before the sun first rose there was nothing we could do all the water in our hearts froze fast the world begin anew I finally woke up and pulled these sheets across my eyes to once and all dispel the myth that everything must rise this gravity that holds me down leaves creases on my mind It’s erasing more than memories and space between the lines hours spent beside myself hold true to all these lies until my name’s forgotten by the continents and tides but my name is not important now and neither is my station here lies the only home i know the stars my destination then I’m reaching for the lightswitch to return the morning’s glare the hum of electricity the ozone in the air the energy, the glory the spark that gave them breath the iron and obsidian laid heavy on their breast when first i came to understand that nothing really dies It just changes rearranges all the space between the lines i felt myself elongate stretched across the field of time And i saw my name splashed on a sea of shimmer and of shine do you see it written there in lights? a sun for each occasion It’s a marquee lit in candlelights the stars my destination Then turning for the door I see her standing there With blazing circles in her eyes and diamonds in her hair There’s carbon laced with carbon laid in braids across her back the lattice cracks and shatters but the heart remains intact Ah the growing paranoia of the blackness in the sky When these seconds, minutes, hours days and years before us lie vessels surging forward salty veins that crash and fall until the channel widens and the sea reclaims us all Then my words become a sextant Meant to aid my navigation I borne across the endless sea the stars my destination

meet me by the church at saint germain you won't know to call me by my name the eyes are different but the words remain the tongue unbroken and the songs all sound the same as they did when i left before there was time now i want for more at the center of the rose in the petals whirl there's a motion round the middle like the turning of the world the gears set spinning turn the hands of a girl puts the thorn into her thumb as the colors all unfurl as the red becomes something more than blood something more than love when i saw you by the fountain you'd been waiting there so long every fiber on your overcoat was torn you said these chances don't come often to see the path that you’ve worn you're born once into the world twice into the dawn third onto the mountain And the fourth into my arms i’m not a prophet ‘cause i haven’t earned a cent i’m not enlightened i just learned to travel light i’m not the kind to say the things he meant i’m not afraid when you turn out the light in the dark i can hear my heart in my ears the blood is the spark when i saw you at the chapel on the altar dressed in red there’s a grand intoxication just coursing through my head Oh to live a thousand years And to walk on through the morning like you said you’re born once into the world twice into the dawn third onto the mountain and fourth into my arms meet me by the church at st germain it’s been a hundred years but it feels just the same don’t put your hair up ‘cause i think it’s going to rain just say you love me and you’ll never leave again

I didn't know that I was running Til I found myself at sea between the waves And in the wake I left behind I saw the days we put behind us slip away It's just a quick trip up and back To leave essentials with the old men at the dock A spot of land out in the ocean Where no one goes and no one ever stops for long There's a man here on a motorbike With three miles worth of road to call his own It's the closest thing to freedom He can get without straying too far from home And every day he revs his engine To wake the fisherman and the last of the late sleepers He's lonely as a lighthouse keeper There’s a man been seen around With a sheen of glass and glaze upon his eyes He’s got a beard of twenty years And a voice that makes the mountains creak and sigh He's got a tattoo of a woman On his arm and there's a sadness in her eyes And with the salt and spray upon him She turns away so you can't see her when she cries She's the keeper of the rocks and reefs The face that launched a hundred shipwrecked souls The spirit of the light that keeps him safe When the ocean rocks and rolls And every day he counts his blessings And says a prayer for all those lost out in the deep there He's lonely as a lighthouse keeper Heaven is aglow With a burning scar upon the northern sky And it might set the sea on fire Turn to glass he waves that roll for miles and miles And you who watch and you who wait Will be rewarded when the circle comes undone And we will all turn on our lights And shine them down like we are bringing back the sun He's the keeper of the rocks and reefs The face that saved a hundred shipwrecked souls The spirit of the light keeps them safe When the ocean rocks and rolls And every day he says a prayer For the fishermen and last of the late sleepers He’s lonely as a lighthouse keeper

green dress you wore with feathers one time at the circus backless open to the water, wind and sun you could be waiting there for anyone brown eyes open to another morning’s sunrise disguised a fire burns beneath the old world yet the glowing ember end of cigarettes take off your shoes and settle down even when you’re sleeping the world stills circles round and round and round take up your hair and let it down down down as your green dress falls in circles to the ground green leaves a robe built from a canopy of oak trees with green sleeves to celebrate the coming of the sun to usher in a season just begun red veins running up the trunk right through the wood grain blue rain for purple blossoms whirled around the crown And two-part broken hearts that can’t be found they shatter but they never make a sound take off your shoes and settle down even when you’re sleeping the world stills circles round and round and round take up your hair and let it down down down as your green dress falls in circles to the ground

