This Is Unrequited

It doesn't matter

What you want to be

If you want to be the depth

Or the sun in the East

The passion in the fruit

That quenches her ruby tongue

None of that matters

In the shadows is where you belong

There’s a kiss out there for every lip

An embrace for every hand

A drop of water for the prickliest thorn

But succumb that you’re a grain of sand

There’s no more songs from up above

Even angels need their rest

When you have eternity to spare

You don’t rush to clean a mess

You can reach out for the beautiful

It only drifts further away

That’s where it’s always been

And fool, that’s where it will always stay

There’s nothing in the distance

Hope is a tease with virgin clench

She dangles the dream in front of you

But never pulls the thread

Gimmie You

Gimmie you, Little Dumplin’
Gimmie you and you don’t know
Just what it is you do to me
The tickle like summer grass on toes                              
You’re my darling, you’re my fantasy
Like the desert dreams of snow
You’re all and nothing yet everything
You’re my muse and you don’t know

You got colors like autumn Maple leaves

You’ve flooded me and my levee broke
The Pacific, The Atlantic without miles between
And every evening your ocean grows
Drinking you down like August lemonade
You’re my girl but you don’t know
I’d damn the brakes and hit the pedal
If I saw your green light glow

Gimmie you and I’ll give you everything

Dumplin’, you can sip or swallow it whole
Never thirsty, never dry just satisfied
You're my girl and you don't know

This Aphrodite Life

It's like rose petals falling from the sky
While rainbows arch their backs in the night
Illuminating the opal in a thousand swans eyes
That's what it's like
This Aphrodite life

She’s plum pretty
Like a cavity gathers sweet
Like a lemon lingers on lips
Like a pearl nestles the sea
Precious as a fawn
Rising from its knees
She’s drops of honey
Dripping from a bonsai tree

If Marilyn Monroe took you by the hand
Blushed at your touch and asked for this dance
Led you out onto the cobblestone streets of France
That's what it's like
This Shakespeare romance

She’s Alladin’s lamp
With two wishes left to go
The grace of a pirouette
The lights of a Broadway show
Enchanting as the dolphins
In waters peppered with snow
She’s the end of the rainbow
On a chardonnay road

It's apples with sugar and Cristal champagne
Under a rain forest canopy in a Costa Rican rain
With toucans singing a Spanish refrain
That's what it's like
This hurricane flame

 

Alice's Teacup

Girl, it’s all that I can do

To not bite my tongue straight through
Goddamn, to tell you how I feel
Are you the bait waiting on the reel
With them eyes deep as a summer dawn
I’ll burn to ashes in your morning sun
And I don’t care if I die right there
Leave my body with your scent in the air
You’re the dream I’ve been dreaming to be dreaming
That heart is what I’m scheming to be stealing
Just to love you till God calls you home
Then I’ll follow you on down the road

 

Take my hand, we’ll run on the ocean
Jesus will meet us and ask what we’re smoking
He’ll give us a beer, we’ll give him a light
Then he’ll take off into the night
I’ll be the Batman, you can be Robin
We’ll take this life like the city of Gotham
Ride through the streets running from the cops
Making all the villain's jaws drop
Don’t need no guns, don’t need no knives
Just what we got is what’s just right
Taste the taste they pour into fairy tales
Be the heat steaming off the rails

 

Girl, this is how it has to be
Tempt you like tinsel on Christmas Eve
Make you need what you thought you’d never want
Make you go where you thought you would’ve stopped
They’re gonna tell you all these rhymes aren’t true
But that’s just beige being jealous of the blue
There’s not a single lie woven in this song
Little darling, sip a drip from this taffy tongue
Every wish you’ve ever wished upon a star
I’ve got ‘em all gathered all here in my arms
There’s not a hope of yours left lost in the night
And this is no illusion, you’re just blinded by the light

 

That Magic Blood

Unleash that magic fountain
Uncork that magic blood
Daddy gave the disease
But Mama gave the drug
It ripples in there somewhere
Between the bone and flesh
Tap the vein and belly up
Catch a metamorphosis

The end isn't so romantic
Not as pretty as she's been
The enemy lures you forward
With the promise of a friend
I see your scarring battles
And raise you the war
Tomorrow is why I fight
It's what I came here for

Calling all warriors
To the front of the stage
This is the beginning
The extinction of yesterday
Chisel at the walls
And let loose the flood
Unleash that magic fountain
Uncork that magic blood

So Renegade

Hard to be happy then

From back where we’ve been
Where we want for only Heaven
But we breathe to spite our end
There’s no shame in being beat down
We hold a heavy crown
Chaos is a bloodhound
And we stumbled on her ground
Such a filthy, rotten harvest
To make wine has been our test
These hands have turned to callous
Is it a foolish or noble quest
Look at us so renegade
We sang where they prayed
Some choose to back away
While others fall on the grenade
You and I have busted feathers
But no one else wears it better
Sometimes we can’t be sheltered
Darling, we all have our Helter Skelter

Daddy

I'm sorry I haven't touched your hand
In the time it took you to forget who I am
And I'm sorry I didn't run after you
Even though I knew you wouldn't pull through
Where I withdrew I should have lunged
Daddy, I'm sorry I didn't run

Do you remember pushing me on the swing
Oh, how I soared with you as my wings
Or the Elvis cassette in the K-Mart aisle
You told me he was the King, I can still see your smile
Has the light burnt out, has it surrendered
Daddy, oh Daddy, do you remember

We could have been a better pair
But now you just sit and pluck flowers from the air
Wish I'd tried more love, wish I'd tried to understand
That Daddies can't be perfect, even if little girls think they can
If you can forgive me or if I ever made you proud
Daddy, dear Daddy, I wish you could tell me now

Daddy, my Daddy, where have you gone
Daddy, sweet Daddy and a Hank Locklin song
Daddy is climbing in his rig one more time
Daddy, oh Daddy, I love you, goodbye