BOUND TO BE MOUNTAINS

A slice of cake, a ring around your finger 
Maybe we could dance right down the aisle 
We filled our summer with commitments  
So I dreamed about ours for a while 
Baby, there are bound to be some mountains 
Bound to be some boulders in the road 
Sometimes the sunshine dresses up in clouds of dust 
But I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 
I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 

Sometimes I wish you had missed being a witness 
To their parents picking pews in the back row 
Letters from their loved ones who denied their kiss 
Just remember there were also tears of joy 

Baby, there are bound to be some mountains 
Bound to be some boulders in the road 
Sometimes the sunshine dresses up in clouds of dust 
But I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 

A slice of cake, a ring around your finger 
Maybe we could dance right down the aisle 
We filled our summer with commitments  
So I dreamed about ours for a while 
Baby, there are bound to be some mountains 
Bound to be some boulders in the road 
Sometimes the sunshine dresses up in clouds of dust 
But I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 
I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 

Sometimes I wish you had missed being a witness 
To their parents picking pews in the back row 
Letters from their loved ones who denied their kiss 
Just remember there were also tears of joy

I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 

Take me to the land of wood and water  
Take me to the town where you were born 
Take me to the place where we can trace your first steps 
Then leave some of our sadness on the shore 

Baby, there are bound to be some mountains 
Bound to be some boulders in the road 
Sometimes the sunshine dresses up in clouds of dust 
But I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us 
I don’t love you only when love is surrounding us

Hey Garrett 

What did you do with the poem I gave to you 
Did you tear it  
Or keep it forever like I always seem to do 
Like the notes that we left and the tickets stubs 
Dried flowers wrapped up in a bow 
Do you ever think of the two of us 
Or did you just let it go 
Hey Garrett 
I still have the birthday perfume
 that I got from your mom 
I still wear it 
On special occasions 
Like cleaning the attic alone 
Where I still have the blanket and all of the cards 
The pinecone we found in the snow 
Do you ever think of the two of us 
Or did you just let it go 
Remember when people were sky diving  

Out of the air, at the fair
Under a parachute, we saw a woman  
And we loved her hair 
Hey Garrett 
Love isn’t something you freeze in a popsicle tray Once you share it 
It stays in the weather  
If you let it melt away 
La, la, la, la, la, la . . . 

Decisions and Desires

Balanced on the counter ledge 
We laugh without a care
You do the dishes while I watch I see a photo by the stairs 
Is that your sweetheart 
We paint our lives with such precision
 Then live inside our painted prisons 
High fences, high stakes, low fires 
Decisions and desires 
My feet are high above the floor 
You’re leaning just out of my reach  
My life feels far away next door 
Why can’t I get enough and leave 
You say we shouldn’t feed this 
We paint our lives with such precision 
Then live inside our painted prisons 
High fences, high stakes, low fires 
Decisions and desires 

Some days are all about escape 
When there’s no one else around 
We’re like two pebbles on a lake
 
Quickly skipping out of bounds
 
By sunset you are holding me 
Closer than I’ve ever known 
Can I find the bold in me 
To leave this fragile love alone 
Or ask for what I need here 

We paint our lives with such precision 
Then live inside our painted prisons 
High fences, high stakes, low fires 
Decisions and desires 

I Have, I will, i do

You want to know if I knew when we had just begun 
You want to know if I’ll hold you  
As my beloved and my only one 
You want to know if I smile when I think of all the mornings
I’ll get to wake up next to you 
I have, I will, I do 
You want to know if I’ve cried over how much I care 
You want to know if I’ll carry this laughter to the rocking chair 
You want to know if I dream in the bitterness of winter
Of dancing by the fire with you 
I have, I will, I do 

And I don’t imagine our days will arrive 
Drenched in pure sunshine 
But the darkest days that come along,

 We’ll bathe in candlelight 

You want to know if I can bend like a daffodil 
You want to know if I will hold you steady,  
Without holding you still 
You want to know if I see this love as a promise
And every day a chance to renew 

I have, I will, I do 
I have, I will, I do 

Broke Down House

You showed up at the picnic 
With a steel guitar and a thumb pick 
I was turning a sweet sixteen 
A little bit shy and a little bit green 
We grew up in the same patch 
In a pile of hay, we were a good match 
We got hitched and found some land 
The sweetest dream, it all began 
At a broke down house with a crooked porch 
We’ve got a rusty swing, a tiki torch 
A shady tree, a barbeque, a freeway breeze and a valley view 
Our family is framed on the wall 
We’ve got a broke down house but our hearts aren’t broke at all 
You grew a garden out of the gravel 
While I’ve been writing my novel 
Hammock love in the afternoon

With a crooked porch 
We’ve got a rusty swing, a tiki torch 
A shady tree, a barbeque, a freeway breeze
And a valley view 
A leaky sink, a creaky stair 
A cracked up window with a curtain tear 
The roof’s got rot, the gutter’s shot 
The fridge ain’t cold and the stove ain’t hot 
A couple of chairs, a couple guitars 
A couple stray cats who think they’re ours 
Our family is framed on the wall 
Sometimes the wind goes whistling right down the hall 
We’ve got a broke-down house but  
Our hearts aren’t broke at all 
We’ve got a broke-down house but  
Our hearts aren’t broke at all 

