scraps of lyrics not doing much good in a box in the closet

Paul Sullivan
paulebm at gmail.com

cleaved asunder,
besieged and plundered
I linger on the ground.
Within my cell of solid rock,
I have no thought but Hell.
People pass and quickly yell,
“Boy, go on from there.”
To them, I’m adrift
in a forest mist
that a wave will swift dispell…

~~~~

In a world of ever changing planes
I'm bound to stumble and fall
Because I ain't got nothing, nothing left to give

….

You can babble on forever ‘bout
Life gettin better, but you know
That you never had it all so together before

~~~~

I don’t know why I have to go far -
a steel string guitar
and a library card
that’s all I’ll need
with a job that’s not hard.

longer scrap

I guess I'm fine 'bout the way things worked out
A couple of months more wouldn't have meant a great deal
Iowa's good & it's ever so real
My life could be spent watching wind on a field

But I needed the city around me again.
the tension that's tight & exquisite at once
nickel on an edge or a horn honked too long
10,000 faces each day break o'er mine.

I say babe
I say babe
I say whatever you want me to
I'm a truck w/o brakes coming down off a hill
a ball off a bat or a jab from the champ
All I can say is go out of my way

And then I falter again; I thought you friend
I may have left you in some kind of need
But, honestly, babe, I didn't leave on a whim
Weather & love can turn on a dime
and you were turning on me

This love is worth more than a single goodbye
You may never know me & I may never care
A distant response to a simple remark
How in the Hell can it tear us apart?
Could we cherish the glimpses & try til we die?

I say babe
I say babe
I say whatever you want me to
I'm a truck w/o brakes coming down off a hill
a ball off a bat or a jab from the champ
All I can say is go out of my way

Darling, come east and give me your hand
I live in a dump with the noise from the street
& the stench in the air
& my God, they're raising the rent.

inside a week you could find us a place
way up & high w/ the sun coming thru
them big old kind of windows
onto hard wooded floors
& people the size I can deal w/ of a morn.

I say babe
I say babe
I say whatever you want me to
I'm a truck w/o brakes coming down off a hill
a ball off a bat or a jab from the champ
All I can say is go out of my way

~~~~~~~~

I had a vision of beauty and lightness;
you had a notion of need now.

I don't condemn us for trying to find out
where our worlds might have met

'cept that you tore at the faith in myself
you left me cold and so fierce.

I don't believe in the love that we shared, yeah
I don't believe our love's gone now

You were a girl with a light on above you
Every cliche in the book

I was just a boy without claim or ID
An actor in a role ‘til the show closed

More than just once, I just wanted to see you
to hang by your side for a while.

but I'd nothing to say and I felt like I ought to
You made me feel like I should

I don't believe in the love that we shared, yeah
I don't believe our love's gone now

You teased me tender for wide-eyed devotion,
scorned my knees that would kneel

I was just arms for to harbor & hold you
A shoulder to shield & look past

I don’t want to boss you or gage you to best you
I’ll bide ‘til you see I am the man that you want

You never saw me when someone had crossed me
I don’t pay much mind to the means then

What’s gone awry is soon set to rights
And I simply wipe off their blood.

They say that your story is spread out before you
It’s the future that lurks on behind you.

You haven’t any dreams, got nothing for plans
How in this world do you live?