1. |
Redemption Arc
03:21
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Mutually assured distraction
prophets of our self-fulfillment
who could resist any of that
under these conditions?
I take back my hallucinations
you couldn’t have known that doesn’t
make you innocent that doesn’t
make you innocent
I pour out a drink and I stand for a toast
I raise up a glass to
your personal growth
you’re doing the work, you’re trying so hard
oh this one goes out to
your redemption arc
your redemption arc
It comes with the territory
sweet pastoral imagery but
it’s just not polite to call me terra incognita
You misspelled apology
you ended it with I and E
diminutive contrition
but I still know what you mean
I lock the doors and
I talk you down
I put our reconciliation in my calendar
you’re doing the work now, you’re trying so hard
oh this one goes out to
your redemption arc
your redemption arc
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2. |
Fences
01:40
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Swing for the fences
what’s the functional difference?
You still get partial points just for trying
Called it a perfect storm
there but for the grace of god go
I wish that you’d landed just one little punch
What Jackie wants Jackie gets, usually
I catch them and then I release
I catch ‘em and then I release
but I’ve never made a meal out of anyone
Cancer has entered the chat
I leave out the back
I leave out the back
I leave little traps out for you
and I wait on the aftermath
Whenever it comes on
you lunge for the dial to turn it off
I’ve never
made a meal out of anyone
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3. |
Cubic Zirconia
04:04
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Cubic Zirconia
baby, no one can tell
when they’re up against your throat
you know they shine just as well
fresh off the market, but you’re nobody's prize
magazine quiz called you apple-shape
you look to me like dollar signs
you look like dollar signs
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
For what more could I want?
(Why wouldn’t that be enough?)
Don't you hate me when you see me turn it on
for some strangers or acquaintances
a few seats down the bar
like a
barbed-wire electric fence of personality
you always avert your gaze
when I’m partaking in that currency
taking in that currency
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
For what more could I want?
(Why wouldn’t that be enough?)
Face framed by hoodie like an oyster in a shell
and your eyes are rolling at me as a pair of angry pearls
you’re the
prettiest mermaid in the souvenir shop
but if you’re coming home this late
you know you’d better be drunk
you’d better be drunk
But on the scenic waterfront
would you take my hand?
the palm trees grow like crabgrass
(precious cargo and all that)
‘Cause I’m still craving that unstable sort of shine
shining like
cold plastic water bottles held against the light
I crush it up in my hands for fun
precious cargo and all that
why wouldn’t that be enough?
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4. |
Hand to Hand
03:46
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I gotta find me one like that
not a pill, like a supplement
in some kind of glass container I emptied
you check it for cracks and agree it’s worth saving
A starry eyed cooperative
(or it’s nearly equivalent)
with no discernible logic
we’ll circle the lake and we’ll strike up a bargain
It’s a pact, it’s a covenant
handshake deal, turning hand to hand
a promise you’re still hellbent on keeping
what else could be keeping
you back from the edge?
Toss it back hang your head again
was it worth the experiment?
Biting down to verify
Jesus Christ—
don’t you get tired
of being that guy?
Anyone we can notify?
Must have been such an awful night
what I can’t remember won’t hurt me
thank god in advance, I’m already forgetting
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5. |
Wait Listen
04:33
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Crushed up like a coke can
carpet bomb of estrogen
“you’re gonna take that back”
you’re gonna take that back
“Party’s wearing red,” she said
naked I look just like a Rembrandt
I hope you’re into that
I hope you’re into that
Protecting
and attacking
you’re still hanging on to that
perverse sense of obligation
Wait wait wait
wait listen
you can’t say I didn’t
warn you
Good neighbors make good fences
if you pile them end to end
stack ‘em high now heel to head
they’re keeping off the wind
She called me a feast when
we kissed up in her bedroom then
she apologized for biting in
“I hope you’re into that”
So I turned off my location
let her fuck me like you
thought you did
I remember every minute
Wait wait wait
wait listen
you can’t say I didn’t
warn you
Wait wait wait
wait listen
you can’t say I didn’t
warn you
Healing over, still embedded
names were changed to
protect the participants
perverse sense of obligation
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6. |
Drop Dead
03:19
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The going rate for roses
is the lowest that it has been
since 1997
and if anyone knows, well
they’re not telling why
And the current cost of diamonds
has the market in a tailspin
seems like everyone’s decided
that synthetics are preferable
no matter the price, and?
