America

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Where did you see it, where did you see it

Our love, our love,

America

In the promise of freedom no matter your race

Or the trouble you’ve seen far away from this place

In the house where you worship or under a rock

In the rubble of what someone did for their god

If it’s not there

Tell me where did you see it

Where did you see it

Our love, our love

Where did you see it

Our love, our love

America

On the wind raking plains of our first-born men

In their voices being silenced again and again

Or in the roar of our lifeblood they stand to defend

Our primordial wounds that have yet to mend

If it’s not there

Running wild-eyed in droves on Chicago’s east coast

Shouting justice for all of us above and below

all the lines that they’ve drawn telling us where we go

and in mother’s hands where there once was a son and now only a ghost

If it’s not there

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Bigger

I'm out walking, me and this shadow

everywhere I go it's at my feet

growing under street lamps, shrinking in the shade

making me so small some days, bigger when I need

we once loved like the walls were caving in

I was proud to be the prize you got to win

I became your trusses at my own expense

&now we're on the center lines plotting our defense

but I keep on walking, me and this shadow

everywhere I go he's at my feet

growing under street lamps, shrinking in the shade

making me so small some days, bigger when I need

my mother gave me the spaces in her mind

o, the riches and the grit she shed

eight years have gone now since last she looked upon

the glory of her garden green, the wisdom of her young

but I keep on walking, me and this shadow

everywhere I go she's at my feet

growing under street lamps, shrinking in the shade

making me so small some days, bigger when I need

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Catalpa

you wrote in a letter

Catalpa is calling me

you said oak is a king, the acorn a man

but so many kings and

never a plan

when the wilt took rampant hold

oak is a king that rules not for me

you poured over pages Catalpa is calling me

you said white pine's an ogre, cold and getting colder

it flattens the ground, none other can grow there

the needle swift and strong

white pine's an ogre but he ain't howlin' for me

catalpa

oh my, oh my

you sink in despair, Catalpa is calling me

her shape in a space is something like mine

we hunch in our curves and don't take the time

to grow the way we need

Catalpa my darling you're something like me

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December song

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December is calling

and the wind's begun to whine

and your heart is part of mine

so darling don't get buried down

'cause it's too cold to dig us out

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The acorns are falling

and I've barely made a dent

in paying back what I've spent

but darling don't be mad at me

I'm just the best that I can be

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so we walk along the edge

holding tight to the strings that we've tied around our fingers

to remind us of the debts we owe and what we have to cling to

and we dance when we can

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It's no matter the season

it's no matter the clothes I wear

it's plain to see the load I bear

is lighter darling when you're there

I've got your love and some to spare​

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Get out

get out while you can

few words have followed you from boy to man and these are some

you got to get out on the radio, show 'em all the good things your know

got to give 'em 110 and if you don't it don't count

even if you lose some friends along the way

it kills you but you knew it would

pulls you from where you stood

never on the same floor more than a night

it kills you but you knew it would, and you just had to get out

Doug he was a one-shot man

got it from his dad, he was the best shot in the Eastern land

but his liquor it followed him the way that he did his dad

and they both had the proof to back it up

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it killed him but we knew it would

pulled him from where he stood

never in the same state more than a night

it killed him but we knew it would, he just had to get out

now I'm all out on the old railroad

singing jubilee and breaking down

at the thought of laurel and the great green pines

and you driving me all the way across Georgia in the night

it killed us but we knew it would

it pulled us from where we stood

never on the same page more than a night

it killed us but we knew it would, and we just had to get out, get out

get out while you can

few words have followed you from boy to man and these are some

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I don't want to go home

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My body is swimming in Lake Michigan

I think its following you

But really I'm just standing in some kitchen

Feeling like a fool

And it’s been 3 days and nights in this dark lake

The kitchen’s starting to fade

The seagulls and children have all found their mates

But still I sit here and wait

The wine and I

Talk through this fantasy

But dawn keeps breaking

and I don’t want to go home yet

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So I paddle on through lake Erie too

