Standard (EADGBE)

You turn on a spindle

You are so much looser now

But you're not explaining how

You gained such new repose

I touch the clasp of your locket

With its picture held

Some secret you wouldn't tell

But let it choke your neck

So we imagine a darkness

Where all shapes divide

Solids changing into light

With a burst of heat so bright

Well fine

Don't you do what I want you to

Yeah, don't degrade yourself the way that I do

'Cause you don't depend upon all the shit that I use

To make my moods immmmmmprove

And near a sea of pianos

There were waves of chords

That crashed against the shore

In one huge and pointless roar

And there were girls bringing water

Like a dream they came

To cool the fever of my brain

And soothe my burning throat

And they made me a necklace

Hanging beads of sweat

On a string of my regrets

And placed it 'round my neck

And they were singing

Don't you do what you've wanted to

Yeah, don't destroy yourself like those cowards do

And maybe the sun keeps coming up 'cause it's gotten used to you

And your constant need forrrr proof

SONG - A Scale, A Mirror And Those Indifferent Clocks

Here is a scale, weigh it out and you will find easily

More than sufficient doubt that these colors you see

Were picked in advance by some careful hand

With an absolute concept of beauty

They are smeared and these blurs come in random order

To color the eyes of your former lovers

Hers were green like July except when she cried

They were red

Now I know a disease that these doctors can't treat

You contract it the day you accept all you see

Is a mirror and a mirror is all it can be

A reflection of something we're missing

And language just happened, it was never planned

And it's inadequate to describe where I am

In the room of my house where the light has never been

Waiting for this day to end

And these clocks keep unwinding and completely ignore

Everything that we hate or adore

Once the page of a calendar is turned it's no more

So tell me then, what was it for?

Oh tell me, what was it for?

- The Calendar Hung Itself

Does he kiss your eyelids in the morning

when you start to raise your head?

And does he sing to you incessantly

from the place between your bed and wall?

Does he walk around all day at school

with his feet inside your shoes?

Looking down every few steps

to pretend he walks with you?

Does he know that place below your neck

that is your favorite to be touched?

And does he cry through broken sentences

like "I love you far too much"?

Does he lay awake listening to your breath?

Worried that you smoke too many cigarettes?

Is he coughing now on a bathroom floor?

For every speck of tile there are a thousand more

That you won't ever see

But must hold inside yourself eternally

I drug your ghost across the country

and we plotted out my death

In every city, memories would whisper

"Here is where you rest"

I was determined in Chicago

But I dug my teeth into my knees

And I settled for a telephone

Sang into your machine

"You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine.

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine"

I kissed a girl with a broken jaw

That her father gave to her

She had eyes bright enough to burn me

They reminded me of yours

And in a story told she was a little girl

In a red-rouge, sun-bruised field

And there were rows of ripe tomatoes

Where a secret was concealed

And it rose like thunder

Clapped under our hands

And it stretched for centuries

To a diary entry's end where I wrote

"You make me happy (WHAT?)

When the skies are gray

You make me happy (WHAT?)

When skies are gray and gray and gray"

Well the clock's heart it hangs inside its open chest

With hands stretched towards the calendar hanging itself

But I will not weep for those dying days

For all the ones who've left there are a few that stayed

And they found me here and pulled me from the grass

Where I was laid

SONG - Something Vague

intro and main progression:

Now and again it seems worse than it is

But mostly the view is accurate.

You see your breath in the air as you climb up the stairs

to that coffin you call your apartment.

And you sink in your chair

Brush the snow from your hair

And drink the cold away

You are not really sure

What you're doing this for

But you need something to fill up the days

A few more hours

There is a dream in my brain that just won't go away

It's been stuck there since it came a few nights ago

And I'm standing on a bridge in the town where I lived

As a kid with my mom and my brothers

And then the bridge disappears

And I'm standing on air

With nothing holding me

And I hang like a star

Fucking glow in the dark

For all those starving eyes to see

Like the ones we've wished on

But now I'm confused

Is this death really you?

And do these dreams have any meaning?

