Eldorado (for Mom)


Again I'm squinting
My demons are back and they're so convincing
The world could end if I don't keep up my pace
And you're so patient
You're always open but never vacant
You clear a path so I can feel the space

Like a light through the black
Like a strong hand on my back
Like a cool river flows
Like a break against the cold
Like the value of gold
Eldorado
Eldorado
Eldorado

It's kinda silly
How something as big as New York City
Can be invisible when you're staring at your feet
And it's kinda scary
How much you mean and yet how rarely
I say I love you when we speak

Like a light through the black
Like a strong hand on my back
Like a cool river flows
Like a break against the cold
Like the value of gold
Eldorado
Eldorado

And proud in my face to carry a trace of you
Your song in my voice
And more than a name you have given me a frame on which to
Build any house of my choice

Like a light through the black
Like a strong hand
Like a cool river flows
Like a break against the cold
Like the value of gold
Like a light through the black
Like a strong hand
Like a cool river flows
Like a break against the cold
Like the value of gold
Eldorado
Eldorado
Eldorado

It's kinda scary
How much you mean and yet how rarely
I say I love you when we speak

Without You Again

All of This (for my little hometown)

Sparrows fight for words in edgewise
And sitting on my window ledge I
Watch the Wednesday winding its way down in shades of chalk

Inside blocks and corners so these lives are kept
While up above skyscrapers give the sky such depth

Somehow in all of this even when it's hard to be alone
Somewhere in all of this I have found a home

"Imagine" tiled underfoot
A subway roars below as only thunder should
Rolls and raps its rhythms as its riders speak in tongues

Inside blocks and corners so these lives are kept
While up above skyscrapers give the sky such depth

Somehow in all of this even when it's hard to be alone
Somewhere in all of this I have found a home

From my bed I watch the night come
Brings a silence of woven hums
Sweet Manhattan midnight might be more like 3am

Somehow in all of this even when it's hard to be alone
Somewhere in all of this I have found a home

Simon Says (written on September 23, 2001)

Simon says "Look, I am free, I can have anything I can reach
And God is with me"
Simon says "Look at the greed, there's freedom in poverty
And God is with me"

But how many times can a flag twist around its pole?
How many times will hate burn a hole in the world?

Simon says "Oh can't you see I've worked hard and built my life honestly
And God is with me"
Simon says "Tranquility and heaven come only to men who bleed
And God is with me"

But how many times can a flag twist around its pole?
How many times will hate burn a hole in the world?

Some kind of name for something to blame for our responsibility
Our joy and our pain, our hate and our shame, our changing grip on stability
But we never learn so again and again and again we burn

Simon says "I'll make you see, I'll make you be exactly like me"

And how many times can a flag twist around its pole?
How many times will hate burn a hole?
How many times (how many times)
How many times (how many lives)
How many lives (when Simon Says)
How many lives (hate burn a hole in the world)
How many lives
How many lives
When Simon Says

Rain and Sunshine (for Maribel)

Lately, I've not been too well
And how are you, Maribel?
So much has changed, so soon since you've flown
I find myself so alone

Now I believe in rain and sunshine and gravity
That's what took you from me

I've got this story that I tell
About where we went, Maribel
And an open road through an Arizona valley
They say their god works mysteriously

But I believe in rain and sunshine and gravity
That's what took you from me

And now if roses cast their spell
I sense you there, Maribel
And everywhere I carry you inside me
Your body is bound, but your beauty is free

And I believe in rain and sunshine and gravity
That's what took you from me
I believe in rain and sunshine and gravity
That's what took you from me

Make it Up to You (for Remy)

Walking over ground we have shared
On this windy winter night
City fills my ears and everywhere
Is a movie in this light
Suddenly it's you, 20 years ago,
At that dirty school bus glass
Your quiet tears they fall all in a row
While my eyes fall hard on my lap

And I love you though I never say I do
Someday I will find a way to make it up to you

Your eyes searched the world outside that glass
For a hiding place
And I too afraid of their wrath
To look you in the face
Their stupid arrows flew straight at your hair,
Every chestnut curl
And at the shyness that you held in your stare -
You were not other girls

And I love you thought I never say I do
Someday I will find a way to make it up to you

But I have never been much good
At sticking up for you
I guess you're the Robin Hood
And I'm the merry fool

And I love you though I never say I do
Someday I will find a way to make it up to you

