Grace, Too

He said I'm fabulously rich
C'mon just let's go
She kinda bit her lip
Geez, I don't know
But I can guarantee
There'll be no knock on the door
I'm total pro that's what I'm here for
I come from downtown
Born ready for you
Armed with will and determination
and grace, too

The secret rules of engagement
Are hard to endorse
When the appearance of conflict
Meets the appearance of force
But I can guarantee
There'll be no knock on the door
I'm total pro
that's what I'm here for
I come from downtown
Born ready for you
Armed and skill and it's frustration
AND GRACE, TOO
 
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Daredevil

I can't imagine how you feel and this is how you feel
you say your name like your no longer convinced
but now they're strapping you in and closing the lid
and they're dropping you in what's done you did
The bell's picking up speed there's water leaking in
that ol' equilibrium just starts to spin and spin
Do you like to be judged or liked
Do you like it inside a barrel
plunging over the falls
Curious and grim we wrestle at the rim
we wonder all about him and the point of it all

I'll be short and brief
and to the point
the fighting has resumed
In that tone of voice
the plague is exhumed
He said "what I'm going through
is essentially all true
made no less amazing
by the fact that it's see-through"
You like to be judged or liked
And you like it inside a barrel
plunging over the falls
Strong and green and dim it wrestled him like nuthin
out out out
and into the thrill of em all

And the real wonder of the world is that we don't jump too
 
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Greasy Jungle

Greasy jungle metropolis noir
Easy tangles the easiest so far
Ah
I drove down your road
to Hazeldean where I tasted
your funeral home's sandwiches and coffee
I saw your hands melt into one another
I saw you grieve and grow
care a lot about one another
I stood at your sink
and I felt your warm water
I washed your dishes
and I looked out your kitchen window where I
saw a soulful gymnast
melt in the air and shudder
just above the snow
making moves that just weren't there
Ah
Velvet callow with wet hands
I turned out the lights and
breathing shallow hesitated
then went upstairs where
I picked up your housecoat
dried my hands and
touched your hair
and just then you awoke
you could never really barely care
Ah
Greasy jungle metropolis noir
 
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Yawning or Snarling

One day in El Paso
The cops go into the crowd
Under a glaring bladder of light
And the music is so loud
And the tourists take their T-Shirts off
A busload of kids gives you the finger
Afternoon when the sidewalk's hot
And the shadow's too chilly to linger
Walk past damaged goods and ugly trends
Past a strawman making a purchase
Downtown where the river bends
They're just waiting for you to resurface
Take a look at this photograph
Clearly his teeth were bared
He coulda been yawning or snarling
The story was never clear

One night in El Paso
The cops go into the crowd
Under a throbbing bladder of light
And the music is just so loud
And the tourists turn their T.V.'s off
And a bat sees a bug with the sound of a linger
Night time when the shadows cough
And you're chilled to the tips of your fingers
Walk past damaged goods and ugly trends
Past ol' strawman making a purchase
Downtown where the river bends
They're just waiting for you to resurface
Take a look at this photograph
Clearly his teeth were bared
He coulda been yawning or snarling
He coulda been anywhere
 
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Fire In The Hole

You triumphed over will
You had immunity to kill
You had your dreams fulfilled
And I love you still
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Ah the nights are getting cold
All your secrets will be told
Turn your lanterns low

As long as you can dig up proof
As cold as water through the roof
Brutal as depicted truth
That kid's a fuckin goof
Turn your lanterns low
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Yeah the nights are getting cold
All his secrets will be told
Turn your lanterns low
Alright

I'd like to stand up soon and show
I'd like to let some people know
I'd turn my bucket over
I'd turn my lantern low
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Yeah the nights are getting cold
All my secrets would be told
Turn your lanterns low
Alright
Alright
 
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So Hard Done By

Interesting and sophisticated
refusing to be celebrated
it's a monumental big screen kiss
it's so deep it's meaningless
one day you'll just up and quit
and that'll be it
just then the stripper stopped in a coughing fit
she said sorry i can't go on with this

yeah that's awful close
but that's not why
i'm so hard done by

It was true cinema a clef
you should see it before there's nothing left
in an epic too small to be tragic
you'll have to wait a minute
cause it's an instamatic

yeah that's awful close
but that's not why
i'm so hard done by

Just then the room became more dimly lit
as the emcee carried on with it
and now that i got you all strangely compelled
i'm afraid that Candy's not feeling well

close, but that's not why
i'm so hard done by
 
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Nautical Disaster

I had this dream where I relished the fray and the screaming filled my
head all day. It was as though I had been spit here, settled in, into the pocket
of a lighthouse on some rocky socket, off the coast of France, dear.
One afternoon, four thousand men died in the water here and five hundred
more were thrashing madly as parasites might in your blood. Now I was in a
lifeboat designed for ten and ten only, anything that systematic would get you
hated. It's not a deal not a test nor a love of something fated. The selection
was quick, the crew was picked and those left in the water got kicked off our
pant leg and we headed for home.
Then the dreams ends when the phone rings, you doing alright he said
it's out there most days and nights, but only a fool would complain. Anyway
Susan, if you like, our conversation is as faint as a sound in my memory, as
those fingernails scratching on my hull.
 
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Thugs

everyone's got their breaking point
with me it's spiders and with you it's me
thugs in perpetuity
when we're excited little birds around the feeder
the cat's indifferent or he's just furious
it seems that he's never neither
i do the rolling you do the detail
i do the rolling you do the detail

hair bird plucks a hair from a sleeping dog
to build her nest she said i've looked around
and i like your hair the best
i do the rolling you do the detail
i do the rolling you do the detail

Ruby, honey ARE YOU MAD AT YOUR MAN?
 
