IN SAND

You're gone, I write your name in Sand
Shells are Pens, sun's a burning Lamp
Writing's the Door to where you make your Bed
   Here is my Hand

You left Town, I write your name in Sand
You feel like a Ghost; letters make you real
I know these Shapes are at the Tide's command
   To seize and to steal

   I write your Name & I say it out loud
   Once for the Ocean, twice for the clouds
   Three times to hear it hang in the Air
   like your Golden Hair

Can you feel when I write your name in Sand
Like a touch on your neck from my hand
Maybe you'll wake and wonder where I am
   Maybe you won't give a damn





SPEAK

There's blood on my hands
There's blood on your hands
I'll give you anything you demand

I didn't mean to do no harm
I didn't mean to do no harm
I just took the whole thing a little bit too far

I'm scared of dying Lord
I'm scared of dying Lord
And what comes after, that scares me more

I ain't gonna waste no more time
I ain't gonna waste no more time
You just get on with your job & I'll get on with mine

Judge gonna speak his words
Judge gonna speak his words
Speak on speaker, give me what I deserve




EVERY HOUR

Every hour I look down and cry
Every hour I look down and cry

   You told me you'd shield me
   You told me you'd keep me safe

   You never told me just one thing
   That I was good
   That I was any good

Every hour I look up and cry
Every hour I look up and cry

   You hold me, you shield me
   You hold me, you keep me safe

   Enfold me in your soft warm arms
   I know I'm good
   Now I know I'm good





IT'S TIME

It's time I told my heart all about you.
It's time I told my heart all about  me.





HAWK

I feel her broad span's pulse again,
I feel her broad span's pulse.
I know to put away the brush,
I know to put away the brush.

Oh here comes her wing again,
Oh here comes her wing.
I know to put away the brush,
To put it all away.

   Paints 
   blanched of color with each pass
   Here comes her wing like a scalpel to the skin
   Show me everything I've been

No cry or claw just arc of wing.
No cry no cry no claw.
I know to put away the brush, 
I know to put away the brush.

   Blade 
   through my canvas, through my lies
   Here comes her wing like a scalpel to the skin
   Show me everything I've been
   Show me everything I've been
   Show me everything I've been




NEEDLE OUT

You put the breath back in my mouth
& then you suck it out again

You take my compass, point it south
& then you make the needle spin
You make the needle spin

  You make the needle spin
  Around around around
  You suck the breath out of my mouth
  When you take the Needle out

They make the scars open again
From when i was a kid
How am I gonna seal the skin 
Where's the needle and the thread

  The needle and the thread
  They use to make the mend
  They suck the breath out of my mouth
  When they take the Needle out




SOMEBODY ELSE

And I'll bend low to that road, reach in my skin and shake out seeds, 
seeds I had no soil for, spill the blossoms that never were 
in star-sprays on the tar.
                                               
And I'll kneel down in that road, reach in my skin, pull out eggs,
eggs that in me grew so cold, cradled down so carefully
in nests of desert sand.

On the side of the road,
on the side of the road,
leave this for somebody else,
this is for somebody else.		

And I'll bend low to the road, dig in my skin, pull out the rubies,
stones I've never learned to cut, 
red stones that compete with blood 
& scratch my bones.
I'll give every cactus eyes.




HIDE FROM ME

These are my seeds,
blackflower seeds inside my soil,
& centipedes slipped in my bones.

This is my blood,
its sudden freeze & sudden thaw,
that cracks & splits my veins.

These are my mirrors,
cracked & peeled, & these are my boots
that I use to grind the neck of fear.

And you left me these lungs
to shout Him down to the ground,
with drink & spit.
But you never said
no matter what I did, no matter how loud I shout,
or how deep it sinks, it comes back.

These are my shoulders
to hunch & turn, & this is my belt
and back built for its kiss.

These are my days
of curtains drawn. These are my locks
upon all my doors.

And you left me these nights
of staring eyes. And you left me the wine
to blind me to myself.
But you never said how hard it is to hide from me.




I'M YOUR TIRED ONE

White sun was a white bruise
Behind the snowsky skin
White sun was a white bruise 
Behind the snowsky skin

Now it's not there
Now it's not there

White sun take me with you 
beneath the black ocean.
White sun take me with you 
beneath the black ocean.

White sun, I'm your tired one.
White sun, I'm your tired one.




