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1. |
Rita Burns the Map
01:30
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2. |
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Enter your name
so I can find your profile.
I see from my records –
not much luck for you when the weather changed.
Enter your number;
I’ll match it to a face.
If you find yourself in an empty room,
they’ll kill you in your place
They say we’re lucky –
lucky just to live!
My hands drag the desert.
Your hand’s reaching out to give.
Forgive me.
Enter my home;
there’s not much left for me to offer you.
Your kiss could heal my moody skin.
It’s been turning blue, blue, blue
since the weather changed.
They say we’re lucky –
lucky just to live!
My hands drag the desert.
Your hand’s reaching out to give.
Forgive me.
Get over yourself.
Oh get a hold of yourself.
Get a hold of yourself, boy.
Oh get over yourself, boy.
Boy.
They say we’re lucky,
lucky just to live.
My hands drag the desert.
Your hands reaching out to give,
to give.
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3. |
Transit Chant
03:32
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Wide stance, blank stare
Black eye, long hair
Wide stance, long lean
People machine
Wide stance, glazed eyes
Short skirts, big prize
Wide stance, big dick
Caution: lipstick
Wide stance, warm hand
Warm breath, big man
Wide stance, tight suit
Big crowd, meet cute
Wide stance, big phone
Take the train alone
Wide stance, wide seat
Wide-eyed defeat
Bleary-eyed and nose-to-nose,
Breathing on your telephone.
Cross-eyed and toe-to-toe,
Will you cry when you get home?
Wide stance, blank stare
Black eye, long hair
Wide stance, long lean
People machine
Power…
Power…
Power…
Power…
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4. |
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I had my head in the clouds one day;
that’s where I found you.
I took your hand in my hand,
pulled you in, pulled you in.
I had my head in the sand one day,
that’s where you found me.
You took my hand, I tied my feet.
That’s where they found us.
I had my head in the sand, my head in the sand.
I had my head in the sand.
Oh Mother, tell me when the light’s out.
I had my head in the clouds one day;
that’s where I found you.
I took your hand in my hand,
pulled you in, pulled you in.
I had my head in the sand one day,
that’s where you found me.
You took my hand, I tied your feet.
That’s where they found us.
I had my head in the sand, my head in the sand.
I had my head in the sand.
Oh Mother, tell me when the light’s out.
Oh Mother, Mother.
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5. |
Open Wide
04:00
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Here's a question:
did you marry the right person?
Here's another:
did you have the right kid?
Did you leave
when you should have stayed?
Don't worry,
I won't tell them what you did.
We can make sure no one sees that anymore,
We can clean the stain from your floor.
Run out to the forest,
rub the dirt on your skin.
Open wide, let it in.
Let it in.
Here's a question:
do you remember the way things were before?
Here's another:
Where were you when the king knocked down my door?
And the people from the pharmacy
got their hands in my dirt.
They tried to feed me the stuff that they're selling,
and it hurt.
If the King is who I think he is,
I wouldn't touch that microphone.
Maybe he means well,
maybe he don't.
And yeah, he signs my paycheck,
but that's neither here nor there.
As long as I'm getting dirty,
why should I care?
Maybe I'm talking nonsense,
maybe you don't believe a thing I say.
But if you still want to get high,
let me put this another way...
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6. |
Wild Dogs & Black Flies
04:47
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Walk with me
on the long way home,
watch the crowds on Sterling Rd. –
white like the sugar that thins your skin.
Walk with me
on the long way home;
shouldn’t be out here on my own;
wild dogs and black flies swarming the king.
I saw him.
I know which way the wind is blowing –
blowing your words into my mouth,
your wings on my tongue, on my tongue.
I’ll find you there when I sink my teeth in.
“Hello?”
“Can you hear me now?”
“Do I get my say?”
Watch where you point that thing!
On the other side of the tracks,
lovers hold hands in the landfill,
on the other side of the tracks.
On voting day, your lips may touch,
but you won’t hear each other’s hello.
Hello, hello, hello.
They’re sleeping in the steam out there.
They’re always what they seem out there.
Don’t tell me that I’m home, I’m home now.
You strip the sheets in every dream.
You patch a hole but snag the seam,
and something in the stitches tells me
nothing’s any different now.
I heard about a place with stars above the door,
words smudged in grease paint and charcoal on the floor.
If you’ve got a switch-blade, you can hustle your way in,
but hold tight to your halo, angel.
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7. |
U.C. Sergeant
02:04
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In the window at night,
see their arms bend,
see them flex and fight
to hold onto him.
In the window at night,
see the candle.
Try to follow the light
to the room’s end.
But know, just know
you won’t see me.
Oh no, just know
you won’t see me.
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8. |
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Alma told me about a tug on the leash –
did I feel it, too?
She said she recognized when I felt the squeeze,
and she asked about you.
She said we never would have been in the same
cages when we came.
But when you let us out, and we run in the wild,
it’s all the same, it’s all the same.
But I’m not your bird, I’m not your breed.
We see the ghost whenever
we wander through the sheets
in sex we painted blue.
What they do, you do.
I told you once who was holding the leash,
and your face in the dirt.
Shining boy, with your hands in the trees;
I know that they hurt.
We never would have been in the same
cages when we came
But when they let us out, and we run in the wild,
it’s all the same, it’s all the same.
But I’m not your bird, I’m not your breed.
We see the ghost whenever
we wander through the sheets
in sex we painted blue.
What they do, you do.
Walking with the creatures,
I know what I’ll see.
People from the mountain
don’t know the beast like me.
I’m the one who works there,
I’m on your tv.
Can’t miss my name.
Can’t miss my name.
But I’m not your bird, I’m not your breed.
You need those fools, remember.
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Ada Vale Toronto, Ontario
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singing stories
of mountain & city
since 2015
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a musical drama
by Marley Rosen (they/them)
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