CINEMA
FEMME FATALE
ain’t you heard that, babe, I’m trouble
and I’ve been looking for you all my life
when they see me they start running
cause trouble’s coming for you day and night
you can blame it on the stars
you can tell it to the moon
babe, I wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t feel so good
you can try and escape me but I came for you
like the sun, I get down
drape the day in a midnight black gown
and punch the buttons in the neon frown
of the jukebox til it brings me round
you can blame it on the stars
you can tell it to the moon
babe, I wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t feel so good
you can try and escape me but I came for you
ain’t you heard that I’m an angel
one kiss and it’s lights out
you can blame it on the stars
you can tell it to the moon
if you got somewhere to be you better get going soon
you can try and escape me but I came for you
you can blame it on the stars
you can tell it to the moon
baby, I used to be good but I went bad for you
you can try and escape me but i came for you
ACTRESS
off shift
ditch your diner dress
you going drinking again
french kiss
for a cigarette
tip out the bartender
actress, you’re a waitress
what you waiting on, let’s get out of here
waitress, you’re an actress
I believe you dear, it’s gonna be your year
practice your acceptance speech
in the stockroom
next to the peaches
“Take fountain.”
bonne chance, cherie
did you make your second callback?
actress, you’re a waitress
what you waiting on, let’s get out of here
waitress, you’re an actress
I believe you dear, it’s gonna be your year
make a wish
See stars
PLAY NICE
decent at pleasantries
my heart’s in my chest
my p’s & q’s on my sleeves
but I ain’t no fool & I ain’t naive
you can’t tell right from wrong
so I had to write it down
for you in a fucking love song
I ain’t no fool & I ain’t naive
you say play nice
babe I stay nice
until I need to be mean
& you like your women sweet
dolled up and gagged in dirty magazines
well I ain’t no silent doll and I ain’t that sweet
you say play nice
babe I ain’t nice
when I am told to be
you think I’m nice
that’s a dirty lie
you’ve been told to believe
that I’m sugar, syrup, saccharine
that I’m all lavender & tangerine
& if you tell me to smile please
I’ll make sure to show you my teeth
& play nice, babe, I’m as nice as a guillotine
you say play nice, babe, I’m as nice as gasoline
RIDER
you ask me to be candid as you comb your errant hair
well what, I want to whisper if my true voice is despair
or I’ve got too good at drinking or I’ve told untowardly tales
or I’ve hung too close the shimmering of your mirror on the stairs
Well I’m a free rider, I’m as free as they come
and I’ll ride on free til the day is done
I am the hourglass where the road greets the sky
and the trees line up to wave good night
I rode your motorcycle, I recall each turn we took
your back against my body, your waist inside the crook
of my arm, the only anchor oh the steel, the wheels
on the altar of the pavement where my blood signed the deal
I’m a free rider, I’m as mean as they come
but I sing real sweet when the night birds come
I am the hourglass, I am the seeking sigh
the trees lined up, the words you couldn’t find
ANIMAL
two girls drinking wine, smoking rollies
out the window by the Brighton Pier
I locked myself out of the club after my set
little bout of freedom
I guess I’ll walk while the star appears
I tell myself that it is just the sea
and the wilding effect it has on me
these days I can’t eat & when I do
I’m like an animal
and everything makes me manic
sleeping in hotels or rather not sleeping
and dancing alone to Tom Petty
in my room until the morning comes
the highs and the lows
the peaks and valleys and the fit of your clothes
is there any place I haven’t left my heart?
salt in the water, skin in the dark
and always the wind, hey
I’m an animal
and by this time in the night
everyone’s trying on their getaway clothes
they want you to know just how fast
they can go and leave you behind
tough girls don’t waste time
I swear that I’ve been down this street before
but Skylar of course
you’ve never been here before
you’re just lost and talking to yourself
like an animal
I feel I am stuck in a time loop telling me
that nothing is a coincidence
when really that’s my brain looking for
a pattern to assure me there’s some sense
to be made of chaos
some beauty to catch onto
down the tumble of time
you were just some beauty
I was trying to catch onto
oh but beauty ain’t no stationary thing
and when there’s talk of wedding rings
seems to me somebody’s always letting
somebody fall down
two girls gone now
a roadie lets me in the front door
the blondes in the bleachers howl
I climb the stage & join for the encore
SHORT STAYING
many are the jewels in my lady’s crown
many are we subjects lined up
as she is cast down
and I, a faithless unbeliever
surprise myself to cry
to find my lady fallen here
this bright morning
I call out to her mother, I call out to her love
I call out to her father to come and take her on
and all the ladies gone before
whose names I do not know
but who bore my mothers brave and sweet
old bright mornings
go on, goodbye
go on, goodbye
we are of this world short staying
we are of this world long gone
that I should write so sad a song
for my lady who so loved to laugh
the blue and white, the rising sun
this bright morning
GO AWAY
daydreamer with the nightly blues
I crossed this country for the hotel pool
I don’t think they’ll mind if we make much noise
a dip in the reverb, a swim in your voice
singing our songs to the diving board
no one’s learned me to stay
I only come to go away
long legs and week day undies
I ain’t been home in a month of sundays
if you got the cash I got the time
if you got the slant then I got the rhyme
if you wanna get high baby I’m down
no one’s learned me to stay
I only come to go away
I long to feel midnight on my skin
& then keep the sunrise company again
oh I, I am two of everything
& when I ain’t two, baby, I’m three
how many can it be today
no one’s learned me to stay
I only come to go away
HAVE WE MET SIR
have we met, sir?
you ask after who I am
you are introduced to me as a sailor
I am introduced to you as a love poet
but I do not write on love
I write on the inevitability of death
have we met, sir?
you ask after who I am
I am atoms bent in the art of impersonation
you say all artists are liars --
actors, writers, music makers
I say if they are equivocators
my family is undertakers
and I write on the inevitability of death
have we met, sir?
in the scales in the chimes
in the cane cut back
from last year’s blackberry vines
in the mainsail luffing in a red morning sky
in the incandescence lost
when you close your eyes
do you know your way home by the stars?
do the streetlights pollute where you are?
was it you, sir
stirred hurricane lilies by my bed?
put pennies in my mouth
and count each life I have led
is this the bridge that descends into the ocean?
is this the blue I never come back from?
are you the grey eyed one
are you my last companion?
there was always something in the snow
about you that I wanted
was it I so loved the light when I was the dark
here we meet, sir, here we part
WAITRESS
I give to you my troubled mind
I give to you my apple pie
I send you my regrets from this diner
I’m a loner who loves to lay low in your arms
you can’t help what it is you love
there’s lipstick on my coffee cup
I write down the words that I find you in
on a napkin, the mark of your teeth
still in my stockings
you say that I’m stuck on the blues
well they were there before you
and it’s likely they’ll be here
long after you’re gone
so I play along & keep my shades on
my dreams in cyan
all I wanted to do
was write you
a song so true it would save your life
and save mine
my, the truth might set you free
but it won’t free you from time
so I give to you my troubled mind
I give to you my apple pie
do you forgive me for
all the ways that I missed you
did I ever not miss you
in my bones, in being myself
I could be no one else