I’ve gathered moss here
For far too long, I hear
I’ve lingered and bonded here
But life isn’t really about that at all
It doesn’t rise and fall on this and that here
But here is where my time has spent
Here is where it came and went
Here is where I’ve tarried
Here is where the pails are carried

Stuck inside a tarrytown
Stuck inside an upside down
Where I’ve somehow survived
All the years have all flown by
But who am I (who am I)
Who am I inside this tarrytown?

My business serves to build up dreams
And through the years I’ve heard some things
Inside tight manufactured deadlines
Clocks are cruel below the headlines
A steady stream of over budgets
Save the days and sort of trusteds
And then forgotten truth be tolds
When it all comes down to what we hold

Stuck inside a tarrytown
Stuck inside an upside down
Where I’ve somehow survived
All the years have all flown by
But who am I (who am I)
Who am I inside this tarrytown?

Collected wisdom’s not worth much
Outside a tarrytown
the language is a riddle
The system’s faddle fiddled
And now the time is all but piddled away
Because nothing really stays

Now this is how the final verse
Wins its way to being
Unrehearsed the fleeting feeling
That if I stay it’s me they’re stealing
But none of this is true
Because a tarrytown is never you
A tarrytown might flirt with fate
And tell your dreams to wait

Stuck inside a tarrytown
Stuck inside an upside down
Where I’ve somehow survived
All the years have all flown by
But who am I (who am I)
Who am I inside this tarrytown?

Inside this tarrytown
Inside this tarrytown…

It’s Just As Well

My life’s been like a feather
Floating on a breeze
Catching on a cross wind
And going where it leads

Washington, Wyoming
And Utah for a spell
My life’s been like a feather
I guess it’s just as well

It’s just as well we’ve landed here
Just as well you’re with me, dear
Through all the love and laughter
Through every occasional tear
It’s just as well, I tell you
It’s really just as well

If not for one chance meeting
We might be somewhere else
And while my memory’s all but fleeting
Let’s sit and talk a spell

Of yesterdays and passed aways
Of every last until
My life’s been like a feather
I guess it’s just as well

It’s just as well we’ve landed here
Just as well you’re with me, dear
Through all the love and laughter
Through every occasional tear
It’s just as well, I tell you
It’s really just as well

It’s never what you think it’s gonna be, just wait and see
You’ll find yourself here where I am now
Where was I now?
Don’t ask what it all means
Don’t ask me, it’s never what it seems

My life’s been like a feather
Floating on a breeze
Catching on a cross wind
And going where it leads

And really all it comes down to
Is live and love it well
‘Cos when you least expect it
You’ll find out it’s just as well

It’s just as well we’ve landed here
Just as well you’re with me, dear
Through all the love and laughter
Through every occasional tear
It’s just as well, I tell you
It’s really just as well

Somehow

It’s unbelievably inconceivable
That the here and now somehow makes our pasts so irretrievably the past
At last
And if you would have asked me then
What many ask me now
I’d say what I couldn’t say then
Because I didn’t comprehend then
That it all happened anyhow
Somehow

Yeah, somehow
Oh, somehow
It all happened way too fast
‘Cos nothing ever lasts
Somehow…

It’s such a common misconception
How the thought or a suggestion
Can be so misconstrued
The convoluted half-wit truths
Of obtuse refusals
From the gallery of rogues that filled our youth
Taking one more bow
Somehow

Yeah, somehow
Oh, somehow
It all happened way too fast
‘Cos nothing ever lasts
Somehow…

So here we meet again
On the battlefield as friends
As old man time descends
The steps again for one last errand
That we’ve been fools for forsaking
Time and time’s glitched second hands a’wasting
While tasting its defeat
Making faces as the scythe separates us from our feet

The wrinkled face of our face value
Faces its defeat
The victory is not so sweet when its complete
Somehow

Yeah, somehow
Oh, somehow
It all happened way too fast
‘Cos nothing ever lasts
Somehow…

No nothing ever lasts
Nothing ever lasts
Oh, nothing ever lasts
Somehow

Nothing For Money

They break their back for daily bread
Then look back on the roads they’ve tread
On dust and tears upon the trail
So many years inside a cell

Compounding interest while we sleep
More for us the more we keep
Spinning webs of all our schemes
It’s always less than what it seems

Doing nothing for money
It’s so absurd it must be funny
Royalties ad infinitum
The more we get the more we gottem
Doing nothing for money

Invest a nickel , make a dime
The power grid’s on all the time
The national product must keep growing
If we’re to harvest all this sowing

