On Your Wings
God, there is gold hidden deep in the ground God, there’s a hangman that wants to come around How we rise when we’re born like the ravens in the corn on their wings, on our knees crawling careless from the sea God, give us love in the time that we have God, there are guns growing out of our bones God, every road takes us farther from home All these men that you made how we wither in the shade of your trees, on your wings we are carried to the sea God, give us love in the time that we have
Naked As We Came
She says "wake up, it’s no use pretending" I’ll keep stealing, breathing her. Birds are leaving over autumn’s ending One of us will die inside these arms Eyes wide open, naked as we came One will spread our ashes 'round the yard She says "If I leave before you, darling Don’t you waste me in the ground" I lay smiling like our sleeping children One of us will die inside these arms Eyes wide open, naked as we came One will spread our ashes round the yard
Cinder And Smoke
Give me your hand The dog in the garden row is covered in mud And dragging your mother’s clothes Cinder and smoke The snake in the basement Found the juniper shade The farmhouse is burning down Give me your hand And take what you will tonight, I’ll give it as fast And high as the flame will rise Cinder and smoke Some whispers around the trees The juniper bends As if you were listening Give me your hand Your mother is drunk as all the firemen shake A photo from father’s arms Cinder and smoke You’ll ask me to pray for rain With ash in your mouth You’ll ask it to burn again
Sunset Soon Forgotten
Be this sunset soon forgotten Your brothers left here shaved and crazy We’ve learned to hide our bottles in the well And what’s worth keeping, sun still sinking Down and down Once again Down and down Gone again Be this sunset one for keeping This june bug street sings low and lovely Those band-aid children Chased your dog away She runs, returning, sun still sinking Down and down Once again Down and down Gone again
Teeth In The Grass
And when you give me your clothes And when we’re lovers at last Fresh air, perfume in your nose There will be teeth in the grass And when you give me your house When we’re all brothers at last There will be food in our mouths There will be teeth in the grass And when there’s nothing to want When we’re all brilliant and fast When all tomorrow’s are gone There will be teeth in the grass
Love And Some Verses
Love is a dress that you made long to hide your knees love to say this to your face, "I’ll love you only" for your days and excitement, what will you keep for to wear? someday drawing you different, may I be weaved in your hair? Love and some verses you hear say what you can’t say love to say this in your ear, "I’ll love you that way" from your changing contentments, what will you choose for to share? someday drawing you different, may I be weaved in your hair?
Radio War
Did the wine make her dream Of the far distant spring Or a bed full of hens Or the ghost of a friend All the while that she wept She had a gun by her bed And a letter he wrote From a dry, foundered boat And the train track will take All the wounded ones home And I’ll be alone Fare thee well Sara Jones Now we lie on the floor While the radio war Finds its way through the air Of the dead market square And the beast never seen Licks its red talons clean Sara curses the cold "No more snow, no more snow, no more snow"
Each Coming Night
Will you say when I’m gone away "My lover came to me and we’d lay In rooms unfamiliar but until now" Will you say to them when I’m gone "I loved your son for his sturdy arms We both learned to cradle then live without" Will you say when I’m gone away 'Your father’s body was judgement day We both dove and rose to the riverside" Will you say to me when I’m gone "Your face has faded but lingers on Because light strikes a deal with each coming night"
Free Until They Cut Me Down
When the men take me to the devil tree I will be free and shining like before Papa don’t tell me what I should’ve done She’s the one who begged me "Take me home" When the wind wraps me like the reaper’s hand I will swing free until they cut me down Papa don’t tell me what I could’ve done She’s the one who begged me "Take me home" When the sea takes me like my mother’s arms I will breathe free as any word of God Papa don’t tell me what you would’ve done She’s the one who begged me "Take me home"
Fever Dream
Some days her shape in the doorway Will speak to me A bird’s wing on the window Sometimes I’ll hear her when she’s sleeping Her fever dream A language on her face I want your flowers like babies want God’s love Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come Some days, like rain on the doorstep She’ll cover me With grace in all she offers Sometimes I’d like just to ask her What honest words She can’t afford to say, like I want your flowers like babies want God’s love Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come
Sodom, South Georgia
Papa died smiling Wide as the ring of a bell Gone all star white Small as a wish in a well And Sodom, South Georgia Woke like a tree full of bees Buried in Christmas Bows and a blanket of weeds Papa died Sunday and I understood All dead white boys say, "God is good" White tongues hang out, "God is good" Papa died while my Girl Lady Edith was born Both heads fell like Eyes on a crack in the door And Sodom, South Georgia Slept on an acre of bones Slept through Christmas Slept like a bucket of snow Papa died Sunday and I understood All dead white boys say, "God is good" White tongues hang out, "God is good"
Passing Afternoon
There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made And she’s chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings Sunday pulls its children from their piles of fallen leaves There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass Springtime calls her children 'till she let’s them go at last And she’s chosen where to be, though she’s lost her wedding ring Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds There are things we can’t recall, blind as night that finds us all Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls But my hands remember hers, rolling 'round the shaded ferns Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I’d never learned There are names across the sea, only now I do believe Sometimes, with the windows closed, she’ll sit and think of me But she’ll mend his tattered clothes and they’ll kiss as if they know A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone