dispossessed

[[ An ambiguous song about an ambiguous persona imagining a home he (could be she) used to know. Someone else is in the home now. A feeling of dispossession, real or imagined, some sort of revenge planned or fantasized. Fire and smoke imagery, maybe imagining the old chimney smoking, maybe imagining arson, maybe just a crazy phone call, maybe all in his head. The old phone is there for strangeness and to evoke an old time, dialing the number like a secret combination on a safe, with the phone's "cradle" doing double duty for imagery. Senses (taste and smell, fingers, warming, creaking) to introduce an uneasy nearness. And is he thinking of someone else (an invader? just a new owner) in his old home -- or is that "someone" just the persona sneaking back and creepily intruding in (calling on) his old home? It's coming from inside the house! Or not. ]]

smoke will be coiling

over our old home

sparks will be floating

floating on air

someone feels like he belongs now

in our old home

someone tastes the fruit still growing

in our garden

someone smells the flowers planted

by our mother

smoke will be coiling

over our old home

sparks will be floating

floating on air

someone opens creaking cupboards

in our kitchen

someone warms his chilly fingers

round our fire

someone feels like he belongs now

in our old home

now I am calling

dialing the rotary

my combination

into the past

lift the receiver

out of the cradle

lift the receiver

out of the past

fire will be burning

up through the blue air

sparks will be floating

floating on air

tigers in the garden

Tigers are golden and glow in the dark.

Tigers are hungry and feed on the heart.

Look at our garden, row upon row,

each living thing bred to feed us.

Look at our garden, freak after freak,

everything engineered by us.

I was dreaming animals 

returning to the garden

dreaming peacocks 

parading on the lawn

dreaming butterflies

hovering over long grass 

dreaming herds of animals

moving through the garden

When tigers arrived 

this was our history

When tigers arrived

tiger wrapped tiger 

tiger round me

This was our garden

tigers - run round the tree

tigers - turn into ghee

tigers - chase tigers chase

tigers - all melt away

look at our garden now

Tigers are golden and glow in the dark.
Tigers are hungry and feed on the heart.

Thousand-pound tigers

walk in the woods,

each claw as big as a knife.

Thousand-pound tigers

drop from the trees,

waiting to swallow your life.

Tigers the size of 

tigers the size of 

tigers the size of 

tigers the size of life.

Uh-oh, who invited God?

Big voice walking in the cool of day

saying get out of here, get out of here

Big voice telling us be on your way

saying get out of here, get out of here

climb the dark stairs

what's this bubbling 

up in my blood?

what's steaming

under the hood?

mother in the garden

fire in the kitchen 

mother in the garden

fire again

put down the pony 

frogs in the basement

neighbors on the party line

frogs in the well

lights in the drive

blue, red, and turning 

mother in the garden

something is burning

under the car at night

holding a torch for father

smell of spilled gasoline

orange of cigarette

smoke up the chimney

the game on teevee

twisting the aerial

pictures of snow

caught in the thunder

running in the rain 

wet camera jolting 

and jolting and jolting 

stories to 

sleep on

the dark and 

the bells

Nancy, Sikes,

Silver, Kim,

shipwrecked and 

kidnapped

and

climb the dark stairs

tempest and midsummer

salt and vinegar

the Russians in winter

alone in the woods

under the car at night

holding a torch for father

smell of spilled gasoline

orange of cigarette

mother in the garden

fire in the kitchen 

mother in the garden

fire again

stories to sleep on

climb the dark stairs

what god

What God has sent us

is not a pestilence or plague, 

is not the water rushing in like a wall.

What God has sent us

is not a pestilence or plague, 

is not the water rushing in like a wall.

What God has sent us

is nothing,

nothing at all.

What God has sent us

is not swarms of biting insects,

is not a plague of vile things that crawl.

What God has sent us

is not swarms of biting insects,

is not a plague of vile things that crawl.

What God has sent us

is nothing,

nothing at all.

Dear God. if you must,

even send us your agony,

take from us the first child we bare.

But dear God, have mercy,

if we share in your agony,  

make it a clear sign you are there.

What God has sent us

is not the worm in the garden,

is not the temptation and the fall.

What God has sent us

is not the worm in the garden, 

is not the temptation and the fall.

What God has sent us

is nothing,

nothing at all.

Dear God. if you must,

even send us your agony,

take from us the first child we bare.

But dear God, have mercy;

if we share in your agony,  

make it a clear sign you are there.

mindful of you

v1:
I have watched you while you're sleeping

I have listened to you snore

I have watched you while you're sleeping

I have listened to you snore

I have crept into the kitchen

And I have closed the kitchen door

Chorus:

But I am mindful of you always

Sitting still in a chair

I am mindful of you always

Sitting still in a chair

There is tea in the tea cup.

There is steam in the air.

v2:
I have sat next to you mornings

While the bumblebee purred

I have sat next to you mornings

While the bumblebee purred

I have closed my eyes to listen

How you don't say a word