DANDELION CLOCK

nights when the heart chews its own leg
nights when the heart chews its own leg
there is no beartrap but what i've built myself
there is no beartrap but what i've built myself

waiting for a palm to cup you
carry you to some new blue field
& set you there to bursting apart
like a dandelion clock

scurry away from the mirror again
scurry away from the mirror again
knife and some wood carve another face
knife and some wood carve another face




FATHER

Fear is the father.
Fear is the mother.
Fear is the first light
shining on your waters.

Fear is the hour
Against which I'm measured.
Fear is the bread I eat,
the ink and the letter.

Born into its arms,
borne out by its sails.

Fear is the watcher.
Fear is the listener.
The white hidden flower
that daily devours.

I can't ever build,
I can't ever love.




BLACK CROW TIME

I want the Black Crow Time.
Silhouette the Moon and Settle on my mind.
Black Crow, Black Crow, Settle on me,
Dig in your claws and whisper what I’m to be.

    I can hear my Black Crow say
    That I’m gonna die on this very day.
    ‘Round and round the snow it swirls;
    The wind it howls while my road unfurls.
         (roads tie up and tangle dreams
       while everyone I know just leaves) 

She wants the Black Crow Time.
She’s got Ribbon for skeleton and a Candlewick Spine.
Black Crow, Black Crow visit her please.
Come upon her some night in the honeysuckle breeze.

    Ignore her when you hear her say
    That she’s gonna be in love again someday.
    Black crow flap your wings and cry
    And wrap them wings around her eyes.
       (around around around around till
       she collapses to the ground) 

Our clock is striking out the Black Crow time.
With our hungry ears we can share them chimes.
Black Crow, Black Crow hover down.
Cast your white shadow all over this town.

    Make it snow; make it rain.
    Change his direction and change her name.
    Change their faces and change our souls.
    Black Crow make our eyes as black as Coal.
       (black as coal as black as night as
       black as everything in sight) 




GHOST SAILOR

Wife I am returned, after four and twenty years.
I've gold and silver earned
with my back and blood and tears.
Wife why don't you speak?
Please my love, come close to me.
I long for our bed so soft, where lazy hours spent we.

     And I've come back for good,
     just like I said I would.

Oh Wife what's in your eyes?
A distance I can't understand.
You look away from me and sigh, and brush away my hand.
Have I been gone too long?
Has another man stole your heart?
Or was our love never strong,
but only a youthful, foolish lark?

The sailor rued his life,
and opened his arms for an embrace.
But his arms passed through his wife,
his lips slipped right through her face.

     Yes he came back for good,
     just like he said he would.




MOVE WITH ME TO MEXICO

Move with me to Mexico -- come on babe.
We don’t have nowhere left to stay.
Move with me to Mexico -- I speak enough
Spanish to get us drunk.

I’ll buy you trinkets in the markets.
Little pyramids and silver crosses.

    I just want to be swallowed up in uncertainty.
    And I know this could be my black undertow --
    I don’t care; I don’t mind,
    baby leave it all behind, tomorrow. 

Coca Cola, Orange Crush -- take a drink.
The soda here is sweeter, don’t you think?
And did I tell you grandfather’s here? He’ll be amazed
--And then he’ll look at us like we’re both crazy.

He’ll show us how to grow flowers.
The noiseless night will unfold by the hour.




MACY'S GIRL

Macy’s girl, the perfume swirls,
stings your eyes to tears.
The shoes are suede, the coats cashmere,
but still you got those tears
flooding your vision.
Don’t think they’re in fashion this year --
or ever ever ever at all, my dear.

Macy’s, girl, it ain’t your world --
the carpets soaked with blood
of slaves like you whipped all day
by Gucci Pleather thugs.

But hey, it’s a paycheck
for rent and for cigarettes
and drugs
to cope with all the stupid Macy’s fucks.

Exterminator,
arsonist,
gardener,
activist,

tightrope walker,
carpenter,
stay home mom,
porno star --

Some of these things might keep you glad,
but gladness ain’t so precious --
and I know you know that you gotta
stay pissed off and vicious,
cuz anger’s so delicious.

Macy’s girl, I might be wrong but you're
sleeker by the week.
Your chagrin has shed its skin
and changed to euro-chic.

You still get bitter,
but now you make it better
with Clinique --
to bring that Macy’s pink back to your cheek;
to make the knees of Macy’s boys go weak.




FACE LIKE GLASS

Come see me
even though the feeling's gone
Come see me
even though you think it's wrong

Come see me
leave a flower on my bed
Come see me
leave a flower on my bed

 When I can't sleep, 
 I hear the crickets out in the grass
 Sometimes you sweep 
 past my bed with your face like glass

Oh, nothing, nothing ever ends
Oh, nothing, nothing ever ends