lyrics file for full force galesburg

new britain.

you've had it up to here with my west country talk you can hardly understand a word i say the shortest tree around here is a hundred feet tall it's gonna rain today i try and tell you secrets 'til my face turns blue i am not getting through to you all the way across the ocean they're gathering their strength again lining up along the country's length again this morning i know who you are this morning i know who you are on the river, the sun is bright gold and the things you try to say to me make my blood run cold but i hold you anyway, and we stare into the sun all day and you're about to leave again i've learned to read your movements and i'm learning how to read your mind the sun climbs up the sky for us above the mississippi and i feel you in my arms, but you're hardly even with me this morning i know who you are this morning i know who you are

snow owl.

you came down from heaven to the branch outside my window your feathers were the color of snow the dice were loaded against us ever seeing each other but one of us had nowhere else to go in your eyes were all the colors that the rainbow forgot your wingspan was three feet wide or better with your voice practicing notes from time's own beginning you took apart the alphabet letter by letter and here where it all stops for good where the cool waters run thought i saw a mouse kicking in your beak it was only a skeleton

west country dream.

sure as a surgeon you slipped your hand into the door jam blood coursing through the air tonight i know who i am and i know who you are or who you were just an hour ago static interference on the radio tonight i know what i know quick as lightning you brought your hand back inside and you shut the door behind you it's too hot out there tonight breath rising and falling expansion contraction why'd you tell me this? were you looking for my reaction?

masher.

most of the brine has got to boil away most of the air has got to choke you most of june i spent in jail again i don't mean jail exactly up in the pine tree a red squirrel looked down at me i am losing control of the language again i am losing control of the language again most of the things i used to hold on to most of the things i used to say to you most of the ways i knew around the local roads are disappearing daily high in the cottonwood you were looking down at me and you sure looked good your hair hanging down in the leaves your neck tilted back to make a rainbow i was losing control of the language again i am losing control of the language again

chinese house flowers.

the wax paper that i taped over the windows melted as quick as chocolate in the heat and it'll probably never come off now the windows look like frosted glass if you see them from the street and the dim light that filters through casts a new light on you it makes me get all misty because i remember something and then i see your shadow and i, i wanna follow you all the way down this time i want to see what it is you're going down for i, i want you more than i want anything i want you the way you were you were lying in the moonlight outside in the grass when i heard an animal voice somewhere in the dark and i saw a wing shadow pass and just then the gleam in your eye made my blood freeze there was something up above us rustling in the branches of the trees and i, i pressed up against you again i could hear your heartbeat steady, and hard, and pure i used to love you so much that i was sure it would kill me and i want you the way you were

ontario.

i know what my weaknesses are probably better than you do revolutionary chinese propaganda the color of blue i thought i knew what my weaknesses were anyway then the orange tree blossomed last saturday there was nothing in it but pain for me i know what can hurt me real bad and what can't hurt me anymore i know how to rise up with the sun and i am learning what sleep's good for i thought i'd figured out the world and its circular way then i saw the sun fall out of the sky the other day there was nothing in it but pain for me squirrels climbing trees in bloom soft yellow light spilling into the room my favorite records, my favorite books the people i loved, the people i almost loved light beckoning, wind whistling hey hey hey hey day breaking river rolling hey hey la la la la

down here.

on venus it rains sulfuric acid and the raindrops evaporate before they hit the ground [actual lyric] japanese red-crowned cranes by the water here [alternate lyric] japanese red clowns train by the water here trouble in town i feel like i'm gonna drown down here it's all coming down down here hurricane's in from australia tore up the neighborhood a telegram from lithuania and the news is not good and i don't speak the language down here it's all coming down down here yeah johnson johnson is my name brooklyn is my station heaven is my resting place and God is my salvation

twin human highway flares.

you turned to me and asked me if i'd always be your boy as we drove across the river into western illinois and on the railroad bridge, half a mile of solid steel wheels were spitting out sparks, scraping at the rails wind in your hair all right sunset spilling through the rear window your white t-shirt hugging your shoulders, beaded with sweat on the day that i become so forgetful that all of this melts away i will burn all the calanders that counted the years down to such a worthless day as we walked across the parking lot toward the motel office we were walking with a ?benediction? on us light was everywhere, the building stood against the sky like a monument to desperation 2 floors high a mile and a half from the river we went back to the car to get our overnight bags sunset spilling through your earrings, all over your body when we shut the motel door behind us, we knew we'd hit the motherlode on the day that i forget you, i hope my heart explodes

weekend in western Illinois.

the land's opening up like a blanket, and the dandelions spread themselves thickly out along the fields, which are, evidently, endless; and we are hotly in love with one another. we've got an unquenchable thirst in our throats. we are, for some reason, all the time, bleeding, and we are friendless. and we love these dogs that roll on the lawns here in galesburg -- because they seem to know something nobody else knows. it is written in the smiles on their faces, and it rings in their high young voices we are burning up all of our choices up here where the tall grass grows, up here in galesburg. the sky's opening up like an old wound, and the rain on our bodies is warm tonight and the ground underneath us shakes in the cracking thunder. we can taste fresh blood in our mouths again: there is no chance of getting enough of it, and we tally up all our possessions, we're going under. but we love these dogs that loll in the rain here in galesburg as the new season rocks them in its terrible arms. yeah they howl as though the world were ending, and we are watching the sky unwinding and some of our promises were binding up here where our dreams take form up here in galesburg.

US mill.

way up north down the road a little back in new england right here in the middle and all the way out west we had our ears to the ground all of our dreams resting in the same spot listening for the old sound it was ringing as clear as crystal it was shining as bright as gold grain gathering on the stone floor and we were spring-heeled and we were real cold all summer long deep into autumn in a high room and down here in the bottom down here in the bottom

song for the julian calendar.

sun twinkling on the river this evening i tasted chocolate on my tongue darkness climbing up the ladders to the sky rung by agonizing rung i heard firecrackers popping next door wondered what it is i bargained for when i lay quiet on the floor and you were knocking let me be your witness let me walk out on the edge the sun refused to shine on my backyard today darkness climbing up the house coming through the window ledge i saw the firecrackers bursting on the sidewalk i heard you talking your baby talk i saw the bright lights again and i felt the shock when you were knocking

maize stalk drinking blood.

lying in the hot sun today watching the clouds run away thought a little while about you the sky was a petrifying blue and while the geese flew past for no reason at all i let the sky fall this is an empty country, and i am the king and i should not be allowed to touch anything i picked myself up off the ground shook the grass from my hair and i walked around felt the warm sun in my eye strangers were passing by i shinnied up the black walnut tree let the hard blue sky fall right through me and i saw the sad young cardinals, trying to sing and i should not be allowed to touch anything

evening in stalingrad.

when you were nineteen i first laid eyes on you the small stream that ran through the center of town carried your name to me your hair was dark and your eyes were a frosty blue and then they put me in jail 'til you were twenty-three when you were twenty-four we took to drinking and dancing we boxed with our shadows like a couple of kangaroos and then we went down to chechnya for the weekend your eyes were glacial and your promises all rang true and things are happening here while we sleep i can feel it in my boiling brain and i am dreaming in blood-red color when i see the stolypin car riding through the light rain they'll have to carry me out on my back they'll have to tear me to pieces all right we are warm in our hidden room down here we've got stars in our eyes tonight

minnesota.

seeds came in the mail today from holland and the language on the package was wonderful and strange all sorts of flowers that grow up from the earth in goodly colors gloriously arranged i circled the house and i scattered them around let the water sink down into the soil stared a long time at the residue blood, milk and oil god the humidity is something our shirts are soaked clean through the house is throbbing and the heat keeps coming and i keep looking at you and then you're singing in dutch to me and i recognize the song it seems so old and so fragile and i haven't heard it in so long we may throw the windows open later but we are not as far west as you suppose we are hot wind coming off the water the sky gone crazy with stars while we stay here we imagine we're alive we see shadows on the walls there's something waiting for us in the hot, wet air sweat, water and alcohol just the old blood rising up through the wooden floor again just the old love asking for more again

original air-blue gown.

rain all burned away the horseflies are an irridescent green plums boiled down to pulp drying on a screen bright red air inside the house here i can barely draw breath dark blue shapes popped behind my eyelids i am not afraid of death and on the television black and white footage of the young Cassius clay my god, my god, my god he was something fists flashing as he comes toward the screen sailing headlong into nothing and disappearing reappearing out there in the clearing floating down the slight breeze that plays along the edge of the leaves it's you. it's you. it's you.

it's all here in brownsville.

meanwhile out where nothing starts out where the rail yard ends the sun up above is trying to kill himself we were watching the skies again why do we come down to brownsville year after year after year this was the question we never even posed ringing like a siren in our ears down on the mexican border in the unfathomable heat with our shirts tied around our waists and the world at our feet we looked at one another's bodies figured we looked all right ready to die if we had to watching the skies all night and i was sure my heart would break when the sun sank down into california i felt your breath on my neck, it was hot and good and pure and i wanted to warn you and it's all coming apart again it's all coming apart again it's all coming apart again it's all coming apart again