DUST CITY OPERA
HEAVEN
HEAVEN
I wanna get high
And go up on the roof
Where a sad plastic bag
Flutters like birds set loose
I want to reach that bag
And free it from it’s torment
And the dry fingers tearing at it
Every moment
I want to be that bag
To be heard from up above
And seen only when peering
To the sky, thinking of
When in heaven we shall meet
Or be hung just out of reach
Like that sad plastic bag
Fluttering in the breeze
I want to be that bag
To be heard from up above
And seen only when peering
To the sky, thinking of
When in heaven we shall meet
Or be hung just out of reach
Like that sad plastic bag
Fluttering in the breeze
Like that sad plastic bag
Fluttering in the breeze
LEMON MOON
The gravel on the road to your house
Softens with the evening’s passing
In the dusky air I start to fade away
And dream the sad dreams I dream everyday
Somewhere between the treetops
And the fading light I’ll find you
That lemon moon that comes to take away
I forget where I was going
And start to lose my way
Under the lemon moon the last place that I saw you
Is the first thing I forget
And as the night she moves in me I’m as I was before you
A half imagined ghost whom you once knew
Or maybe knew
The gravel on the road to your house
Softens with the evening’s passing
In the dusky air I start to fade away
And dream the sad dreams I dream everyday
Somewhere between the treetops
And the fading light I’ll find you
That lemon moon that comes to take away
I forget what I was doing
And start to lose my way
Under the lemon moon the last place that I saw you
Is the first thing I forget
And as the night she moves in me I’m as I was before you
A half imagined ghost whom you once knew
Or maybe knew
TWENTY YEARS
Spent twenty years sharpening this knife
She’s gonna see that I’m still alive
And when the cold wind creeps into my room
I’ll be there soon
Her little house looks so lonely by the lake
Where she prays the Lord her soul to take
Billy Bly won’t see you anymore
When I’m at your door
Spent twenty years sharpening this knife
She’s gonna see that I’m still alive
And when the cold wind creeps into my room
I’ll be there soon
She whispered to me sweetly and said please
She could always get my on my knees
And when she asked a favor to be done
I was the one
Spent twenty years sharpening this knife
She’s gonna see that I’m still alive
And when the cold wind creeps into my room
I’ll be there, I’ll be there, I’ll be there
Soon
FOR YAQI
Every heart is yearning
Trying to find home
I’ve come so far away
To a place that I don’t know
A place that I don’t know
People keep on talking
Their real selves never show
The smiles and the laughter
Are from a place that I don’t know
A place that I don’t know
And oh, my love
We are here with you
My heart is open to
Ones I knew so long ago
At home across an ocean
In a place that I don’t know
A place that I don’t know
A place that I don’t know
A place that I don’t know
ESTATE SALE
It feels like either die
Or sit here and go crazy
I’ve broken every mirror
Put these holes in the wall
I watch cars go by all day
Do they wonder what goes on in here
It doesn’t really matter
I just sleep and watch the TV
Oh darlin'
I don’t know why I’m dyin'
It’ll be better when it’s over
And they’ll come and sell our things
I can’t wait for the day
I’ll be dressed in red
Someone’s gonna find me here
With the radio on
Oh darlin'
I don’t know why I’m dyin'
It’ll be better when it’s over
And they’ll come and sell our things
I can’t wait for the day
I’ll be dressed in red
Someone’s gonna find me here
With the radio on
It feels like either die
Or sit here and go crazy
I’ve broken every mirror
Put these holes in the wall
I watch cars go by all day
Do they wonder what goes on in here
It doesn’t really matter
I just sleep and watch the TV
I can’t wait for the day
I’ll be dressed in red
Someone’s gonna find me here
With the radio on
I NEED A MAN
I like cowboys when I’m thirsty
I like cowboys when I drink
I’m gonna find myself a cowboy
I’m gonna dress him up in pink, yeah
I like sailors when I’m swimming
I like sailors dressed in pink
Can you help me out there sailor
I think I’m gonna sink, yeah
Oh, I need a cowboy
Oh, I need a man
Oh, I need a sailor, baby
Oh, damn
I like truckers when it’s raining
I like truckers when it’s late
I’m gonna flag me down a trucker, baby
I’m gonna take that motherfucker on a date, yeah
Oh, I need a cowboy
Oh, I need a man
Oh, I need a sailor, baby, oh
Oh, damn
