Obviously Embraced

Lyrics

• 1Alphabet of Love

  A – for the angels that did depart
  B – for the bitterness instilled in our hearts
  C – can’t you see you do me wrong?
  D – we’re on a detour from where we belong
  E – for the easiness with which you let things be
  F – while my poor heart burns in effigy
  G – for some gentle rain from above
  H – for the hostages of love
  I – for the ice-water in my veins
  J – for the jaybirds that mock my pain
  K – I’ll never be OK on my own
  L – for a lever to move that heart of stone
  M – for our self-inflicted misery
  N – for the never-was and the never-will-be
  O – for opened doors back into lock
  P – for peace of mind so rare in stock
  Q – for the cues you gave that I missed
  R – you are the one without whom I can’t go on like this
  S – for the silence of your empty chair
  T – for the tenderness that we once shared
  U – are on my mind, I mourn my loss
  V – for a vehicle to get across
  W – for the trouble you put me through
  X – for the extra time I should have given you
  Y – why do these love letters spell so bittersweet?
  Z – now the alphabet of love’s complete

• 2Low

  Have you walked out that door
  Have you been dragged back in
  Has God laid His finger
  So cold on your chin

  Have you caught a faint glimpse
  And you wanna see whole
  The brilliance of diamonds
  The blackness of coal

  Have you ever beheld
  Your lover’s eyes glow
  When all you could feel
  Was low

  Have you been made to feel
  Far beyond reach
  Where you could not be swayed by
  Music nor speech

  Have you ridden high
  Upon this earth’s face
  Have you lost your stronghold
  Your state of grace

  It is sworn by the stars
  And the rivers that flow
  That all shall cascade
  That’s low

• 3Timelock

  Timelock
  I said something bad
  I nearly ruined all the precious things we had
  Didn’t mean the stuff I said
  Please forgive me, come to bed
  Get some sleep now on my arm
  I will do you no more harm

  Timelock
  Life’s too short, I know
  I snap out of it and there you go
  Won’t you come back into my space
  And bestow your sudden grace
  I’d wear blisters on my tongue
  If I could only undo my wrong

  The air’s so heavy here, so tense
  And this gravity’s immense
  Like some planet in some dark sphere
  But I do love you, please stay here

  Timelock
  Wretchedly I fared
  Try and remember
  The joy and pain we’ve shared
  We can turn this page anew
  We’ve got some past, future, too
  We can change this, make it right
  If we just dodge off this night

  Timelock
  Wind our love back up

• 4Millstones

  I wrote that song while I waited for you to wake up
  Your sleep back then was so trustful and so pure
  And I filled it with all the affection that I could
  Thought it’d be my antidote, thought it’d be my cure

  Now I understand that something has been twisted
  I see some dubious creatures beneath your bed
  Whoever did this, it was regardless of your features
  They just took a heart out, they meant to fill it up with lead

  I see millstones around them necks
  I see windows where ravens peck
  I see them painting by numbers on your chest
  Millstones ‘round them necks would have been the best

  Right now this river’s rough, I can’t get over
  I’ll have to leave you there and go and re-establish my trust
  But my lapsing faith can’t cover up these visions
  I see a flickering flame, I see you walk a floor of sudden gusts

  The wind carries memories of your soft and steady breathing
  And the sunlight on my finger ignites a soulful pledge
  In my dream I stand beneath you with my arms reaching
  And you’ve opened up the window, you’re standing on the ledge

  I see millstones around them necks
  I see a faint light that falls in specks
  I see them crowding you, see your throat congest
  Millstones ‘round them necks would have been the best

  Well, I don’t know what it’s like to grow up in a snake pit
  To routinely have your expanding soul circumcised
  But I do know there’ll come a day of righteous judgment
  Though it may not necessarily be advertised

  Go tell your doctor a song is a redeemer
  And a beautiful detector of the fractures of the soul
  All while you slept, you glowed with an angelic radiance
  While your half brothers made it big-time dealing coal

