1. |
You Never Know
05:30
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1. You Never Know
Whenever I watch a plane turn slow and lazy in the sky
I remember the osprey fishdiving in my barefoot summertimes
I shake my head and next thing I know I’m in a security line, pushing through
With my boots in my hand and a haggard passport photo
Odds are we’re gonna land but then again, you never know
I called my neighbor at work when she forgot to turn off her garden hose
I said “Shelly, you flooded the bed and I fear you’ve drowned your roses
I might have caught it sooner but I was stuck inside listening to the radio repeat the news
You see, I couldn’t get out of bed, I was having one of my blue episodes
Odds are your flowers will bounce back but then again, you never know”
I spent half your birthday trying to remember your very last words to me
But it was like chasing a losing army burning everything in retreat
Now Fall’s gotta come and what else you gonna do with leaves but watch them fall?
Silver hay and horse’s breath, I can still see that rifle over your mantle
Odds are someday I’ll forget, but then again, you never know
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2. |
Blue Eyed Boy
03:49
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2. Blue Eyed Boy
What are you searching for, blue-eyed boy
Another mystery to solve
The deer of the dusk are in the field
Grazing in your mirage
The deer of the dusk are in the field
They look once but not again
What are you searching for blue-eyed boy
Someone to take your reins?
Kudzu covers your Grandpa’s Ford
Moths nest in Grandmere’s shawl
Papa greases the wheelbarrow wheel
“Everything must work,” he smiles
What are you searching for blue-eyed boy
Where this river finally ends?
On our side everything flows to the Gulf
Their side goes to a distant ocean
On our side everything flows to the Gulf
Back from where we came
What are you searching for, blue-eyed boy
The sun is a ball, the sky is a chain
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3. |
Tongue of a Child
04:35
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3.Tongue of a Child
Your lover who flickered in a tea candle suit
On his catholic knees, a grape skin on his tooth
Begged the priest who baptized him to hold out hope
While shoving a letter of ransom into a gold envelope
And the past seems so clear once you know how it ends
You have nothing to fear, it nearly always begins
I woke up with the tongue of a child
I woke up with a child’s tongue
Now everything I say may be coming out wild
But I wouldn’t say it’s coming out wrong
Until you’ve been burned in effigy, you really haven’t lived
Sometimes the exiled must say they have learned to forgive
But if the Wolfe howls just because he can’t go home again
Let the full moon coax another egg down the drain
While all we little pigeons made out of clay
Will be flying to pieces the same old fashioned way
I woke up with the tongue of a child
I woke up with a child’s tongue
Now everything I say may be coming out wild
But I wouldn’t say it’s coming out wrong
Your anger has begun to make sense to me
Nature abhors a vacuum, adores a mystery
And now that there’s ink on your breath and bile in this pen
Shall we drink to my death or kill one just for him?
And everything looks clean when you stand back so far
A swallowtail shredding its wings against the sides of this jar
I woke up with the tongue of a child
I woke up with a child’s tongue
Now everything I say may be coming out wild
But I wouldn’t say it’s coming out wrong
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4. |
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4. You’re Running Away, David
You’re running away, David
Do you think your giant will just disappear?
He’s waiting around to tear you limb from limb
And it’s either you or it’s got to be him to take that fall
When I dream I still hear the waves
Splashing in the shell you once held to my ear
The ocean was always near how I picture you then
Now your laughter echoes where the laugh lines began their slow crawl
A driftwood branch in your trembling hands
Could be as good as any other’s lance
If you thought this was going to be easy, now you know
Choose your stone, carve a sling from ash
There’s a wishbone hidden in the hourglass
And nothing quite like first steps in the snow
You’re running away, David
Did a thief split with your tongue
And leave a nightingale’s song, so sad and slow
Is that why you’re perched at your window wearing the curtain like a cape?
When I dream I still can recall
Your porch moths foraging the slender light
We talked through the summer night, so unaware
But now I’ve come to fear your fear
Are we only this decay?
