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1. |
Losing Teeth
02:34
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Losing Teeth
We fed on honey in our prime
thickened around the middle and lost our minds
pecked at the pills that we were served
like gravel to the gizzard of our frayed nerves
poisoned sleep with ugly dreams
we’re losing teeth
Every mirror cracked and window black
Our lungs expand in hot-blown glass
Stirring to the sounds of white noise choirs
Humming and whining through the snaking wires
Shaking our branches in the wind
We’re losing leaves
We’re losing teeth
Crying over milk spilled out our eyes
Bowing nickel-wound veins with kitchen knives
Like the chewed lower lip of Camille Claudel
Waiting for her lover at the gates of hell
We wag our tongues and gum our meat
We’re losing teeth
Tugging at the roots ‘til our gums bleed
Each tooth clattering in the sink
Pliers to the corner of a raspberry grin
Blood brims our lips- spills past our chin
And it’s off to bed
We lay our heads
We’re off to sleep
No more losing teeth
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2. |
Wing
02:02
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Wing
As a boy in southern Spain, he was born with a silver wing
It poked through collars and tore jacket sleeves
Always there where folks could see
As a boy in southern Spain, folks would stare at his silver wing
Like his mama’s temper or his father’s crying
He grew accustomed to staring eyes.
His church raised money, and his family sent for a doctor from Algeciras
A fragile woman with trembling hands arrived by train with a single bag
On a gray steel table, the young man laid.
The doctor, she stood over him.
Her hand was trembling. She drew a blade
Down his back, along his wing.
His chest rose with an anguished gasp.
The gauze soaked through. His color left.
Blood pooled down along his back.
His chest fell with his last breath.
The doctor left on the morning train
With butcher’s paper and a single bag.
The grieving family couldn’t afford a grave
For the young man with the silver wing.
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3. |
Raymond Dogboy
02:50
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Raymond Dogboy
Raymond was a dogboy… mama fed him off the kitchen floor.
Raymond was a dogboy… chewed the gristle from the chicken bone
Mama came home from work one night with a bottle of gin and a butcher’s knife
Sat Raymond on the counter by the cutting board while papa and Jackie held him still
Papa held him close, while Raymond winced through his nose.
When the knife came down, he bit Papa’s finger to the bone.
Raymond was a dogboy, but he ain’t a dogboy anymore.
Raymond was a dogboy… pissed any place they laid the paper down.
Raymond was a dogboy… always chewing one of Jackie’s dolls.
Mama blew away like smoke one day, and Jackie ran off to find her
He drew pictures of ghosts on the bedroom walls
Traced the silhouettes they left behind them
With an oven mitt on his bandaged hand
Papa shaved young Raymond before putting him down to bed
Raymond was a dogboy, but he ain’t a dogboy anymore
Raymond was a dogboy… nibbled off his papa’s ear.
Raymond was a dogboy… crawled on all fours everywhere.
But some nights he would wander far away,
Sleepwalking upright on his hind legs
He’d paint little faces on the backs of boards
The faces that he’d seen in the children’s ward
His commissioned work on the pages of a magazine
Now he laps Romaine-Conti in the back of his limousine
Raymond was a dogboy, but he ain’t a dogboy anymore
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4. |
Angela
05:18
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Angela
Underneath the folding of your daddy’s wing
Seldom every seen or heard
It’s there you disappeared in those missing years
Never to have said a word
Like Saint Anthony or Ellen James
Tell us what has got your tongue.
Angela, why do you keep on holding on.
Like a rattlesnake coiled around an easter egg
Snoozing in the springtime heat.
The frost on your cold shoulder drives the birds down south
In the shadow of your daddy’s reach.
You cut out your tongue
Underneath, we found a medicine chest of every pill you never swallowed down.
Angela, why do you keep on holding on.
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5. |
Lie Beside Me
02:17
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Lie Beside Me Darling Underneath My Stone
When I was a young thing, I had a ten-inch nose
Two fabulous pinchers and a wardrobe of sores
And all of the painted ladies scattered as I’d approach
Singing, “lie besided me, darling, underneath my stone”
Back in ’97 at the mouth of my cave
A woman in a horseless carriage may have smiled at me.
I chased her across the plains, as she fled to the coast
Crying, “lie beside me, darling, underneath my stone”
Found a lover tangled in a gown of weeds
Face down in the water, cold and mossy green.
Grabbed a hold of her wrist
Fished her out of the creek
Pried apart her fist so she could wear my ring
Now, I’m an old man, and my lover’s dead and gone.
I swallowed down her dirt, and I kiss at all her bones.
I found a shady place, and I dug a six-foot hole
So I can lie beside my darling underneath my stone
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6. |
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Last Night at the Bacchanal
In the wee dark hours, she’s gone from bed
She stole herself away but when
morning breaks, she’s at my side again
A bruised cheek… a bloodied lip
Leaves left tangled in her graying nest of hair
She’s there again
Where did you go
Late last night, you rose from bed
On your toes, the door creaked wide
And then whined closed, when you left
I tied my boots and buttoned my coat
Crunched miles of leaves
Flickering between the trees, a fire glowed.
You were waiting last night at the bacchanal
You were waiting but I never came
All the men, women and children naked around the fire
Last night at the bacchanal
She had a fawn by its legs
Stretched its flesh… its insides opened like a grin
Tore it limb from limb
In fire light, her jaundiced silhouette
Faint stains traced where all of their bloody hands had been
All I could do was run, until each breath burned my lungs
You were waiting last night at the bacchanal
You were waiting but I never came
All the men, women and children naked around the fire
Last night at the bacchanal
In the wee dark hours, I lie awake
Face the wall alone in bed
But when morning breaks, she’s at my side again
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7. |
Mean
03:10
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Mean
It ain’t easy being mean. In effete morality,
I maintain a masquerade of earnestness and modesty
It ain’t easy being mean. Four in five bastards agree
sincerity falls casualty to common courtesy.
