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1. |
Body Needs Time
02:59
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You stay at home in your kitchen drunk
Refrigerator hums
The cat crawls through the window and she’s gone
And no one has the time to be alone
Falling off your chair, swinging chandelier
Is it you or the room
The capsized boat in the empty room
And no one has the time to be confused
Try to give yourself a day
Walk along a line that’s meant to fade
And all your body needs is time
I would give up my heart attacks
Cross my arms and float away and back
All my body needs is time
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2. |
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Putting my hand on your back
Dishonestly blind
Plotting my accomplishments
On someone else’s dime
Losing control, running out of time
My existential midlife crimes
Waking up with half my hair
Sticking to the floor
I set my foot on the first stair
Couldn’t take it more
Losing control, running out of time
My existential midlife crimes
This house was built in 1912
For someone else’s dream
I’ve always said how I felt
So I won’t say anything
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3. |
Orderly and Astray
04:12
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4 a.m., he wakes again
From the allergies and the rain
And on his breaks he doesn’t shave
Trying to hide his mother’s face
Every spring he begins
The filing of his sins
He put away
Orderly and astray
She calls him twice in one night
Leaving messages, rambling
Her head’s a cloud of loss and doubt
Did she touch him where she shouldn’t see?
Every spring she begins
The filing of her sins
She put away
Orderly and astray
He loves her still, he hates her still
For what she tried to explain
She loves him still, she hates herself
For giving up her blood and memory
Every spring they begin
To talk a little more again
Until it rains
Orderly and estranged
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4. |
Unheard, Unseen
04:22
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Hold my breath until it passes
Like the faces in the shed
All my friends in their houses
With their lovers in their beds
What have I unheard, what have I unseen,
What have I undone?
What if she was her, what if he was me?
It’s no vindication of my heart or of my deeds
A baby rots without a reason
And the reverend’s secret stays in town
She stuffs herself inside a barrel
Full of water where she drowns
What have I unheard, what have I unseen,
What have I undone?
What if she was her, what if he was me?
It’s no vindication of my heart or of my deeds
The papers signed and stacked
In the basement in their boxes underground
She comes and goes as she pleases
Without warning and without sound
What have I unheard, what have I unseen,
What have I undone?
What if she was her, what if he was me?
It’s no vindication of my heart or of my deeds
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5. |
Mountain with Two Peaks
03:37
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Wake up at dawn, feel for the switch on the wall
Coffee grounds under your fingernails
Turnpike hurricane in the carpool lane
See the mountain with two peaks
Spend your paycheck in between
From the heavens it seems
You’re walking on the sea
Fluttering eyelids, fake I.D.
Father and daughter, screaming through their teeth
See the mountain with two peaks
Spend your paycheck in between
From the heavens it seems
You’re walking on the sea
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6. |
Lucid Dreaming
03:15
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The shadows on the cave, broken as they’re made
Fuck that story
Eyelids fluttering, false awakenings
With your blessing
Fuck you therapist, you cross yourself and miss
What I’m saying
The lion on the hearth ate my baby’s heart
Lucid dreaming
I’m halfway down the road, bleeding from your nose
My car is waiting
Fuck you citizens, and all your differences
I’m immigrating
I cut myself apart, just above the heart
Disassociating
And fuck you everyone until my cock is numb
From all the fucking
I cut myself in two, now it’s me and you
Lucid dreaming
The lion on the hearth
The book you read apart
Like time inside a star
Overrated
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7. |
Turn the Volume Down
02:07
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Put your dreams on layaway
And hope you get the time
Miss a couple payments
And they’re blowing up the line
Turn the volume down, turn the volume down
Oh my god please
Pinch between your middle finger
And your thumb and squeeze
Try to make some noise
Cause you’re buried to your knees
You’re living in a car if you’re living in your means
A nickel for your thoughts
but a penny for your dreams
Turn the volume down, turn the volume down
Turn the volume down, turn the volume down
Waking up at 3 a.m.
in front of your TV
Crawling to the toilet
Cause you can’t get on your feet
Cooking in a spoon, tying off a limb
Sinking in your room, slowing down the spins
Turn the volume down, turn the volume down
Turn the volume down, turn the volume down
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8. |
Waves and Waves
03:32
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Crossing out empty on your puzzle sheet
Taking your coffee with sugar and cream
Waves and waves
Possibilities
What you give and what you give up
To be complete
I’m pulling up anchor from the canyon deep
Treading through water I don’t want to meet
And I can’t remember how to stay on my feet
Waves and waves and waves
Possibilities
What you give and what you give up
To be complete
Applying your makeup in the early morn
With brushes and pencils like the artist reborn
The painting and painter hanging together
In a reflection until the moment is gone
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9. |
Bridal Veil Falls
04:24
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Bridal Veil Falls, crashing down
Circling above in formation
The winter sun cast our shade
All along the forest floor
Splattering our shadows like
Tongues of flame that ebb and flow
Will I come down and lay my head?
Is this my home? Is this mine?
Walking through the sky on a wire
Ten thousand faces looking up
The breezes change, the buildings sway
The wire shakes and torques
He bends his legs and spreads his arms
Bouncing back and forth
Will he come down and lay his head?
Is this his home? Is this his?
Is this his home, is this his?
Digging in the snow to bury herself
Waiting for the clouds to cover her tracks
I caught her in the sights of my
Father’s Remington .22
Perched above the timberline
With the most commanding view
Will she come out or lay her head?
Is this her home, is this hers?
Is this her home, is this hers?
Will I walk out and hang my head?
I need a home, but I don’t want to need again
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10. |
Have/Not
01:40
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11. |
Greyhounds
04:23
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Thursday she comes home to live with me again
From two months at her treatment program
Breathe in, breathe out
Greyhounds in my chest
I stand at the edge of the pit
Where nothing I say or I do
Has any meaning to it
At night taking drugs to help me forget
In the past two years she’s run away six times
Five from her mothers and once from my own home
To Oregon City, that piece of shit town to meet
A 22-year-old vet she met online
At home she stuffed garbage in all of her clothes drawers until we had an infestation of fruit flies
And I caught a boy naked in her closet on a Tuesday
And she stole a 500 dollar phone from her classmate
Breathe in, breathe out
Greyhounds in my chest
I stand at the edge of the pit
Where nothing I say or I do
Has any meaning to it
At night taking drugs, taking drugs, taking drugs
Back in October of 2013 her mom kicked her out and said she should live with me
Though I wasn’t part of that conversation, I filed
For a change of custody, then her mom sued me
For my campaign to alienate her from our kids
Who I had bullied and manipulated
She put me on the stand and asked me why I hadn’t
Bought the girls Halloween costumes or toothbrushes
Breathe in, breathe out
Now she wants to go back to her mother’s now warm embrace
I’ll let her go but I don’t think things have really changed
God please prove me wrong
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Small Souls Portland, Oregon
UPCOMING SHOWS:
www.reverbnation.com/smallsouls/shows
“The Portland duo Small Souls aims to do for folk what newgrass did for bluegrass with their "post-folk" sound.”
- Jonathan Frahm, PopMatters (Aug 31, 2017)
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