MADE FOR THE ASKING

if there are things made for the asking
and you can never take too much
I’d imagine you were lasting
much longer than your touch

I read there are virgins having babies
born with alien eyes
maybe this whole world is going crazy
standing in the check out line

but I can see how these
impossible things I need
they could have some kind
of chance at life
here in the lies
where Paul is dead
and Elvis is alive

cross my heart Saint Theresa’s crying
real tears from a stone
if hearts are speaking after dying
maybe mine, maybe mine can let you know
that if there are things made for the asking
and you can never take too much
I’d imagine you were lasting
much longer than your touch

If there are things made for the asking
and you can never can never take too much

TWENTY QUICK FINGERS

tell me again what will inspire
I forget like sin
I’m half of the blood that came before
I’m half just stepping in

two feet follow footsteps
while two more step out sure
one head hears the past that’s always calling
while the other one’s out the door

but after the higher ground’s left vacant
after there’s less than I came for
twenty quick fingers will do the making
reaching out for something more

I stumble along and shift like wind
across the great divide
where history and a vision spin
no one will be denied
two hands do the shaking

while two are resting still
one heart doubts until it’s backsliding
while the other one trusts the hill

chorus

if time is liquid maybe evasion is a stone
and sinking is the only thing worse than
facing the great unknown

chorus

twenty quick fingers will do the making
twenty quick fingers will do the making

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WENDY O

Wendy O you were made of commotion
you’re the wire that sparked the things that burned
I believe, I believe in the story of the ocean
every tide will turn

the light of the day will surely come
to turn the tables when we’re done
who leaps like fire can fall like rain

Wendy O were you nobody’s daughter
before you were born to the stage
was the ink on your skin
in the lights growing dim
like a fish out of water
was there nothing you could save

chorus

Wendy O read your name in the paper
two hundred words to say you’re gone, gone, gone
said you moved to the woods
hope the birds understood you were able
to light up, to light up a song

chorus

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GHOST

I’m living up with a ghost in a steel high rise
guess she made the news
when the first couple tenants
passed right trough
she turned the locks on the door
the day that I stepped in and I said
listen here baby you just can’t win
cause I’ve come in off the street
and it’s a hell of a world out there
and I think that’s got you beat

every hour on the hour she breaks the glass
and then slams the door
but it’s hard to hear it in the city
on the thirteenth floor
must be a hell of a job when your
trying to terrify with an old bag of tricks
rattling the pipes bone dry
cause there’s a factory up the street
you can’t drink the water anyway
and I think that’s got you beat

I’m catching the moon
through the street light glare
tracing the skyline back to where
a walk through the walls
in the middle of the night
could look so wrong
in a world so right

there’s an old black and white
in the new town hall
of the first paved road
I wonder if that’s you by the A frame
where this high rise goes
you must have taken this city on
like rolling thunder back in the day
the simple days of wonder
now it’s a six lane street
and it’s a hell of a world out there
and I think that’s got you beat

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IN THE BLUE LIGHT

Jenna’s road was paved with gold
I’d see her come and I’d see her go
with glittered shoes of crimson red
she never cared about what they said
made all her promises in the open
dried all her failures out on the line

the boys were watching
it only looked like killing time
holding out and holding in
towing the line
a whole world will be sinking
when the moon fills up the night
there in the blue light
in the blue

now Jenna’s room is the weak perfume
of traded wings for lovers blooms
with his favorite shoes and his favorite dress
and his secrets she’d never confess
spends all her time by the window hoping
her hair in the wind waving bye
good bye

chorus

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HEROES

I’m ordinary can’t you see
I’ve never been to Tennessee
or any other place that you call from
you live your life around the world
and hold on to a simple girl
we all need an anchor in a storm

you had a dream pull up at night
long and sleek with fin tail lights
calling you to go to always go
I just said do what you need
you’ll be nothing if you recede
I can’t live with a shadow I don’t know

and you say that heroes come from quiet places
and the moon there in Vancouver ’s
a heartbeat away – a heartbeat away

sometimes when you’re gone too long
I hear your voice break on the phone
freedom isn’t everything you need
the sky sometimes gets too wide
you need a place to come inside
you say you need to listen to me breath

chorus

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EVERGREEN

Coltrane’s on a forty-five
times the test of what survives
and what will never be
the space between sound is grace
like staring pure love in the face
love take hold of me
and show me something that compares

but there you go with your danger
turning flesh and bone
into ordinary stone
there you go like a stranger
calling out in blue tones when I’m alone

love comes up without a trace
the way that spring can weave a lace
out of everything unseen
things made of the common good
they ought to be more understood
they ought to be evergreen
here you come out of thin air

chorus

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ANGELEE

Angelee comes thinking how
all of grace is in the will
everyday she makes a vow
and every day she will stand still
in the quiet leading the perfect
harmony on

Angelee is buying stones
one for strength and one for love
a feather tied around a bone
will help her keep her head above
all the violence leading
her perfect neighborhood on

oh Angelee is there any room for me
oh Angelee you pull the shade so you
can see the world that you need
the world that you need

Angelee has got a flat with double locks
apon the door
patchouli burning on a mat
in the center of the floor
where the sirens are bleeding
through perfect John Lennon songs

chorus

Angelee looks for the light
and the meaning of the poem
that speaks of fighting the good fight
but keeps her goodness safe
at home in the quiet leading the perfect
harmony on
she’s leading the perfect harmony on

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PICTURE MEMORY

picture memory perfect and clear
and what it could do to you and me dear
recollection an instant replay
of every move we’ve ever made

I’ll remember you through a soft morning haze
where the dapples of sun light up our better days
and the sorrow quite gracefully hides in the shade
lying on damp earth like paper
oh how memory serves the maker

picture memory clear as this day
hiding the truth with no faith in our strength
as if all our pearls weren’t each tied with a knot
and if one broke away we would lose the whole lot

chorus

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FAMOUS FACE

I was patching up my jeans with peace signs
while limousines carried you along from day to day
all your world in black and white up there in the tv light
till sixty-eight when color came

I saw the man land on the moon
and heard the troops won’t be home soon
America in splendor and disgrace
through the changes big and small
you were constant through it all
I guess that I was counting on your face

it’s just a famous face I know
everybody tells me so but
I imagined that we’d have some things to say

if you can fly off in the blue and I cry real tears for you
maybe you weren’t that far away
I’m a girl you’ll never know in a place you’ll never go
but I swear you left a space

the thing I like about this town
it’s got a road that takes you down
where no one ever goes
I hold on to this rusted car
because it makes it out that far
kicking mud and throwing stones

and in the open air I see
you were trying just like me
to be something more than what people say
you’re just a famous face I know
everybody tells me so
but I imagined that we’d have some things to say

chorus

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