  I see millstones around them necks
  I see bleached bones in deserted wrecks
  I see them painting by numbers on your chest
  Millstones ‘round them necks would have been the best

  Millstones
  But I’ll try and stand up to the test

• 5Down to the Dishes

  I’m down to the dishes now, except for some wine and some bread
  I’ve got a deadline on hold, a millennium winter ahead
  The list of my casualties touches the tiles of my floor
  Along with the names that I swayed from my prodigal door

  You’d been to the dentist when I called from a boxcar last night
  You sounded so fragile, you really did give me a fright
  But I know you are up to it, I think we both know where it’s at
  There’s a wall with your name on it somewhere in a theatre flat

  If you ask what I miss, there ain’t much, really, that I can name
  And if you asked what I’ve got, my reply would pretty much be the same
  And I’ve thought about therapy, I’ve thought about writing a book
  But nothing will capture remotely the way that you look

  When I picture the faces of people I surely have hurt
  I wonder if I was too brilliant when I dug out the dirt
  The wounds in a child, doctor, tell me, how fast do they heal?
  I’m grateful and mourning, I can’t figure out how to feel

  The last nights I’ve spent in the shallowest conceivable pit,
  Where the resonant walls of my Jericho hardly did fit
  I’m down to the dishes now, along with some grief and some shame,
  But I’m prone to be saved by a fragment of your secret name

• 6I Know I Idolize You

  I know I idolize you
  Do you think you overestimate me?
  Well, as far as I can see
  We need each other
  Like a river needs a sea

  You are my cool adviser
  You’re my real estate trustee
  You’re the shaker of my tree
  And I’m yours now, for all eternity

  Never thought I’d find you once again,
  Never thought I’d lose you
  Never thought I’d find you, even when
  You told me, if I needed I could use you

  I know I idolize you
  Do you think you overestimate me?
  Well, as far as I can see
  We need each other
  Like a river needs a sea

  You are my moisturizer
  So soothing to my dried out mind
  Every time we meet I find
  You’re one to trust, we’re two of a kind

  Never thought my feet could get so cold,
  Never thought I’d get scalded
  Never thought you’d be for me to hold,
  The ascension never hurt, but then the fall did

  I know I idolize you
  Do you think you overestimate me?
  Well, as far as I can see
  We need each other
  Like a river needs a sea

  You are my tranquilizer
  You’re the stirrer of my scene
  And you fill the gap between
  What is and what could have been

• 7Us Everything

  I buried my strange heart
  In the innocent snow
  I should feel at home here,
  But I just don’t know
  How long I can stay here
  With a face of content,
  Better tend to my flock now
  And crawl to my tent
  And curl up beside you
  And plan for a spring
  That’s gonna deliver us everything

  This silvery landscape
  Where our troubles did start
  I was unable to conjure
  A straight line from my heart
  I strayed from the center
  With its foretelling boom
  Anywhere that I’d enter,
  You’d just left the room
  And the messengers perished
  And the birds ceased to sing
  That were gonna deliver us everything

  Surrounded by fences
  That followed me through
  You slipped from my senses
  Like a blurry tattoo
  I abandoned my village
  To climb the steep hills
  I found, for each challenge,
  There’s a faint set of drills
  I reached out towards you
  To hand you the ring
  That’s gonna deliver us everything

  When things started falling,
  I’d long hit the ground
  You may have been calling,
  But I heard no sound
  You may’ve been expecting,
  But there’s nothing I’d bring
  That’s gonna deliver us everything

  I’ll soon be departing
  From this slavery coast
  I’ll search up my heartland
  And debate with my ghost
  Stay in vicinity,
  I believe that’s the code,
  From the pillars of trinity
  To the narrowest road
  The ground has a warning
  And the air has a sting
  That’s gonna deliver us everything

• 8Confidentially Baby

  I got a note from the cleaner of your slates
  Said several people could swear they’d seen me showing several human traits
  I recognize their statements, but did they recognize my states?
  Your body and soul, I wanted both
  Now, I don’t go for gossip, but I got some news from one of my connections
  Several of these people were observed practicing perversions to perfection
  I just think it might be wise if you did lend it some reflections
  They were drawing lots for your clothes

