1. |
Everything Is Birds
04:03
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Everything is birds
Or so it occurred to the quietly drowning girl
Outside her window, casting a shadow
Hovering arrow to another world
Of which you've only heard
Everything is birds
She said to the nurse who was reading her signs in reverse
And it really was birds in her blood
The tail of a hawk and the auguring of
Something maybe worse
You try to hold her safe but you can't embrace
An armload of wings beating in your face
And beating in her place
I take her at her word: everything is, everything is birds
Everything is birds
Flying in a shape, an approximate human girl
Who was never meant for holding together
Following weather and keeping the ways
Of the universe
You try to hold her safe but you can't embrace
An armload of wings beating in your face
And beating in her place
I take her at her word: everything is, everything is birds
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2. |
Unison Waltz
03:05
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Came to a halt in a unison waltz
And everyone said it was nobody's fault
Just a little palsied drift of the pulse
Phase went to null
It was normal of course
Was it assault, the unison waltz?
They tried the stairs, tried the floor, tried the walls
One engine stirred, one engine stalled
Sputtered and coughed
It came from New Paltz, the unison waltz
Where advancement is based your drive and results
Your science, you art, your parts and gestalts
Your daring, your bearing, your balls
Suddenly a halt in a unison waltz
And everyone said it was nobody's fault
Just a little palsied drift of the pulse
Phase went to null
It was normal of course
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3. |
Complikate
03:46
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She said that "all the girls in the promising bands
are floated by a bloody hand
But I'm not sure if it's always been that way.
"I've been around Green Lawn for far too long
to believe their soul is anything more
than a quarter pound of white prerogative.
"Do you want to hold my hand?
Do you want to kiss me while you still can?
Soon, I'll be gone
Would you like a night to complikate?
"Never believe the words of the victors when
they're selling you the secrets that
made them who they think they are today.
"Behind the squinting eyes of Western Zen
there's a company man buttoned in.
To the left and the right, old college friends, like Gore Vidal says.
"Such a drag when they sing their songs.
Such a drag when they talk of fates forgone.
Soon I'll be gone.
But would you like a night to complikate?"
And she knows the irony
When she screams "don't listen to me."
Never go. There's no away.
But would you like a night to complikate?
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4. |
Birds of Heaven
03:48
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Free to look through your pocketbook,
the birds of heaven are bound to know
all that they would.
Free to stay or fly away,
who would ever let go of their days,
so long as they're awake?
The ones who can, with grace to spend, will transcend
to private views behind high white walls
while most of us will soar but just to spy as if we must
and to cry, as we always knew we should
Tethered to the the weight of you,
the circling, the mute, the knowing eyes of God.
To their surprise, declassified
your worlds inside, so rich and new.
And your reprieve won't set them free.
This they choose: forever doubting and true.
They belong to anyone, for a song.
The birds of heaven are keeping you wondering who they are
working for.
All you did and all you do and all that you will
to spare me the truth weights on me still
but we won't wonder anymore
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John Burdick New Paltz, New York
Guitarist, songwriter, and music critic in New York's mid-Hudson valley (New Paltz, Kingston, Woodstock). Leads the Sweet Clementines; works with Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller in Rhett Miller and the All-Stars; performed or recorded with Laura Stevenson, Matt Pond PA, Dean Jones, Grammy winners the Okee Dokee Brothers, many more. Wishes you to tune in to his solo feed. ... more
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