Life Savers

Your teeth were white, full of fluoride like sharks'
I wondered if they would glow in the dark
Like a life savers wintergreen spark

Life savers made in Montreal
Where they still have the five-flavour roll
I hate to choose because I like them all

Chorus:
I hope you find my facts interesting
So I never have to tell you my thoughts
So I never have to show you enough
To see me tick

Made in Michigan for many years
Designed and built by an engineer
Who moved them here? It was the financiers

I read it only works with wintergreen
They're pretty cheap right after Hallowe'en
You told me that you'd already seen

Chorus

I hope you think that I'm interesting
And that you will leave me alone
I'll decide that I want you around
Just about as soon as you go

Catching Up With The Rain

I am an angel awaiting descent
I stand like a letter that I never sent
The way that Abel last looked at Cain
I picture myself catching up with the rain

Before I die I make a quick calculation
Of my kinematics in one dimension
And it turns out I'm falling too far
It shouldn't be more than five or six yards

And that wouldn't kill me, I'm pretty sure not
I hope that you see me, I hope I get caught and it scares me away

I realize my death wish is passing at best
So I take a shower and then I eat and get dressed
I'm shaking the dust of this crummy town
Off of my feet, and I'm gonna see the world
I'm shaking the dust of this crummy town
Off of my feet, and I'm gonna see the world

Cigarette Two-Step

I want to see the seas drain away
Climb down the rocks to dance
On the ocean floor

While you do the cigarette two-step
Sliding out the back door
We both try to ignore the cold

Chorus:
Soap is slippery, skin is sharp
I never doubt it I felt it
Skin is slippery, soap is sharp
I never doubt it I read it

I want to hear the rain fall at once
Not just a trickle but a thunderous clap
To wake me up in the dark

You need the smell of morning coffee
The sound of somber mourning families
On your TV

Chorus

I want to ride the trees growing
To breeze-blowing heights
I'd meet the slate blue sky

You bring your lunch in a brown paper bag
A hag wrinkles slowly and slowly's
How it's always done
But I'm already done

Red Plaid Shirt

She was new to high school and impressionable
He wore a red plaid shirt that was exceptional
Things progressed exactly as they usually do
When I met her they were broken up and she was on her way to school
With the shirt already tucked into her bags

She said she didn't steal it
But knew she was gonna keep it for a while
If it ever starts to hurt
She just wears her red plaid shirt
And feels alright

I had just come out to university
In the early days, when drinking was the worst on me
I was caught outside once in a rainstorm
On the way to her party, and so I needed clothes
And the shirt was warm upon my back

I swore I wouldn't steal it
But knew I was gonna keep it for a while
If it ever starts to hurt
I just wear my red plaid shirt
And feel alright

You moved to my apartment for the summer
I went home and thought no more about her
Crossing on the shores of my Lake Wobegon
You found it in my closet and you thought you'd try it on
And the shirt was gone when I came back

You said you didn't steal it
But I know you're gonna keep it for a while
If it ever starts to hurt
Just wear your red plaid shirt and feel alright
If it ever starts to hurt
Just wear your red plaid shirt and feel alright

January February

You gave a lot, I gave a little
You played guitar, I played the fiddle
And I didn’t know what you’d do when we hit it big
You’d write the music, I’d write the words
It didn’t matter, ‘cause no one ever heard
Except your mom came down to watch our first gig

At grad we played a song for them
Quick to applaud, and to condemn
And I didn’t see you before I had to leave
You came around to my new friends
I knew the party had to end
When I saw the chevron on your jacket sleeve

Chorus:
I still have your rhyming dictionary
My imaginary adversary, voluntary military
Honorary burial at an arbitrary mortuary
January, February, temporary solitary

Your father told me that you’re gone
Then why is your light always on?
The windowpane broke with a rock, but the blinds stayed drawn
I dreamed you came to our old school
It was too late, woke up in April
I don’t know why that’s in here, it doesn’t rhyme

Chorus

Dry-eyed sigh can’t satisfy the sky x2

Left out of Letters

Chorus:
You asked me what I left out of the letters
But I know better than to try and answer that
In those cluttered, buried, dusty days
I picked up what you threw away
And kept it like a secret
Now you ask me to repeat it, I say

I'll use simple words and let you sing along
It doesn't matter what just make it up
You know you can't be wrong and
Why...don't you need an education?
Why...don't you take your medication?
Why...don't you know he's on probation?
Why...don't you just try masturbation?

Chorus

And if my manuscript is nondescript and bland
If it makes no sense at all
Will you still tell me you understand and
Why...do you put up with my nonsense?
Why...don't I feel I have a conscience?
Why...'s it have to be so hard to say
The words I'm not sure if I mean, I mean

Chorus

I'll do my best to hone
Your soul your wit and charm
To be sure it's hearts not bones
So no one's been done any real harm
Why...do I feel I'm in a movie?
Why...do I know you see right through me?
Why...do I think there's nothing worse than
Why... have I never told you this in person?