Tempting

You turned around to face me
And I - I lost my stare
'Cause your smile was so accepting
That the rest of me lay bare

And you're so tempting
With your deep river eyes
You're so tempting
A suspected surprise
You're so tempting
With your summer almond skin
It's hard not to rise up and ask you in

Your bones they sank right through me
Your soul it filled my eyes
Your face it burned so brightly
Brought to June December fire

And you're so tempting
With your deep river eyes
You're so tempting
A suspected surprise
You're so tempting
With your summer almond skin
It's hard not to rise up and ask you in

And something gently broke free
As I lay breathing your fresh air
You didn't need a map of me
You just knew the way there

And if in time we meet again
Under other starry skies
Will you move me again my friend
Move me 'til I
Will you move me again my friend
Move me 'til I cry

And you're so tempting
With your deep river eyes
You're so tempting
A suspected surprise
You're so tempting
With your summer almond skin
It's hard not to rise up and let you
It's hard not to rise up and let you
It's hard not to rise up and let you in

When the Roses Run Dry (for George)

The honeymoon, the honeymoon,
all waters part for the honeymoon
And every time we touch we shake,
an hour apart, my psyche aches for you
Now there's nothing wrong with the honeymoon,
you feel so great, but slowly, soon
Reality will creep back in and all those fires quickly dim and cool

Life in the clouds, it's addictive, it's insane
Forget the whos the whys the weights
the due dates for a change

But when love is not new
When moonshine is only moonshine
When I have traveled every inch of you
Where will we be
When the roses run dry?

Now on our first night you were late,
so I sat, picturing your face
And wond'ring how the date would go,
and you walked in and I said Oh yeah!
And you confided all your plans,
and I watched how you used your hands
And how your hair fell 'round your head,
(I barely heard a word you said in there)

But after the wine and those cute little boxes from Godiva
Will this still be right when we're sixty-five oh

When love is not new
When moonshine is only moonshine
When I have traveled every inch of you
Where will we be
When the roses run dry

From the clouds on down
I'm losing my fears
Because the smoke's cleared
And we're still here

Now I don't want no picket fence,
no garden path to the picket fence
No sweaters knitting by the fire,
two hobbits in their little shire, No.
But I'm starting to think that we can deal
with anything we face in our real
Life together as a team, a locomotive with steam so

Life in the clouds has come to earth and settled in
So bring me old and gray - I'm ready to begin

But when love is not new
When moonshine is only moonshine
When I have traveled every inch of you
Where will we be
Where will we be
Where will we be
When the roses run dry

Bare (sorry - this one's for me...)

No poetry, no pillowshams
No crystal jar perfume
Just leaves falling by the window
Of this Autumn room

And here I am, as I am anywhere
And here I go
Bare

No bar chords, no solos
No fancy footwork spin
Just branches, empty and waving
Against cloudy Michigan

And here I am, as I am anywhere
And here I go
Bare

So far from the four walls
Too small but all mine
And the paint peels over the window
After rainstorms every time
And the drag queens pumping cabarets
Seem suddenly divine

No poetry, no pillowshams
No lipstick-treated smiles
Just an oil change, and two deep breaths
And thousands of miles

And here I am, as I am anywhere
And here I go, as I go anywhere
And here I am, as I am anywhere
Bare

Solitaire (for Dad)

If I had to choose
I would think of you
And how the end came rushing in so smooth
Maybe I'd want that too

Driving Second Avenue past eighty numbered streets
And every round of solitaire as I try to sleep
Empty kindling case at your fireplace
Where the ashes rest in peace

Now I have your shoes
And every half-written page
And songs from fiddlers' rooves
For daughters who have come of age

And driving Second Avenue past eighty numbered streets
And every round of solitaire as I try to sleep

But I can't stop dreaming
Of when they brought you in
And how I felt like screaming
At your whitening skin

Driving Second Avenue past eighty numbered streets
And every round of solitaire as I try to sleep
Empty kindling case at your fireplace
Where the ashes rest in peace
Driving Second Avenue past eighty numbered streets
And every round of solitaire as I try to sleep
Empty kindling case at your fireplace
Where the ashes rest in peace

These are all that's left for me to keep
(You'll never give me away, I'll walk that aisle alone)
These are all that's left or me to keep
(You'll never give me away, I'll walk that aisle alone)