It's not nice without you
 (when you’re around)

summer love, its a drag
when its over, i want it back
fall is here, bittersweet
how can I stand up, swept off my feet
you went away, it fell apart
you lost yourself, and I lost my heart

chorus
 i came back, nothing's the same
only the shit, only the pain
i’m your rock but i’m sinking down
i  never do like to touch the ground

it’s not nice without you it’s not nice without you

chocolate bunny with a gaping hole
drive-by hug you've got to go
i see you cross against the light
blinders on, another fight
once and a while you shake the globe
 flurries settle and i’m snowed

it’s not nice without you it’s not nice without you
when you’re around
when you’re around

firewall

starts with a rip or maybe a crack
chip it away it’s never coming back 
run in a stocking,  rip in a seam
up in smoke there goes his dream
gasoline on a lump of coal
toss a match and your ready  to roll
blazes up, she fans the fire
fans the flames, gets much higher 
the smoke starts to make her ache 
but it still doesn’t penetrate
chorus:
can’t break down can’t break down
can’t break down that firewall

in the middle of the night 
at the stop light
i gave a command for 
for you to hold my hand
light said go, you let it go
thought we started but I don’t know
stop you said and you went to bed
clutching to the holy thread
chorus
bridge:
i’v e been hoping you were joking
when you said it wasn’t better than smoking

back on task had to ask
was it fun or just too fast?
the engine’s protected so it doesn’t blow
is there something that will break the code?
what do you dream before bed?
what kind of things float in your head?
you have to learn that first you yearn
it starts to smolder and you let it burn

chorus 
bridge

getting directions

driving sideways down the streets of Austin
checking it out
from a sound check in the daylight hours
driving me home
different ways of talking
different ways to get to the same place

wanted to know where we were going to
I didn’t need to know    how to get there
following instructions, getting directions
don’t tell me how  to get us there

back seat driving
with a glimpse of friendship
meet me at the bar tonight
southern travelers
up the hill at Bouldin, make a right
chorus

Want it Want it (Idle Fixe)
boys are running off in droves
kiss kiss and off they go

obsessive compulsive   addicted divulsive
distraction reaction     near fatal attraction
frustration elation   i want adulation
expectant expressive  assertive aggressive

if I want it, i want it
if i don’t want it, I want it, want it

objected directed  erection ejection
persistent resistant  seeking commitment
wishing and hoping   fishing and coaxing
relentless repentant  incessant resentment
chorus

chorus: WORD JUNKIE 
WORD JUNKIE WORD JUNKIE
THAT’S MY MONKEY   I’M A JUNKIE
tell me what you feel inside
i’ll open the doors  up wide
talk to me late into the night
come on take me for a ride

i sure i would have bitten hard
persistence always gets my dance card
Cyrano de Bergarac 
would have given me a heart attack
chorus
completed works-keep them clean
dirty talk, low and lean
fix me up w/ plans and dreams
and i’m addicted to that e-mail screen
chorus
whisper chant:
prose poetry spoken word
noun, adjective, adverb or verb
give me one more chance, dear.
i was a jerk before. 
i will tuck you in. tonight  if you let me in the door.
 come on.  Let me in  baby let me in. 
you know you write sweet messages.
this is getting messy and I don’t know what to do
despite it all I want to frolic in the woods with you

i’m not your girlfriend

a  thousand phone calls,  not a one
a thousand letters.  then there’s none
a  thousand reasons. one thousand wrongs
i’m speeding by, one thousand palms
ocotillo. joshua tree
tall saguaro.  then there’s me.

mostly thirsty. deep down roots
when the rain comes, such pretty blooms

chorus: 
i’m not your girlfriend girlfriend
i’m not your girlfriend girlfriend
i’m not your girlfriend girlfriend
but it’s not all bad.

watching  t.v. in the bed. 
watching you sleep, almost dead
second language, secret code
talk a blue streak. overload.
up and dancing alone and close.
morphine blasting. 
get off my  toes

chorus

three day stubble, cigarettes
brown outfit. teacher dress
squishy sandwich, pbj
the voice of reason  keeps going away
strawberries, mango mouth
forty cherries and i pass out

chorus

hand of country

lighting struck me twice in the same spot
but I lived to tell the tale
caught up in my own prison
when someone came to pay my bail
phoenix  rising up from the ashes
giving me a second chance
i was touched by the hand of country
lifting me up to dance
chorus:
touched by the hand of country.
torn by a twist of fate.
snatched from the jaws of the lion.
giving me a second helping on my plate.

coming back home on  the back roads
i stopped to dig up plants.
filled with local color,
purple cactus stickers in my hands
stickers turned into pears 
and the pears grew blooms
i was touched by the hand of country
not a minute too soon.

chorus
Green grass growing all around me.
lifting me up to dance
touched by the hand of country
 

Kiss my Wound
i walked down a high flight of stairs that led to the sky. 
 my head had been in the clouds for so long i was 
blinded when i saw the sun and the sky. 
 i hit the ground reeling, looked down and saw a bloody gash 
and instead of hobbling back to pick myself up
 to dress the wound and start to let it heal,
 i lay there, in pain, in vain, 
waiting  for a knight in shining armor to ride up and kiss my wound.

  i saw my friend eileen  offer her daughter, Rayna 
a kiss on a boo boo and i thought how funny that a kiss 
 which should make a cut sting somehow makes it  all better it
  if we’re lucky we grow up with up with a kiss as the ultimate cure
 then as adults we seek it like a gambler on the slots 
only the odds are much more rare.
it just doesn’t doesn’t pay off after childhood

we’re all just waiting for someone to be around
to lift us up and dust us off when we fall down
it is an endless search that never really could be
like innocence it dies in childhood
kiss my wound kiss my wound

i read about children who couldn’t be consoled by their mother’s arms 
and i felt like one of those children
almost nothing would soothe me except words
which dried up on puddles on hot summer days
 i wanted tokens of rocks, things like and magic rocks  and sour cream donuts
 and it was a long time before i realized i could grow my own magic rocks
 and buy my own sour cream donuts.

were all just waiting for someone to fill our souls
but one plus one is two not one plus one is whole
so like a cat like your wounds and return to the war
toughen up and head back to the dance floor
kiss my wound kiss my wound

maybe that’s why we get the urge to mother or father another
 we know that on some level or needs to have wounds kissed
 will not be met
so we reach out to  kiss instead of waiting to br kissed
we give it all away.  it feels so good to give it all away
 it feels so good to give. it feels so good to give 
it feels so good to give. it  feels so good to good to give.
 feed me. need me. comfort me kiss my wound
dress me up and hold me wash me. take care of me.
it smarts it stings it burns. kiss my wound.