©2007 curlock and jalaiso music, bmi.
the new year
look out ahead, we’re coming, coming fast
ready for the good old days to start at last
kick off the party with a laugh and a bang
leave your secrets in the closet, your failures where they hang
one more turn around the sun
quicker than the last one
one more dance to a merry tune
kiss me while the year is new
throw you cares on the bonfire, your money in the pot
resolutions? are you kidding? how could we? we have no plot
it’s just a gift to be living, a blessing to be with you
and i hold them both like the sparrow
that ate from my hand until it flew
one more turn around the sun
quicker than the last one
one more dance to a merry tune
kiss me while the year is new
nature hates a vacuum like my kitchen hates a broom
and your promise in the cold air disappears too soon
so kiss me in the driveway while the year is new
and we’ll start with a clean slate as dawn bleeds through
face to face
i can only speculate about
why you never call here anymore
could be advice i gave came back to bite me
could be you mean to
but just never write me
i won’t ask your secrets
i won’t comment on the state of your affairs
i just miss your sense of humor
and knowing that you care
the distance between us just increases
as the years accelerate
as kids we shared a bedroom
now we live in separate states
with less to laugh about,
and more to tolerate,
i don’t judge you for your choices
i don’t claim i’ve never made mistakes
we’ve been stretched out so thin
we never will snap back into shape
right now it’s hard to speak tenderly
and it’s easy to shout
too many questions in the way
drowning you out
i want to turn this trend around
but where to begin
i need to see you face to face again
face to face
i need to see you
absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder
it just exaggerates
either the roses bloom like crazy
or the weeds proliferate
any germ of doubt
can make you start to wonder
and too much time to replay
too much time to ponder
that’s more attention
than any word or detail could deserve
sometimes hindsight isn’t 20/20
it’s just plain absurd
something out of nothing
where did it start:
like gods in the darkness
speaking the words that
set each other alight?
or there in the rush
from the leap to the landing
as the choices we made
turned into our life?
where in the notes
of that first early song
did the hint of the notion
start to play in your mind?
at the threshold between
at rest and in motion
i became yours
and you become mine
making something out of nothing
we are wings in the air
fighting to stay there
where in the strike
of the match on the matchbook
do the force and the friction
give way to the fire?
and the kids playing catch in the yard
wearing their dad’s face and mother’s eyes
when do they spring
from our plans to our side?
all those magicians, they
pull the dove from their sleeve
you and i pay down the mortgage
and try to believe
in something out of nothing
we are wings in the air
fighting to stay there
one kind word
one kind word shouldn’t have to last me so long
you leave me sucking on a happy memory
until the sweetness is gone
i can’t walk away
from my faith in a good thing
even if it never comes
i’ve got a farmer’s patience
i do what i can
and hope that the weather changes
but honey, my love has better uses
than to stay behind and make your excuses
when you can’t keep your promises
so many years of believing
and hoping you’ll change
if i leave you now
i throw them all away
but those years are already spent
and not carelessly, not by accident
you’re my thrill
but you keep me waiting
one kind word shouldn’t have to last me so long
you leave me sucking on a happy memory
until the sweetness is gone
i can’t walk away
from my faith in you
even if you can’t be true
a new expression
blue skies in paradise
but sometimes a rain cloud appears
she’s got a new expression
she brings it out to let me
know when i’ve done wrong
it’s hammer and nails
she paints it pretty strong
once she gets her mind made up
there’s no turning back
start rolling credits now
she's fading to black
call up the tower with a
change of plans
she’ll circle endlessly
before she ever lets you let her land
kicks me out of eden
drops me from grace
gabriel’s flaming sword
on a 2-year-old face
she’s got a new expression
the switch is on
the switch is on but the signal’s missing
choking in the ice
funny how when the power skips a beat
i lose my place in time
service is suspended now
a little break in the routine suspending me
my hands are cold and my daughter’s sleeping
listen for the phone
funny how working is impossible
but still the reflex moans
so i find a way to fill the space
cast about for projects in the attic
higher ground to waste
we’re grateful now for any little errand
