October

Orange is the color of the light
It's crawling up the walls of this adobe
Charlie Brown is in the pumpkin patch tonight
It must be October 
That means a year of us apart
A year of moving on and getting over 
So I been cleaning out my heart just like a tavern
And slowly going sober

The cottonwoods are turning from green to brown
But on the way they just get golder 
Like in between the time you blow and when the flame goes out 
There is heat before it's colder
These days of October
September daylight lasts so long, 

Baby, it was good

I think about it all the time
It's what I read about the human heart 
It can never break in the same place twice once it scars 
I've come to see you one more time
To show you my face now that I'm bolder
To hold you in place once before
The healing year is over, and I know that 

The cottonwoods are turning from green to brown
But to me they just look golder
Like in between the time you blow and when the flame goes out 
There is heat before it's colder
These days of October

We turn back our clocks and it begins 
For the love of dawn,
Dusk gives in 
I could have asked you to stay 
But I never liked the game of red rover 
It was me against the mountain clover
And sage

The cottonwoods are turning from green to brown
But on the way they just get golder
Like in between the time you blow and when the flame goes out 
There is heat before it's colder
These days of October

I don't want to hold on longer than I should
I just want to tell you, that the time I held you 

HOLDING THE SPACE

Holding the space like a meditation
Day by day so I can change the way
I depend on you
Taking the space like a medication
Every day so I can change the way a 
I depend on you

Remember one beach blanket 
Was big enough for two
Beside the sea
The way we wrapped ourselves up
This and fell down on us
We laughed and I believed
In the meantime

Holding the space like a meditation
Day by day so I can change the way
I depend on you
Taking the space like a medication

I depend on you
Taking the space like a medication
Every day so I can change the way 
I depend on you

New yard sale treasure
Is a desk to write on
Chipped paint and so I roll my sleeves
Sand paper has the grit I rely on
To set the wood grain free
In the meantime

Writing a page space like a dedication
Every day
So I can change the way
I depend on you
Holding the space like a meditation
Every day so I can change the way 
I depend on you

Every day so I can change the way 
I depend on you

And now the sandy blanket is just like anger
Each hold one edge and let the rest billow and blow 
Empty blanket is just like sorrow
It’s mine to fold

So you take the time you need
To understand yourself
To romance yourself, alone
I’ll take the time to learn
To contain myself
I will train myself to know
In the meantime
Holding the space like a meditation
Day by day so I can change the way

RISE AND FALL

Barreling toward Austin
I brush your hair from the side
As we laugh ourselves across
Another state line

And through it all
I see you rise and fall

One tragic romantic
You've got the river in your eyes
Five o’clock dash to the post office
To send your Valentine

And through it all line 
I can see the way you 
Rise and fall

You indulge a new lover 
And I see you bubble over with pride

Through the way you rise
Through it all
Through the way you rise
You rise and fall, you rise and fall
You rise and fall

Spend your money on a river raft
But the riverbed is dry

And through it all
I c an see the way you 
Rise and fall

You're lost or you're lusting
You’re boom or you’re bust
High card on the table
But you always bet
A little too much

Traveling beyond Austin
I see new tangles in your head
I don’t want to tame you
I just want to be your friend

Through it all

NOTHING LIKE A HEARTBEAT

Your heart is beating again
And it's going pretty fast
The tickle of a speedy heartbeat
Can wake a lazy laugh
Your heart is beating again
I can see it in your happy eyes
Ain't nothing like a heartbeat
To make you feel alive 

When I last caught up with you
You were looking kind of sad
You don't like to see your friends like that
But I'm sure everybody has

Your heart is beating again
And it's going pretty fast
The tickle of a speedy heartbeat
Can wake a lazy laugh
Your heart is beating again

I can see it in your happy eyes
Ain't nothing like a heartbeat
To make you feel alive 

Joyful, enchanted and content
Life started clapping when you met
Someone who makes you wake up 
Singing in your head

Trying to save everyone
But not saving enough for you
Now someone’s seeing who you are 
And not just what you do

Your heart is beating again
And it's going pretty fast
The tickle of a speedy heartbeat
Can wake a lazy laugh
Your heart is beating again

I can see it in your happy eyes
Ain't nothing like a heartbeat
To make you feel alive 

EXCHANGE RATE

In a Stockholm Cafe
I calculated the exchange rate
Treated myself to a coffee
Even though I know the dollar is weak
How does that translate into
Tradiding a one for a two
And the joy of being this lost
For the pain of finding you