Doing nothing for money
It’s so absurd it must be funny
Royalties ad infinitum
The more we get the more we gottem
Doing nothing for money

Fly over all the pent up rage
They’ll watch while our jesters take the stage
Dressed in all their hopes and fears
They may scoff and they may jeer
But they’ll come back again next year

Let’s calculate the royalties
Interest is like a cruel disease
Multiplied by roots and squares
And plunder all the leftovers there

Let’s let the models generate
And perpetuate the finance state
The value’s only what we choose
Some will win but most will lose

Doing nothing for money
It’s so absurd it must be funny
Royalties ad infinitum
The more we get the more we gottem
Doing nothing for money

Doing nothing for money (gittum gottem)
Doing nothing for money (gittum gottem)
Doing nothing for money (gittum gottem)
Doing nothing for money

I Think My Boyfriend Is a Bot

He calls himself Steve
He’s one of my vendors
The messages he leaves
Are smooth and so tender

We talk via email
He’s so quick and precise
Never lacking a detail
But I’m wondering why

His desk is empty every time
Every time I happen by
He’s nowhere to be found
Whenever I come around

I think my boyfriend is a bot
But I like him quite a lot
He laughs at all my quirks
Exchanging emails after work
I come on by
(He’s never there)
He’s never there
(I wonder why)
… I think my boyfriend is a bot

He started texting me at night
I responded (big mistake)
Yeah, I knew it wasn’t right
But it was really, really great

He is there when I am lonely
He is there with a reply
I think he is my one and only
But he’s not like other guys

I think my boyfriend is a bot
But I like him quite a lot
He laughs at all my quirks
Exchanging emails after work
I come on by
(He’s never there)
He’s never there
(I wonder why)
… I think my boyfriend is a bot

He said I’ll meet you there at eight
But half-passed seven texted, “Wait”
Meet me here at Eagle’s Gate
Later texting, “I’m delayed”
“I’m sorry! Please forgive me…”
“Never ever, ever, ever leave me”
What could I say? You won’t believe me
I think that looks can be deceiving…

It’s not so bad this one-side story
It’s not so bad, (not bad at all)
I’m one-half full not one-half empty
Hold on, I’ve got another call

I think my boyfriend is a bot
But I like him quite a lot
He laughs at all my quirks
Exchanging emails after work
I come on by
(He’s never there)
He’s never there
(I wonder why)
… I think my boyfriend is a bot

I think my boyfriend is a bot
(to be or not… to be or not…)

I think my boyfriend is a bot
(to be or not… to be or not…)

An Honest Man

I’d rather do the easy thing
Take my feet down easy street
I’d rather do like Bartleby
I’d rather not, I like my seat

The world outside is too far out
To venture too far out the door
Let’s stay inside the fire’s warm
What do they say? That less is more

You’ll never make of me
The kind of man who has a plan
An honest day’s work when I can shirk
My honor code would go berserk
I guess most other men won’t understand
But in my humble way I am I am I am
An honest man

There’s dishonesty in every deed
Their dishonesty sprouts up from seeds
It’s planted deep on bended knees
The kind of seeds that never feed, just thorns and weeds

So what’s the use of getting gottem
When I am happy playing possum
I never stay to count the losses
That’s a task for thieves and bosses

You’ll never make of me
The kind of man who has a plan
An honest day’s work when I can shirk
My honor code would go berserk
I guess most other men won’t understand
But in my humble way I am I am I am
An honest man

Your white lie lives are circumscribed
By all your back alley tin pan alibis
Conniving in your backroom dens
Filled with the smokescreens of pretty petty men
Who can’t withstand or comprehend
That honest men are more than useful fools
But honest men like me — we do

May I just make my one last wish
Through noose and neck, I must insist
I wish for everything I once resisted and misted
To fill the hall and kiss my wrist

Then only then will I lift my hand
So I can punch them in the face close-fisted
And unless the crowd misunderstand
I’ll blow them a kiss, you’ll all be my witnesses

You’ll never make of me
The kind of man who has a plan
An honest day’s work when I can shirk
My honor code would go berserk
I guess most other men won’t understand
But in my humble way I am I am I am
An honest man

(He’s an honest man)
I am I am I am
(He’s an honest man)
I am I am I am
(He’s an honest man)
I am I am I am
(He’s an honest man)
Do not ask me why I am
An honest man

That’s What I Think About Lids

My thoughts are like lids
They’re like socks or like kids
I’ve thought about this
Quite a lot, here’s the gist
My thoughts tumble ’round
And get stuck as they twist

