Lyrics

Impermanence

I see you only try to kill the pain

lying on the carpet like a child

impermanence in your vein

you know its never going to be the same

summers running through the everglade

rounding up the daisy chains 

all that you gave was all that you got

raindrops dripping from a parasol

making puddles to collect the blue skies

made you tremble, made you small

in the impermanence of the fall

you build a house, you change your name

I know you only try to love somebody

through your cold restraints

the stations ever passing by your train

in this moment that we cannot explain

in difference we are the same

all that we give is all that we got

sidewalks are moving slowly

like an escalator in the brickwork of a tailor

the skyline is a hummingbird

trading poems for a crossword

it takes you even deeper

you fall into a stupor of imagination

tell me where you want to go

tell me where you want to go

when all that we give is all that we got

all your life you’ve been looking for someone to love

someone to caress you

now you are lost

you felt something wasn’t right

you had your reasons

all of the quotes from Keats, TS Eliot, Byron and pope

they tore something that was yours

infantile playing in between the changing seasons

Black River

yesterday she was pulled up from the river

wearing a silver bracelet

and a bucket of stones around her pretty neck

holding an empty canvas to a mirror

I picture myself alongside of the girl on the bridge

the morning of the fall

when she was staring into a hollow abyss

reminisced slipping into the cold black river

silent capercaillies by the rivulet

hovering, the highland lass

waning in the holler by the silhouettes

everyone you know shall pass

never to feel comfort in the arms of a stranger

howling from the heathers in the gloaming mire

through clammy and slender paths

the billow turned the birches to redundant snags

unavowed we stood like icicles in the black river

stop, my little child!

you won't get further than this

I see you smile

under the frothing abyss we reconcile

we're pestilential and vile, the both of us

let's get together and dance into the void

until it stares into our soul

so hush, my little child!

come join the purgatory trip through your denial

among the carpenter bees and honey pies

we'll see the home that you left

you were a child

I was your daddy back then

do splendour tender when the morning slipped into your dream

scarlet tangerines, taffy pullers

butter beans and baseball figurines,

forever and ever buried under the cold black river

A Cabin in the Sky

wake up, Annie get your gun!

let's go to the ballgame, bright lights on 42nd street

comet over Broadway – the singing kids and smalltown girls

Kiki!

the gang's all here, three cheers for the girls and dames

wonder bar of golddiggers! Golddiggers! whoopee!

the gang's all here, and there's a cabin in the sky

a cabin in the sky!

wake up!

the gang's all here, Kiki and golddiggers

bright lights on 42nd street

coming over Broadway – the singing kids and smalltown girls

changing the lane by the Palisades Park

as the clapperboard snapped

for the darkest scene you've ever made

a kowtowing king trying to call his old mother

from the Lighthouse Café by the spring bud convertible flames

I watched the movies over and over again

replayed the scenes I cannot understand

the misery behind the symmetry

forever haunted by the trumpets

a cabin in the sky!

The Wheelbarrow

this is your life, it isn't much

learning to live, learning to touch

pulling the brakes, but still the wheels keep turning around

this is your life and it is mundane

follow the tracks in a maze through the barrens

never to find your way home

circling vultures and flickering lanterns

showed you the way to the square of your mind

moving the hands that you claim as your own

it's inevitable, it's inevitable like time

poor Lizzy McKay, she wasn't the same after the crash

according to rumors she had a relapse

or may I say: a nervous breakdown

nothing was real except the old memories of summertime

hobbling barefoot over the pebbles and bubble wrap

she was the queen

among the powder'd bag-wigs and ruffy-tuffy heads

poor Lizzy McKay, she wasn't the same after the fall

with letters from Paris and cabinet card pictures from Montreal

having a ball!

lost in the pages of the devouring summertime

Lizzy McKay created a garden of figurines and libertines

among the statues of clay

she can do anything, she can love everyone

doing the same routine over and over

sparkling diamond ring, doing the highland fling

pulling the same routine over and over

dancing through repetition

poor mr. Demille, he wasn't the same after the war

lost in delirium, he was Napoleons troubadour at Borodino

always too feeble, always too quail for the kettle drum

down at the floodgate he was a priest with a timber boom

he thought a spike broom was a gunstock of hay

he can do anything, he can fight anyone

doing the same routine over and over

cold as a diamond ring, covered in gabardine

marching through time, he gets older and older

we can do anything, we can change everyone

pulling the same routine over and over

writing a symphony of dwelling disharmony

pulling the plug is just out of the question

dance me through repetition!

