LYRICS

Silvery streams, sacred when spoken...

I finally put these on the main menu because no one can ever find them otherwise. This includes both albums (Aeroplane is first), plus many non-album songs. Many of the non-album ones are from this NMH site. Please send any additions or corrections to hello *at* sadtomato *dot* net.. Skip to...

When you were young
You were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a tower tumbling through the trees
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet

And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder
And your dad would throw the garbage all across the floor
As we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for

And this is the room one afternoon I knew I could love you
And from above you how I sank into your soul
Into that secret place where no one dares to go

And your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking
And dad would dream of all the different ways to die
Each one a little more than he could dare to try

The King of Carrot Flowers - Parts Two and Three

I love you Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ I love you, yes I do
I love you Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ I love you, yes I do
And on the lazy days the dogs dissolve and drain away
The world it goes and always waits
The day we are awaiting

Up and over we go
Through the waving undertow
I will float until I learn how to swim
Inside my mother the garbage bin
Until I find myself again again ohh oh oh oh oh

Up and over we go
Mouths open wide and spilling snow
I will spit until I learn how to speak
Up through the doorway as the sideboards creak
With them ever proclaiming me me ohh

Up and over we go
The ???????????? and I don't know
I will shout until they know what I mean
I mean the marriage of a dead dog sing
and a synthetic flying machine ohh
ohh ohh ohh okay

Two-Headed Boy

Two headed boy
All floating in glass
The sun it has passed
Now it's blacker than black
I can hear as you tap on your jar
And I am listening to hear where you are
I am listening to hear where you are

Two headed boy
Put on Sunday shoes
And dance round the room to accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heart
Catching signals that sound in the dark
Catching signals that sound in the dark
We will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep beside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their cloud

Two headed boy
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face
And through the music he sweetly displays
Silver speakers that sparkle all day
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face
And in the dark we will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep beside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their cloud

Two headed boy
There's no reason to grieve
The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow
And I will take you and leave you alone
Watching spirals of white softly flow
Over your eyelids and all you did
Will wait until the point when you let go
Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee

[Alternate ending I have on a bootleg below…]

And I will show you and then leave you alone
Watching spirals of white softly flow
All from the branches on eyelids
And all that is is dying as you go

In the Aeroplane over the Sea

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me

And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me

What a curious sight we have found here tonight
There is laughter that sounds from the trees.
There are lights in the clouds
Anna's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees>

Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don't even know his name

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all

Holland, 1945

The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has come

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And here's where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore
And it's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes

Communist Daughter

Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water
Semen stains the mountain tops

With cocoa leaves along the border
Sweetness sings from every corner
Cars careening from the clouds
The bridges burst and twist around
And wanting something warm and moving
Bends towards herself
The soothing proves that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist

Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water
Semen stains the mountain tops

Oh Comely

Oh comely
I will be with you when you lose your breath
Chasing the only meaningful memory you thought you had left
With some pretty bright and bubbly terrible scene
That was doing her thing on your chest
But oh comely
It isn't as pretty as you'd like to guess
In your memory
You're drunk on your automy
It doesn't mean anything at all
Oh comely
All of your friends are letting you blow
Bristling and ugly
Bursting with fruits falling out from the holes
Of some pretty bright and bubbly friend
You could need to say comforting things in your ear
But oh comely
There isn't such one friend that you could find here
Standing next to me
He's only my enemy
I'll crush him with everything I own
Say what you want to say
And hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracle for me

Your father made fetuses
With flesh licking ladies
While you and your mother
Were asleep in the trailer park
Thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadiums
The music and medicine you needed for comforting
So make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving
And pluck all your silly strings
And bend all your notes for me
Soft silly music is meaningful magical
The movements were beautiful
All in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
Smelling of semen all under the garden
Was all you were needing when you still believed in me
Say what you want to say
And hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracle for me

And I know they buried her body with others
Her sister and mother and 500 families
And will she remember me 50 years later
I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine
Know all your enemies
We know who are enemies are
Know all your enemies
We know who are enemies are

Goldaline my dear
We will fold and freeze together
Far away from here
There is sun and spring and green forever
But now we move to feel
For ourselves inside some stranger's stomach
Place your body here
Let your skin begin to blend itself with mine

Ghost

Ghost, ghost, I know you live within me
I feel as you fly
In thunder clouds above the city
Into one that I love

With all that was left within me
'Till we tore in two
Now wings and rings and there's so many
Waiting here for you

And she was born in a bottle rocket 1929
With wings that ringed around a socket
Right between her spine
All drenched in milk, in holy water
Pouring from the sky
I know that she will live forever
She won't ever die
And she goes
And now she knows she'll never be afraid
To watch the morning paper blow
Into a hole where no one can escape.

And one day in New York City, baby
A girl fell from the sky
From the top of a burning apartment building
Fourteen stories high
And when her spirit left her body
How it split the sun
I know that she will live forever
All goes on and on.

And she goes
And now she knows she'll never be afraid
To watch the morning paper blow
Into a hole that no one can escape.

Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two

Daddy please hear this song that I sing
In your heart there's a spark that just screams
For a lover to bring a child to your chest that could lay as you sleep
And love all you have left like your boy used to be
Long ago wrapped in sheets warm and wet

Blister please with those wings in your spine
Love to be with a brother of mine
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep wrapped in boxes so tight
Sounding only at night as you sleep

in my dreams you're alive and you're crying
as your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet
rings of flowers 'round your eyes and i love you
for the rest of your life in your reading

Brother see we are one in the same
And you left with your head filled with flames
And you watched as your brains fell out through your teeth
Push the pieces in place
Make your smile sweet to see
Don't you take this away
I'm still wanting my face on your cheek

And when we break we'll wait for our miracle
God is a place where some holy spectacle lies
And when we break we'll wait for our miracle
God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life

Two headed boy she is all you could need
She will feed you tomatoes and radio wires
And retire to sheets safe and clean
But don't hate her when she gets up to leave

Song Against Sex

And the first one tore a picture
Of a dead and hanging man
Who was kissing foreign fishes
That flew right out from this hands
And when I put my arms around him
I felt the blushing blood run through my cheeks
And an eeriness surrounded when his tongue began to speak
And he said, "Oh boy you are so pretty
Enough to wrap tight in rice-paper string..."
And when I finally kissed him the whole world began to ring
Lost like a bell that's tipping over
With two cracks along both sides
And I knew the world was over so I took a look outside
And watched the fires that were reaching
Up to the weather vane and the tops of trees
And the waiting scene and the Sunday dream
They're all waiting here for me

Deli markets with their flower stands
And pretty girls and the burning men
Hanging out on the hooks next to the window displays
And I took out my tongue twice removed from my face
Across a bridge and across the mountains
Threw a nickel in a fountain
To save my soul from all these troubled times
And all the drugs that I don't have the guts to take
To soothe my mind so I'm always sober
Always aching, always heading towards
Mass suicide, occult figurines
And wasted gas-station attendants
Attending to their jobs
And a nice drive in the country
Finds a nice cliff to drop off
Oh when this world just gets so grating
All the grittiness of life
But don't take those pills your boyfriend gave you
You're too wonderful to die

And the last one tore a picture from the pornographic page
But all the pleasure points attacking
All the looks of love were staged
And it's a lie that you've been given
It just hurts you every day
So why should I lay here naked
When it's just too far away
From anything we could call loving
Any love worth living for
So I'll sleep out in the gutter
You can sleep here on the floor
And when I wake up in the morning
I won't forget to lock the door
'Cause with a match that's mean and some gasoline
You won't see me anymore.

You've Passed

The lady is dying
She bends back like a wave
As her spirit is climbing
Through the hospital wall and away

And I wanted to hold you
As you made your escape
But now I should have told you
When your eyes were alive and awake

Always in life we all must make this mistake
And so I go it alone
And the pressure is great
I hold on to my own
Oh please oh don't go away

I wanted to know you
Before you started to fade
But I gave everything to
A lie and a farce and a fake

A Baby For Pree

Blistering Pree, all smiling and swollen
Makes babies to breathe
With their hearts hanging open all over the sheets
As soft as beets in some brown dresser drawer
And with bees in her breath and the rest of her ringing
They'll sting through her chest with a force hard and beating
Till wonderfully wet she will get
Until she's soaked inside her clothes
And there is no sorry to be sorry for
For a roll around the floor some afternoon so sound and soft
It made her swallow all her sweat
With every bit of breath she coughs
And when the day it came to pour all her babies
All across the bathroom floor
She will be swimming in them all forever more

