at all
it's the urge to kill something beautiful
just to hang it on your wall
are you just too young
are you too high strung
to actually follow through
on all the love you said you had
baby i never lied to you

is all or nothing
the best we can do?

when i said doo wop, i meant early rock 'n' roll

The Wanderer
Dion

Well I'm the type of guy who will never settle down
Where pretty girls are well you know that I'm around
I kiss'em and I love'em 'cause to me they're all the same
I hug'em and I squeeze'em they don't even know my name
They call me the wanderer - yeah -the wanderer
I roam around around around around

Oh, well there's Flo on my left arm and there's Mary on my right
And Janie is the girl well that I'll be with tonight
And when she asks me which one I love the best
I'll tear open my shirt and show her Rosie on my chest
'Cause I'm the wanderer - yeah -the wanderer
I roam around around around around

Oh, well I roam from town to town
I go through life without a care
And I'm as happy as a clown
And with my two fists of iron but I'm going no way on

Oh yeah, I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around
I'm never in one place I roam from town to town
And when I find myself fallin' for some girl
I hop right into that car of mine I drive around the world
Yeah I'm a wanderer yeah the wanderer
I roam around around around around
Let's go

Oh yeah, I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around
I'm never in one place I roam from town to town
And when I find myself fallin' for some girl
I hop right into that car of mine drive around the world
'Cause I'm a wanderer yeah the wanderer
I roam around around around around around around
'Cause I'm a wanderer yeah the wanderer
I roam around around around around around around around
'Cause I'm a wanderer I'm a wanderer

---

It was more relevant in my head, I think, but, there it is. And I think there is actually another song that would make even more sense, but I can't remember the name. And by this point I have forgotten what we were even talking about besides Emily's many, many foreign girlfriends.

your rocky spine

by the Great Lake Swimmers

I was lost in the lakes
And the shapes that your body makes
That your body makes, that your body makes
That your body makes

The mountains said I could find you here
They whispered the snow and the leaves in my ear
I traced my finger along your trails
Your body was the map, I was lost in it

Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you, and now you're mine
Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you, and now you're mine

I was moving across your frozen veneer
The sky was dark but you were clear
Could you feel my footsteps
And would you shatter, would you shatter, would you

And with your soft fingers between my claws
Like purity against resolve
I could tell, then and there, that we were formed from the clay
And came from the rocks for the earth to display

They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind blows a venomous rage through your hair
They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind rages through your hair

for krystal

Kermit: Hey, Debbie, what’s this I hear about you wanting to do a rainbow song?
Debbie: Yeah. I just dig songs about rainbows.
Kermit: Oh, good.
Debbie: I sent you a list.
Kermit: Yeah, I got the list. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.”
Debbie: Well, yeah, which one should I do?
Kermit: Well you left out one rainbow song.
Debbie: I did?
Kermit: Yeah. My rainbow song.
Debbie: Oh, that one. I thought you might be tired of that.
Kermit: Actually, no. I’m not tired of it at all.
Debbie: Well let’s do it then.
Kermit: Oh, good. I thought you’d never ask. It goes like this:


The Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side
Rainbow's are visions
They're only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some chose to
Believe it
But I know they're wrong wait and see

Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

Who said that every wish
Would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that
And someone believed it
And look what it's done so far
What's so amazing
That keeps us star gazing
What so we think we might see

Someday we'll find it
That Rainbow Connection
The lovers the dreamers and me

Have you been half asleep
And have you heard voices
I've heard them calling my name
Are these the sweet sounds that called
The young sailors
I think they're one and the same
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
There's something that I'm supposed to be

Someday we'll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me

passing afternoon

by Iron & Wine



There are times that walk from you
Like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window
Of her honeymoon

And she chose a yard to burn
But the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir
Her Bougainvillea blooms

There are things that drift away
Like our endless numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the
Perfect bed she made

And she's chosen to believe
In the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from their
Piles of fallen leaves

There are sailing ships that pass
All our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children until she
Lets them go at last

And she's chosen where to be
Though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of
Bougainvillea seeds

There are things we can't recall
Blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in
Her fragile china dolls

But my hands remember hers
Rolling round the shaded ferns
Naked arms, her secrets still like
Songs I'd never learned

There are names across the sea
Only now I do believe
Sometimes with the windows closed she'll
Sit and think of me