David, you’re running away
David, you’re running away
David, you’re running away
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5. |
Morning Sun, Slow Down
03:47
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5. Morning Sun Slow Down
Morning sun slow down
Have you got promises to keep?
The dragonfly tapping on my window yesterday
Is now down on the sill asleep
Freight train rattles my coffee cup
Lake mist reaches for the sky
I drink cold what spills in the saucer cause
My Papa raised me right
You swim through the mountains
You climb over the sea
Soon you’ll reveal everything
But won’t you slow down when you get to me?
Morning sun slow down
Both Sara and I agreed
When we made our bed the moon was good and red
And that’s all the light we need
I love these skinny trees in silhouette
I think the nervous stars could use a little more time
Everything that comes when you turn the page
Is torn from nights we’ve left behind
I’ve got some doubts and regrets
I weigh them in the dark sometimes
When it’s quiet enough but for the hallway clock
Keeping all of us in line
You swim through the mountains
You climb over the sea
I know you’ve got to reveal everything
But won’t you slow down when you get to me?
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6. |
Yellow Jacket Blues
03:56
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6. Yellow Jacket Blues
Andy asked what I was reading
and I turned the book around
and noticed a penguin on the paperback spine
“But the sun also sets,” he countered
“Don’t forget to read between the lines”
He tapped the ashtray, blew some smoke my way
And as the matador’s sword prepared to sink
I started watching the yellow jacket
floating in the coffee Andy didn’t drink
The professor holds court on Saturdays
Everyone I know kisses his ring
You can search for a philosophy but the secret is
The professor doesn’t like anything
“The twentieth century was just a litany
of homicides justified off the cuff
The swarm of locusts the bible promised us
Well, it can’t get here soon enough”
Maybe he was right, I’m certainly not feeling
very hopeful for the future either
But I was watching the yellow jacket
as he crawled down into my beer
Well, Frances called to say she had a bed bug scare
They must have sprung from those overalls she scored
Her roommates were bellyaching, reminding her they pay rent
As if they’d never had an itch they couldn’t scratch before
But who did all the laundry and who cleaned the whole house
And who still believes in love?
Some are collecting pennies in heaven on a garage sale Playstation
But Fran, she’s downtown dancing at the club
We laughed and we cried and we said goodbye
Then I stepped out into the magic hour
I was watching the yellow jacket
disappear into another flower
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7. |
Pocket Moon
05:31
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Pocket Moon
Twist my ear and pinch my thigh
When I speak to you, look me in the eye
Go cut a switch from the bush outside
If I should sleep before I die
You can put my dreams in the pocket
Put them all in the pocket
Put everything inside the pocket moon
God is great but so is mother
Best clear your plate, tuck in baby brother
March upstairs and tell her just how much you love her
The medicine chest is empty, I’m afraid she’s locked the bathroom door
What if she puts them in her pocket
Puts them all in her pocket
Washes everything down inside the pocket moon?
Papa’s baby was a yellow convertible Corvette
Brother and I felt snug as two bugs in the backseat
You pointed to the sky and said, “Look, what is it?”
And there it was, I could see it too
But Papa said, “That’s just a pocket moon”
Here are the pretty lashes I cut off with scissors
Let’s slide down the bannister and watch them watch TV in my mirror
“Stick that butter knife in here,” the wall socket whispers
They can’t see me in the dark waving this sword in the air
But I think I’ll put it in the pocket
Stick it all in the pocket
Soon everything will be safe inside the pocket moon
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8. |
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The Last Time I Saw You, Billy
You said, I’m going where the weather suits my rags and feathers
I can’t breathe in this town of tears and tumbleweed
But, it seems I’ve burned every bridge so I don’t know how to get there
I buried my talents in a napkin but that’s some faded currency
Since they’ve taken my crown away from me
Oh, Billy
I remember you’d hang your hat wherever you wanted
Lying on a prayer rug, you were smoke across a flower moon
Now I hope the street is cold enough for those who haunt it
No one expects to hear your sweet talk around here anytime soon
Since your crown is a can kicked down the avenue
Oh, Billy
Oh, Billy, where have you gone
With those constellations falling from your tongue
And the fry cook burns like speed bumps up and down your arms
And that hessian’s kiss you hid with the scarf from Blonde on Blonde
And the umbrage to the landlord who stole your shit and locked you out
And someone else’s prescription floating sideways in your mouth
And the pawn shop guitar held together with duct tape and campfire smoke
And all the yellow letters in your shoebox that say “I’m not ever coming home...