  Confidentially, baby,
  This is a dangerous place
  Around here there’s a jaw for a tooth
  Consequently, maybe
  We’d change our directions and our pace
  If you’ll let go of your traditions,
  I’ll let go of my truth

  I spoke to your cousin, he always was the cleverest
  He hired the Empire State Building when he realized he couldn’t have the Mount Everest
  And declared that he’d go through the moments considered the hardest and the heaviest
  Let go of his possessions and desires
  I watched you watching him and from the viewpoint of my solitude,
  I saw something that upset me and though it’s not my habit to intrude,
  Now I know I should have told you, although I might have disturbed your mood
  He had it all tied up with hidden wires

  Confidentially, baby,
  This is a dangerous place
  You know there’s no easy way out
  Consequently, maybe
  We’d change our directions and our pace
  If you’ll let go of your destiny,
  I’ll let go of my doubt

  The way I had your poems published in some phony magazine
  After bottling your breath for some brewer who claimed that he could turn water into gasoline,
  With your determined dreams, I don’t blame you for deciding to turn off that machine
  Still, sometimes I wish you’d come home
  Well, the kind of people I always felt related to were men like Elijah and Ulysses
  Just like when I heard you’d left town that night with a very young man as Mr. and Mrs.
  In a jet plane bound for Babylon with her bribery and her business
  And making that short stop in Rome

  Confidentially, baby,
  This is a dangerous place
  They say just one man got out of here alive
  Consequently, maybe
  We’d change our directions and our pace
  If you’ll let go of your prejudice,
  I’ll let go of my pride

• 9Transient

  It fell upon you heavily, it took you by surprise
  But water that’s been stirred
  Still reflects a piece of sky
  So take these sunken dreams of yours
  And blow them up so high
  We’re just transient

  I saw you turn to strangers
  Who took turns to turn you down
  To petty-money-changers
  Who never saw the substance of your ground
  Now you stand before them
  Won’t you share what you have found
  We’re just transient

  So you who bear the name of prophets
  Carry it with pride
  The hemispheres may drift apart
  The oceans may collide
  But angels with their flaming swords
  May stand right by your side
  We’re just transient

  These fragments that we whine over
  Shall whither like the dust
  And slowly give way to a love
  That flushes void of lust
  And the frailties we’ve gathered
  Shall be traded in for trust
  We’re just transient

• 10Ballad of Muddy Waters

  ‘I hear that Muddy Waters is frequenting these fairs,
  With a pack of lies behind her and ribbons in her hair.’
  A stranger thus approached me on top of Emerald Hill,
  I went down with a fever and woke up with a chill.
  Then stumbled to my bare feet, a-wondering what to say,
  And turned towards a creature so finely cast in clay,
  ‘Behold my grave misfortune at this renegade hotel,
  Now take me to these fairgrounds, I will reward you well.’

  ‘I fear I’ll be rewarded in the currency of shame,
  And they call it reputation, by the way, what you call fame.’
  I took her by her collar, said,‘Are you not aware?
  I’ve been deprived of anger to which I was the rightful heir.’
  ‘It’s not for lack of pity I refuse your sorry state,
  Nor on grounds of virtue, Sir, that I hesitate.’
  I let go of her collar and ventured down the stairs.
  She gathered her composure and said ‘I’ll take you to these fairs.’

  ‘It falls upon the gentle, and on the innocent, too.
  I hear the devil needs a showcase, it might as well be you.’
  With these kind words of comfort she agreed to take me on,
  Though blindfolded and naked, of no harm to anyone.
  To ridicule and laughter I exposed this heart of mine,
  With a fever high and rising and my spirits in decline.
  For just like Job before me I cursed the day I was born,
  Like the sparrows in the bushes I felt the sting of thorns

  Awhile my persecutor flourished like a rose
  As I buried my companion in the very ground she chose.
  Through tears and perspiration my weary eyes assumed
  To undertake the verses that would decorate her tomb.
  I knew my time was coming, if no one intervened,
  When someone turned me over and said,‘I’m Jeremiah Spleen.’
  ‘As much as I’m a stranger, I’m the stranger in your dream.’
  I recognized that moment Muddy Waters’ seam.