They say that Reno has got it made we can stay here at the circus we can be our own parade but a tiger in its cage is missing teeth It’s made of paper skin and fury with no reason to believe and it dreams of southeast asia and the mist between the trees and the blood of the barasingha flowing eastward to the sea but i’m stuck here on the south of nothing new I wish that I was driving through Nevada with you somewhere north of Vegas there’s a ranch a thousand dusty miles of empty gypsum flats in the time before there was a lake the same unchanging surface between here and Utah state Now the screams of jet propulsion crack the sky and make it shake as i watch the cars roll by heading east on the interstate I wish that I could have that point of view i wish that i was driving through Nevada with you i could dream a highway in my mind It’s rolling through the mountains to where the rivers all unwind though i don’t know all their names i’m certain they know mine ‘cause the water has a way of remembering the time but there’s nothing i can say to make it true i wish i was that river winding its way back to you I could make it down to the inland sea I could float on down on the Jordan all the way to Galilee your hand in mine we walk across on a stretch of highway 93 that time and space have lost just to watch the sun rise over All the mountains, salt and dust where they come to know the difference between belief and trust and there’s nothing much in common with the two and i wish that i was driving through nevada with you i could dream a highway in my mind rolling through the mountains To where the rivers all unwind though i don’t know all their names I’m certain they know mine ‘cause the water has a way of remembering the time there’s nothing i can say or make or do i wish i was that river winding its way back to you There’s nothing i can say would make it true I wish that i was driving Through Nevada with you

Eveline unwinds herself from sleep and throws an arm across my side She’s long and soft and languid and her heart beats close, her eyes are open wide She says “Last night I dreamt of serpents racing down the mountainside With their tongues all forked like lightning and their bodies forged in fire They drove us to the water and with nowhere left to hide We jumped in with all our clothes on and went out just like the tide” Lines of sweat are forming, yeah she’s burning, giving off an inner heat She’s coal, she’s fire, she’s naked under earth and rock and cotton sheets The pressure building slowly every time her red heart beats Like the world might split apart when our bodies finally meet And there’s only stone and diamond where a woman used to be All that fire all that fury making channels towards the sea so open up and swallow me in I would like to feel the same way that i did when we began i sail away oh, you draw me back the waters rush to fill the places where the ocean cracks Eveline’s the sound that tears a hole across the blue uncertain sky She’s a metronome of thunder sounded back and forth to keep the time She says “Last night I dreamt of trumpets down from heaven’s gate on high While the smell of burning sulfur seeps from hell’s one open eye The fever finally breaking in the cooling winds that wind From the falling walls of Jericho to crumbling mountainsides” And I know that day is coming And in my mind I plainly see Two statues laid in embrace Where our bodies used to be And the years may treat us kinder Than the years had meant to be Yes I know that day is coming When there’s only you and me Eveline unwinds herself from sleep and throws the window shutters wide It’s morning on the mountain she comes back to bed and lays down by my side She says there’s nothing to remember from the dreams of sleep gone by So we might as well just lay here with the sunlight in our eyes Or we’ll walk down to the water laid before us deep and wide We’ll jump in with all our clothes on and go out just like the tide so open up and swallow me in I would like to feel the same way that i did when we began i sail away you draw me back And the waters rush to fill the places where the ocean cracks

Harpo and Amelia Walking through the backlot She doesn’t have a flight plan He doesn’t have the words She asks him if he’d like to take A ride up in her airplane He just honks his horn And pretends he hasn’t heard Harpo and Amelia Talking like they’re old friends She offers him her hand He offers her his leg She knows it’s just a joke But still it kind of hurts her He’s the number one dogcatcher But she doesn’t want to beg All she wants is a night out at the opera The touch of hands on 47 strings All she’s got is the music of her engines And he’s lost in the silver screen He’s lost in the silver screen Harpo and Amelia Flight of passing fancy They’ve been circling for hours With no place to land Fuel is running low Altitude is dropping She tells him that it’s serious But he doesn’t understand All she wants is a night in Casablanca The touch of hands on 47 strings But all she’s got is the music of her engines And he’s lost in the silver screen He’s lost in the silver screen Harpo and Amelia No more monkey business She went west And he went back to work Now he’s a Pinky Waiting for his Chicolini And she’s an angel Waiting for her fall to earth All she wants is a night out at the opera The touch of hands on 47 strings But all she’s got is the music of her engines And he’s lost in the silver screen He’s just lost in the silver screen

