TWO HANDS (2018)

Two Hands

Nobody believes the scientist

Who's got bad news to tell

But everybody believes the salesman

Who's got something good to sell

Nobody grieves for the ocean

But for the city in the sea

Lord I hear a sadness

After the laughter leaves

Singing what have you done

You son of a gun

You can't defend

The live you spend

The end is the beginning

The beginning the end

The bones of this young country

Got a long ways to mend

Through moments of hopelessness

As the road bends

You've got one hand to hold on

The other one to lend

Nobody needs to shoot the breeze

Just checking their phones instead

Reading about World War Three

As we're laying in bed

'Cause when it feels like facts attack

All the things that you thought you knew

I guess it's easier to believe

The things they'll promise you

Singing what have you done

You son of a gun

You can't defend

The live you spend

The end is the beginning

The beginning the end

The bones of this young country

Got a long ways to mend

In every heart there burns a flame

For the love of glory and the dread of shame

But oh how happy we would be

If we understood that

There is no safety but in doing good

You've got one hand to hold on

The other one to lend

Weight Of The Question

I know what love is for

I can't tell you bout it now

But I feel it more every day

How strange to revel in this feeling as

The devil's kicking down the door

'Cause love alone

Can't bear the weight of the question

I live for the call

My friends all sing each other's songs

And try to feel it all every day

We're digging up the bones

Of feelings of old

Digging down to the core

Because love alone

Can't bear the weight of the question

When you get the notion

That the ocean can't hold

All the love in your heart well it's true

'Cause they're sweeping up the ocean bottom

Like the leaves in the autumn

And it ain't to make room for the love

Of me and you

I give thought to the loom

Which to my woven soul is home

But this body's on

The only home I've known

How strange to revel in a heaven never known

As we're throwing what we've got out the door

'Cause love alone

Can't bear the weight of the question

Water When You Wake

Like a fortune forgot to be told

Like the seasons changing breaking the stones

Like a shotgun pointed at the kitchen door

Everyone's just blaming their neighbors

For the back door open and the dog got loose

Chewed straight through the hangman's noose

He could hear the hammer just knocking up the new house

Cause somebody's gonna live alone like everybody else

Even lightning bugs have a way to pray

The doors are open for the children on a sunny day

The map is backwards and the rooster crows any time

The day is in the hands of a man's last dime

What moves what moves the motion, we don't

What news do you bring from the mountain

Is this the world we dreamed?

Time will tell it through the songs of birds

Like leaves rattle and roots spread words

Pulling down the limbs trying to feed the ground

Nobody's picking except to be the new sound

It's an eclipse that's lasted too long

A flower falling over 'cause it grew too tall

And the stem cracked the grass felt the rainless break

Grown so used to water when you wake

And redefine the finer things in life

Who sews the clothes and who makes the knives

Like lungs breathing air they can't take

Grown so used to water when you wake

What moves what moves the motion, we don't

What news do you bring from the mountain

Is this the world we dreamed?

Trouble Out Of My Field

I'll tell you a story

I'll tell it true

It ain't so old

And it ain't so new

The priest told the sheriff

Who told it to the judge

The farmer she just will not budge

Saying get your trouble out of my field

Take your shovels and your big iron wheels

Get your trouble out of my field

The judge held his gavel

Like a phallus to be sure

He brought it down and now

The town's at war

The ones who sold

They needed the dough

And the ones who didn't

Had nowhere to go

Saying get your trouble out of my field

Take your shovels and your big iron wheels

Get your trouble out of my field

And at the top, like it or not

They're sailing in a brand new yacht

With the money they made

From a special kind of trade

Where they take whatever they want

And so my friends

The problem is plain

The politicians and the cops

And the banks are the same

It's like one big company store

If we want our bread

We gotta kick in the door

And say get your trouble out of my field

Take your shovels and your big iron wheels

Get your trouble out of my field

Room For More

Hold on said the mouse to the cat

Got a little more living to do

It's true I've been living well

Stealing cheese getting fat

I suppose I just forgot about you

When you don't see danger at your door

You make room for more

Don't shoot said the rich man to the thief

Take what you want he said I'm only taking what I need

And though he tried he never found out what was stolen

Left him feeling cold let him thinking low

When you don't see danger at your door

You make room for more

Maybe there's a moment before dying when

You give it up, you give in

Look out said the river to the city

As it flows through the streets

Some old crazy day everybody's gonna meet

Rich man and the mouse,

The cat and the thief

Singing when you don't see danger at your door

You make room for more

Three Days Of Rain

The pace of the town

Like the face of the clown

With his paint running down

From three days of rain

The path paved in the grove

The signs say this way to ramble and rove

But you can still buy dry clothes

If there's three days of rain

Will you let us in

Depends on where you've been

Will you let us in

Depends on the color of your skin

Because three days of rain

Will bathe some while miles down the road

The poor side of town will drown

The pace of the change

The pipeline laid in a day

Displacing the embrace

Of any real kind of change

And all the while the falling rain is seen

As something that will go out of style

With a smile to explain

Three days of rain

Will you let us go

Depends on the price of the soul

Will you admit what you owe

But that was all so long ago

Because three days of rain

Will bathe some while miles down the road

The poor side of town will drown

Gentrification Rag

The coffee's better

But you don't know your neighbor

This old brew's got a mighty good flavor

Hey bartender won't you fill my cup

They're gonna kick out the riff-raff

And build it up

Long gone the songs and the jokes

This old town's outgrown its folks

They never can tell when enough is enough

They're gonna kick out the riff-raff

And build it up

The streets are cleaner

But the people are meaner

Trying to make the fake grass look greener

The landlord smiles and winks at the cop

They're gonna kick out the riff-raff

And build it up

Long gone the songs and the jokes

This old town's outgrown its folks

They never can tell when enough is enough

They're gonna kick out the riff-raff

And build it up

The hotels are bigger

But the homeless shiver

The cop's finger lives

Right on that trigger

They figured out a way

To make it to the top

They're gonna kick out the riff-raff

And build it up

Long gone the songs and the jokes

This old town's outgrown its folks

They never can tell when enough is enough

They're gonna kick out the riff-raff

And build it up