But she'll mend his tattered clothes
And they'll kiss as if they know
A baby sleeps in all our bones so
Scared to be alone

anyday

by ani difranco

i will lean into you
and you can be the wind
i will open up my mouth
and you can come rushing in
you can rush in so hard
and make it so i can't breathe
i breathe too much anyway
i can do that anyday

i just wish i knew who you were
i wish you'd make yourself known
probably you don't know i'm her
the woman you want to call home
i'll keep my ear to the wall
i'll keep my eye on the door
'cause i've heard all my own jokes
and they're just not funny anymore
i laugh too much anyway
i can do that anyday

have you ever been bent or pulled
have you ever been played like strings
if i could see you i could strum you
i could break you
make you sing
but i guess you can't really see the wind
it just comes in and fills the space
and every time something moves
you think that you have seen its face
and i've always got my guitar to play
but i can do that anyday

grey

by ani difranco

the sky is grey
the sand is grey
and the ocean is grey

and i feel right at home
in this stunning monochrome
alone in my way

i smoke and i drink
and every time i blink
i have a tiny dream

but as bad as i am
i'm proud of the fact
that i'm worse than i seem

what kind of paradise am i looking for?
i've got everything i want and still i want more
maybe some tiny shiny thing
will wash up on the shore

you walk through my walls
like a ghost on tv
you penetrate me

and my little pink heart
is on its little brown raft
floating out to sea

and what can i say
but i'm wired this way
and you're wired to me

and what can i do
but wallow in you
unintentionally
what kind of paradise am i looking for?
i've got everything i want and still i want more
maybe some tiny shiny key
will wash up on the shore

regretfully
i guess i've only got three
simple things to say:
why me?
why this now?
why this way?
with overtones ringing
and undertows pulling away
under a sky that is grey
on sand that is grey
by an ocean that's grey

what kind of paradise am i looking for?
i've got everything i want
and still i want more
maybe some tiny shiny key
will wash up on the shore

shenandoah

by anais mitchell

lord have mercy on my mind
mercy on my memory
I'm lying 'neath the same Virginia sky
where she lay beside me, biding time
trying to abide me
every night when the night was long
she was clinging to me
told me twice that her love was strong
stronger than the love in old love songs
she was singing to me

o, shenandoah
cross the rolling water
o, shenandoah
where's your restless daughter?

don't know what I gave them for
all my little lessons
how you start the peas before the corn
how you start before the air is warm
she was never listening
I could see it there in her sorry eyes
hear it in her breathing
didn't come to me like some surprise
didn't even ask her why
when she said, "I'm leaving"

o, shenandoah
cross the rolling water
o, shenandoah
where's your willful daughter?

I brought in the winter squash
I brought in the melon
cortland, empire, macintosh
on the afternoon before the frost
I could feel it coming
I can see her now in her flowery clothes
all those things I bought her
trailing her perfume wherever she goes
cross the rolling water
shenandoah
where's your reckless daughter?
shenandoah
mercy on your daughter

middle distance runner

by Sea Wolf



Well I'm so sad tonight
And the words won't come out right
It's been a long day on the track
And its stamina that I lack

So won't you run to me tonight?
Tonight could turn but we're just lovers
But I'll only ever be a middle distance runner

Well my heart is beating hard
And I'm off with a shot at the start
And my legs tremble from strain
But by the finish line I am drained

So won't you run to me tonight?
Tonight let's not talk about next summer
Cause I'll only ever be a middle distance runner

Well I'm so proud tonight
Of the woman you've become
And I'm just too tired to fight
So my darling, I'll succumb

But you'll have to run to me tonight
Tonight I will love you forever
But I'll only ever be a middle distance runner

looking for the holes

by ani difranco

i am looking for the holes
the holes in your jeans
because i want to know
are they worn out in the seat
or are they worn out in the knees

there are so many ways to wear
what we have before it's gone
to make use of what is there
you know i don't wear anything i can't wipe my hands on

oh, do your politics fit between the headlines
are they written in newsprint, are they distant
mine are crossing an empty parking lot
they are a woman walking home
at night
alone
they are six string that sing
and wood that hums against my hipbone

we can't afford to do anyone harm
we owe them our lives
each breath is recycled from someone else's lungs
our enemies are the very air in disguise

you can talk a great philosophy
but if you can't be kind to people
every day
it doesn't mean that much to me
it's the little things you do
the little things you say
it's the love you give along the way

when we patch things up
they say a job well done
but when we ask the question why
where did the rips come from?
they say we are subversive
and extreme, of course
we are just trying to track a problem to its source

we are looking for the holes
the holes
we are looking for the holes
the holes

because we know we can't sit back
and let people come to harm
we owe them our lives
each breath is recycled from someone else's lungs
our enemies are the very air
our enemies are the air

i am looking for the holes
the holes in your jeans
because i want to know
are they worn out in the seat
or are they worn out in the knees

radio war

by Iron & Wine

Did the wine make her dream
Of the far distant spring
Or a bed full of hens
Or the ghost of a friend

All the while that she wept
She had a gun by her bed
And a letter he wrote
From a dry, foundered boat

And the train track will take
All the wounded ones home
And I’ll be alone
Fare thee well Sara Jones

Now we lie on the floor
While the radio war
Finds its way through the air
Of the dead market square

And the beast never seen
Licks its red talons clean
Sara curses the cold
"No more snow, no more snow, no more snow"