We are chalk lines
Grass lined boxes
We have no hope of
Abandoned metros

We lose our way
We count our losses
And nothing opens
Again

We down prescriptions
Like mementos
build up resistance
To what upsets us

You are the only one
I believe

We talk ourselves up
We push our chests out
We hide our mics
Beneath our clothes

We have no exits
our days aren't ending
The frills we buy in,
the drinks we're tagged with

You want forgiveness
It still eludes you
Your only movement
is in your windpipe

And, yet,
you are the only one
I believe

It's beneath us
Beneath our answers
It circumvents us
we're always cold

We’ll never find
We aren't these people

There was a lot of magic in that. Unfortunately, when it's your own writing things are a bit different.

Click here for the lyrics page.

As an aside, I'm reworking parts of the book. There was an issue with the publisher and things had to be retooled due to the page sizes.

The fun thing is that the new publisher uses a larger page format. 🙂

🙂 Troy

i was under the chair
with my face
on the wood
in the cool,
i wanted to
know
forgetting

the furnace was
mumbling things
in the voice
of a dad
he wanted to give me
a chance
to undo this

the tiniest cut
on my finger
the part of a note
i had left
i needed the PA
to stop ringing

we all have regrets
that we need
to line the edge
of our path
we want to hold on
for some reason

i was under the chair
with my face
on the wood
i wanted to
know how it felt
to forget

The lyrics below are from one of the new tracks, Answers. Posting them to clarify some earlier quotes. Thx

Stop and then explain this
The words you say are painless
It’s easier to kill these plans

Stop packing up these boxes
These garbage bags of dresses
And tell me I don’t understand

The words say I believe you
The clerks here, they don’t have to
It’s talking just to lose yourself

You wanted them to save you
To ask you why’d stay here
When you likened this to your new hell

I’m losing faith
In what I say

You sit staring in a car park
expecting me to follow
I’ve learned to walk the other way

And out of all my answers
The ones that I’ve recanted
I regret most what I couldn’t say

The things you said to mock me
For reasons that were clearly
the work of someone else’s head

Said more to stop the ending
From becoming what’s intended
When you insist that you’re last one in

And as your martyrs lost their pages
I fed them lines in stages
From the last days of our broken home

I wanted them to notice
How wrong it was to do this
How far you’d go when left alone

YOU'VE BEEN IN
EUROPE FOR A WEEK
IT'S A STORY I HALF BELIEVED
YOU'VE BEEN
INVESTING IN A CHINESE
COMPANY
SELLING HERBAL TEA
AT HALF THE PRICE
OF THE CORNER STORE
AND DOCTOR MEI’S
ENDORSED YOUR PLIGHT
TO CHANGE WHAT
HAS BECOME OF YOU

AND YOU SAY
I'M ONE OF MANY
CHASING YOU
AROUND THESE STREETS,
HAUNTING
YOU IN COFFEE SHOPS,
IMAGINING YOU'RE
AN ARTIST WITH A
SPARE ROOM FULL OF CANVASES
AND ALL THE SECRETS
THAT TRUE LOVE
HAS KEPT
REVEALED
INSIDE YOUR BED

OH.

I'M RARELY GULLIBLE
OR GULLIVER
LITTLE THINGS GET IN THE WAY
I'VE ALREADY MAPPED
THE EXIT SIGNS
AND I'LL BE LAUGHING
IN MY CAR

YOU'VE BEEN WAITING
FOR A SIGN
LINING PLANS UP IN
THE WINGS
I'VE BEEN KNOWN TO WADE
TOO FAR
FROM FABLES WAITING
AT THE BAR,
JARRED
ABOVE THE SOUND OF DRUNKS
PUSHING THINGS A BIT TOO HARD
I WANDER OFF TO PACK MY THINGS

UNTIL YOU DISAPPEAR
ONE NIGHT
TOWING FRIENDS
LIKE MOVIE PROPS
WATER RUNS
INTO THE SINK
AS IF TO TELL A STORY LINE
A SINGLE LOOK'S
ENOUGH FOR ME
BUT KNOWING THERE'S A
HUNDRED MORE
I WANDER OFF TO
PACK MY THINGS

LYRICS

I’m going down like you might be
in the ugly arms of your…so let’s see...
let’s go by there, down the road again.
Cover yourself in case this gets ugly,
in case a fight breaks out again.
You know, in case you forget to come and wake me.

I’m a sullen face in the saddest crowd
all huddled around a collision waiting for...
someone to fall down, a drunk or me.
To bear me witness the black of a ‘68.

And all impressions of the lines you say
with a rate to turn all the faces.
Oh, they combed out the punch lines but the hardest steps
I ever made were made in secret.

'Cause if you plan it it’s easy to let go.
I see us as that couple down in Georgia looking out a diner window.
If you plan it, it’s easy to let go.

Click here to get the MP3.

lucky you
you misread me
and the notes
dot your lawn
in the door
hiding something
couldn't put
your finger on

oh what o what
have you done
that's gonna add up to
oh what o what
have you done
that's gonna add up to