  Her petty accusations swirled above the noise
  As Jeremiah warned me with low and fearsome voice,
  ‘Some are broken vessels, impossible to fill.
  I believed that truth was brilliant,well, sometimes it’s just shrill.’
  I spied her ‘cross the fairgrounds, her hair was shining red,
  As I stepped up to her charges, she stayed two or three ahead.
  Then, suddenly, she silenced like someone did appear,
  And when she gave a curtsey, I knew the Prince of Lies was near.

  Cried Jeremiah plainly with piercing eyes so blue,
  ‘Her time of apprehension is well nigh overdue!’
  His arms swung low with fury, his voice resembled smoke,
  She turned around to waste him just when my fever broke.
  I threw a burning slingshot from the bottom of my heart
  And got myself together as Muddy Waters fell apart.
  She rubbed her face with ashes, she tore her faded jeans,
  She wrote that name in charcoal, ‘Jeremiah Spleen’.

• 11Love Should Flow

  Love should flow
  Abundantly like mother’s milk
  Enshrouding you like precious silk
  Heavy from expectancy, ripe with need
  Love should flow
  As certainly as young girls bleed

  Love should flow
  From the canyons and to the stars
  Exhibiting exquisite scars
  Take me through your streets,
  The ones you know so well
  Love should flow
  Relentlessly like children tell

  Love should flow
  Where access is denied
  Where a sad song is your only guide
  Filling every vessel with a pounding roar
  Love should flow
  Abundantly and ever more

• 12Obviously Embraced

  He was doing research,
  She’d learned by word of mouth.
  Escaping her redemption,
  She’d come up from the south.
  He was vague in conversation
  About where exactly he was based.
  They left at separate hours
  So obviously embraced.

  Later on it surfaced,
  They were each other’s perfect match.
  Her old man did warn her
  He wasn’t bound to get attached.
  She never cared to know the number
  Of eyebrows being raised
  As they prepared for solitude
  So obviously embraced.

  Apparently they broke up
  To the sound of tumbling dice.
  She dropped back on him one evening,
  Saying, ‘I had to check up on your eyes.’
  It certainly impressed him,
  But he was careful not to chase,
  On the walls he’d seen their destiny
  So obviously embraced.

  After their agreement,
  He went down like a cannonball.
  Later he’d say, ‘ If I was losing it,
  It’s ‘cause I really had it in the fall.’
  Clearly he was shaken,
  Though punches thrown were poorly placed.
  To his credit, God knows he took the blows
  So obviously embraced.

  Pursuing her career, then,
  She soon received her degrees,
  But you couldn’t tell whether she was a healer
  Or an afflicted one in search of remedies.
  She carefully examined
  The soft skin that he had grazed
  And could not help but feeling
  So obviously embraced.

  There were rumors of desertion,
  She wondered if he was still around.
  She searched the internet and the churches,
  But he was nowhere to be found.
  When she was lying on them couches,
  Steel-blade-possessed and crazed,
  She still held hopes to find her love
  So obviously embraced.

  One night by the harbor,
  Someone approached him in a bar,
  Said, ‘Come over to our table,
  You know, you can only stretch your luck this far.’
  He could feel the years dividing
  As it all fell into place,
  For there she was, his one true love,
  So obviously embraced.

  The regulars were leaving
  As she took him by the hand,
  Saying, ‘Tell me how you’ve held up,
  Are you still reaching for the grand?’
  At first he was reluctant,
  But then she whispered to his face,
  And so he laid his story down
  So obviously embraced.

  Barrenness and virtue
  Are easily confused,
  People keep up their appearances
  With their hearts and their souls all bruised.
  But when everything is measured
  And all lines have been rephrased,
  Still remain the lines we made
  So obviously embraced.