No, no, I think it is more like a ghost

That's been following us both

Something vague that we're not seein

Something more like a feeling

SONG - The Movement Of A Hand

You follow the footsteps

Echoes leading down a hall

To a room, there's music playing

Tiny bells with moving parts

Here the shadows make things ugly

An effect quite undesirable

The bold and yellow daylight

Grows like ivy across the wall

And bounces off of the painted porcelain

Tiny dancing doll

Her body spins as she pirouettes again

The world suddenly seems small

On an off-white subtle morning

You stretch your legs in the front seat

The road has made a vacuum

Where our voices used to be

And you lay your head onto my shoulder

Pour like water over me

So if I just exist for the next ten minutes of this

Drive that would be fine

And all the trees that line this curb would be

Rejoicing and alive

Soon all the joy that pours from everything makes

Fountains of your eyes

Because you finally understand the movement of a

Hand waving you goodbye

SONG - Arienette

The fragile keep secrets gathered in pockets

And they will sell them for nothing, a cheap watch or locket

That kind of gold washes off

And the sad act like lepers, they stick to the shadows

They long to ring bells of warning to tell of their coming

So that the pure can shut their doors

And the angry are animals, senseless and savage

They act without order in logical lapses

They stain their mouths with blood

So take my hand, this barren land is alive tonight

Oh, the corn has grown stalks that form a wall to hide

The wind carries sounds that I can't see from beyond that line

Then the stalks begin to sway

Oh, stay with me, Arienette

Until the wolves are away

YUP

Well the wicked are vultures, they bake in the canyons

They circle in sunlight and wait for their victims

To collapse and call to them

And the desperate are water, they'll run down forever

As they soak into silence and end up together

In a dark and distant, dark and distant place

So don't leave me here with only mirrors watching me

This house, it holds nothing but the memories

And the moon, it leaves silver but never sleep

And then the silver turns to gray

So stay with me, Arienette

Until the wolves are away

SONG - When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass

Tomorrow when I wake up I'm finding my brother

And making him take me back down to the water

That lake where we sailed and we laughed with our father

I will not desert him, I will not desert him

No matter how I may wish for a coffin so clean

Or these trees to undress all their leaves onto me

I put my face in the dirt and then finally I see

The sky that has been avoiding me

I started this letter, I'm gonna send it to Ruba

It will be blessed by her eyes on the gulf coast of Florida

With her feet in the sand and one hand on her swimsuit

She will recite the prayer of my pen

Saying, time take us forward, relief from this longing

They can land that plane on my heart. I don't care

Just give me November, the warmth of a whisper

In the freezing darkness of my room

But no matter what I would do in an attempt to replace

All these pills that I take trying to balance my brain

Seen the curious girl with that look on her face

So surprised she stares out from her display case

SONG - Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh

The phone slips from a loose grip

Words were missed, then some apology

I didn't want to tell you this

No, it's just some guy she's been hanging out with

I don't know, the past couple weeks, I guess

Thank you and hang up the phone

Let the funeral start, hear the casket close

Let's pin split-black ribbon to your overcoat

The laughter pours from under doors in this house

I don't understand that sound no more

Seems artificial like a TV set

Well Haligh Haligh Haligh Haligh

This weight, it must be satisfied

You offer only one reply

You know not what you do

But you tear and tear your hair from roots

From that same head you have twice removed

Now a lock of hair you said would prove

Our love would never die, well hahaha

I remember everything

The words we spoke on freezing South Street

And all those mornings watching you get ready for school

You combed your hair inside that mirror

The one you painted blue and glued with jewelry tears

Something about those bright colors would always make you feel better

But now we speak with ruined tongues

And the words we say aren't meant for anyone

It's just a mumbled sentence to a passing acquaintance but there was once you

You said you hate my suffering

And you understood and you'd take care of me

You'd would always be there, well where are you now?

Haligh, Haligh, Haligh, Haligh

The plans were never finalized

But left to hang like yarn and twine

Dangling before my eyes

As you tear and tear your hair from roots

From that same head that you have twice removed

Now a lock of hair you said would prove

Our love would never die

And I sing and sing of awful things

The pleasure that my sadness brings

And my fingers press onto the strings

Yet another clumsy chord

Haligh, Haligh, an awful lie

This weight will now be satisfied

I'm gonna give you only one reply

I know not who I am

But I talk in the mirror

To the stranger that appears

Our conversations are circles

Always one sided

Nothing is clear

Except we keep coming back

To this meaning that I lack

He says the choices were given

Now you must live them

Or just not live

But do you want that?

