Alone within these four gray walls Alone among a thousand faces Alone with you while my heart falls in love with love in moonlit spaces How tangible this time with you How very present seem your lips But you are only passing through Like rain between my fingertips But mine is not to wonder why Mine is but to dance and fly Fleeting friendship doesn’t last Equally elusive, love’s elation The future doesn’t yet exist, the past is open to interpretation This moment, only this, is mine Only this belongs to me If there exists a thing divine This moment, my divinity But mine is not to wonder why Mine is but to dance and fly

Oh, hello, it’s you Won’t you please come in I hope you’ll pardon me not answering the door I’ve just been sitting in the dark again Here, let me light the lamp Won’t you have a seat Please pour yourself a drink; there’s a bottle here somewhere I’d get up, but as you see, I’m not too steady on my feet But yes, I’m doing fine Why, do I seem a little strange I guess it takes a little time to find your way again When all the scenery has changed But thanks for dropping by Won’t you come again, and soon But in truth, I know I probably won’t be seeing you again There’s no use hanging ‘round When love has left the room

It was another time, another place, another page of family history Things were different then, folks did not confess their sins so easily And in the small town life, a certain order was in place Painful memories were best forgotten and not faced But however deeply buried, trouble always leaves its trace She was a happy child, but times were hard, simple pleasures were in short supply They had a family farm and everybody did their part, and they got by Her father was a decent man, generous and good But there lived in him a sadness no one understood Still, he did for his family the very best he could From the maze of his mind, through the corridors of consciousness A noise, ever-present, like the clattering of stones From the rooms of remembrance, now and evermore Comes the muffled sound of tapping from a never-opened door Chorus: From the closet comes the clicking of skeletal remains The clattering of dry and dusty bones The faint odor of decay that never goes away When old and musty secrets never see the light of day Never see the light of day It was a simple thing her father did, a favor to a fallen friend A loan to be repaid once the fellow got back on his feet again His luck was sure to change, he could see a brighter day But everything went wrong, when it was due, he couldn’t pay And since her father signed the loan, they took his farm away In ruin and despair, he slid into the darkest depths of misery It was a fatal blow to one already given to despondency In the most painful of ways, he tried to take his life But he lingered on for days, to the horror of his wife And the sound of his suffering cut her like a knife And when it was over, she tried to shield her children from The scandal only spoken of in quiet, muffled tones She tried to keep them sheltered from the sorrow and the pain But in the awful silence, a certain sound remained Chorus She was a happy child, but times were hard, as times for her would always be But life continued on, she worked hard and married, raised a family Another generation, a daughter and a son Who showed a certain sadness from the time that he was young And she shared with him the shackles that could never be undone And in the small town life continued on, he grew up and moved away Had children of his own and fought the darkness all alone, until one day He visited a cousin grown indiscreet with age Who, in most dramatic fashion, worthy of the stage Told the family story and supplied the missing page A conspiracy of silence shattered in a moment Like the searing sunlight flooding dusky catacombs And for him and for his children, healing could begin But his mother never spoke of it, silent to the end Chorus

He gets up at the crack of dawn Nudges momma out of bed Makes his sleepy way on down the street to do the do On lightening his load There’s a lot of happy dancing Stopping here and there to do the doggy snoofaloo The trash cans on the corner Hold polka dots and moonbeams And every tree he passes holds the scent of someone new He’s an angel in a dog suit A charming cosmopolito Just a little wiggle-o And love him, yes we do Bopping down the avenue See that bass man walk the dog They’re headed to the studio, struttin’ down the street Truckin’ down to Tito’s He stops to greet Joaquin who pats him on the head and gives him something good to eat Then China Latina where his girlfriend Miss Nicole reads his fortune from the cookie that he munches happily He’s an angel in a dog suit He sees the world through starry eyes If everything were half this good what heaven it would be