spruces and foxgloves in plum colored cascades

wheelbarrows of pinecones and cloudberry cream

it's Monday, it's Tuesday, and nothing is happening

squirrels and ducks pushing marbles

the conifer forest is yours for the rest of the day

there's no way of knowing

the river keeps flowing on and on and on

this is your life, it isn't much

learning to live, learning to touch

pulling the brakes, but still the wheels keep turning around

this is your life, and it is mundane

follow the tracks in a maze through the barrens

never to find your way home

circling vultures and flickering lanterns

showed you the way to the square of your mind

moving the hands that you claim as your own,

it's inevitable, it's inevitable like time

she can do anything, he can change anyone

doing the same routine over and over

bold as a diamond ring, doing the highland fling

marching through time, they get older and older

dancing, dancing, dancing

Heart Machine

listen to the heart of the factory pumping

liquified waste of production

in a scrap yard of bones made of concrete

on the chimney top stands the last welder of languid futility

watching a torpid marsupial quagmire

ramshackle jackhammers thumping along

to the rhythm of the assembly line

listen to the heart of the factory pumping

Captain Ahab is back for the nightshift

waiting down by the docks for a shipment that may never arrive

kiss the cobalt, smell the limestone and carbon monoxide

now he is singing a song, it is:

"Glory, glory, Hallelujah!

I'm so proud to be guarding this heart machine

it is Perfect!"

like Phoebus on the crescent

dancing in a blizzard on the moon

flags are hoisted, sailors are closing the breach of the shell

ring the bell!

I'm piercing the eye of the moon

from the roof I can see perfectly clear

travelling suits of silver

mechanical telescopes

crowded barracks and scaffolds of gold

I'm piercing the eye of the moon

snowflakes, stars and orbits

mushroom umbrellas and clouds

the mourning cloak of the belching smoke

is fluttering over a house like a ghost

through foundries and wobbling grass

rusty arbors and broken glass

Beaks of Benevola

walking around in the corridor

without a sound on the hardwood floor

the savages are asleep

and the infirmary is quiet like a morgue

humming a tune from The Devil's Brigade

in the pondering sulky silence

perishable in debt he pays the rent

for all the evenings to repent

I want to be good

I want to be righteous for the perished yet unfolded

forever blind, never misunderstood

find a place in the woods

among the bluebirds on the riverbed

with shackled beaks in silence

I want to be good

it’s the end of the line

blind babies in a ballroom fade away

it’s the house of detention

out here we're lost in the haze

a thousand days are shorter than an hour in the sun

like a splinter to the spine

time is taming the untarnished

trade your soul for the bliss of believing

there are stars in the ceiling,

breeze in the curtains, grass on the floor,

china on the table and a river in the sink

creatures of the night watch sleeping on broken wings

I want to be good

I want to be righteous for the perished yet unfolded

forever blind, never misunderstood

find a place in the woods

among the bluebirds on the riverbed

with shackled beaks in silence

silence

I want to be good

Twilight Cinema

Emily's watching television every night and day

waiting for someone to save her from herself

the modern twilight cinema

there are biscuits in the basket, laughers, uppers, downers

epitaphs and pornographic literature

munchkins in the ether knitting baby clothes

in scarlet woods of cinnamon

wake up, it's a brand new day, there are eggs in the buffet

wake up, little Emily, the dimple key is stuck inside your door

there's something going on in room 11

there's no answer on the other side

hey janitor! listen, the projector is in overdrive

we've got a twilight cinema

count the bats in the trees, swirling bees in the breeze

it's Operation Bavarian Burlesque

candy colors of green from a vending machine

amplifiers and tainted little melodies, memories

a cinema, she's in the twilight cinema

a cinema, she's in the twilight cinema

since you've been gone I've been looking for a girlfriend

who looks just like Norma Shearer

in The Barrets of Wimpole Street from 1934

since you've been gone I've been looking for a girlfriend

who acts just like Mary Pickford in Poor Little Peppina

as she is playing bocce with her Beppo

Am I crazy?

Is it me or is everybody crazy?

In this house we are one big happy family

Emily - talking to a radio

playing songs that no one wants to hear

Emily - standing on the patio

longing for the applause that disappeared

a cinema, she's in the twilight cinema

a cinema, she's in the twilight cinema

full of melancholic friends, the temporary ones

the people sitting next to you will vanish in the haze

without a sign

a cinema, you're in the twilight cinema

a cinema, you're in the twilight cinema

is it happening again?

ice cream for everybody

sweets for the boys and girls

happy time is mandatory

put on your diamonds and pearls

poppers for the perverted and masochistic ballet

welcome! I've got your keycard

hope you enjoy the stay

Do-re-mi and sodomy

this house is filled with memories of ...