Hello Starling
Album - 9 settembre 2003 - Debaser id 80263

all the other girls here are stars you are the Northern Lights
they try to shine in through your curtain you're too close and too bright
they try and they try but everything that they do
is the ghost of a trace of a pale imitation of you
I'll be the one to drive you back home Kathleen
this party is made with the night air and the chance that a smile
will wind its way from your face to one of the boys in your line
you act like you're hip to their tricks and you're strong
but a virgin Wurlitzer heart never once had a song
I'll be the one to drive you back home Kathleen
and I'll have you back by break of day
I'm going your way anyway
and if you'd like to come along
I'll be yours for a song
I know you are waiting and I know that it is not for me
but I'm here and I'm ready and I've saved you the passenger seat
I won't be your last dance just your last goodnight
every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied
I'll be the one to drive you back home Kathleen
so crawl up your trellis and quietly back into your room
and I'll coast down the length of your drive by the light of the moon
and the next time we meet's a new kind of hello
both our hearts have a secret only both of us know
'bout the night that I drove you back home Kathleen

Here I am standing at your window again
Waiting for you to say go away or come in
I’m your locked door’s worst knocker
I’m your curtain’s best friend
I’m trying hard to love you – you don’t make it easy Babe
I’m trying hard to love you – I’m looking for an easy way
Your friends ask about me you say I can be found
With cheap romance novels with their spines battered down
Oh the heart has no bones you say so it won’t break
But the purpose of loving is the pounding it takes
I’m trying hard to love you – you don’t make it easy Babe
I’m trying hard to love you – I’m looking for an easy way
The ropes that have bound me leave no marks by their knots
And though they’re your hair that don’t mean I’m not caught
I know the song of the handcuffs as they scrape across the floor
but that new thing you’ve got I’ve got no clue what it’s for
I’m trying hard to love you – you don’t make it easy Babe
I’m trying hard to love you – I’m looking for an easy way
With fortune’s rocks millstones you hang round my throat
And a brick for my window weighted down with a note
I hope you find someone just as hard as you come
In this hard world sadly that’s so easily done
I’m trying hard to love you – you don’t make it easy Babe
I’m trying hard to love you – I’m looking for an easy way
I’m trying hard to love you – you don’t make it easy Babe
I’m trying hard to love you – there’s gotta be an easy way

Rainslicker
you had your red rainslicker on
your face was turned up into rain as you watched me
and I was crossing I was crossing
the street like my own Rubicon
coming back home to ya coming back Rome
and your eyes were so patient and calm
and green as the grass that might grow on the 23rd Psalm
the last forty days have been rain
the sun is a prodigal one that seems bent upon
giving itself a bad name
and leaving us deep in the lurch as we walked down the lane
it’s a long time oh such a long time
and I hope for your sake I’ve changed
and I hope for my sake you managed to remain the same
is it raining for you raining for you now
like it’s raining for me raining for me now
you tied your old bike to a tree
came in from the weather though not yet together
I felt your hand light on my sleeve
as light as a bird that might offer a sinner reprieve
we don’t know too much I know we don’t know too much
but love rains mysteriously
and behind every cloud is a purpose only now we can see
that it’s raining for us raining for us now
raining for us raining for us now
raining for us raining for us now
raining for us raining for us now

at night we crossed the border following a Black robe
to the edge of the reservation—to Cataldo Mission
where the saints and all the martyrs look down on dying converts
what makes the water holy she says is that that it’s the closest thing to rain
I stole a mule from Anthony—I helped Anne up upon it
and we rode to Coeur d’Alene—through Harrison and Wallace
they were blasting out the tunnels—making way for the light of learning
when Jesus comes a’calling she said he’s coming round the mountain on a train
it’s my home—last night I dreamt that I grew wings
I found a place where they could hear me when I sing
we floated on to Hanford on a lumber boat up river
past the fisheries and the milltowns like a stretch of future graveyards
she was driven to distraction—said I wonder what will happen
when they find out they’re mistaken and the land is too changed to ever change
we waded through the marketplace—someone’s ship had come in
there was silver and begonias—dynamite and cattle
there were hearts as big as apples and apples in the shape of Mary’s heart
I said inside this gilded cage a songbird always looks so plain
it’s my home—last night I dreamt that I grew wings
I found a place where they could hear me when I sing.
and so they came with cameras—breaking through the morning mist
press and businessmen—tycoons—Episcopal philanthropists
lost in their appraisal of the body of a woman
but all we saw were lowlands—clouds clung to mountains without strings
and at last we saw some people huddled up against
the rain that was descending like railroad spikes and hammers
they were headed for the border—walking and then running
then they were gone into the fog but Anne said underneath their jackets she saw wings

California
going out to California
gonna let the water warm my clothes
I’m alone but I’m not lonely
gonna trade the weather for the Western coast
no don’t cry
I’ll be back and I’ll
bring the sun to shine
in your eyes
on your shoulders
Sunset Boulevard will strip for money
Mulholland is a long drag for the lonely hearts
down along the Imperial Valley
runs a river of homelessness and cinema stars
don’t say
the trip’s been done
a hundred thousand times
cause this one
is mine
so I will work at what work finds me
and I will take what comfort I can get
I’ll be back when I’m good and ready
California doesn’t seem to think I’m ready yet
no don’t cry
I’ll be back and I’ll
bring the sun to shine
in your eyes
on your shoulders