Track Listing

• Green Light
• Lose The Keys
• Right Friend
• All The Lights In The City
• Eliza I See
• Darkening Hour
• How Long Again
• Down Here
• Baking Soda
• Sea Dogs
• Can't Help Falling Apart
• The Breaking Of The Day

• Green Light

  may you drift in the current of the
  day you’re swimming through
  may you
  may you know that you are
  nobody else but you
  may you
  
  and you may find that the kids are
  running ‘round the front lawn
  for you may see that the page is
  lines you haven’t yet drawn
  
  in the evening
  you may find the night
  but in the morning
  may you get the green light
  may you get the green light
  
  may you find that your god is
  only human kindness
  and may you see that the concrete
  is no less divine than this
  
  oh you have seen that the good days
  come and that they go too
  and you may find all the heartache
  passing to and from you
  is passing to and from you
  
  please and thank you
  bless you to a
  hundred may you live please and thank you
  bless you to a
  hundred and again
  
  in the evening
  you may find the night
  but in the morning
  may you get the green light
  may you get the green light
  
  may you know every leaf that
  gathers in the junkyard
  and may you find that the rain’s just
  rust under the old car
  

• Lose The Keys

  lose the keys, the marbles, lose a parent
  lose the count, lose the plot
  it’s the losing, it’s the losing that counts
  is it not
  
  don’t take it easy, don’t take “yes” for an answer
  put it all on under the hammer
  ball it up and into the tightest fist
  is this even, is this it
  
  i’ve been around the bend i’ve been
  taking any way to weigh myself down
  but i could take a win right now
  
  i’m the same as i ever was, same as i ever will be
  goddamn canonical me
  a buoy in the ocean of eyes unclosed
  every headline is a footnote
  
  i’ve been around the bend i’ve been
  taking any way to weigh myself down
  i’ve been around the bend i’ve been
  i've tried a million times to tie myself down
  but i would take a win right now
  
  sleep it off in a lost and love-made state
  don’t we thrill and thrill to escalate
  am i still the cat wrapped around the scratcher
  ready now and ready after
  
  i’ve been around the bend i’ve been
  taking any way to weigh myself down
  i’ve been around the bend i’ve been
  i've tried a million times to tie myself down
  but i would take a win right now
  

• Right Friend

  you've always been the right kind
  of friend when I'm at
  my end you've always been the right
  friend when I'm at my end
  
  winter basement waiting out
  thunder barking
  up the wrong tree when it was enough
  enough to be unseen
  
  to spend a life skating over
  lakes waiting for
  pin oak leaves to drop wasn’t that your
  that your christmas dream
  wasn't that your dream
  
  you’ve always been the right kind
  of friend when I’m at
  my end you’ve always been the right
  friend when I’m at my end
  
  one year back and one before
  you were right then
  in a sweater borrowed, braced against
  the new fence in the snow
  
  new england now is racing past
  still i need you
  but you're here only in frozen patches and
  shadows in the leaves
  wasn't that your dream
  
  you’ve always been the right kind
  of friend when I’m at
  my end you’ve always been the right
  friend when I’m at my end
  

• All The Lights In The City

  in the halcyon days in the twilight of empire
  it is morning in the city as real as anyone
  
  so now you want to move down south when we just got the house all figured out
  shoes all by the door, table on the floor, windows on the wall
  
  and the lead paint cracks are breathing in and out
  listening only to reason will let you down
  
  all the lights in the city make my head go dim
  
  what you’re mad about’s not the weather it’s what i’ve done to you
  walls are closing in, talking over the tv’s making us both loud
  
  and the planes fly boustrophedon in and out
  in the colors of the season it wears you down
  
  all the lights in the city make my head go dim
  
  it is morning over Lake Michigan on my right side, honey
  maybe working is what makes us live, or maybe it’s living
  
  sky is always hanging blue above the cloud
  but the path of no resistance will wear you out
  
  all the lights in the city make my head go dim
  

• Eliza I See

  i see you eliza, eliza i see
  four birds in the window, in the window now three
  
  are flying up to the yellow house and the blue cross the street
  across the street where the shoes are walking, are walking our feet
  
  i know there’s a fence there, a fence there i know
  climb over the railing and over we’ll go
  
  up to the top of the little prospect, prospectors we’ll be
  be looking over the blue and yellow, overlooking are we
  
  like dreams in the morning, in the morning like dreams
  they hang for a moment, in a moment they leave
  like a dream in the morning, in the morning a dream
  i see you eliza, eliza i see
  
  i’ve heard people argue that two ones are three
  and horns honk five ways at the four-way crossing
  
  but we are up where the noise is small and the sky becomes tall
  if there were ever a couple dollars all bets we could call
  
  you see me eliza, eliza you see
  we’re walking in circles so circles we’ll be
  
  doubling back to the yellow house and the blue cross the street
  till we quadruple the kitchen floor with the socks on our feet
  
  like dreams in the morning, in the morning like dreams
  they hang for a moment, in a moment they leave
  like a dream in the morning, in the morning a dream
  i see you eliza, i see you
  i see you eliza, eliza i see
  
  i see you eliza, eliza i see
  four birds in the window, in the window now three
  

• Darkening Hour

  i’ve been trying to let go but some things
  won’t let go of me
  from the dream into an unmade day
  pin the leaves up in the tree again
  
  it was easy then
  there was time to burn and clear it all out
  there was time to lie and let ourselves down
  before the darkening hour
  
  but in the darkness i can see myself
  in the outline of the shape you left
  so how do i stop short of passing everything on
  do i forgive something i can’t remember all of
  
  i don’t go down those tunnels anymore
  i don’t read notes that show up under the door
  
  it was easy then
  there was time to burn and clear it all out
  there was time to lie and let ourselves down
  before the darkening hour
  
  there was a time when we were leaves on the same tree
  among the many leaving trees
  i hold my breath in the dream i hope in the days i have left
  that this is how we meet again
  

