Pumpkin hands are the only hands I’m holding each
Farewell spices, full belly is the only belly
Dead days are shot
Live days are the only ones to resurrect but have no need of that
When the storm came, pink in the night
With the clicking of a door and the trees goin’ wild
I felt hot skin
You held me scooped in an arm like a pumpkin hands are the hands I’m tryin’
Fall 2007, Toronto
It has been whitewashed for a stretch
It has been whitewashed for a while
Then the yellow yolk came out of its shell
And cracked open the light
And cracked open the blue of another time
One of sweat and just being on the step
With an apricot in hand
Juice running, juice running, juice running from us both
This song came out while I was walking home from Kensington one day...
My mouth is full of teeth
After you kiss me
And I hear the birds of the mornin’
I hear their notes outpourin’
My back is bristled by your beard
And your breath, come nearer
And I taste the skin of your finger
On your knuckles, I will linger
The sky is comin’ through
She holds a bird or two
And I let fall the light of the window
For sleep I cannot go to
Yeah, this husk is full of life
And life herself is growing ripe
And since my mouth is so full of teeth
After you kiss me
I will devour, I will devour
Summer 2007, Toronto
Beets, beans, and barley
Run through me
Seamless dreams and stories
Run through me
And when I open my mouth, something’s gonna come out
Something’s gonna come in again
I took a towel to wipe my sweat
I took a fancy to red flowers ‘hind my ears
But I left them on the bush
I’ll take a course to pass the time
I’ll take a job so things are mine
But I will never take the sky
And not ‘cause it’s too wide
Beets, beans, and barley
Run through me
Seamless dreams and stories
Run through me
And when I open my mouth, something’s gonna come out
Something’s gonna come in again
Well, I refused to take a pill
But I took kisses and felt well
And you should take my word until
I say no more
Well, I like to take my time
On the roof under the sun
Of September with a song
But I have to run
Beets, beans, and barley
Run through me
Seamless dreams and stories
Run through me
And when I open my mouth, something’s gonna come out
Something’s gonna come in again
Beets, beans, and barley
Run through me
Seamless dreams and stories
Run through me
With the beets and the beans and barley
I wrote this song on the roof of Katie's house. I had to run to the first class of a course I never went back to. It was so beautiful & sunny on the roof.
O-ho-ho-ho everybody’s wishin’ me luck
O-ho-ho-ho everybody’s wishin’ me luck
But you know, I’m not a gamblin’ man
You know, I’m not a gamblin’ man
No, no… I’m not a gamblin’ man
I was working in an office in a trailer in the summer of 2007, taking the staples out of old visa applications so they could be shredded.
Before I left, everyone kept saying, "Good luck." It sounded strange to me.
One afternoon when I was alone in the trailer, this song came out.
Well, it took a green pond to tell me
Yeah, this is alright
And it took a white bird to tell me
There is sweetness in sight
The lovers enfold each other
And I enfold myself
In song in mem’ry of another
And in light from twelve to twelve
The white bird sat on a green floor
At the Margarita café
And the green pond lay like a lover at
The quiet close of the day
The drinkers drink to each other
And I drink up the pond
With eyes that long for another
Far across the ocean frond
In two months I’ll take a white bird
And traverse this green, waving palm
But for two months I’ll find a sweet word
To tell of where I don’t come from
The wings enfold the water
As air enfolds the song
And I owe my light to a white bird
Just across from the green pond
Yeah, I owe my light to a white bird
Just across from the green pond
I wrote this in the summer of 2007 when I was visiting my father in Moscow.