marker in the void
but you forget your wallet
and we’re driving back and forth
what’s a repetition
in the context of a loop
or a needle in a groove
time
waiting like a bully
at the edge of the beach
kicking down [blue sand] castles
ready to bury me
in the sand of history
my teenage neighbor’s punk band
has me feeling my age
we’re covering the same ground
but i could swear
i’m climbing a steeper grade
time, time, time
is definitely not on my side
we kill each other slowly
while he makes up his mind
if he’s healing my wounds
or punishing my crimes
this time
you live your whole life
in the flash of that pan
the millisecond burning
of the spark that spans
from memories to plans
and when you catch your expression
on the face of your kids
it's like looking at a future
that could be
through a new lens
king charlemagne prayed
for the sun to stand still
because he wanted time to kill
but i want to live
in the curve of your face
i’m taking your love with me
beyond the grave
worth in trade
you start romancing
a junkyard van
from a need to set things right
with your own hands
but you give up half way
and there it stands
rusting monument to
frustrated plans
oh, to see through
ignorant eyes
there’s not much beautiful
to the worldly-wise
it never seems to
balance out right
one day of bad decisions
ten years to analyze
you need someone to tell you
what you’re worth in trade
separate you out from
what you do for wage
someone to wake you
with a breath of air
put the life back in you
and the wind back in your hair
face right up to the bare facts
there’s a bigger picture but you
won’t see it like that
nothing grabs you
nothing shines
no matter how you try
twice two isn’t five
first it’s this way, then it’s that
going nowhere in a lifetime flat
so many conversations in you
i’m never quite sure
who i’m talking to
a song like yours
hey little bird
lend me your will
let me eat from your habit
and drink from your thrill
i want to want to know your secret
and i don’t
i want to want a song like yours
in my throat
laughter is plentiful
and happiness ripe on the vine
but i’m weary in body
and stagnant in mind
i want to want to see a new face
and shake a new hand
i want to want to drift on the wind
and land where i land
hey little bird
fly me out from under this night
all the things i cherish
have grown tiresome in my sight
hey little bird
won't you teach me your desire
tell me how you make a living soul
fly lighter and higher
i want to want the apple on your tree
but i’ve no appetite
i want to want to find myself
in the miracle of your flight
i want to want to throw back my head
and laugh at your joke
i want to want a song like yours
in my throat
spring ahead
half of the clocks were set ahead
but the rest still show yesterday’s time
we’ve grown accustomed to
dark evenings
and it’s strange to see light outside
all day long you shot me dirty looks
alone in the car
you start venting bitterness
and i’m trapped in the traffic
on a 2-hour drive
it doesn’t matter which route i take
the l.i.e. or the northern state
we’re headed for a blowout
in record time
you could call this progress
there are more good days than bad
but i’m still walking on eggshells
from the moment you get here
to the time that i take you back
once we were passengers in the same dark history
but you were at the wheel and i was stuck in back
and now it’s difficult
in the shadow of headlight and underpass
to separate present feeling from artifact
i want to believe that we’re changing
and put a good face on the setbacks
but the spring is transparent as sunshine
and the winter behind us is solid as pitch black
100,001
the odometer flips to a hundred grand
and it feels like progress
the vague taste of accomplishment
helps you to feel a little less lost
but it’s a random number
you’re treading water
it’s visually pleasing
but grossly misleading
the accumulation of mundane errands
over time
still, it scratches the itch to impose
some frame of perspective
as you try to fill your requirements
and free up some time for electives
well perspective is fine
but living is binary
you are or you aren’t in love or in misery
and hindsight never clears until the
dates on the warranties pass
maybe teenagers have the right idea
just live in the present and drink it all in
and that’s where you begin
but sooner or later there’s a compromise
a promise you make or a paper you sign
and it hits you at the strangest times
idling in the drive-through atm line
that by the time the last child
is put to bed
dishes washed and stories read
there may not be anything left in the tank
and that’s fine
you don’t mind
the odometer flips to another mile
and it feels like progress
all lyrics & music by jean-paul vest
©2007 curlock and jalaiso music, bmi.