When I came home this evenin' Felt a chill down to the bone Instead of a warm embrace I got a smile as cold as stone Oh baby A frosty wind is blowin' strong The mercury is droppin' I feel a cold front comin' on Was it something that I did? Was it something that I said? Your icy silence tells me There's a dark and stormy night ahead Oh, baby Why won't you say what I did wrong? But you don't tell me nothin' I feel a cold front comin' on Your warm and tender kisses, Used to be so nice I'm on my knees, oh baby, please, What can I do to break the ice Oh, baby, baby, baby Don't make me spend the night alone Don't leave me out here in the weather I feel a cold front comin' on

Now I was born and raised here And I love these people, and I love this land And I’m proud of who we are and what we’ve made here But certain things I’m finding hard to understand Comes a time we have to question what you’ve always been taught Seems like things aren’t always simple black and white Seems we’ve treated certain people badly in our time Seems we haven’t always done what’s right Chorus: Ain’t nothin’ to be proud of Ain’t nothin’ to be proud of Ain’t nothin’ to be proud of Ain’t nothin’ to be proud of Now we are young as a country Sometimes we act with the carelessness of youth We think that we’re invincible, we can do no wrong We make decisions not entirely based in truth And it seems we’ve treated certain folks unfairly Even while we claim that God is on our side But I can’t help but think that God has much more sympathy For people to whom justice was denied (Chorus) Now different things mean different things to different people Like the meaning of a symbol or a song But rubbing salt into the wounds of people’s painful memories How can we ever learn to get along (Chorus) And we find it really hard to say we’re sorry So the shadow of injustice still remains We build monuments to those who died in battle But we seldom speak of those who died in chains (Chorus)

If I could just get by until the day is through And embrace the falling shadows once again To sleep and dream’s the only thing I care to do For only in my dreams can I be close to you And if somehow, sweetly bitter, in the depths of night I feel the shadow of your touch against my skin For one fragile, fleeting moment, my heart takes flight And I rail against the dawning of the morning light 'Til another brittle dawn comes breaking hard and bright And as it breaks, my heart is breaking, too

You're always in a hurry to cross the finish line You get your fancy tickled, I just get left behind So get yourself right back here I got needs that must be met It ain't over 'til it's over And it ain't over yet You think your work is done here, but you ain't even tried It takes more than a hit and run to keep me satisfied You never lift a finger You don't even break a sweat. It ain't over 'til it's over And it ain't over yet A promised trip to paradise just leaves me in frustration Just when I'm 'bout to get on board, the train done left the station So pay some close attention to the matter here at hand If you can't do what’s called for, I'll find someone who can So wipe that smile right off your face Put out that cigarette It ain't over 'til it's over And it ain't over yet It ain't over 'til it's over And it ain't over yet It ain't over 'til it's over And it ain't over yet

Here we are in a tale of our own making. Fooled ourselves before, but there’s no longer any doubt that the wolf is at the door, but he’s inside looking out. How did it turn out this way? What happened to our happy ending? Here we are in a bargain with the devil Did we think that he’d protect us from the terrors of the night? Once invited in, he plundered everything in sight. Still we look the other way. How long can we go on pretending? Sleeping ones, awake Open up your eyes Don’t let yourself be swayed by promises and lies Admit we’ve been betrayed by a wolf in lamb’s disguise Sleeping ones, awake Don’t be fooled again How little it would take to change the world you’re in Just the touch of a button, just the stroke of a pen

Something you said to me I don’t remember And yet it sings inside my head A soft refrain A gentle melody discreet and tender My heart awakened from the dead A rose to rain Words through windows of dreaming I can’t hear what they say Still I search for meaning Though you’ve slipped away In mists of memory Something of splendor Veiled in the dust of distant stars in something you said

The birds don't alter space. They reveal it. The sky never fills with any leftover flying. They leave nothing to trace. It is our own astonishment collects in chill air. Be glad. They equal their due moment never begging, and enter ours without parting day. See how three birds in a winter tree make the tree barer. Two fly away, and new rooms open in December. Give up what you guessed about a whirring heart, the little beaks and claws, their constant hunger. We're the nervous ones. If even one of our violent number could be gentle long enough that one of them found it safe inside our finally untroubled and untroubling gaze, who wouldn't hear what singing completes us?