I almost forget about you

But kitchens turn to bathrooms turn to working til' I'm blue

And I should be getting home soon

Is it true that Toronto is New York up there

I wade Ontario as I climb the stairs

Where your jacket used to hang but now it’s just bare

I’m everywhere and you’re nowhere

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If you’re walkin’ long

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If you’re walkin’ long​

If you’re walkin’ long enough

If you’re walkin’ long enough the

Path will rise up to greet you

And if you’re walkin’ long

I’m walkin’ right beside you

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I’ve got this ringin’

I’ve got this ringin’ in my ear

I’ve got this ringin’ but I

Can’t hear the song

Can’t hear the song in it just yet

But I’ve got this ringin’

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Every day is a struggle

Every day is a gift they say

Every day is a struggle sister

Wrapped up in gold then rolled away

But I’ve seen it floatin’

I’ve see it floatin’ on the lake

When night comes lowering and it

Holds my eye

Holds us all inside that

Great white ball up in the sky

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Lean in

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I knew a man who was always a child

he talked about right now and never though too far ahead

when I press on the gas past all his almost-alma maters

I'm a clean paved road through used-to-be prairie land

wondering what I could have been

if I worried as little as him

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I know a man who'd have died to keep being alive

but his living is proof of a lesson that's hard to ignore

he kept pressing on the gas past all his almost-satisfaction

and he worked until working didn't work anymore

and I was there when they said he went home

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I guess you could say that he gave it to fate

and the cards just did not play

but I hate it as much or more than you do

when people start talking that way

so lean in tonight

to what feels right

and do what feels right

and never do anything else

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I know a place that I'd like to be

it's the same old neon swaying and a dusty wood floor

I'm pressing on your chest through all our almost-ever-afters

and a clean page turned, but we're still standing there

dancing through how've you been

did your momma end up with him

idd you brother get to drinkin' again

did we really let it sink in

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I guess you could say that we gave it to fate

and the cards just did not play

but I hate it as much or more than you do

when people start talking that way

so lean in tonight

to what feels right

and do what feels right

and never do anything else

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​Like the soil

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I was six feet tall

and ten years old

driving a '38 Hudson down Main Street

with my brothers in the back seat

I grew up in a hell of a hurry

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Two years later I was twelve and

and tired

driving a team of horses on the plow

and my brothers had their families

I grew up in a hell of a hurry

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And my body was like the soil

back in North Carolina

I was rigid and ready to take the coming rain

so I did what good men did

I enlisted

and I knew that I would be the killing kind

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She was like the spring in '54

blooming on every end of every arm

and she danced like the pansies

I had no more reason to hurry

so we grew up a family

and we grew up a real good one

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but our bodies are like the soil

back in South Korea

they're running red with blood in the summer rain

then they go the way the rains do

they pass on through

and I never found a love like her kind

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Long time exhaling

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I was thinking yesterday on the passing of my friend

and her name was Evalee

we were neighbors in the tall pines by the hill on Gilbert Street

and then her motherless children were younger than me

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and I got to thinking

we're all in it the same

as children of a mother we are killing everyday

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and if all the world is a motherless child, who will fill the ocean's glass

who will turn it all to vapor when the current flows too fast

and who will wake the winter from her worried rest

get me a chair without arms

maybe a sunset over Evalee's barn

get me the ones I've known so long

and I will sing through all the lines that we have drawn

oh it's a long time exhaling that makes for one good song

if all the world is a motherless child, we will fill up every glass

we will sing to all our fears as the years go on to pass

and we will wake up taller than the questions we have asked

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My house

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I’m gonna clean up my house

I’m gonna clean up my mind

I’ve been so unkind

To myself now I’m taking the time

Finally

To clean up my house

So go on and get me a broom

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Cause there’s a pile for love

Where the dust burns red in the mornings

I wake up alone

I’ll sweep it up

A pile for losing

That’s harder to find sometimes

But I know it’s there

I’ll sweep it up

A pile for “not good enough”

“I should’ve tried harder”

Should’ve gave up

But I’m not sweeping anything under the rug

I’m not pulling any wool over

But I’m not sweeping anything under the rug

I’m not pulling any wool over

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Peggy's song

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Peggy was smoking by the swimming pool on the day that I remember her best

if you'd give her a choice between hell and high water

she'd take the water with a whiskey and ice

she was a good mama, she was bad news

if you caught her on a day when the Eagles were losing

ooh, I wish I knew her

ooh, I wish I knew her

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She worked nine to five as a secretary, it was thirty years of minimum wage

but she raised up her kids in the height of the sixties

and she didn't need no man to tell her how to fix things

liked to jitterbug, she was fancy free

her lips were ruby red every day of the week

ooh, I wish I knew her

ooh, I wish I knew her

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Now when Peggy was laughin' you were laughin' too, she had a voice that you could never forget

and a butterfly ring on her littlest finger

that she gave to Joey after she got sick

and it was real hard on the family

but if she were here I hope she'd see herself in me

ooh, herself in me

ooh, herself in me

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now she's gone and I guess that's how it goes

it ain't fair but she'll live on in her laughter in my head

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Tell me again

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I’m not sure I heard you

So tell me again

About what I mean to you

And the tears you’ll cry when

I’m all gone

I’m all gone

It seems just last night we dreamed of our own

A homestead to nurture and fifty years gone

I’m wide awake now and you’re on your own

But don’t spare me your love song, I swear I’ll stay strong

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I’m not sure I heard you

So tell me again

About what I mean to you

And the tears you’ll cry when

I’m all gone

I’m all gone

Now I’m all out of pity for gestures like these

You send me your sorrow while you’re doing as you please

Don’t get your shirttails caught on the door my love

‘Cause while it’s true you’re losing, it’s you leaving me

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I’m not sure I heard you

So tell me again

About what I mean to you

And the tears you’ll cry when

I’m all gone

I’m all gone​​

​Cause now I'm all gone

I'm all gone

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The Sweetness

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You had gallons on gallons of maple sap

set to boil on high

while the steam drew up from the window panes

I was worrying about how to miss you

It’s like a drip in a bucket of tin

there’s a flowing from the heart of a tree but it’s flowing thin

and it takes forever to fill

and it quakes when time is standing still

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but you wait, and you wait, and you wait

for the Sweetness that’s promised to come

and now the heat takes to rising

In nectar once clear

and leaves a warm shade of brown sinking low

and my feet wander back through a flurry of tracks

when we were hunters among sugar maple

It’s like a drip in a bucket of tin

There’s a falling fast from where we came

not knowing where we’ll land

and it takes forever to know

and it gives so little to show

and it takes forever to grow

But we wait, and we wait, and we wait

for the Sweetness that’s promised to come

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Quarantine

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We're living in a dream now

the clock has no meaning

its every minute for itself

but you can bet on bodies moving at the break of dawn

they're clocking out from working all night long

so we're ok

we're ok

I heard somebody crying its the end of the world

as if we saw it begin

no one, I mean no one

has an answer that stands

we're dropping down the wheels but we have yet to land

and that's ok

we're ok

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I'm turning down the radio now

I'm singing for the empty bars

my lonely every day's the only gift I have to give

I don't see you but I feeel you out there helping me live

so we're ok

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It's harder than we thought now

so little to do

as if I had it down before

my inclinations heavy, all my boxes checked

but I'm falling to my knees for those with so many left

I hope you're ok

you're ok

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It seems the story changes now with lightning speed

it's every minute one more gone

the air is so electric that its meaning gets lost

they sent us up a signal but the wires crossed

said it's ok

we're all ok

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