We owe a rooster to Asclepius When the time comes don’t forget, please pay When they come to lay the coins across my eyes There’ll be no one left to watch what I say From my lonely bedroom spire I can see the smoke from fires Lit from pages of my book of days Stretching out past Riker’s Island Fingers reaching for the sky and Blanketing the sun with haze Do what you will, you libertine The law of man will find its way In stripes and bars or in quicklime laid The silence finds you either way So you summon elementals In your bedroom, in your temple New fires for the space between the sheets Beasts you bore in wild abandon Secret words of love and passion A new bible for two hearts unleashed But those sad words Of tongue and pen Erased and changed Then changed again The pages frayed The marriage spent But Babalon Will rise again Little Egypt in a see through shirt Blowing kisses to the men in back Little Brooklyn on the workhouse floor Stripped naked showing welts all down her back From the jury box they listened To the same words they’d imprisoned In a jail made of paper leaves and glue Tearing down the bonds of wedlock Giving her the choice of hemlock Or chains that she could not break through Do what you will, you libertine The law of man will find its way In stripes and bars or in quicklime laid The silence finds you either way The silence finds you either way In the air the angels hover Whisper names of spirit lovers That wait just on the other side Bonds of pleasure, not creation Words of love and liberation For the phantom and his silent bride But those sad words Of tongue and pen Erased and changed Then changed again The pages frayed The marriage spent But Babalon Will rise again We owe a rooster to Asclepius When the time comes don’t forget, please pay Blood draining down from his beak to the altar Where the record of my last words lay In the body sung electric A new truthful dialectic There’s no bars across the golden doors No stitches running down the hemline Where our lips and songs are untied I can’t tell if they are mine or yours But those sad words Of tongue and pen Erased and changed Then changed again The pages frayed The marriage spent Let’s never say What might have been

I wanted to ask you How the sea rose and fell When the sirens awoke you Were you under their spell? Did they flash out a warning? Did they sing you to sleep? With your friends at the bottom In the deepest of deeps Row, row Row til there’s nothing but Oh, oh Ocean behind you and Go, go There’s gold yet beneath the sky Then the pictures of women That you loved in your time Drift by like a slow dance In three-quarter time Were they one in a million? Were they one with your heart? Did the troubles come later? Were they there from the start? Row, row Row til there’s nothing but Oh, oh Ocean behind you and Go, go There’s gold yet beneath the sky And no, no There’s no time or reason We roll, roll Change with the seasons And go, go Grow shadows and touch the night There’s nothing you can’t fix With patience and twine If the rod turns to splinters Don’t throw out your line No, you just row, row Row til there’s nothing but Oh, oh Ocean behind you and Go, go There’s gold yet beneath the sky And no, no There’s no time or reason We roll, roll Change with the seasons And go, go Grow shadows and touch the night I wanted to ask you How the sea rose and fell

i’m going to tell the whole story this time i’m going to lay all my troubles out along the dotted line i won’t waste the things i’m given i won’t waste whatever’s mine or any more of your time the kindness that you will extend to me the mercy of your wings conceals the bones that you can’t see did you say that there was room for me in the stories of your dreams in the songs you sing to me? I was running you were crying “there’s nothing left for us to do but part” we were talking you were singing a song about the space between our hearts There’s a bird that nests between the crooked parts two beating wings that flutter fast and sharp a song about the space between our hearts There is time that was and time will be there are words that i have written In the spaces you can’t see i have nothing more to offer than a reason to believe no more that i can be there are things i’ve said and said again you can trace them down the lines back to the mouths where they begin did you mean to open up the door and invite me safely in into your heart again? I was running you were crying “there’s nothing left for us to do but part” we were talking you were singing a song about the space between our hearts There’s a bird that nests between the crooked parts two beating wings that flutter fast and sharp a song about the space between our hearts i’m going to tell the whole story this time from the earliest beginnings to the last undotted line i won’t waste a single word i won’t waste whatever’s mine i won’t make those mistakes this time