Shape of a Bird in Transit


Into the Summer


We broke lines, cut through whatever
To hand out a leaflet in passing
Road signs are lined up before you
And hindsight is taking forever

And if you took a picture
Of backyards and made that the story
Answers are what i'll remember always
But when more than ever?

Here today, gone for tomorrow
Hot jailhouse tonight, into the summer

I found your heart in a lineup
And those walls that surround it
Old things I hope you remember
I won't lie if they ask about it

Here today, gone for tomorrow
Hot jailhouse tonight, into the summer
Hot jailhouse tonight!
Hot jailhouse tonight!



Regression/Antenna


I’ve seen the ocean you call yours
It’s all the same with different shores
I spotted your house from the air
And seized control and crashed it there

Regression
A house up in the hills, not much noise
Antenna
You must wish I had

If people live on watercress
Of this I’m fairly sure
And anarchists in those museums
Will steal our teeth in case lines blur

Regression
A house up in the hills, not much noise
Antenna
You must wish I had

When I said i would meet you
I didn’t mean today or any day
Your restless legs are wandering the low country, returning

Make animals mechanical
And charge them at the gates
A typical reaction time
This water mark, my ladder gone

Regression
A house up in the hills, not much noise
Antenna
You must wish I had



Coastline


The sun comes through the tiger trees
Your mouth feels like a radiator
And yeah sure I love you,
But if I watch this on TV one more time.

And now I'm all hands and you've
Dropped me to my knees
All scars and all immunity

A death in the woods,
And you seem hard-pressed to care at all
Isolationistic

If ever you build something
That's worth singing protest songs around
At night I can't accept these
Straight shot tower lights landing planes

And now I'm all hands and you've
Dropped my to my knees
All scars and all immunity

A death in the woods,
And you seem hard-pressed to care at all
Isolationistic



World’s Fair 1904


Chemical burned
You’re learning from an Indian world fair postcard
I won’t talk and you won’t listen cause I believe the photo finish

And your legs start burning
And your eyes are turning into salt water

Mountainside house, a furnace burning
Giving myself away so earnestly,
As if to emphasize your decency

In your eyes the power’s shifting
A hornet’s nest is drifting out of strange countries

I dreamt insurgencies of gasoline and maples
And I held my breath



Sleep in a Burning Town


Build up a following
Keep it back at one or two
Make it like anything
I need a receipt for the summer too

Sleep in a burning town
Won't come in a century
Downstairs in a wedding gown
Until you're lost again

War isn't everything.
We got sentimental on the grass
Captions that let you down
Tea leaves that tell you what is past

Sleep in a burning town
Won't come in a century
Downstairs in a wedding gown
Until you're lost again

Weather is changing
A chainsaw denial it's autumn soon
Join with a cavalcade
Think up, yell something you could use

Sleep in a burning town
Won't come in a century
Downstairs in a wedding gown
You say you've lost your head
Sleep in a burning town



Captain Coherent


It's your fire
I am not to blame
All fall silent in a modern way
Language knocked your teeth out from behind
Nothing short of "I agree"

And I'm calling

Captain Coherent
You're never at a loss for words
You ask if I've seen it
I've been up close and laid down inside

Caught between the headache and the head
Call out soldiers lying in your bed
"Innocent but true" the ranger said
"Nothing but machinery"

And I'm calling

Captain Coherent
You're never at a loss for words
You ask if I've seen it
I've been up close and laid down inside

It's your fire
I am not to blame
All fall silent in a modern way
Language knocked your teeth out from behind
Nothing short of "I agree"

And I'm calling

Captain Coherent
You're never at a loss for words
You ask if I've seen it
I've been up close and laid down inside



In Transit


Line-drawn
Shape of a bird in transit, until it flies
Arrive, walk with electric patience
You believe in all these things.

Eye-blind
Can't see the constellation towards which to drive, divide
Face on a shirt in Kansas
You confused it with the sun

Night time in a town like a power line
Your heartbeat is set to Mountain Time
Banging your head against the sky

Worn down, teeth of a silent actor
Deaf, dumb & blind, combined
Turning away an era
The piano and the lines

Hometown, lost on your own vacation
You wonder why you cry
At all the parades and payloads

Night time in a town like a power line
Your heartbeat is set to Mountain Time



Voted Out of the Solar System


You're expendable, a sad dog in a space capsule
Well goddamnit another one
I hate dying, I know you won't.

I was a window you put me through it,
Happy to say I hope you do it again

We're so sorry
You've been voted out of the solar system
Back to the gravity you knew
Back through the solar system
Back to the globe that looks for you

You're expendable
The same dog in a space capsule
Or maybe another one
I hate dying, I know you won't.

I was a window you put me through it,
Happy to say I hope you do it again

We're so sorry
You've been voted out of the solar system
Back to the gravity you knew
Back through the solar system
Back to the globe that looks for you



How Many Mornings


Started out, we were singing about elections
Lost in love, and tearing apart ignitions
I was free, you said you were mostly free
Lying there, nobody could convince you it was

Lost on me, lost on me

Sunny day, and you with a sad condition
Corner store is keeping me down, has all my money
Without days, how many mornings have you seen?
Lying there, all of the old skyscrapers were so

Far from me, far from me

We are free
Just you see
We are free

Instrumental
Just not like anything
Unlikely

Started out, we were caught underneath the ocean
Lost in love, and tearing apart ignitions
I was free, you said you were mostly free
Lying there, nobody could convince you it was

Lost on me, lost on me

Instrumental
Just not like anything
Unlikely



The Dharma Bomb


Thrown from so many cars
I’ve known a few
By the roads and in the capitals
I've written you

No one indicated that it was time to go
You're hesitating
Like I don't want to go

On and on

You hope it wasn't wrong
Into the sun
Hope is gone, but all the stars are on
Small comfort now

No one indicated that it was time to go
You're elevated to something I'm below

Gone for an easy time
Ear to the ground
What were you deliberating now
When you were found?

No one indicated that it was time to go
You're hesitating like i don't want to know
Like I don’t want to know