Shearwater

Let's start all over
Let's do it right
One drive to Dover
One overnight

All of them waiting
For you to appear
And no more worrying
No more tears

Warm sun is shining
Green trees surround
All of your favorite songs
They're counting them down

And there's a Safeway
And Toys 'R' Us
Baby-blue Camaro
Rhode Island bus

One day you'll look back upon right now
And all sad feelings will be taken out

His little hook
Your little eyelid
The iris dilates while the heart implodes
And when he comes
And you're dreaming
His mouth still denies what your heart just knows, oh no

Nobody would ever have known
No light in the dark would have shown
How you would reply

When the bombs finished falling
And ashes were drifting along the roads
Little child, how you lifted your eyes to the air
And the ancient shapes of crows

Nobody would ever have known
No hand and no eye could have shown
How you would reply

Nobody would ever have known
No light in the darkness would have shown
How you would reply

Seventy-four
Seventy-five
He's getting used to it now
How each one falls away in that hoary light
And they are gone
Gone from the age
Gone from the guards and their hands
It's no different today than years gone by

But it won't come out alive
With his hands so thin and white

Gone
Gone from the age
Then he is gone from your eyes
As that splintering wave takes so many lives
And now your hands
Gripping the edge of such a waste
Where every angel looks dead
Every face a lie

And you won't come out tonight
With your hands so thin and white
Alive

Seventy-four
Seventy-five
Daddy, come back to me now
I would beat them away
I would pull you out
I would wash every cinder from your eyes
And with silver and gold
I would adorn you

I'll let it all come out tonight
When they peel me out alive
Alive

The wind that lifts the leaves against the night
The reeds that bow and bend beneath its weight
The holy sap, its smoky light
I will not hide

The fish that swim inside the murky deep
The island shores that loom above the sea
The holy, holy melody
Will bring them all to me

And play again that melody
Hidden close to me

I won't go traveling tonight
I won't go back to the wolves, now
There's something singing in the ice
In the deepest part of the world
And a film across my eyes
As I'm watching all the waves turn white

He took me out on the tide
To make pearls of my eyes
And uncover me, oh, without asking
Tore every stich, every line, every hook, every eye
Between him and the diamonds, diamonds
I would not give, but maybe tonight I will
With you holding my arms and my stuttering heart
As I'm bound and flayed alive

Oh, don't go traveling tonight
Hold that child in your arms
Well, there's no more canaries in the mine
And a cloud, black over the water
And a voice, low in my ear
Says, "The things that we did here will never die"

In place of the sun
In place of the moon
A terrible light
Will flood every room

And bathed in this light,
we will swim again
From the high desert's walls
to the seas, red and black

Turn the transmitters off
We are not coming back
And the pearls of our eyes,
are turning black

And when it occurred, oh, yes
sir, yes, sir
And the walls came down, it was
a fucking disaster
The whole thing's changed in
unthinkable ways
And now you have come to inherit it

But why did you come,
to corral everyone?
When you're just pushing the
darkness around

Something is breathing in the air
Something is moving, in the water
And the winds in you are blowing

Bring back my boy
I loved him
I loved him

Gentle flakes of snow
on the roads and the fences
And I'm fading out
I can tell it all the time
I'll go down in a flame
and wheel in the air like a swallow,
diving

Oh, you border guards
So young and handsome
in the light
Will you let me go through,
to the enemy lines
one more time?
one more time?

Hold my arm, will you
Hold my arm harder
There are islands in the sun
There are diamonds in the water
Oh..

All the black days unleashed by the rain
Collapse into sunny defeat
We live in a house with the roof lifted out
Impossible blue while we sleep
Ready yourself, extinguish your doubts
The hour of your strength is nearing

In South Carolina
I was struck by lightning
The world was a ball on a tether
My body as light as the weather

The moon was like an almond
The continents dissolving
I lay on my back in the garden
Looking for any safe harbor

Hey, little birdie, catching my eye
Sing little sweet things into this mind
And tug at my darker side

Fly to the bed where we are confined
Combing the cancers out of our lives
And harness your song with mine

And whose tongue gave you life but mine

The ice covered everything
My friends got so threatening
You know

They shut the blinds
Cut day from night
But the beautiful day
Came in with the maids

I'd like to bash my head
On the rails of this beautiful day
You knew

After all the times you've been turned around
Will you never be ready now?
After all the times that we stood your ground
Will you never be steady now?