I don’t apply my brake when I see children in the street at play.
I’d wring a helpless kitten’s neck just to watch its color change.
It ain’t easy being mean… a sea of negativity
Rubbing calloused palms to greet each new catastrophe
It ain’t easy being mean… to bite one’s tongue until it bleeds
Or feign interest in the ho-hums and oh-ums others speak.
I toss antacids to the squawking gulls when I picnic at the beach
And when Sunday mass lets out, I throw stones at the elderly
Charlie, you were the honest son
Growing up I was the other one
Always measured against your name
I was a faint gray line in a doorway.
It ain’t easy being mean, acting vulgar and obscene.
Societal pressures impede one’s leisure life to such extremes
It ain’t easy being mean, speaking free and honestly
of my limitless contempt for every single living thing.
I love the squeal of a wheelchair rolling down a flight of stairs.
I sleep with all of my friends’ wives and I brag about my affairs.
Charlie, you were the honest son
Growing up, I was the other one.
If mama, could have lived to see
I think she’d be so proud of me.
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8. |
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How Far Down Does This Hole Go
Agnes left her son
When drawing him a bath
He slipped through the grate
and disappeared down the drain
Forty years of restless nights
She hears her baby boy crying in the pipes
Oh, how far down does this hole go
So help me g-d, I hope I never know
When I was five, a family friend
Forced his prick in my hand
Threatened me to secrecy
With a twist of my skinny little wrist
As mercy had it
I never saw him or his tiny prick again
Oh, how far down does this hole go
So help me g-d, I hope I never know
This is hell
This is hell
And all my friends are here
This is hell
This is hell
And I’m with my friends again
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9. |
Cut
02:35
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Cut
A long long winter in hell left her numb numb numb
The first frost fell and her scars blinked shut
Icicles hang like a row of fangs
Above the blood-suckers circling ‘round her grave
All the baby worms wanna play in her dirt
My daddy says we get what we deserve
A carnivorous flower, my heart closed shut shut shut
Daddy told me, “Son, know when to run”
But now, daddy’s in hell… mama can’t be found
My little sister’s lying in the ground
All the baby worms wanna play in her dirt
Daddy says we get what we deserve
Everybody must
Everybody must
Everybody must get cut
A long long winter in hell left me numb numb numb
I swallowed my pride and held my tongue
A razor chips my teeth where I hid it in my cheek
All the baby birds wanna suck on my worms
Supper will be served
When you finish your dessert
Everybody must
Everybody must
Everybody must get cut
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10. |
Still Around
04:03
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Still Around
Wesley overdosed a year ago
Took his girl, Beth, with
Never showed up at the funeral
And it was years since we talked last
Now, they’re gone
But I’m still around… for now
Clara met somebody after me
Less allergic to the truth
Worked as a maid and moved far far away
I sent an unanswered letter or two
Now she’s gone
But I’m still around… for now
What became of my old actress friend
New York collapsed and she stopped writing
Some boats they pull away from the harbor
And end up swallowed by the horizon
Now, she’s gone
But I’m still around… for now
Tabitha married a farmer in Darien
Settled down and had a couple brats
Battled cancer and remission off and on
Until one Christmas back, we got the call
Now, she’s gone
But I’m still around… for now
One day all of your letters
Will return to you unanswered
I’ll lift anchor and try finding
The hungry mouth of that horizon
I’ll get gone
But you’ll stick around
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11. |
Step Inside
04:21
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Step Inside
The sky did not open
The seal remained unbroken
The trumpets never sounded
Only rifles broke the silence
I looked into my lord’s eyes, and I saw fire
Like a lion with his pride
Or Alexander with a spear in his side
Like Josiah’s kingdom burning
This was mine
Step inside
Step inside this fire
I’ve set for you and I
See the wheel that turned in Ezekiel’s eye
Step inside and see it burn in mine
I gathered all of the branches I could carry in my hands
Casting my seed down to the wind and stony ground
I took my branches hands inside the fire
Like a long plough-bent sword
Buried deep in my throat
Like a lamb off to the lion’s den
Off we went… off we went
Step inside this fire
I’ve set for you and I
See the wheel that turned in Ezekiel’s eye
Step inside and see it burn in mine
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12. |
Bible in a Drawer
03:09
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Bible in a Drawer
Clara was my boyhood love
She sliced across her stomach once
Her parents rushed her to the hospital
In sixty days, when she returned
She was saved or so I heard
Her newfound virtue swallowed down her charm
Well acquainted with her lord
His savage will and his accord
Clara and I don’t talk at all no more
The Clara I remember
I swear I loved her better when she used to keep her bible in a drawer
This one enlisted boy I knew
Liked to talk but never screw
Before we could, they sent him off to war
Though he was too polite to say
I sensed something in the way
Echoes from a bible in a drawer
Before my mother spoke in tongues
She and I could talk for hours
I’d pester her as she would tend to chores
In recent years, I fear, we don’t have the same rapport
As when she kept her bible in a drawer
Boys and girls, listen here
Though I know my time’s not here
Let me assure you this before I go
I read it years ago, but I won’t swear on it before
They tag my toe and slide me in a drawer
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The Scarring Party Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee "end timey" quartet blends music hall and early American roots music to draw macabre character sketches with accordion, banjo, tuba and unorthodox percussion.
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