Where You'll Find Me Now

All I perceive is wasted and broken
Silvery streams, sacred when spoken
Slam into me and into the ditch of debris
And you smoke in the park and sleep in the greenery
Everyone barks and they are all still believing
To tear out your heart would send all your secrets to me

But I let you down
And swollen and small is where you'll find me now
With that silver stripping off
From my tongue you're tearing out
And you'll never hear me talk

Your teeth believe that teeth are for tearing
Tear into me and the scent of you sweating smells good to me
And out in the dark the world is still rolling
Kids in their cars, cigarette smoking
And all that they are just reeks with the sweetest belief

But I let you down
And swollen and small is where you'll find me now
With that silver stripping off
From my tongue you're tearing out
And you'll never hear me talk

All I could want is silver and spinning
Out from your arms and into the pretty pit of your heart
So simply and softly we'd flow

But I let you down
And swollen and small is where you'll find me now
With that silver stripping off
From my tongue you're tearing out
And you'll never hear me talk

Into you I will glow

Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone

There are beads that wrap
Around your knees that crackle into the dark
Like a walk in the park like a hole in your head
Like the feeling you get when you realize you're dead
This time we ride roller coasters into the ocean
We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world
And I guess it's worth your time
Because there's some lives you live
And some you leave behind
It gets hard to explain
The gardenhead knows my name

Leave me alone, for you know this isn't the first time
In fact this is twice in a row
That the angels have slipped through our landslide
And filled up our garden with snow
And I don't wish to taste of your insides
Or to call out your name through my phone
For the glory boys at your bedside will love you
As long as you're something to own

Follow me through a city of frost covered angels
I swear I have nothing to prove
I just want to dance in your tangles
To give me some reason to move
But to take on the world at all angles
Requires a strength I can't use
So I'll meet you up high in your anger
Of all that is hoping and waiting for you

Three Peaches

So wake up run your lips across your fingers till you find
Some scent of yourself that you can hold up high
To remind yourself that you didn't die
On a day that was so crappy whole and happy you're alive

You're in the bathroom carving holiday designs into yourself
Hoping no one will find you but they found you
And they took you
And you somehow survived

So wake up and if the holidays don't hollow out your eyes
Then press yourself against whatever
You find to be beautiful and trembling with life
Because I'm so happy you didn't die

Naomi

Your prettiness is seeping through
Out from the dress I took from you, so pretty
And my emptiness is swollen shut always
Always a wretch i have become
So empty

I'm watching Naomi, full bloom
I'm hoping she will soon explode
Into one billion tastes and tunes
One billion angels come and hold her down
They hold her down until she cries

I'm tasting Naomi's perfume
It tastes like shit and I must say
She comes and goes most afternoons
One billion lovers wave and love her now
They could love her now and so could I

There is no Naomi in view
She walks through Cambridge stocks and strolls
And if she only really knew
One billion angels could come and save her soul
They could save her soul until she shines

So pretty

April 8th

Crawl across towards your window
I'm calling softly from the street
Always a lonely widow
Half awake and sleeping on my feet
I'm of age but have no children
No quarter phone booth calls to home
Just late night television
Inside my bedroom all alone

There is no use in waiting
Offer up your steps so I can climb
Show me all your figure paintings
Etched in the middle of the night
Let me stretch upon your carpet
Let me hear the rain tap on your street
Knowing I am safe on the inside
Blankets wrapped and drifting off to sleep

My Dreamgirl

My dreamgirl don't exist
And at the age of five she slit her wrists
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So her parents buried her in the ground.

To this day I can still hear the sound
Of her life in outer space.
My dreamgirl don't exist
Just you and I and this TV
And this illness seems to feel so strange
Like a henchmen that's about to hang
The moon up like a ball and chain
And set his hands ablaze.

And the wait is waiting up
To build a world so real and strong

My dreamgirl don't exist
Should've photographed in a history book
And I believe she had a voice and name
Three children on the coast of Maine
Her life was in a hurricane
Of love and real embrace.