 There’s a rockabye baby due in June
At our broke down house with a crooked porch 
We’ve got a rusty swing, a tiki torch 
A shady tree, a barbeque  
A freeway breeze and a valley view 
A couple a chairs, a couple guitars 
A couple stray cats who think they’re ours 
Our family is framed on the wall 
We’ve got a broke down house but our hearts aren’t broke at all 
Everybody said we’d move 
When that agent offered payment 
For this piece of land 
With our hopscotch paint on the pavement 
But we made our statement 
We’ve got a broke down house

Travel with you

I’m going down to the end of the world 
Will you come with me 
To where the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean 
Spill into the Arabian Sea 

I want to travel with you like the monsoon skies 
Where the setting sun meets the moon on the rise 
Travel with me, golden and blue 
Like the rays at daybreak do 

I’m done with following familiar directions 
Trying to get where I’m supposed to get 
With you I spin like a globe and an arrow 
Pointing to all the places I have not been yet 

I want to travel with you like the monsoon skies 
Where the setting sun meets the moon on the rise 

Travel with me, golden and blue Like the rays at daybreak do 

Plantation hills filled with spices and teas 
Temples and tombs made by the Portuguese 
Backwater ferries that are pining for the seas 

I want to travel with you like the monsoon skies 
Where the setting sun meets the moon on the rise 
Travel with me, golden and blue 
Like the rays at daybreak do 

BETTER

I waved to you when I went to work this morning 
Then I wandered to the kitchen to warm my water on the stove 
But I caught a glimpse of coffee by the kettle in the corner 
Like those captive drops of caffeinated, concentrated joy 

I just want to make you feel better 
Better than the day you told me 
You were getting by 
Better than the screaming kettle stuck on the fire 
Better than I’ve seen you in a while 

I have often coughed and cried and called you 
On days when I am dreaming that 
My dream is going to drown 
You laugh and lift my head and let me follow you

Back into the brightness and 
The beauty of the sun 

So I just want to make you feel better 
Better than the day you told me 
You were getting by 

WARTIME GIG

I had never before been called a pipsqueak 
‘Til a woman took me in 
For a six-month stay in the country 
While my mother held a wartime gig 
I left my solitaire game in Manhattan 
In the apartment where we’d always lived 
Took a bag-lunch trip on a Greyhound 
While my mother held a wartime gig 

I was the only Jew at the church on Sunday 
Singing from the second pew 
I was sent from a single-mother family 
That is all the congregation knew 
I had never seen a one-room schoolhouse 
Never quarreled with a country kid 
I was scolded and told that silence is golden 
While my mother held a wartime gig 

And the woman in charge was Margaret 
We said “Please pass the peas” 

Margaret taught me how to use a fork and knife 
Her daughters taught me how to weave 
We wove into a family 
And I felt like a regular kid 
During a six-month stay in the country 
While my mother held a wartime gig 

I walked to town and heard the news 
That America had dropped the bomb 
Since the war was over
I was sent from the woman 
I had started to call my mom 

I was the only Jew at the church that Sunday 
Singing from the second pew 
I was sent from a single-mother family 
That is all the congregation knew 
I returned to my single-mother family 
That is all the congregation knew 

NEIGHBORHOOD BAR

Forgetting all about the house and the yard Dancing in the garden of our neighborhood bar 
We got the house, we never got the roses Between the bunk-beds and the runny noses The time you give a child 
Seems more important than a Friday night 
For years we stayed so silent, as if we didn’t care And we became just like two strangers passing on the stairs 
Still I cannot remember  

Yhy we’re meeting here tonight 
Let’s forget the paperwork and just call it a fight 
First we had an open house,  
 then we let our house close 
In real estate and love affairs that’s how it goes Differences appear 
The air cannot be cleared

Will you push the screen-door open  
 and lead me out of here 
So we’re dancing in the garden  
 of our neighborhood bar 
Moving in circles just to stay where we are Forgetting all about the house and the yard Dancing in the garden of our neighborhood bar 

LOVE HER A LOT

She believes in something, something she was taught I just wanted to love her a lot 
But she tangled me in reasons that we didn’t need Justifying how it wasn’t how it seemed 
I said this isn’t binding, it’s your freedom that you’ve got I just wanted to love you a lot 
I can make a penny whistle say her name 
Send it like a message through this window frame I’m not saying I’m regretful, I’m not saying that I’m not I just wanted to love her a lot 

The first day of school I saw you walking I brushed your shoulder in the hall By mid-October we were talking  
About our first winter ball 
Embrace this present  
Let the future hold the past 
Take this first 

Make it last 
The first time I gave my heart completely The first time I introduced my dad The first time I watched you sleeping sweetly I couldn’t get enough of that 

MaKE IT LAST

The first day of school I saw you walking  
I brushed your shoulder in the hall  
By mid-October we were talking  
About our first winter ball 

Embrace this present  
Let the future hold the past 
Take this first 
Make it last 

The first time I gave my heart completely  
The first time I introduced my dad  
The first time I watched you sleeping sweetly  
I couldn’t get enough of that 

Embrace this present  
Let the future hold the past 
Take this first 

Make it last

The first time you soothe a baby crying
The first time your baby makes you cry
The first time you stop yourself from lying
About the pain of letting your baby fly

Embrace this present  
Let the future hold the past 
Take this first 
Make it last