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Inevitability Of Death

Puffy lips glistening skin
And everything comes rushing in
We don't go to hell
memories of us do

I get a sense of connectedness
Exclusive tight but nothing dangerous
We don't go to hell memories of us do
And if you go to hell
I'll still remember you

But I thought you beat the death of inevitability
to death just a little bit
I though you beat the inevitability
of death
to death just a little bit

Terry's gift is forever green
It got me up and back on the scene
WE DON'T GO TO HELL
JUST OUR MEMORIES DO

Fantastic gap common space
Open concept in your smiling face
we don't go to hell memories of us do

And if you go to hell I'll still remember you
 
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Scared

I could make you scared
if you want me to
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared,
it's kinda what I do
If you're prepared,
here's what I propose to do
You're in Russia
and more than a million works of art
are whisked out to the woods
So when Nazis
find the whole place dark
They'd think god's
left the museum for good

I make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, if I have to
If I make you scared and you pay me to
If that's the deal
now here's what I can do for you

Now there's a focus group
that can prove
this is all nothing
but cold calculation

Tests have shown
that suspicious or hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
truth be told
they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance

If you make me scared,
if that's what you do
If I'm unclear can I get out of this thing
with me and you
If you feel scared, a bit confused,
I gotta say
this sounds a little beyond
anything I'm used to

Now there's a precious few
that can prove that at the root
This is all nothing but a cold calculation

Clearly entranced,
you're leaning back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach
it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through blood
out to it to play

OK you made me scared,
you did what you set out to do
I'm not prepared, really had me
going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too,
I wasn't sure I was getting through
I gotta go, it's been a pleasure
doing business with you.
 
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Inch An Hour

I want a BOOK that'll make me drunk
full of freaks and disenfranchised punks.
No amount of hate no load of junk
no bag or words no costume trunk
could MAKE ME FEEL the same way
an inch an hour two feet a day
to move through night
in this most fashionable way.

There's this fuckin band you gotta see
they used to scare the living shit outta me.
No frothing dog no cool INSANITY
no "rock n' roll" no Christianity
makes me feel the same way
an inch an hour two feet a day
to MOVE THROUGH NIGHT
with very little else to say
but i'm helpless less with the people
than the space

No struggle town no BEMUSED Trudeau
no solitary walks through vacant lots
in moonglow

Tonight the WINTER may have missed its mark
you can see your breath in Springside Park
coffee-coloured ice and peeling birch bark the
sound of rushing water IN THE DARK
makes me feel the same way
an inch an hour two feet a day
to move through life
with very little else to say
but I'M HELPLESS more with the people
than the space
I mean I'm helpless less WITH the people
than the SPACE

YOU SEE, I DON'T KNOW NEIL
I DON'T KNOW NEIL
 
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Emergency

I've often dreamt of a conversation
that just keeps coming up again and again.
WE'RE sitting in the Baby Bar bereft
at a shadowy table out past the sentences end.
From until it's no longer fun
to that's no longer relevant.
From until we're NO LONGER one
to the bona-fide embodiment of an endless
emergency without end.
We're an endless emergency without end

We often stop in these conversations,
things we say here stay here FOREVER AMEN.
When everything seems either funny or lousy,
funny or lousy, that's where it usually ends.
From until we're no longer fun
to that's no longer RELEVANT.
From until we're no longer one
to that's no longer permanent.
From the last survivors of those terms
to the bona-fide embodiment
of an endless emergency
without end.
We're an endless EMERGENCY
without end.
We're an endless emergency
without end,

but
your finger starts to wiggle
and
landscapes emerge
 
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Titanic Terrarium

Growin' up in a biosphere
with no respect for bad weather
there's still roaches and ants in here
so resourceful and clever.
Her great grandfather saw the future
didn't know nothing bout panic,
he certainly probably thought
that it was unthinkable.
There's a trace o mint
wafting in from the north
so we don't fuck with the 401
it's bigger than us or
larger than we bargained
I guess it's just not done.
His great grandfather worked for Goodyear
he'd see the blimp on Sundays
wonder what the driver knew
about making rubber tires.
Terrarium, O Terrarium

There's submarines out there under the ice
avoiding and courting collision
an accident's sometimes the only way
to worm our way back to bad decisions,
My great grandfather was a welder
he helped to build the Titanic
he didn't certainly think
that is was unsinkable.
Building up to the larger point
with an arrogance not rare or pretty
we don't declare the war on idleness
when outside it's cold and shitty.
We stay inside and try to conjure the fathers of
injured and faking
IF THERE'S GLORY IN MIRACLES
IT'S THAT THEY'RE REVERSIBLE
Terrarium,
O Terrarium
 
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Impossibilium

I love you even when I don't even know I'm doing it
and dismiss it out of hand cause I don't even know I'm doing it
but your finger starts to wiggle and landscapes emerge
Can you spare some change dear, we've only got three hundred feet to go

Roses are worth more dried than alive
such a thing to say
O how I adore you
when you reinvent a rose cliché
Can you spare some change dear
we've only got three hundred feet to go
and with impossibilium for a payload
we lift the rocket
out of the pocket
nothing can stop it

Roses are difficult everywhere
you must promise me you'll stay
these long stems are freakish if anything
but we can cut em down for the vase
Can you spare some change dear
we've only got three hundred feet to go
and with impossibilium for a payload
we lift the rocket out of the pocket
nothing can stop it
we can only watch it
 
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