COLUMBIA DRIVE
I remember the night, Columbia Drive
The kitchen light, her name in my phone
And her going home
I never had asked a girl out so fast
But she, she made it so easy
Her name was Haley B
But I took too much time, couldn’t make my mind up
What to say to Haley B
In 2003
And I heard later that week she stepped into the street
She’d left a note, lipstick in her car
Idling in the dark
Oh, Haley B, we weren’t meant to be
But the night you died, could it have been sweet
If I’d called you that week
Oh Haley B, why did you leave
That winter night while I sat at home
Staring at my phone
I remember the night, Columbia Drive
The kitchen light, her name in my phone
And her going home
BRING ME BACK HOME
The streets are awash with the blood of the angels
Somewhere a voice is calling to me
And a pale horse will meet me at the scene of my falling
If my feet don’t stop and take me back home
There’s a tear in a river for each breath I lose
I can feel the light fading in this tunnel of doom
Staggering in one boot I cried out to you
Put down the phone and bring me back home
A foreign text is crowding my vision
Patterning the faces that are fading from view
I’d reach for your hand if I could just find my own
Oh, I’m so far from home
As the tears fill the river of life that I lose
I can feel the light turn colder in this tunnel of doom
Staggering in one boot I cried out to you
Put down the phone and bring me back home
Put down the phone and bring me back home
Put down the phone and bring me back home
THE FLOOR
Fingers drag the floor
We don’t know you anymore
Here is once where you stood
Sleeping now feels so good
Light that shone through the wind
Here it lies once again
Covered ears hear no sound
When your lips touch the ground
Ooh
Fingers drag the floor
We don’t know you anymore
ROMANCE FOR THE END OF DAYS
Oh to be dancing on a cloud
In the fading light of a dying star
The acid rain is falling
And my dear, I’m falling for you
Autumn gold to green
December low of 80 degrees
The mercury’s not falling
But my dear, I’m falling for you
When noxious fumes surround us
And the ears of antelope turn
I’ll be holding you for an instant
As we watch the stratus burn
As embers lighten the falling snow
We’ll huddle in craters, take flight from the cold
The endless night is falling
And my dear, I’m falling for you
And my dear, I’m falling for you
And my dear, I’m falling for you
CIGARETTES AND INTERNET
Well I scraped up some change for some black beans in a can
Tired and lonely is just what I am
They’re gonna turn off my lights, but I still don’t wanna work
Well my Warcraft account is on indefinite hold
A twenty dollar bill seems like a pocket full of gold
Well there ain’t no one can keep me here
I just don’t know where to go
Cigarettes and internet and 40’s of High Life
Everyday I wake up to Mike’s Apartment and some cheating wives
Then I get high and go back to sleep
Well it ain’t no mystery why I’m so lonely and bored
I use my neighbor’s internet for Myspace and free porn
Well I won’t say I’m proud of it, it’s just the way it goes
Cigarettes and internet and 40’s of High Life
Everyday I wake up to Mike’s Apartment and some cheating wives
Then I get high and go back to sleep
Cigarettes and internet and 40’s of High Life
Everyday I wake up to Mike’s Apt. and some cheating wives
Then I get high and go back to sleep
Well I scraped up some change for some black beans in a can
Tired and lonely, lord, is just the way I am
They’re gonna turn off my lights but I still don’t wanna work
Still don’t wanna work, ooh
A PLACE
It's a place where you can stare out and still see grass growing fair
It's a place where your feet fall in forests of summer's green hair
Restless thoughts seeped through my head
Sunk to the bottom of the river bed
Where toes remembered smooth stones,
Bones of fish and of memories long dead
And in that moment, our place
Peeked it's sunshine through the trees
It's a place where you can stare out and still see grass growing fair
It's a place where your feet fall in forests of summer's green hair
It's a place where the evening pours its sun like honey through the air
It's a place where the stars are ours
I waded through soft seas
To the dry, salt land where we laid
Flowers rose from the earth
Where the water and woods shook hands
And for a moment that place became our place again
The sun behind the pines
Your eyes soft on mine
Like dew drops forming on flowers
And the stars are ours