1. |
(Sleep)
04:48
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(SLEEP)
Last night
-a dream-
long driveway snaking through grassy knolls,
a barn,
a dog,
screaming children
Also,
the bell of a rickshaw
echoing in the soft, Nepali night
Some confusion
as to significance
(ominousness, imminence),
then,
more sleep
Later,
morning opening
on a blue catatonic
whirlwind of light,
the same longing under my skin,
this brokenness still in my bones
The day opened;
anew,
again,
as the newborn's eyes,
And this morning I smiled,
because your skin tasted
like the spring rain
that will never come
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2. |
Georgia Line
05:07
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GEORGIA LINE
I’m still lost somewhere
Scattered along the miles
Down across the Georgia Line
The years have passed
And you’re here at last
Sometimes the road’s so long
This brokenness goes on and on
Hope is an endless river
A sparkling ring of silver
Nothing after the rainbow
But the city’s golden halo
Dawn’s now barely breaking
I can feel your shape in the sheets
This emptiness still lingering
There’s so much I had to do
I’ve come this far for you
What’s another year or two?
Hope is an endless river
A sparkling ring of silver
Nothing after the rainbow
But the city’s golden halo
Maybe spring will come back
In a flurry of apple blossoms
Nights warm as the skin
For life again to begin
And I guess I’m still doing fine
Down across the Georgia Line
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3. |
Odessa
03:39
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ODESSA
He’s stuck in this mid-week limbo;
Everything quiet in Coney Island.
Outside, skimpy pink shirt in the cold,
“Meet me later,” on the phone
To a brand new lover
Is it her?
She could be his treasure trove,
For all he knows—
A Sunday morning in Odessa,
Ocean air through the motel window—
But they stand, inchoate
Is it her?
She doesn’t look up,
So he enters.
Soon they will be ghosts.
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4. |
Caveat Emptor
03:58
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CAVEAT EMPTOR
The children roll around in the grass
Where do all our vanished memories gather?
The year your father died,
The endless summer nights
The pregnancies, we tally them up
And now the women they look at me like I’m a puff of air
Like there is nothing to see
Like I’m not even there
But in my whirring ceiling-fan fantasies
I dream of old lovers and I’m blue
Even for you,
For my former, lighter body
For empty Halloweens
And quiet, kitchen table-mornings
But the kids, they do fine
Frankie can be a handful
But he’s so full of life you can’t hold it against him
And Emily’s almost nine if you can believe it
We did alright, no other way to see it
But in my whirring ceiling-fan fantasies
I dream of old lovers and I’m blue
Even for you,
For my former, lighter body
For empty Halloweens
And quiet, kitchen table-mornings
Tonight I feel tired and grey
And you, next to me, a thousand miles away
But there’s still velocity in these veins
Another one of my growing pains
Yet, when I think about it
Seems there was just no way around it
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5. |
Concentric Circles
03:13
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CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
Been toying with this idea of change
Finding the what and how to rearrange
Time’s twists and turns
For bridges to burn, paths to unlearn
And sometimes questions:
How many angels can fit on a pin?
How many kicks will break you shin?
The time will come
Been hoping for a fresh feeling
Something like a new beginning
To pull above of water,
Come back and live like a stranger
Sometimes questions:
How long can we fit in our old skin?
Will we remember where we’ve been?
But the time will come
The time will come
But I can’t break from the concrete
Can’t forget about my own two feet
I run and run until I can’t see
Turn around, and it’s still me
But the time will come
The time will come
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6. |
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THOUGHTS ON A SEPTEMBER MORNING
Then there are
these perfect little hours
before the rooster’s song
when morning still hangs in the air
lightly,
like a cloud above this city
The new insight
is about loss,
the unfed children,
the weight of a butterfly
the unwed women
and memories that will not die
The patter of rain
in the empty schoolyard,
the bell gone silent,
yet flowers grow through cracks in the pavement
To be like the lilac,
head still heavy with sleep,
or as the sea,
passing yet unchanged,
refusing no river,
is all that should ever really matter
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7. |
Silence Sinks
08:07
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SILENCE SINKS
Silence sinks like a stone
And the days slip by painfully
Only framed by TV news headlines
And the abstract sense of tragedy
He stares at the overexposed photograph
With longing and fading hope
Eyes burning and subways humming
Half asleep fending sadness and despair
They drove down, starry-eyed and blue
Away from the mundane struggles
The blowing fan and the rising tides
Pretending the clouds would push through
She, astoop, bleeding dead memories
Like smokey autumn mornings
Vacant lots and dead city parkings
With hidden tremors, glistening tears
Mandatory release somewhere
Spider-web Midwestern highway
Skies blurred-out blue turning pearly grey
No one is really going anywhere
Every night is just one step closer
Closer to being free
We are on an awkward journey
From one silence to another
-Davenport, IA 11/23/99
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8. |
Reunion
03:16
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REUNION
Bright Montreal morning
And nothing can get to you
But let me explain:
There were airports and miles of roads
—always a quick reunion—
Then the aquiline silhouette
Of the city skyline
Against the evening chill
Life is elsewhere
Can you feel it?
When my body breaks,
Tonight,
You will find a million
Tiny, white blossoms
And the Missippi
Flooding the empty apartment
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9. |
Sunday, Sherbrooke
04:53
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SUNDAY, SHERBROOKE
I am a stranger
to the ocean;
It knows not my name,
nor the taste of my skin
The sounds of the city,
The smell of cinnamon and coffee,
The furry back
of the long dog
under my feet,
This stillness
Landlocked
We’re landlocked
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10. |
Remember the Seasons?
04:13
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REMEMBER THE SEASONS?
I forgot to tell you about the bus,
the one I wasn’t on
It was headed straight for Lake Wobegon
These small moments that
slip between our fingers,
all these wilted loves
one always remembers
Frost draws a smile
on the window pane,
a black cat chases dead leaves in the wind
Who will babysit our kids
while I’m looking everywhere
to find you?
There’s nights when I forget about my body,
I close my eyes
and float above this city
If you take summer,
I will take spring
And together we can forget about everything
You weren’t wearing a mask,
you weren’t holding a gun
I did not even have to ask
I knew what you had done,
but who was in the get away car
waiting to take you from me?
Old man standing there,
did you once fall in love with a pretty face
on the movie screen?
Did she break your heart?
Was she better than all you’ve got?
For every leaf we may burn,
fall it will return,
yet all for which I yearn,
one day will fade with the season’s turn
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Jake and the Leprechauns Sherbrooke, Québec
Jake and the Leprechauns are now known as Harvest Breed
www.harvestbreed.com
The Factory Session on Youtube: live versions of "When it breaks, it breaks", "Tangiers" and "Desolation Sound"
www.youtube.com/user/jakeleprechaun
... more
Jake and the Leprechauns recommends:
Everything Changes
by Harvest Breed
Debut record out April 2012!!
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