Poets

Spring starts when a hearbeat's pounding
When the birds can be heard above the reckoning carts doing some final accounting
Lava flowing in Superfarmer's direction
He's been getting reprieve from the heat in the frozen-food section

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
Don't tell me that they're talking tough
Don't tell me that they're anti-social
Somehow not anti-social enough

And porn speaks to its splintered legions
To the pink amid the withered cornstalks in them winter regions
While aiming at the archetypal father
He says with such broad and tentative swipes "Why do you even bother?"

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
Don't tell me that they're talking tough
Don't tell me that they're anti-social
Somehow not anti-social enough

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
On the street and the epitome of vague
Don't tell me how the universe is altered
When you find out how he gets paid

If there's nothing more that you need now
Lawn cut by bare-breasted women
Beach bleached, towels within reach for the women gotta make it
That'll make it by swimming

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Something On

Your imagination's having puppies
It could be a video for new recruits
Just stare into the camera
And pretend that you got the flu
Or dream of impossible vacations
And get all teary from the wind
Look as though you're standing at the station
Long after the train came in

And see how the space tautens
Like there's something on
And you're never more hot than
When you've got something on

Picture a century of water
Bury the pipline guy right here

Kill the dream of possible vacations
With the weep of a mapping pioneer
Outside there's hectic action
The ice is covering the trees
And one of em's interconnecting
With my chevrolet caprice

Black out to phantom power
And like there's nothing on
And hammering the tower
And now there's nothing on

We'll ride the monorail
Rocking gently home on the trail
You wanna show me the moon

I know you're standing at the station
I know there's nothing on
I know  that's alienation
I know  the train's long gone
I can see how your face tautens
Like you've got something on
It make me feel just rotten
But you've got something on
 
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Save the Planet

The man 'cross the street he don't move a muscle
Though he's all covered in dust
When constitutions of granite can't save the planet
What's to become of us
With a painted restraint I don't move a muscle
Though a turbine roars
If the bathwater's clear and my ear's underwater
It's a tolerant hum from the core

Sleep's beckoning from the depths
From the cracks an from the crevices
Join the army of ghosts
The murmurs in the mist

That's when the powers of observation
Come to the periphery town
And we carry their water
We don't make a sound
And after gaining our resignation
The come through the chainlink fence
You only enemy's panic
Your only chance is to start making sense

Sleep plunging into deeper debt
Into bunkers and black minarets
On a geyser of ink
A morning voice faint and yet

And it sounds hero-incredible
Sound that makes the headphones edible
Awake affiliated and indelible

The man 'cross the street he don't move a muscle
Though he's all covered in dust
Says constitutions of granite can't save the planet
What's left to captivate us
What's left to captivate us
What's left to captivate us
What's left to become of us
 
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Bobcaygeon

I left your house this morning about a quarter after nine
Coulda been the Willie Nelson, coulda been the wine
When I left your house this morning
It was a little after nine
It was in Bobcaygeon I saw the constellations
Reveal themselves one start at a time

Drove back to town this morning with working on my mind
I thought of maybe quitting
Though of leaving it behind
Went back to bed this morning
And as I'm pulling down the blind
The sky was dull and hypothetical
And falling one cloud at a time
 
That night in Toronto with its checkerboard floors
Riding on horseback and keeping order restored
Til the men they couldn't hang
Stepped to the mic and sang
And their voices rang with that Aryan twang

I got to your house this morning just a little after nine
In the middle of that riot
Couldn't get you off my mind
So I'm at your house this morning
Just a little after nine
Cause it was in Bobcaygeon where I saw the constellations
Reveal themselves one start at a time.
 
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Thompson Girl

Thompson Girl, I'm stranded at the Unique Motel
Thompson Girl, winterfighter's shot on the car as well
Looks like Christmas at 55 degrees
This latitude weakens my knees,  Thompson Girl

Grunt work somewhere, between dream and duty
Poking through with all them shouts of beauty

Thompson Girl walking from Churchill
Across the icy world with polar bears it's mostly uphill
But when she saw that nickel stack
She whistled hard and I whistled back,  Thompson Girl

Grunt work somewhere, between dream and duty
Poking through with all them shouts of beauty
Grunt work somewhere, between dream and duty
Poking through with all them shouts of beauty
 
Thompson Girl we're down to the dead houseplants
Thompson Girl we've jettisoned every thing we can
She says springtime's coming
Wait till you see
It poking through with them shoots of beauty
It's the end of rent-a-movie weather
It's time to end this siege together, Thompson Girl
Thompson Girl
Thompson Girl
Thompson Girl
 
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Membership

Whether laying down yourself beside it
Or slipping into its cool and rushing effects
Or drifting on it to where it broadens
Your admiration for its more elusive aspects

Being draw along by it
Carried under carried away
By its long-term membership
 
By the time the ice-huts hit the bottom
We were already home in bed
The most worthy men and the fiercest architects
Couldn't fight the current they couldn't save, they couldn't save the ship

Being drawn along by it
Carried under carried away
By its long-term membership

Bring on the springtime bring on the houseflies
Bring on the butterscotch river over-spilling its banks
If you got you some withering power to amuse
You'll find its greatest frustration has its entertaining value

Being drawn along by it
Carried under carried away
By its long-term membership

Being drawn along by it
Carried under carried away
By its long-term membership

River wide
River wonder us
 
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Fireworks

If there's a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in ol' 72
We all squeezed the stick and we all pulled the trigger
And all I remember is sitting beside you
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

Isn't it amazing anything's accomplished
When the little sensation gets in your way
Not one ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing you can do anything