• How Long Again

  under a smiling photograph
  age and epitaph
  a life story but only half
  how wrong
  how wrong again
  we stop
  we go back on again
  
  how many captive to the few
  and how we manage to 
  believe it’s me that's fighting you
  how true
  how true again
  we stop
  we split in two again
  
  we split like water 'round a boulder
  now the river flow is
  welling up and running over
  i look down at
  the screen again
  look up, the light
  turns green again
  
  how long
  how long again
  we stop
  we go back on again
  

• Down Here

  that's me
  a robitussin dream
  an underwater trip
  everything is moving
  
  by
  behind a syrup screen
  just as it is
  or as it was
  or will be
  
  down here reds are redder, water is wetter
  down here life is more alive
  
  and you
  you got a front row seat
  to whatever show this is
  bubbles at your feet
  
  but you've been
  holding too many things
  for so long
  too many little ones like me
  
  down here reds are redder, silence is deader
  down here life is more alive
  
  cause what you loved
  when you were young 
  will never make you young again
  there will come 
  a time to let it go, go, go
   
  down here reds are redder
  down here life is more alive
  reds are redder, you and i are better
  down here life is more alive
  
  the drop
  is further than you think
  is it the night or the nightjar
  or the storm crackling
  

• Baking Soda

  way back when, whenever we opened the taps 
  waterfalls fell into all of our laps
  
  now it's old baking soda, oh what will i do
  but dig up trays of forgotten and cloudy ice cubes
  
  that'll spark in the sunlight and melt back a storm 
  springwater from back before you were born
    
  there's nothing left but the weather here, but the weather this year
  it's all there ever used to be, and all that will reappear
  there's nothing left but the weather here this year
   
  if i wrap my arms around it, i think that makes it mine
  so i'm pulling on the moon like a strawberry spring tide
   
  sibley's birds are barking, there's eyeshine on the ground
  and i have not been counting and i'm all turned around
  
  but there's nothing here to turn off and nothing left to prove
  so why do i still measure things in increments of you
  
  there's nothing left but the weather here, but the weather this year
  it's all there is for miles to see and all that i can hear
  there's nothing left but the weather here this year
  

• Sea Dogs

  sometimes i see things that
  other people don’t see and
  sometimes i do not see them
  
  i don't apologize
  anymore i just lace up
  my gray sneakers
  
  i can't wake up all the time
  or even half the time or
  even be on time
  
  now the backyard is thickening
  how is it everything
  living will one day die
  
  the dirt is all clean
  and the branches are crisscrossing
  everything’s sun in my eyes
  
  i can't be there all the time
  or even half the time or
  even tell you the time
  
  when up in the clouds are sea dogs
  and kites and big white basketballs
  the backyard is thickening
  how is it everything
  everything is alive
  alive, alive
  
  past the woods
  and the skokie lagoons
  we were half drunk and bulldozing lake michigan
  
  i was free to choose
  not to be me or you
  who am i ever and ever again
  
  i can't be me all the time
  or even half the time or
  ever make up my mind
  
  when up in the clouds are sea dogs
  and kites and big white basketballs
  monsters appearing
  in a cottonball line
  everything is alive
  alive, alive
  

• Can't Help Falling Apart

  the daylight pours over the table 
  and spills onto your coffee chair
  as it filters through the winter air 
   
  on the calendar it still says christmas
  but i can hear the robins sing
  as they gear up for the stroke of spring
   
  and i can’t help falling apart
  the fear inside me wants to run
  out into the open sun
   
  we reveled in the windchime weather
  as it turned for the better again
  and we learned to let the outside in
   
  but we never put our weapons down
  we said we didn’t know how
  we said it's turning for the worse now
   
  and we kept on falling apart
  the fear inside me wants to run
  out into the open sun
   
  am i holding on to the dark?
  i look for somewhere to arrive 
  but it's just another place to start
  and i can't help falling apart
   
  in a way, as my life gets further
  from how i thought it would go
  i get closer to the things i know
   
  i’m as young now as i’ve ever been
  as old as i will ever be
  and i’m with you when i am free
   
  and i can’t help falling apart
  the fear inside me wants to run
  out into the open sun
   
  am i almost out of the dark?
  i look for somewhere to arrive
  but it's just another place to start
  and i can't help falling apart
  

• The Breaking Of The Day

  may the road rise to meet you
  and every horror have its season
  they said it won’t be easy
  and we lost the taste for trying
  
  no more yours and no more mine then
  no war and no environment
  there we go ago again
  it would’ve been a lifetime
  
  everyone under the table
  see you on the other side
  if there should be one
  and anyone to find
  half a world away the night sky is rearranging
  we pull ourselves together at the breaking of the day
  
  the eye is the first circle
  and the second a horizon
  to me the third would be an island
  dredged up from the water
  
  i have never had a dream
  that i wasn’t drowning in
  in the wild cerulean embrace
  of everywhere i’ve been
  
  everyone under the table
  see you on the other side
  if there should be one
  and anyone to find
  half a world away the night sky is rearranging
  we pull ourselves together at the breaking of the day