July, July!

There is a road that meets the road
That goes to my house
And how the green grows there
And we’ve got special boots
To beat the path to my house
And it’s careful and it’s careful when I’m there

And I say your uncle was a crooked french canadian
And he was gut-shot running gin
And how his guts were all suspended in his fingers
and how he held ’em
How he held ’em held, ’em in

And the water rolls down the drain
The water rolls down the drain
O, what a lonely thing
In a lonely drain

July, July, July
It never seemed so strange

This is the story of the road that goes to my house
And what ghosts there do remain
And all the troughs that run the length and breadth of my house
And the chickens how they rattle chicken chains

And we’ll remember this when we are old and ancient
Though the specifics might be vague
And I’ll say your camisole was a sprightly light magenta
When in fact it was a nappy bluish grey

And the water rolls down the drain
The blood rolls down the drain
O, what a lonely thing
In a blood red drain

July, July, July
It never seemed so strange

The Perfect Crime #2

Sing news with passion of the pistol
Sing news of the warning by the whistle
On a night so dark in the waning
A dawn obscured by slight sky raining, oh oh

Five and twenty burglars by the reservoir
A teenage lookout on the signal tower
The moguls daughter in hard time
The mogul figures a one guy, one guys

It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime

The bagman’s quaking at the fingers
The hand-off glance a little lingers
A well-dressed man in the crosshairs
A shot rings out from somewhere upstairs

It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime

It was the perfect crime

It was like a ticker-tape parade
When the last of the safe was blown away
And we all gaze from eye to eye
As we mouth our silent goodbyes

The valley’s sleeping like a bastard
It stinks of slumber and disaster
Two words are spoken with tap wire
The agent’s pull finds a surefire backfire

It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime
It was a perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect, the perfect crime

Song For Myla Goldberg

Myla Goldberg sets a steady hand upon her brow
Myla Goldberg hangs a crooked foot all upside down

It comes around it comes around
It comes around it comes around

Pretty hands do pretty things when pretty times arise
Seraphim and seaweed swim where stick-limbed Myla lies

It comes around it comes around
It comes around it comes around

Still now you’re waiting to grow
Inside you’re old
Sew wings to your pigeon toes
Put paper to pen
to spell out “Eliza”

We begin with sticky shins make sticky then our shoes
Shoes beget to clothes and hat ’til sticky’s sticking too

Finiculi finicula finiculi finicula

Listen in as shin-kicked Jim relates his story sad
About a boy who kicked until his shins were all but rubberbands
But now

I know New York I need New York
I know I need unique New York

Still now you’re waiting to grow
Inside you’re old
Sew wings to your pigeon toes
Put paper to pen
to spell out “Eliza”
Eliza
Eliza

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That’s where my true love lies

Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils
All a’chew upon your bones so dry

But when the sun breaks
To no more bulletin battle-cry
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Then

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
Though I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

But when the sun breaks
To no more bulletin battle-cry
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then

Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
Scaly skin is all too few
To keep me from you

But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind

O Valencia!

You belong to the gang
And you say you can’t break away
But I’m here with my hands on my heart

Our families can’t agree
I’m your brother’s sworn enemy
But I’ll shout out my love to the stars

So wait for the stone on your window, your window
Wait by the car and we’ll go, we’ll go

When first we laid eyes
I swore to no compromise
‘Til I felt my caress on your skin

Well, how soon we were betrayed
Your sister gave us away
And your father came all unhinged

So wait for the stone on your window, your window
Wait by the car and we’ll go, we’ll go

Oh Valencia
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia
And I swear to the stars
I’ll burn this whole city down

All I heard was a shout
Of your brother calling me out
And you ran like a fool to my side

Well the shot, it hit hard
And your frame went limp in my arms
And the lull of love was your dying cry

So wait for the stone on your window, your window
Wait by the car and we’ll, go we’ll go

Oh Valencia
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia
And I’ll burn this whole city down
Valencia
With your blood still warm on the ground
Valencia
And I swear to the stars
I’ll burn this whole city down