SONG - The Center Of The World

At the center of the world there's a statue of a girl

She is standing near a well with a bucket bare and dry

I went and looked her in the eyes and she turned me into sand

This clumsy form that I despise, it scattered easy in her hand

It came to rest upon a beach with a million others there

We sat and waited for the sea to stretch out so that we could disappear

Into the endlessness of blue into the horror of the truth

See, we are far less than we knew, yeah, we are far less than we knew

But we knew what we could taste

Girls found honey to drench our hands

The men cut marble to mark our graves

Said we'll need something to remind us of

All the sweetness that has passed through us

The priests dressed children for a choir

But found no joy in what was sung

The funeral had begun

In the middle of the day when you drive home to your place

From that job that makes you sleep back to the thoughts that keep you awake

Long after night has come to claim any light that still remains

In the corner of the frame that you put around her face

Two pills just weren't enough

The alarm clock's going off but you're not waking up

This isnt happening happening happening happening happening

It is

SONG - Sunrise, Sunset

? - XX6555

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly go the days

Sunrise, sunset

You wake up, then you undress

It always is the same

A sunrise and the sun sets

You are lying while you confess

Keep trying to explain

A sunrise and the sun sets

You realize, then you forget

What you have been trying to retain

But everybody knows

It's all about the things

That get stuck inside of your head

Like the songs your roommate sings

Or a vision of her body

As she stretches out on your bed

And she raised her hands in the air

Asked you, when was the last time you looked in the mirror?

'Cause you have changed

Yeah, you've changed

Sunrise, the sun sets

You are hopeful and then you regret

The circle never breaks

With a sunrise and sunset

There's a change of heart or address

Is there nothing that remains?

For a sunrise or a sunset

You're manic or you're depressed

Will you ever feel okay?

For a sunrise or a sunset

Your lover is an actress

Did you really think she'd stay?

For a sunrise or a sunset

You're either coming or you just left

But you're always on the way

Towards a sunrise or a sunset

A scribble or a sonnet

They are really just the same

To the sunrise or a sunset

The master and his servant

Have exactly the same fate

It's a sunrise and a sunset

From a cradle to a casket

There is no way to escape

The sunrise and the sunset

Hold your sadness like a puppet

Keep putting on the play

But everything you do

Is leading to the point

Where you just won't know what to do

And at that moment you may laugh

But there is someone there

Who will be laughing louder than you

So it's true

The trick is complete

You've become everything you said you never would be

You're a fool

You're a fool

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

The sunrise and the sun sets

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, the sun sets

The sunrise, the sun sets

Sunrise, sunset

Go home to your apartment

Put the cassette in the tape deck

And let that fever play

Sunrise, sunset

Where are you Arienette?

Where are you Arienette?

SONG - An Attempt To Tip The Scales

Intro

Did you expect it all to stop at the wave of your hand?

Like the sun is just gonna drop if it's night you demand?

Well, in the dark we are just air so the house might dissolve

Once we're gone, who's gonna care if we were ever here at all?

Well, summer's gonna come, it's gonna cloud our eyes again

No need to focus when there's nothing that's worth seeing

So we trade liquor for blood in an attempt to tip the scales

I think you lost what you loved in that mess of details

They seemed so important at the time but now you can't even recall

Any of the names, faces, or lines, it's more the feeling of it all

Well, winter's gonna end, it's gonna clean these veins again

So close to dying that I finally can start living

(repeat) end on

SONG - A Song To Pass The Time

Start with fingerpicking E

There is a middle-aged woman, she's dragging her feet

She carries baskets of clothes to a laundromat

While the Mexican children kick rocks into the street

And they laugh in a language I don't understand

But I love them... why do I love them?

So the neighborhood's dimming, I smoke on the porch

Watch the people as they pass enclosed inside their cars

And on their faces just anger or disappointment

I start wishing there was something I could offer them

A consolation... what could I offer them?

And they are sad in their suburbs, robots water the lawn

And everything they touch gets dusted spotless

And so they start to believe they've not touched anything at all

And the cars in the driveway only multiply

They are lost in their houses, I've heard them sing in the shower

Making speeches to their sister on the telephone

Saying you come home, you come here, don't stay so far away from me

This weather has me wanting love more tangible

Something I can hold... it's getting cold

I say hold up our fists to a flame in the sky

To block out the light that's reaching for our eyes

'Cause it... 'cause it would blind us, yeah it will blind us

Well I've locked my actions in the grooves of routine

So I may never be free of this apathy

But I wait for a letter that's coming to me

She sends me pictures of the ocean in an envelope

So there still is hope, yes, I can be healed

There is someone looking for what I've concealed

In my secret drawer, in my pockets deep

You will find the reasons that I can't sleep

And you will still want me... but will you still want me?

Will you still want me?

Well, I say come for the week, you can sleep in my bed

And pass through my life like a dream through my head

It will... it will be easy, I'll make it easy

But all I have for the moment is a song to pass the time

A melody to keep me from worrying

Some simple progression to keep my fingers busy

And words that are sure to come back to me

And they'll be laughing... and they'll be laughing

My mediocrity

My mediocrity