My dreamgirl don't exist
And at the age of five she slit her wrists
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around.
So one day she took a stroll to town
And walked in front of a Greyhound
Bound for New York Central State…

And the wait is waiting up
To build a world so real and strong.

She goes and now she knows she'll never be afraid.

Love You More Than Life

Let the world collapse and die
It's sinking deeper in your eyes
And I will sing a surprise
For no one.

Let the world collapse and swallow
All the loves you'll hold tomorrow
And will shield and I will follow
No one.

And I'm all screwed up
But I feel all right
Sinking deeper all the time
Inside a hole deep in my mind
But I love you, I love you…
More than life.

Let the world collapse and fall
It gave me no, nothing at all.
And I will shield and I will fault
No one.

Let it sink and let it shudder
All the words that I will utter
In hopes your love will soon discover
No one.

And I'm all screwed up
But I feel all right
Sinking deeper all the time
Inside a hole deep in my mind
But I love you, I love you…
More than life.

Oh Sister

Oh sister, don't be afraid of me
I won't be nailing you down in the nursery
Just like the rest of them did
With those watery, wandering fingers of spit
That were supposed to be glorious and fine.

Oh sister won't you believe in me
I only wanted to be hard on the family
Here with you now in this silly infirmary
Your mother makes frantic and drunk calls
From Germany all of the time.

Oh sister, sweet brown and beulahery
And milk from your blisters on your grandmother's jewelry
There in the parlor all naked in front of me
Watching the lights from the cracks
Making archery animal designs.

Rose Wallace Goldeline just moves her mouth over anything
Fleshy free and flowering with oranges out in the open
But don't you waste your sins again
She don't need you or won't fuck your friends
And you, you're American, so important boiling over
To prove that she must still exist
she moves herself about her fist
and never ever gave a shit
about all those words you're wasting again
Some pretty bright and bubbly wondrous dream
you'd like to kill and claim
And claim her as your own
But don't you worry
All those dainty and dirty emotions
just go away and fade out on their own
Sister, now that we're grieving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next

And oh sister
You're getting married with some angry twister
That you'll have to carry home
drunk every evening from the cemetery
And if he makes it back half alive you can
bury him under your sheets
And oh sister
now that you're leaving
I can not imagine there is any meaning
forgetting you ever could once had the feeling that made you keep on
And pretend you were breathing of all of this world
In an age of empty rings
I don't want to feel the thing
I don't even want to know
and Rose Wallace Goldeline
don't you ever die on me
all the way it goes.

Little Birds

Little birds born without a mother or a father
I can watch their bodies forming in the running water
Now there is another in the middle of my mouth
100 all together within me now
Little bird little bird come into my body

Mother they're within me every moment I'm awaking
Bodies multiplying till they finally overtake me
Open up my mouth but all you'll ever hear is singing
Put your hands within me and you'll know what I am feeling
I just want to swallow up and promise to protect them

Daddy come to touch me but he seen his hands are shaking
Look into my eyes and he can see their bodies breaking
Push me to the floor and then his hands started beating
"I don't want to hear it anymore," he kept repeating
"Do you really want the burning hell that we believe in?"

"Do you know the burning hell it took your baby brother?
Did you see how far he fell and how he made us suffer?
Another boy in town at night he took him for his lover
And deep in sin they held each other.
So I took a hammer nearly beat his little brains in
Knowing god in heaven would've never could forgive him
So I took a hammer and I nearly beat his brains in."

Little boy born without a father or a mother
Taken to the river and then pushed into the water
Now the priest is singing that the hell is getting hotter
Father son and holy ghost the only one to save him
From the thing he loves the most but we know will betray him
Father son and holy ghost the only one to save him
From the thing he loves the most but we know will betray him

And here beneath the water I can see how the lights distort so strange
And I think this is how I would like to leave my body and start again.

Engine

For I am an engine and I'm holding on
Through endless revisions to state what I mean
For sweetness alone who flew out through the window
And landed back home in a garden of green

You're riding alone in the back of a steamer
And steaming yourself in the warm shower spray
And water rolls on off the round captain's belly
Who's talking to tigers from his cafeteria tray

And sweet babies cry for the cool taste of milking
That milky delight that invited us all
And if there's a taste in this life more inviting
Then wake up your windows and watch as those sweet babies crawl away
oh oh dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee

Everything Is...

