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1. |
Telltale Song
05:14
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You came along early morning a telltale song a thousand ways to get it wrong from that first cry the cut of cloth the lullaby you drew a crowd late morning and we both vowed a thousand times as if to hear it out loud in that first light could keep up our morale all night there are doubts that can only be under lock and key in the heart’s armory anyone who is quick to deny it is lying and there’s trouble within and there’s trouble without but on love we don’t harbor a single doubt we won’t take The Drive Tuesday morning we’ll do 25 a thousand horns serenading us as we arrive and then you’ll wake the care in each new call we make we couldn’t tell day from evening as the sun fell it seemed a thousand hours ago everyone wishing us well and now here we are from dawning day to evening star
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2. |
Cinematic Turn
04:28
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Once when they couldn’t predict if the city would survive you were still a turnpike counties away the elders still alive our mothers younger than we are now they still knew everything as children we took pains to memorize all the songs they didn’t sing once when we couldn’t see it yet long before that corner’s decline back when we would still pledge our allegiance before you bound your fate to mine the flight path the dog-eared atlas torn eerily the same in places it was a dozen years before I’d ever heard your name once when we’d still never recognize one another on the street we’d covered the grid of the city by then all the ways we didn’t meet each movement every other whim can lead you to the same few places like a cinematic turn shot by shot frame by frame
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3. |
18th Street
03:18
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You knew you’d look up that address then pack up your life in a flash September it once was a question now heat and the cool autumn clash a hush can fall leave you unsteady who will speak for that window won’t last you thought it out little by little but now it’s got to be clever and fast now you’re heading out on the words and an angle that you couldn’t consider before there were keys and coins and the liquor store boxes a decade caught ceiling to floor you were going gone before you got to the door you knew you’d recall only later a handful of words left unsaid and the version you’d tell with the punch line was the only one left in your head
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4. |
One More Trip Back East
04:02
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Sons will gather round sit for every breath start for any sound any harbinger of death you will flinch then fret over what went wrong he split to forget but now it won’t be long I think you both know he got here just in time to let her go so he won’t come unwound and you won’t kneel to pray but that history is bound to still get in the way by fire by flood by beast a peaceful passing is rare one more trip back East is more than he can bear but I think you both know he got here just in time to let her go we will sense our kin and town in the twists and turns we take on the way up and way down in the roots of each mistake we’re in this diner booth coffee is getting cold trading stories from our youth all the ones he never told and I think you both know he got here just in time to let her go
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5. |
Fragments and Figments
03:29
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It was time to give into the things I gave up we turned it over and over the fruit on the vine every storm and drought’s end the neglect and its power the reasons for that there were so many then now I can’t think of one so I’m making my way to where the greener things grew to where the damage was done I’ve got a hand in the dirt I’ve got an eye on the sun there’s a way to dig into the things I left out and never fully recover hindsight’s appeal is it looks different now every weed turns to flower the deadlines I set they were menacing then I couldn’t meet one so I’m looking at what met an unnatural end and how the work came undone I’ve got a hand in the dirt I’ve got an eye on the sun now I’m kicking at fragments and holding up figments it’s late but I’ve only begun hands in the dirt eyes on the sun in the end I could see there were things I put off for what felt like forever and time marching on with her arrogant stride left a half-painted marker the values and weights immutable then now I’m lifting each one I’m taking it all I’m going to start up again I’m going to get something done
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Cynthia G. Mason Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
"This music is as vivid, evocative and narratively compelling as a film." -Magnet Magazine
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