In Vain

I've thought quite a lot about this
It's gone round in my head
From all the rolling around

Mostly it's been done in the dark
Alone in my bed, two feet from the ground
And a mile from the sense that light tries to make

Chorus:
When I try to call, when I start to shake
When I'm standing in the backyard
With my guitar in the shade of the rain
Coudn't you tell me without having to ask
Blink once for yes, I'll wave back
Didn't believe it so leave it
With all your achievements in vain

I'm not one to talk about this
But since you asked
I guess I'll give you the gist

Mostly it's been push and then pull
I thought you above me, then I thought you below
It's so easy to forget that it hasn't come to blows

Chorus

When I try to call I wait til it's too late
I never feel like doing nothing
It just kinda happens that way

Ring, Tired Bells

Ring tired bells, out
Ring tired bells, out

With a love, won't ever falter
I'll follow you to the altar
So ring tired bells, don't ever falter
Don't give me reason to doubt her

O, shameful love that makes me wonder
Shouldn't I be torn asunder?
Ring tired bells, don't ever wonder
Don't feed my fear, or make me blunder
Could you make me blunter?

Chorus:
Anchor, tether, latch yourself to me
Anchor, tether, latch or set me free x2

My foolish mind that never rests
Can't even sleep at your behest
But shallow eyes will let me rest
You bare your soul, I'll bare your breasts

You iron bells, you'll never tire
Nor would you melt were this my pyre
Ring tired bells, til I expire
You never will make me a liar

Chorus
Within but without her

Little Vermin

Your fur is gleaming so lifelike on your side
But I'm reeling at the great divide
Between your tail and your tiny little feet
And your skull which is almost level with the street

Sure your nose, ears and your darting beady eyes
Are straining to hear, see and smell your own demise
But you're frozen an expression of surprise
Coats the features of the creature that had shortly been alive

Little vermin, I'm quite sorry for your death
You know in German, die doesn't mean you're dead
It just means the, yeah, that's what I said
It's too bad about what happened to your head

Should not have worried when that we'd arrive
Should have walked or just done anything but drive
Maybe then you'd be a little more alive
But I'm late now, I won't see you so goodbye

Little vermin, I'm so sorry what I did
Peewee Herman kinda looks like you a bit
I would have stopped but I didn't think you had the guts
Now in them I can see partially digested nuts

Life of Fridays

Woke up got to school on time
Saw your smile wished you'd be mine
Next thing I know I'm sitting in class
Seems like time is running fast

An hour or so of pretending I know
A hundred and one equals two, here I go
Now I just just can't keep caring I'm lost and I'm staring
Hands are beginning to move

Chorus:
Don't care what the clock says
I was speeding by, the week was just a blur
Living a life of Fridays
Cause tomorrow is the weekend for sure

Late again and I'm stepping fast
People in cars keep on driving past
Like an opposite tide or a current I ride
They're trying to push me back inside
And that's where I want to be
Free from responsibility and rules
And rules

Chorus

Given the time and the space I could make a mistake oh the things I could bend I could break I don’t need an excuse cause I don’t see the use with just me and just you we will know what to do but the thing is I don’t see it happening soon, now I’ll be in my bed sleeping til noon cause I’m sick of this rhyme and sick of the pattern, la ta da ta da ta da da, as I don’t have to grow up, yet, I will still take my time waking up oh yeah

Dumb

I can't remember when I start to forget
My wit is dry when I am soaking wet
And I'm so tired of my insomniac dreams
About Goldberg machines in my brain

I am sure we're mining for canaries
And I abjure my vocabulary
And I'm a liar, I told you that my pants were on fire
When you can see for yourself that it's not true

Chorus:
If I could tie this all together somehow
Would it be more than my voice would allow?
I'd be dumb, perhaps in more sense than one
If if I sung what I really thought

I am unsure I deal in contradiction
Don't know the facts but I don't call it fiction
And I agree, writing a book in your cell
Is how you can tell you're a libertine

I sneak aboard an idle train of thought
Don't pay attention but never seem to get caught
And I am bored with my infinite free will
So I'll be taking that pill from you now

Chorus

I couldn't hear if the connection had gone dead
Those magazines only hire people named Ed
And there's no way I will ever lead me astray
Unless I hear someone say something unkind

I can't pretend I'm living a lie
And every end is just another goodbye
But it's hard, I never get to see
What I think is me with only my eyes

If I could spend another day in my mind
Would there be anything new for me to find?
I may be dumb, but I know that I will be alright
Since I know that what I sung was right