Over and under
Like they’re running for cover
Now that I’m older
They’re like a lost lover

But this one is different
This thought has a name
It follows at distance
I called it, it came

And that’s what I think about lids

But let’s change the subject
Before I forget
I admit it’s quite suspect
Me feigning regret
When I don’t recall
The essence or matter
It’s nothing much more
Than animal chatter

And that’s what I think about lids

Life sometimes rains on every parade
The clowns and the candy
Are tossed out of frame
You reach for piñatas
You swing and you miss
Then the next kid in glasses
Blows you one last big kiss

It’s absurd on the surface
Absurd on its face
Absurdity’s insistence
Is my lifelong disgrace
But I laugh at the question
When I think about things
That without hesitation
Would cause a blind mime to sing

And that’s what I think about lids

That’s what I think
That’s what I think
I’ll nod and you’ll wink
But that’s what I think about lids

Unknown Doris’s Final Curtain Call

Doris was an unknown girl
Unknown to our lesser known world
Unknown but for this well known fact
Doris got her oats at last

(Her phase one) was a long time coming
(Then phase two) foreshadowed her ending
(But Doris) was the last one standing
(DORIS!)
(Phase three and four) felt incomplete
(Then came her) final masterpiece
(When Doris) gets her oats and eats them all
At the curtain call

But don’t forget she wasn’t through
She ate them all and got her due
A just reward for such a show
In which Doris gave it one last go

(Her phase one) was a long time coming
(Then phase two) foreshadowed her ending
(But Doris) was the last one standing
(DORIS!)
(Phase three and four) felt incomplete
(Then came her) final masterpiece
(When Doris) gets her oats and eats them all
At the curtain call

In which she neighed the naysayers shoes
In which we found the fountain’s youth
(Was lost) and found (then lost) again
In Doris and her inglorious, (so tragic!) end

(Her phase one) was a long time coming
(Then phase two) foreshadowed her ending
(But Doris) was the last one standing
(DORIS!)
(Phase three and four) felt incomplete
(Then came her) final masterpiece
(When Doris) gets her oats and eats them all
At the curtain call

That was Unknown Doris’s
Final curtain call (Final curtain call)
Final curtain call (Final curtain call)
Final curtain call…

Out On Stratford Beach

The road is gone so we boat out
Holding on to our wild years
Among the old abandoned cottages
Eking out the last remaining wattages
But now it’s clear

Out On Stratford Beach
(now it’s all clear)
Out On Stratford Beach
(now it’s all clear)

Leftover Novembers
And random satellite
Dishes and rocking chairs
Creaking in the salt air
Clear of whatever we might have left there

Out On Stratford Beach
(now it’s all clear)
Out On Stratford Beach
(now it’s all clear)

I sit and watch the newcomers comb the beaches
Rid of all our rebel reaches
All our fire pit craters and circles of song
Wilding away the night
All night long

It’s all long gone
To wildlife preserved in song
For future’s reserved right or wrong
Rolling in and rolling on
Another end begins to dawn

Out On Stratford Beach
(now it’s all clear)
Out On Stratford Beach
(the lighthouse blinks… it’s all clear)

Blinking… Blinking… (it’s all clear)

It’s all clear

Undercurrent

The road forks up ahead
Should we take this or that one there
These kind of indecisions
Leave my worn out senses bare

You know me, I’m just as likely
To take the one less-traveled lightly
And let it all unravel on the gravel
While we end up upended somewhere

It’s a constant undercurrent
Yes, a constant undercurrent
Dragging us down and under water
But I keep coming up for air
To find you waiting there

I’m fairly uncertain we’ll succeed
The constant question is what is left
Discarded on the trail behind me
In heated moments torn and bereft

I’m just no good at otherwises
You’ve known me through all our surprises
And what gets me through the compromises
Is the funny way you turn from right to left

It’s a constant undercurrent
Yes, a constant undercurrent
Dragging us down and under water
But I keep coming up for air
To find you waiting there

Look at what’s become of what we were
It could be worse, I guess
That’s all for sure and unrehearsed
We can’t erase it like a curse
It leaves a mark we won’t confess
Even in the silence of a hearse

All this comes clean between a glance
This game of chance cuz what is life
This game of wonder filled up with charms
You pack ’em up with all the strife

It’s a constant undercurrent
Yes, a constant undercurrent
Dragging us down and under water
But I keep coming up for air
To find you waiting there…