RAIN

Rain is falling down 
I could be 13 years old right now 
Sitting by the window with the radio on 
My very best friend is on the phone with a cold 
She could be 13 years old right now 
Sitting by the window in the rain
Except she's only home for the holidays 
Back to Mexico where she lives these days 
And I've been working too, I say 
I'm teaching school where we used to go 
Not so long ago in the rain

Isabel, do you have to go 
Can you stay with me on the phone?
What if I think of something else 
You need to know 
Before tomorrow's test in history 
Because it's too late for the phone to ring 

My folks are asleep and yours are too
Even in the rain even in the rain

You say it's funny now how we worried then 
About basketball and grades and friends 
At every age you're so serious about changes 
Are they more or less trivial?

Still sitting by the window in the rain 
Still sitting by the window with the radio on 
Still sitting by the window

RITUAL

I look around 
At the trees and these wineries
And wonder what brought us here
Your desire for taste
Or my need to feed you 
From a plant I cannot grow

When we were driving 
Along the side
You said you understand why
This kind of work satisfies
When every single vine
Has got its arms stretched wide
You see the power of a pattern
And a ritual like this

Your controls fall over me
And I can’t tell where you end and I begin
Buckled branches are waiting for a grape

Like this

We find a side road 
And a place for a walk
One someone else’s property 
We trespass and talk
Until we run out of things to say
And so I mention that the roads here
Are very well-paved
And that it’s quiet here
Even for a holiday
And while I’m drinking in all this malaise
I see our pattern

To appear at the end of a stem
And every vine is combed
And groomed to fit in with the rest
Guidelines of barbed wire
They twist around each wooden breast

When we were driving 
Along the side
You said you understand why
This kind of work satisfies
When every single vine
Has got its arms stretched wide
You see the power of a pattern
And a ritual like this

You say back home
Farm houses don’t look like this
In rows of thousands
Old houses can’t spread their wings

DANCE ISADORA

Golden gate, watch the waves as they rise and fall
With the sand at her feet every woman girl here can recall
The inaugural dance happened here on this very shore
Isadora, the wind remembers your story
When you dance Isadora the wind remembers your story
 
Then Valentine Baby came filling this dance with her life
She stood on the same shore, the same rays of sun that gave
Isadora her light
So she could preserve the same gesture, the same choreography
To unwind the feet that were bound up throughout all our history
Of the dance
She remembered the dance

If you gather around in a circle and lift up your hands
See the only thing in between us now is the dance
You’ll say silken scarves are the wings that I’ve found
And my roots grow in the buttercups here on the ground
You’ll remember the dance
 
Golden gate watch the waves as they rise and fall
With the sand at her feet every woman girl here can recall
The inaugural dance happened here on this very shore
Isadora, the wind remembers your story
When you dance Isadora the wind remembers your story
I remember the dance, I remember the dance
I remember your dance

Then the music from Schubert and Brahms came upon the dance floor
And the dance gave to her what the song gave the troubadour
Mignon did the dance like the one on this very shore
Isadora, the wind remembers your story
When you dance Isadora the wind remembers your story
 
So learning to dance began just when I learned how to run
Keep your eyes to the sky and raise both your arms above
Praising the sun
When I was three all I thought about was how to 

Leap above that red scarf
Now I realize that my sister and I are the keepers 
Off that same love of the dance
We remember the dance

WHITE COLLAR CRIME

Walking into the factory
There’s a clock to punch
Close quarters, identical conditions
The boss get nervous when we
Talk to each other much

The sun goes down on 10,000 [airs of shoes
Each one soaking in profit
But the boss doesn’t care
To spread the news
All the money goes back to his pocket

The corporate wage is fine
If you’re on the inside
Far from assembly lines
White collar crime
Is it another kind?

Are we risking too much?
We try to organize some solidarity
But the boss doesn’t like it 
When we talk to each other much

Corporate wage is fine
If you’re on the inside
Far from the picket line
White collar crime
It’s just another kind

Brand name products will multiply
Just like the chain stores where we buy
The rows of rows of things on every side
We recognize the excess
We’re trying to provide

If we listen to the social Darwinists
Only the fit, only the rich will survive
How can we tell our great, great grandchildren
The rest died off in 1999

Corporate wage is fine
If you’re on the inside
Far from assembly lines
White collar crime
It’s just another kind

Walking out on the factory

SWEETLY

You ask me why I call you sweetly 
I know of no other way 
You ask me why I call you sweetly 
Well until I think of another name 
I'll call you sweetly, I’ll call you sweetly

I stood beside you at the river San Juan 
I listened to you explain 
When the water changes level how you measure 
All the rain
And when you were just a boy 
Out on the dry ocean floor 
You had a ship here to anchor July 
And every August sank your treasured goodbye 

You ask me why I call you sweetly 
I know of no other way 

You ask me why I call you sweetly 
I know of no other way 
You ask me why I call you sweetly 
Well until I think of another name 
I’ll call you sweetly
I’ll call you sweetly
I’ll call you sweetly 
‘Til the sun bleaches the moon again

