Little Tree

Here I have a little tree. It wants so much to grow.
It needs a lot to nurture it, but what I do not know.

I don’t know how to care for it, to get the balance right.
Frequently that keeps me up with worry through the night.

There is no other like it though that you won’t believe.
Secretly I’m worried that it’s losing all its leaves.

The little tree is stunted, sickly, colour drained to mauve.
It has no place to plant its roots, no sanctuary grove.

But still the tree it struggles on, it knows no other way.
Apparently it’s meant to keep on living day by day.

Sometimes I even prune the tree, to keep it safe and small.
I wish I could protect it, hide it, block it with a wall.

A person tried to strangle it, to wring its life away.
I didn’t get his license plate. It ended in a K.

It seems there’s always someone trying to hurt my little tree.
But half the time I tend to think the hurtful one is me.

Of late I have been wondering how long my tree can last.
Any way you look at it, 8 months won’t go by fast.

But if my tree can last that long it all might be okay.
Apparently I have to keep on living day to day.

Emma's Eyes and the Seaside

Looking through the windows
of fragile, gemstone blue
a looking glass, a portal,
a song begins on cue.

It feels as if a raft is
riding rapids in my chest.
It feels as if I’m coming home
to calm after the quest.

How can a simple pair
of eyes speak vividly to me?
“We will cross the borderline,
the gap across the sea.”

And though the dreams might haunt me
sending shadows in the night,
a beacon helps me find the way
from eyes of blue too bright.

And in that beacon’s shining gaze
I know I’ll find the shore,
and I can dock there safely
and be with my love once more.

Aileron Song

That tarot smile has got me aching
Honey drip eyes upturned to heaven
“Somewhere out there
the story of our lives is written”

[Chorus]
Did you really know we were ready to go?
Torn up, ripped up, metal debris
Little bits of fire falling into the sea

She’s locked me in with words of reason
Can’t seem to breathe, the air’s recycled
Fixed on this path, I’m acting like
My aileron is broken

[Bridge]
What’s the answer from above?
What truth pulled from the ether?
God looks at us and shrugs and smiles,
says “I don’t get it either”

The turbines cough, the engine splutters
We can’t compete with such resistance
Luck takes no sides, it isn’t fair
But what were we expecting?

I Don’t Belong Here (Positively Grant Street)

What am I doing here in this place?
Cigar smoke blown into my face
Made to feel like a fucking disgrace
My so-called friends leave me displaced
Among the phony's and their lines
Imported beer, designer wines
And do I like the new design?
It’s driving me out of my mind
The expression on my face is
Cold and stony

Invited for the sake of form
The people watch with looks of scorn
Some of ‘em wish I was never born
And even the drunk that mopes and mourns
Is about a million times more
Welcome than I am through that door
It’s about image and nothing more
And not even my sweet Lenore
Could convince me it was anything
Else but phony

The chain-linked circles lock me out
The social scene, the verbal joust
You’ll get your way, you’ll moan and pout
It all leaves me without a doubt
The glittered sparkled make-up eyes
Of deepest blue they can’t disguise
the thinly veiled threats and lies
the hostility behind your eyes
The unspoken warning that the
Cat’s got claws

And “he said”, “she said” let’s take sides
The petty squabbles and the cries
And though their brain cells might be fried
Even the junkies have their pride
And I’m not here to get involved
I don’t even think Sherlock Holmes could solve
The mysteries of those who are so devolved
And yeah I got a lot of resolve
But don’t ask for my opinion if all you really want
Is to hear yours

How did I get mixed up in this?
The brightly coloured curb-side mist
and broken glass and flowing piss
The lovers locked in deadly tryst
The blood red tint across the moon
The endless loop, the same old tunes
The fiery ashen scream comes soon
I wanna retreat to my cocoon
And act just like nothing
Even happened.

But what’s the use in trying to run?
They got me trapped they’ve already won,
There ain’t no knife, no sword, nor gun
No shield to save me from the sun
Of painful glaring bright white eyes
That pierce the soul and condemn the mind
And leave you stripped naked and blind
A coiled spring you can’t unwind
So stay on your toes and don’t let ‘em
Catch you nappin’

How am I gonna get outta this rut?
Surrounded by these hungry sluts
And this one looks like Jabba the Hutt,
And the scar on my hand from the cigarette butt
That you stabbed me with in your drunken haze
And the fevered sweat in the dancer’s cage
And the boys are going along with the craze
In the desperate hope they might get laid
And the mother’s all sit at home and pray
That their kids have been taught well enough to stay
Out of trouble and wear coats ‘case it rains
But if only they knew that there is no way
That the kids are ever gonna do anything else but act stupid
They’re barely lucid

Agent in Japan

Remy was a man
he was living in Japan
he said “In the neon city
I can forget who I am”
He drinks his cup of joe
in the morning ‘fore he goes
and then he disappears
into the streets of Tokyo

[Chorus]
You can run
you can run
but you can’t forget
you’re walking on a tightrope,
you haven’t fallen yet
You can hide
you can hide
from the things that they said
but they’re still scratching chalkboards
inside your head

He finds it hard to sleep,
dreams he’s drowning in the deep
he’s locked away a secret
that nobody should keep
The images replay
like the helicopter blades
and pretty soon his mind could blow
just like that grenade

The sky’s overcast,
the people pressing past
he’ll never be alone again
he’ll never be the last
He’s never truly free,
he drinks too much sake
and all that gets him through the nights
is karaoke

Davy was a Drifter

It’s a lonely speeding train
that runs along my chosen track
there’s nothing runnin’ parallel
there ain’t no turning back

My name is Davy
I live on borrowed time
Time
There’s a constant ache
in my railroad spine

I’m trying to make new friends
like it’s some emergency
but they speak in codes and riddles
on another frequency

This cold world
is a mountain I can’t climb
Climb
There’s a constant ache
in my railroad spine

I swam in the Dead Sea
but I couldn’t stay afloat
Everyone was laughin’
‘fore I’d even told the joke

There’s a bent and rusted person
sleepin’ in the marbled sun
in the cities central circle
but he’s visible to none

My name is Davy
I live on borrowed time
Time
There’s a constant ache
in my railroad spine

Mind Games

Oh
she doesn’t look at me
the way she did before
Oh
she stares so angrily
but she don’t use the door

She looked at me with those
dull windshield eyes
raised a brow
and looked away into the sky

Oh
I don’t want to argue
I don’t mean no harm
Oh
it feels like struggling
to keep an ocean calm

A fragile glass breaks
in a corner of my mind
It’s even sadder that these golden years
are meant to be our prime

I’m on the podium
but then you take the floor
When did our love become
an endless game of tug-of-war?

You said I broke you into pieces
like a teacup in a storm
well we owe it to each other
to not let this be the norm