We hung out together every single moment
Cause that's what we thought married people do
Complete with the grip of artificial chaos
And believe in the country of me and you
Crisis of faith and crisis in the Kremlin
And yeah, we'd heard all that before
It's wintertime, the house is solitude with options
And loosening the grip on a fake cold war

Isn't it amazing anything's accomplished
When the little sensation gets in your way
Not one ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing you can do anything

Next to your comrades in the national fitness program
Caught in some eternal flexed arm hang
Droppin' to the mat in a fit of laughter
Showed no patience, tolerance or restraint

Fireworks exploding in the distance
Temporary towers soar
Fireworks emulatin' heaven
Til there are no stars anymore
Fireworks aiming straight at heaven
Temporary towers soar
Til there are no stars shining up in heaven
Til there are no stars anymore

Isn't it amazing anything's accomplished
When the little sensation gets in your way
Not one ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing you can do anything

This one thing probably never goes away
I think this one thing is always supposed to stay
This one thing doesn't have to go away
 
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Vapour Trails

Titillations been replaced by Interstate brickface and Coffee-Mate
And by a list of phone calls you'd like to make
Where you could sit on the edge of your bed
And you could stare into your own shoes
And in the pools of light there
Go wherever you choose

Just rig up a complication and if it derails
You can throw away the rudder and float away like vapour trails

There's nothing funnier than pride in an utterly confident stride
So I pulled the car on over to give you a ride
Damn this sleepy weather he said
As he marched in sopping wet shoes
Through rain pools evaporating
Says in this sign I'll conquer you

I pulled the car on over to give you a ride
But there's nothing uglier than a man hitting his stride
(now the morning's over light wind blows)
Past Mexicans all dressed in beige shirts
Leaving over their hoes
Now the morning's over
It's time to let them sprinklers hose

Past hills of chambermaid's dark bare arms
And fields of muscles quilted to the bone
Right now I'm flying over
Yea right now I'm flying home
Where I can sit on the end of my bed
And I can stare into my own shoes
And in the pools of light years
Go wherever I choose

And throw away the rudder float away on vapour trails
I rigged up a complication totally derailed
So I throw away the rudder float away like vapour trails
I pulled the car on over
(it's time to let them sprinklers hose)

Throw away the rudder
Float away on a vapour trail
 
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The Rules

Legs scream at bikes and bikes scream at trucks
And motorists curse their lousy luck
Crossing Guard's not doing his job
And traffic's not about to stop for the first casualty of thought
It's the rules
It's the rules

Superfarmer's bent on the cover of Time
The Moralists scream he's all mine
So the Bard isn't doing her job
The vacuum night the darkest rites
The small quarantined thoughts
It's the rules
It's the rules

Salesman said this vacuum's guaranteed
It could suck an ancient virus from the sea
It could put the dog out of a job
Could make traffic stop so little thoughts
Can safely get across
It's the rules
It's the rules
Guaranteed or not
It's the rules
 
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Chagrin Falls

By design by neglect
For a fact or just for effect
When they met where they connect
At the confluence of travel and sex
More a trip than a quest
Plunged into the deeply freckled breast
Where to now? If I had to guess
I'm afraid to say Antarctica's nest

or Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Where the unknown won't even go
To Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Where the unknown don't even go

Home's solitude with options
Artificial chaos isn't one of 'em
Return there crestfallen
Chagrin fell out of her apron
No profound sound no special effects
The continent tipped and she just quietly left
Chagrin falls on our heads
Not in a gush by in maddening droplets

Chagrin falls ( in Chagrin Falls Ohio )
Chagrin Falls ( where the unknown don't even go )
Chagrin falls ( in Chagrin Falls Ohio )
So falls Chagrin Falls ( where the unknown don't even go )
So falls chagrin falls
So falls chagrin falls
 
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Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man

It was our third time in New York
It was your fourth time in New York
We were fifth and sixth on the bill
We talk a little about our bands talk a little of our future plans
It's not like we were best friends

That number scheme comes back to me
In times beyond our heartbeat

We hung around till the final band
Called 'Escape is at Hand for the Travellin' Man'
You yelled in my ear this music speaks to me
They launched into 'Lonely From Rock n Roll'
Followed by 'They Checked Out an Hour Ago'
Closing with 'All Desires Turn Concrete'

Those melodies come back to me
At time beyond our heartbeat

I guess I'm too slow yes I'm too, yes I'm too slow
But you said anytime of the day was fine
You said anytime of the night was also fine

I walked through your revolving door
Got no answer on the seventh floor
Elevator gave a low moan
The pigeons sagged the wire with their weight
Listening to the singing chambermaid
She sang 'They Checked Out an Hour Ago'

Those melodies come back to me
In times beyond our heartbeat

I guess I'm too slow yes I'm too, yes I'm too slow
But you said anytime of the day was fine
You said anytime of the night was also fine
Our heartbeat, our heartbeat our heartbeat

Long conversation idle chit-chat
Maybe dive in or maybe hang back
Idle conversation or idle chit-chat
Maybe dive in or maybe hang back
 
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Emperor Penguin

I like the tone of your trumpet
C'mon let's spill some paint
Let's raise a glass of milk to the end of another day
And to the kiss that's still intangible
The kids are alright just unmanageable
They won't do a damn thing you say

Your voice is all detached on a radio-wave breeze
We have another caller with a bachelor degree
Talkin alien invasion as the only chance for unity
Well sorry to interrupt you caller
But that's a physical impossibility

You'd be tossed up or wash up
The narrator relates
In a spartan antarctican walk for many days
Meet with Emperor Penguin devotion to the egg
And their women are swimming from half an ocean away

Don't sound so detached this is you and me
Just give me your opinion before you turn to leave
But your crust is just incredible
The radio was edible
When you said don't wipe your asses with your sleeves
You're a physical impossibility

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