Love, Billy”
Your mother shakes as she cradles her telephone
She says, I’ve got this turquoise vase and it holds a big bouquet
Son, I pray you never have to know what it’s like to be so alone
I sit and watch the petals fall one by one every day
Until they’ve taken my own crown away
Oh, Billy
Don’t hang up yet, Billy
Come on, Billy
Say goodnight
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9. |
Sean Foley’s Blues
05:24
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9. Sean Foley’s Blues
I saw an eagle on a pole
At least I think it was an eagle
But it could have been a hawk or crow
I was looking through the dirty airport window
Then I turned my head and saw you instead
Checking your suitcase for California
And when I returned, the bird had burned
While the metal mothers slowly circled, taxiing
I wrote you a long letter yesterday
Folded and trapped it in an envelope
I should have sent a single postcard, I guess
Greetings from the floating casino
I know how precious time itself is
Whether you’re passing, spending, or killing it
The gambler’s prize will be bloodshot eyes
And a complimentary breakfast by the slot machines
I wish you the best, forget the rest
Of what I said when I was sick
I missed your skin so I asked the wind
To tear you from me quick
I saw an eagle on a pole
At least I think it was an eagle
But it could have been a hawk or crow
I was looking through the dirty airport window
That was months ago, before the snow
Taught all of us here about how things turn
But you have chosen the sun and ocean
So I guess you’ll never have to learn
Will you, my love?
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10. |
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Time Slows Down in Dreams
The dusty bars of the spider’s web
Catch wounded notes as they leave my head
And that is how the black widow is fed
On broken melodies
Monarch wings phosphoresce on the forest ground
Gold cowlicks bloom on your baby’s crown
Replaced soon by weeds and leaves of Kodachrome
Their dust is guaranteed
But time slows down in dreams
And will bring peace to those who ache inside
When we go walking up the hill and down the other side
A crow’s foot stamps the lover’s eye
Latent wisdom teeth push flesh aside
Even the forbidden groom will be forced to view his bride
Through a veil of memory
An old man shakes beneath a weathervane
Cold coffee mouth full of chipped porcelain
The fire he bartered was blown out by the wind
Which bent his backbone like a tree
But time slows down in dreams
And will bring peace to those who ache inside
When we go walking up the hill and down the other side
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11. |
Blue Lullaby
03:52
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11. Blue Lullaby
Goodnight, Baby
The coyotes are just throwing us confetti
Your sister mountains, juniper forests,
even the ocean, she can’t ignore us
Goodnight, Mama
Please say a prayer from afar for Omaha
where the corn bows before a sad river
and the cicadas sound like radiators
Goodnight, Lover
Won’t you throw on an extra cover?
Please find joy and peace, of course
I promise not to begrudge the source
Goodnight, Sara
We gallop in dream together
So go to sleep now, close your eyes
Don’t listen to blue lullabies
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Simon Joyner Omaha, Nebraska
Simon Joyner is a singer-songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska. He's been flying under the radar since 1991, releasing music on various independent labels including: Team Love, Jagjaguwar, Sing Eunuchs!, Catsup Plate, One-Hour, Shrimper, Brinkman, Secretly Canadian, and Unread. He is also the co-founder of Grapefruit Records (grapefruitrecordclub.com) and an occasional producer of other people's albums. ... more
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