A girl named Rocket it’s ironic I know
but I had to face your reptile world and I know it well
I like to see you down on the floor
I like your smileless face,
when I come through the door
or when I help you move
you never thank me
You’ve got a bird-like beak half an olive globe
a primitive mind and a heart that’s cold
You never thank me.
I’ve been getting by by the seat of my pants
I’ve always started slow but now is the chance
I’m going to get back get back to what I’ve lost
People always ask me where I've been
or why I even bother picking up this pen
I look them, look them in the eye
I don’t know why I just get by
I found a twenty dollar bill in my favorite shirt
rolled up in a ball like a teenager’s skirt
It was stuck there, laughing back at me
Twenty dollars lost, twenty dollars saved
Twenty dollars earned, twenty dollars made
just stuck there laughing back at me
I don’t know why it just it has one O and an L, S, T
I have a friend who wants to read a big book
Ulysses is a very big book
He said he’ll read it, read it, page by page
Well he carried it for days, carried it for weeks,
carried it for months, carried it for years,
Ulysses, big big book
I don’t know why he’ll just get by
I’ve always gotten by by the seat of my pants
Always started slow,but now is the chance
I’m going to get back to what I lost.
I’ve traveled far to find a manager in here
someone with whom I share a reason
to rise in the morning, get on a train
and have my head kicked again and again
It’s a shame the way they hold those idle hands
it’s a shame
Head under heels in Robert Mosesrsquo;s parking fields
this way of life is quite peculiar
Nobody’s driven but everyone drives
at noon they’re scraping sleep from their eyes
When there’s work to be done you’ll notice everyone run like rats
I’ve travelled far to find a manager in here
someone whose name tag makes it certain
who makes the decisions, who makes up their mind
just one idea of their own design
In my dreams they get the guillotine and nothing less or more. Amore.
I love your wide screen smile
Display it often while
the sun, the moon the stars
slip by my window bars
I could have read the Sunday Times
made sure the third rhymes
slipped on my literate shoes
I’ve got the Wodehouse blues
What if they find my body nailed to the floor?
Alone and amidst my folly the hell that I’ve known?
When I wake up I’m the Holy Ghost
or I could have been his bastard child
You must have been the teachers’ pet
I'm not finished with you yet
Indoors all sunny day
These hours just slip away
Planes, trains roll over head
Indoors all sunny day
Don’t lie down on coral sand.
It’s much too rich for you.
Don’t go in with empty hands.
You’ll break everything.
You get up but your eyes belie the fact
that you’re a world-renowned sleepwalker
you make the air your home
You rise above in the ether
never touching down
you’re the halfway man.
You have your bouts with intense self reflection
and C list concubines
You always have the best intentions
with the worst places in mind
Maybe as you wait for parts
you’re a bitter jilted lover with an ice cube heart
or cast a net and gather everything in
and toss the remnants in the backseat
of your tag sale van
I’m your halfway man
Hedge your bets with a halfway man
Had your bit with a halfway man
Where are you? I’m the halfway man
I’m the halfway man
Isn’t the bounty low for such a lost soul?
We’ll have to get our heads together or we’re calling off the dogs
With no compass in hand, no signs of his whereabouts
the moon is upon us and no light’s getting
If I had a nickel every time I heard it said
(there’s an echo in the room and it went dead)
’I won’t let you drown.’
There’s a shallow cove
When the snow melted waters make the river overflow
you can’t see the sky or the trees just ahead of you
but look at the mess that you’ve found yourself in
If I had a nickel every time I heard it said
(there's an echo in the room and it went dead)
I won’t let you drown
No, I won’t let you drown
No, I won’t let you drown
Won’t let you drown
Don’t let me drown
Don’t let me drown
Don’t let me drown
Don’t let me drown
I don’t believe science
It undermines compliance with the axioms I’ve made
Darwin started fires, I’ve only just extinguished
I’ve scratched beneath the surface ’til some sense was finally made
And you ask how Jesus had us made?
If you don’t ask questions than you can’t find folks to blame
if all your troubles come in twos and one is you
The world was orchestrated somewhere in the heavens
I’d like to cite a passage but I’ve somehow lost my place
But you needn’t ask the question, how it is we got here
or what it what was before we had the words to call before
Or why is Margaret always Peg?
Why do German Shepherds’ always drag their legs?
All my pleasures come in twos and one is you
One is you’one is you
You wait so long, you wait so long, you wait so long
to find some solid ground
No daylight savings time
no colors come to mind and fall has faded
The surface scratch is deep
frees demons in your sleep
it’s all related.
And the tide is so high you can’t find your solid ground
Edison’s lights for the stars above you?
Enemy lines never there before you, they’re before you
Citizens band and the sounds surround you
A sinister bend, but it straightens for you, it’s before you
When bad days swallow good days ’til there’s none in between
and nothing’s stirring
When your pride takes a seat
pass happy people on the street
and as you’re listing
the wait was so long
but you’ve found your solid ground
Crying baby on a train
Screaming baby on a plane
I don't love you like your mother
I don't love you
I read somewhere that I'm to blame
for this crying baby shame
I don't love you.
It's true, I knew this would happen
I swear, I knew this would happen
Take a litte time off
try another tack
maybe a Tet Offensive?
You knew the war was far from done
but these were battles that you clearly should have won
a rolling can a corn that stops before your feet
No evidence, the defense rests, the court your holding is adjourned
Like plastic bags in city trees
your lesser soul's obscuring all your dignity
snuffing out the leaves and branches hopelessly
You're on the march but in your heart of hearts life's just a kidney stone passing through
When your tilted axis smile
belies your moving target agenda
you'll come and go as you please
Come and go
You've got multi-colored rings
like hoola-hoops caught in a turnstyle
you want everything in green
while I bleed blue
Fading light, fading light a million miles from here
Trading light, trading light for something hard to see
the different colors fade to grey
Didn't see the stop sign
the flashing lights
the knobby hands around your neck
The curtain call is coming
those graying strands, the hour glass
make no small plans that melt the hearts of men
You didn't see it coming, but you never say a word
Brace yourself for a valiant fall
You'll say "I dont want to leave you, don't want to leave you,"
but you will
So you'll prune dead trees with the coming of fall
Water the weeds in no time at all
exhaust your options then you'll pay
You didn't see it coming, but you never say a word
Queens Annes’ Lace across my face
Plastic eyeballs set in place
And when if I'm floating when I'm done
past the gravestones and the sun
brush the dust off me
I'm a capsule
come and read about me.
You had a message to settle a score
and the wherewithal to write it down as you wanted
and took it home for the night
Among the chatter of the straphangers haul
pushing and pulling you're lost in your liquified love
Don't be offended, don't take it a slight
Get a room, any room, get a room.
A room to rent, a room to let yourself be free
to be lip-locked, luminous for all to see
Don't be offended, unruly passengers
for whom the lines of taste are drawn and the lines of taste are crossed
Get a room, any room, get a room