Grown sleepy as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again

I'm not afraid of a love parade in my daydream
Old men with kazoos and beating drums
But I awake and I see the streets are ice cream
It's just you and me and oh dear, our life has just begun

Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading

Oh beautiful smiles, won't you stay awhile
We could close the door and sleep all day
It's a September sky with pretty pictures in my mind
That's lost its feeling of so afraid

Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading

Grown sleepy now as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again

Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading

Snow Song Pt. 1

Cindy smiles in overcoats
She says, "Please stay awhile, like ice cream floats and dreams
And I will fill your heart with boats and bells and beans and candy-appled
Everythings
Bells and beans and candy-appled everythings..."
Cindy skips my trampoline
With toys and horns and bouncing things
And even the most silent must sing a song
Yes, even the silent they must sing a song of love
oh, oh

Unhappy girl, she's spinning
Through strings in her curls
And it's only the beginning
Of a trip around the world
Cindy won't you smile
Cindy won't you sleep awhile
I feel I'm just a child
Sinking down one hundred million miles
oh, oh

Bucket

Shadows on my wall
They creep and crawl in burning white
They dream of waterfalls
Catching slow bright streams of light.

And life can be so weird
Bucket full of fear
But it's alright
I'm on an isle
And i've still got time to fly away

Shadows in my dreams
They're painting scenes of time with you
I'm hoping all these things
and the strength they bring will pull me through

and life can be so weird
Bucket full of fear
But it's alright
i'm on an isle
And i've still got time to fly away.

Rubby Bulbs

I need to taste your voice in my mouth
I need to taste your voice in the air
And I need to feel your skin against all that I retch out
And feel your voice all over everywhere

I need to paste your skin around the mailbox
And hold the postman in your smile
I need to fill your lungs with smallpox
And fill the glow of a sick and distorted life

Beautiful baby
All filled with angels
Beautiful baby
All filled with angels
Beautiful baby
All filled with angels
Beautiful babies
All filled with angels

I Will Bury You In Time

I will bury you in time
When the sea begins to slide
Into this hole where I am smiling on your shoulder
You have buried my beliefs
Where all you sisters sleep
That there scent the purity will make
When the youth is over
Standing in some Oct - October

And I am breathing into you
It makes your features move
And they shimmer like balloons that fly above the ocean
All the world is waiting here
You can hear the children cheer
But they'll need you when you're near
The brink of complete implosion
Crown your king when your life is broken

Everything you are I'm tearing through
Everything you want I'm wanting too
I gave you more than I thought I could ever do
But I will never break you

And if I was the king of all the kids
You'd you hear me singing in my spit
But all you would hear is the shit inside my burnt emotions
I will bury you in time
When the sea begins to slide
Into this hole where you and I will sing our songs unbroken
As the water starts its chokin'
dee dee dee dee dee etc.

Ferris Wheel on Fire

Well now first of all
We became what we always had feared
Every engine holds
All their oils on fire appeared
They finally broke through
And on your shoulder
This weight has been placed upon you
And everything we ever learned

Now I'm keeping stow
In someone's bright carnival ride
All the crowd just cheers
As the bolts break and metal collides
Spiraling through
And flying up all over the hills
And now everything's broken in two
And everything's way over

But now most of all
I am holding you under my skin
Watch these buildings fall
Watch as each weak resistance caves in
All over you all over
And now finally fading from view
Is everything we ever knew

You Can Deny all Your Addictions

You can deny all your addictions
da da da da da
(burp)
do do de de do
(burp)
la la la la la la la
That's how the melody goes
It's on tape so I won't forget it
Cause I'm a pretty weird guy
And I probably won't remember it
Cause it's currently 2:30 in the morning
And I'm smoking cigarrettes
And I just came up with this melody and wrote some lyrics
And I think it's gonna turn into a song
So I guess I'll just put it on a tape
But then again these tapes cost me two dollars
And I'm wasting more space than I should
So I'll shutup
So OK