Let me drop dead gorgeous
Let me down quickly
Tell me when you want me
Whenever you want me to give up
(I’ll give up on you)
All the natural consequences
and the body mass indexes
and hyaluronic acids
up against my throat
pressed into my neck
Oh! Baby burn the evidence
at the bottom
of the breakfast trash
it’s a blood oath it’s a covenant
and it’s so good to be at her mercy again
Let me drop dead gorgeous
Let me down quickly
Tell me when you want me
Whenever you want me to give up
(I’ll give up on you)
Blushing at the college girls
in that club
called “Signs and Wonders”
there’s no virgin territory for
a body like hers
a body of water
it makes ‘em un-pinnable
makes ‘em un-fenceable
un-outlineable
-bermuda-triangles…
Let me drop dead, Gorgeous…
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7. |
Party of the Century
02:40
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You think it’s ethically suspicious
to bring someone into a world like this
but you’ve got the best smile
anyone could ask to inherit
and baby I know you’re so good with kids
You’re my worst survival strategy
last safety match I’ve got to light up
Happy Anniversary
I’m happy as I’ll ever be
and I still wanna
make love in this club
I’ve been stealing pies from windowsills
double-triple backflip off the high dive
bribing you back to me with sugar cubes
but is that really such a crime?
Cause baby you’re a time bound entity,
event, like me—
and we’re the party of the century
That makes you like a sunset
that makes like a snowstorm
that makes you like a drought
that makes you
like a war
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8. |
Alexandria
04:48
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Alexandria
I’ve gotta hand it to ya
it’s even better than I thought it would be
Alexandria
baby you’re off the hook
for every promise that you couldn’t keep
Kiss me
up against the guardrail
I’d crack open my chin
before
I would let you
let me
pull you over
the edge
Alexandria
your pretty head in my lap
cried your eyes out, pretending to sleep
Alexandria
I run my thumb through your hair
like a stack of hundred dollar bills
I think I’ll keep
Kiss me
up against the guardrail
I’d crack open my chin
before
I would let you
let me
pull you
over the edge
Alexandria
Cubic Zirconia
I hope it’s better than you thought it would be
Kiss me
up against the guardrail
right before I give in
don’t let me touch you
if I love you any less
than she can
any less than she can
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9. |
Salt Crystal
03:21
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Cubic Zirconia baby I don’t understand why
all the pieces of your hurricane glass
aren’t good as diamonds
Cubic Zirconia, I’ve got nothing to lose
if you can’t call me when you get like this,
what good am I to you?
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
Biting down on gold again,
you’re grinding pearls against your teeth
spare me your obsession
with that incorruptibility
the rhinestones on your baseball cap
reminding me of when
the salt left crystal
on the sunset
of your sunburned skin
Cubic Zirconia,
you’re so pretty when you’re mad
honey brine my wounds
chlorine my eyes
come get your revenge
Cubic Zirconia, baby don’t make a scene
‘cause this isn’t the last time
that you’ll be hearing from me
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
Why wouldn’t that be enough?
Biting down on gold again,
you’re grinding pearls against your teeth
spare me your obsession
with that incorruptibility
the rhinestones on your baseball cap
reminding me of when
the salt left crystal
on the sunset
of your sunburned skin
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10. |
Blue Raspberry
04:41
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I am under her heel
like rock candy
crushed to glitter
laid out on the concrete
and the happiest kind of
sorry for myself
the sweetest little hangover
I bet I’ve ever felt
God she looks so pretty when she’s mad
straw stabbing the cherry at the bottom of her glass
blinking back the sugar water tears
I see her nearly crying
“come over here now honey,
come to me and let me dry them
for tonight
you can decide what you think of me in the morning”
Blue Raspberry
if the word ends in O-S-E
(you know what that means, or you oughta know)
the outline of her figure starts to glow
a fluorescence that it seems she has absorbed
from the lights of the laboratory
she was surely born in
Blue Raspberry
Her eyes burn white as styrofoam, right into me
she’s sugarcane split open, she’s a jaw
about to sing
and she’s shaking little packets
before she pours ‘em in her drink
she adds them in an order, it goes–
yellow, blue, then pink
suddenly I can’t
meet her eyes
I just watch her stir her coffee
Blue Raspberry
if the word ends in O-S-E…
Cure me in salt crystal
like you’re saving me for later
I don’t care if whatever you are is found in nature
you hold
the patent
for that flavor
Blue Raspberry
if the word ends in O S E
(you know what that means, or you oughta know)
the outline of her figure starts to glow
a fluorescence that it seems she had absorbed
from the lights of the laboratory
she was surely born in
Blue Raspberry
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11. |
Table
02:00
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He prepares a table for me and
one of these days I’ll have to sit down and eat
He returns
with a carload of groceries
and I never ask where they came from
Corrects my hand as
it’s holding the knife
cutting up vegetables quickly and fine
for the pot on the stove,
the line out the door
(give me your tired and poor)
He pours a pool of salt in my hand
showing me how I ought to throw a little bit
over the surface like rain,
the surface like rain
on the wicked and righteous,
the laymen and saints
Let me fix you a plate
we can find you
a place
to sit down
Have you ever tried trying
to run out
of everything you got?
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