Everybody makes mistakes
Some do most of all
I just don't have what it takes
They're singing as they fall

Everybody makes mistakes
Some more than the rest
Yeah, that's what some do best
But you won't be distressed

And of course we'll send the check
You can just write in the amount
Just let us know the house and town
So if you're going to wreck
You can still be safe and sound
And just let us know and we'll come down

Everybody makes mistakes
The phone lines are shot through
Causing everybody pain
Sitting in for us and you

Everybody makes mistakes
Some more than the rest
Yeah, that's what some do best
But you won't be distressed

You say, "I'll break all the way down
And then all these pieces will be easy to sort out"
Well, we can't wait
We can't wait

I had a dream that it all went fine
Sound body, sound mind
All of the drugs left not a mark
Fine features, strong heart

When I came to this place
My face was pale white
But all of the color
Returned overnight

I lost so much weight
And don't I look great?
My body sinks down
As my heart floats away

Oh Michelle, where we dwell
There is room for mistakes
We'd make love on the fire escape
And as the neighbors all drove by
Their exhaust would spiral into the sky

Now you pick your earrings up off the nightstand
While I switch from my arm to my hand
As the morning streams through the blinds
Then I wake up again and it's 12:09

And we lived out of town
With no one to come around
So we slept in all day
Until your job took you away
Now Michelle, your smell won't leave my bed

I dreamed of a doctor
Here's what he said
"It's just as well as you're going to get"

When no one else would suffer me, I threw myself at your ankles. So still we slept and were at peace above the winter traffic.
He treats his friends like customers, he treats me like a given, your letter read. Come down, you said, and let me know I'm living. Soon, come.

Well, Benjamin
You crashed your plane again
A beautiful tailspin
It was going to happen soon enough
The only question was when
'Cause I could smell the flames
Just sleeping on your skin

And I love you for the things you do
And I don't care who you do them to
You can wrap your stupid suffering around me
Because I thought it out, in the time I've got
And I don't care if I drown or not
I just want to crash into that same cold sea

On an airport "USA Today," in a dark black ballpoint pen
You write, "These people are like skeletons
Wrapped up in perfumed skin"
And it's such a stupid sentiment
But write it once again
Let your anger fill the margin
And I'll kiss your shaking hand.

'Cause I love you for the things you see
And I don't mind if you see me
With my wrinkled hands and glazed eyes
As obscene
You're right in ways that you don't know
And you're untouched by the undertow
All that speed and anger burns your body clean

And I love you for the things you feel
So thoroughly that they turn real
As the sea comes rushing toward us
Dark and cold
And your rowmate, this nonentity
As the screams and salt sea smother me
Will reach out a wrinkled hand for you to hold

But now the landing gear is starting to unfold
The captain points the runway out below
Where the Kent account is waiting to be sold
And where you're going, down there
I don't know

Baby, hands in your lap
You touch your wounds so much they'll never heal
I fear you'll turn your back
On just the kind of love you really need

It's just the kind
It's just the kind you need to feel

Baby, I love your laugh
And everything you say is dire and dear
But "Cut the crap, you're still alive"
It's just the kind of thing you really need

It's just the kind
It's just the kind
It's just the kind you need to hear

Your warm sweater
Your torn letters
They're all that matters
They're all that matters
At the window watching
the elegant traffic
It's all fantastic
It's all fantastic
And when you find these things that make you shine
Don't let them too far outside of your life

The set table
The friend smiling
The bones piling
The smoke hanging
And the soft mention
Deserve attention

So when you find these things that make you shine
Don't let them too far outside of your life
But don't try to hold them too hard Inside your mind when they slide
When they slide
When they slide