You ask me why I call you sweetly 
Well until I think of another name 
I'll call you sweetly 

In the garden of a ruin 
And in the lava I'm going to do it again 
I'll call you sweetly ‘til the sun bleaches the moon again

We chose the silver for your mother 
You chose the silver for me 
We had no choice but to be so endeared 
To the scenery 
The mountains here never end 
The rivers never begin 
You watch the tumbleweed 
We count the sheep dogs 
And to my Three Sisters I sing 

TACTILE

If you're voice wasn't so connected to your touch 
I could talk to you without missing so much 
I wrap my fingers around every word 
I lie perfectly still so your breath can be heard 

Your voice is touchable, tactile, corporeal 
But the way you make me feel is unreal 
Your voice is touchable, tactile, corporeal 
But the way you make me feel is unreal 

If you're voice wasn't so connected to your touch 
We could laugh out loud 
I wouldn't start to blush 
But I feel you move against my skin 

Your voice is touchable, tactile, corporeal 
But the way you make me feel is unreal 
Your voice is touchable, tactile, corporeal 
But the way you make me feel is unreal 

How do you feel?

I'm tracing your smile with the sides of my grin

Your voice is touchable, tactile, corporeal 
But the way you make me feel is unreal 
Your voice is touchable, tactile, corporeal 
But the way you make me feel is unreal 

I can hear you but I know that you're far away 
I need you here I can't wait for another day 

If you're voice wasn't so connected to your touch 
You could speak your mind 
Wouldn't I still feel the clutch 
Of your hand in my hand as we combine 
The hour by your time with hour by mine

SCHOOLYARD

Can't you see my mailbox standing tall 
I got a new pair of skates on the sidewalk 
Taking me all around my yard 
I've got curtains on the window paint on the wall 
And a picture of my daddy when he was small

From the schoolyard 
I can see my house over there 
Cross the street and climb a stair 
It's the best-looking house of anywhere 

And so I open up my mailbox, just because 
I'm tall enough to reach it 
I'm not even on my toes 
And then I slip into my skates 
And start to roll 

And when they drive away 
They drive way too fast 
To get away from all their piles of trash 

From the schoolyard 
I watch my house all day 
Clutch the cyclone fence and pray 
Hoping that nobody stops by today

In the schoolyard we have no time to play 
While our pretty little homefronts lie at Bay 
We gotta watch for the dump trucks 
On their getaway 
On their getaway from the schoolyard 
On their getaway from the schoolyard 
I tell them get away 
From the schoolyard

I got a little patch of lawn to catch me 
When I fall 
From the schoolyard 
I can see my house over there 
Cross the street and climb a stair 
It's the best looking house of anywhere

Why do they beat on my mailbox 
When no one's home 
Why do they leave their dirty old tires 
On my little patch of lawn 
They sent a brick through my window 
Hit the wall 
Knocking down the picture of my daddy 
When he was small

Now there's a man taking flowers 
From outside our church 
And there's a couple with a dump truck 
Leaving garbage in our ditch 

INEVITABLY

I have spent my time driving with you 
By the seaside, by a dangerous blue 
This scenic highway still wrecks my head 
We should have gone ahead 
Taking the road that we knew 
There will always be one night of serenity 
Between a couple of restless days 

You are the one I cannot admit 
Into my bedside into my turbulent head 
But your green grass blanket keeps me near 
How did you bring me here
How did you make me laugh 
I guess there will always be one night of serenity 
Between a couple of restless days 

We talked in the canyon, ambiguously
You said you once knew a woman

 A little like me
I can respect your privacy
But if she if I don't ask the obvious question 
I'll seem naive
Inevitably

I have spent my time calling to you 
From the road side 
Of the road that we knew 
Your green light distance draws me near 
And then you disappear 
Into a song that we knew

ANOTHER NAME

A woman writer came to the kitchen where I work
So small in her bundle of hat and coat
And I’m mixing water 
With the words that she wrote
Steam in the kitchen
Surrounds us both

I was waiting all this time
Just to see her in the morning
I was stirring The water 
And keeping the flame alive
Washing my mop new line and my brush for her Fame 
And then she came
I had my brush with 
Another hello and another new name
Folk singer on tour
I have wanted to know
Midwestern boy

Springtime
Still brings you

To the place where I live
Like drops of rain
Up on my chimney tin
Bedtime and I'm here
Looking at your face
Long night 
And I will spend it lying here awake

I was waiting all this time 
Just to see you in the morning 
I was treading water 
And keeping the flame alive
Waiting for the sun to rise 
And when it came
I had my brush with another goodbye 
And another new day 

Always singing solo new line and he came to play
At the stage where I work
Dark glasses, tank top,
And a working shirt

I was waiting all this time 
Just to see him in the evening
I was watching the doorway 
And checking through window pane
Paper and pen in hand to rush his fame
And then he came
I had my brush with new line another hello and another new name

Maybe we're all the same
I'll do I heard you got
Your name in the paper today 
I guess I had another brush 
Another brush...with