Glue

(cover of The Gerbils)

she comes to me
whenever I am locked inside my room
burried in the tomb that i call love
she sings to me
the words i cannot hear
but then the melody so clear
it makes me cry
her love is so beautiful
her love is so real
it smells like glue
she's leaving me
to find a place she never will call home
i stand shaking like a stone
and smile inside
she's calling me
to come to her
and curl inside her womb
i hear lies (and) acid too
but i'm on time
the pain is so beautiful
the urge is so real
it smells like glue
snd i will scream, she hears me
i will tell myself she loves me
and all the lies and fears
will stick to me like glue

Sinking Ship

Sinking ship, how long can you hold still, your illness spills against my face
Sinking ship how long can you hold still, look at you, feel the coming waves
A perfect Sunday portrait of my mother painting horses all alone
Of lovers and of leavers still believing they are free to come back home

ooooh
ooooh
ooooooooh

Sinking ship how long can you hold still your illness is all that you are
A portrait of my father as a baby sleeping underneath the stars
A small pill of forgiveness I am giving to myself, it's what I need
A small gift of fufillment I am hoping you will open and recieve

ooooh
ooooh
ooooooooh

Sinking ship how long can you hold still your illness fills this empty mirror
A portrait of you lover softly drowning in the warm waters of June
A perfect Sunday portrait of my mother sending signals through the drums
A portrait of my sadness finding shelter in the safety of my home

ooooh
ooooh
ooooooooh

Circle of Friends

Greet all your friends and they say hello
They tie all your ends until they tie
Yourself in again into something whole
Something secure and lost inside

I imply I'm away

All of the forces we uphold
And all of the dangers we escape
You wonder sometimes how long we'll hold
Till all of this anger shows its way

We embrace
Away
I'm OK
I'm OK
I'm OK

There are just some things we can't know
There are just some things you can't face
But I will secure myself in blue
and get this disease that you embrace

Embrace
and wait
Embrace
And wait

And beginning again takes so much time
And all of your friends come to watch you go
And as your machine pulls from the drive
You watch as their empty artics flow

Flow and blow
Flow away
Away
Away
I'm OK
I'm OK

Through My Tears

Watch the wind blow your cigarette smoke
through my window and out to the sky
this message sent, drilled into your heart
but now the ink will fade
before the night is through my dear

where were you when the cracks were forming
where were you when it all caved in
you were sleeping safe that morning
holding insecurities that burrowed underneath your skin
and fade away

all alone - another twisted moment's gone
that will never pass this way again
and through it all i thought there'd be some shred of hope
but faith i've found will do you in
and all the words that build into
a bridge of love between me and you
will stumble, crack and fail to fly
and now my only one, where have you gone
are you another heart that i must sing goodbye my dear

Where were you when the cracks were forming
where were you when it all caved in
you were sleeping safe that morning
holding insecurities that burrowed underneath your skin
and fade away

[live version goes into "Goldaline my dear" from Oh Comely here]

She had a mental problem
She couldn't concentrate
She was her own delusion
She was her own mistake
She did a lot of acid
That put the voices down
And one day at her birthday
They found her hanging upside down

They say she lived her life on the avenue
They say she cried from the weight of her spit
They claim they were the only ones that she ever knew
Ah, but why are they weeping now?
When she was alive they were not around
They were locked in their own abyss

We met in the gutter
We shared a smoke or two
I told about my mother
She showed me her tattoo
She went out through the city
Got lost in Fulton Town (?)
And one day at her birthday
They found her hanging upside down

They say she live her life an American
They say she whored away but still
They claim they offered her their helping hand
But the talk's all the same to me
They call themselves her family
It just makes me ill

The Worms in the Wind (snippet)

And we once had a home that was hurling through space
And the gravity held all our houses in place... but not anymore...

And the worms in the wind are are beginning to blow
Baby brother gives in and we watch as he goes
Through a hole in the night that's as wide as a sheet
All the beautiful people go floating up over the street.

The Gifted Children

[Apparently this is NOT a Neutral Milk Hotel song, but a song by a band called The Gifted Children written about NMH. Whatever. I like it so I kept it here.]

Close to me you are, we are boiled in milk
neutrals in the acid house, curdled in chaos
at least we can see who we are
not like those gone for the gold
we are boiled in milk.

Let us soothe your open wounds, dry your crying eyes (3x)

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