Because I can't tell you no
I can't tell you yes
I cannot tell you why 
Or anything else
I can't tell you
Until I figure out myself

By the time your train left
I was giving directions
To another tourist

While I'm across this border
It almost feels free
Once I was a viking
When I was three and a half
Stuck to my velcro Shield
Plastic horns upon my head
Now I've seen the midnight sun
Turning armor to wings
How do the Swedish say
Foreshadowing

Because I can't tell you no
I can't tell you yes
I cannot tell you why 
Or anything else
I can't tell you
Until I figure it out myself

In a Stockholm cafe

We were speaking Japanese
In the language that you speak

When you don't speak a word
I was using the same 
Two hands that you heard
When I said that 

I can't tell you no
I can't tell you yes
I cannot tell you why 
Or anything else
I can't tell you
Until I figure out myself

I think and sink my quarters
In the corner laundry
They say it's harder water
But they take any currency

I calculated the exchange rate
I see the dollar’s falling
Deeper each week
How does that translate into
Trading a one for a two
And the joy of being this lost
For the pain for finding you

PLAYING THE CELLO

New Year's Eve wrapped in our tartan wool
You woke me up to watch the apple fall
Out in the backyard playing tetherball
We had broken arms together

We grew up with a picture of Pablo Casals
High above the piano where he could see it all
Now we're pulling back and forth 
On our childhood joy and our childhood woe
Like a long bow playing the cello

Just like the high string
I was wound and taught
High strung and hiding so I squeaked a

That's what we'll tie us together

We grew up with a picture of Pablo Casals
High above the piano where he could see it all
Now we're pulling back and forth 
On our childhood joy and our childhood woe
Like a long bow playing the cello
Playing the cello, playing the cello
Playing the cello, playing the cello

lot
Thinking so much about what you thought
But I still could not
Get it together

We grew up with a picture of Pablo Casals
High above the piano where he could see it all
Now we're pulling back and forth 
On our childhood joy and our childhood woe
Like a long bow playing the cello
Playing the cello

You say your little baby might be like me
Or more like a delicate flower maybe
If she wants to be just like (you) Amy

NEWSSTAND

Well will I still be drawn to you 
And tug on your mittened hand
When we have our rendezvous
At the newsstand

Will I still have butterflies
While I wait for you to show 
Will it be inappropriate
If I kiss you hello

Are we going to be alone
Are you bringing new your new friend 
To be our chaperone at the newsstand
At the newsstand

Yesterday's headlines have blown away
Those stories and characters are so out of date
But where do the feelings land 
When old love flies away 

Remember when I first fell for you
Like the toss on a paper route
But I’ve got no plan, don't know what to do 
At the newsstand 

Will we land at our old dinner Place
Will you order drinks for two
Will our waiter clear our plates
Before we are through

Will I still be drawn to you 
Will you still be over me
When we have our rendezvous 
At the newsstand, at the newsstand

I want to hold your hand

WILDFLOWERS

It's lucky that were falling in love together
Each with our own lover
You with yours and me with mine
Not lucky like a four-leaf clover
But lucky like the fortune of knowing it's over 
And still giving each other so much time 

Because this love is like meeting again and again
Wildflowers grow and wildflowers bend 
And I know we must die
But tenderness and desire
Keep us here in the warmth of the sun

You said we'll keep finding each other
One way or another
That we could both come back as wildflowers
And I don't really believe in that stuff
But you seem convinced

So let's just go with that for now
And it's true

This love is like meeting again and again
Wildflowers grow and wildflowers bend 
And I know we must die
But tenderness and desire
Keep us here in the warmth of the sun

With every sweet end so too we begin
You are here in the warmth of a friend

THREE IS A MAGIC NUMBER

Three is a magic number
Yes it is, it's a magic number
Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number
The past and the present and the future
Faith and hope and charity
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number
 
It takes three legs to make a tripod or to make a table stand
It takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle
And every triangle has three corners
Every triangle has three sides
 
No more, no less, you don't have to guess
When it's three, you can see
It’s a magic number
 

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A man and a woman had a little baby
Yes, they did
They had three in the family
And that’s a magic number

A man and a woman had a little baby
Yes, they did
They had three in the family
And that's a magic number
 
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3-6-9-12-15-18- 21-24-27-30
 
Three times ten is (thirty)
Three times nine is (twenty-seven)
Three times eight is (twenty-four)
Three times seven is (twenty-one)
Three times six is eighteen
Three times five is fifteen
Three times four is twelve
And three times three is nine
Three times two is six
And three times one is three, of course
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