THE WEAKERTHANS - CIVIL TWILIGHT

My Confusion Corner commuters are cursing the cold away
As December tries to dissemble the length of their working day
And they bite their mitts off to show me transfers, deposit change
and I can’t stop finding your face in their faces, all rearranged
and angry like you never were;

And I ease us back into traffic
Dusk comes on and I wonder
Why I’m always remembering you
at civil twilight

For the most part I think about golfing and constantly calculate
all the seconds left in the minutes, and so on, etcetera
Or recite the names of provinces and Hollywood actors;
Oh, Ontario! Oh, Jennifer Jason Leigh!
This part of the day bewilders me

Streets slow down and ice over,
Dusk comes on and I struggle to stop,
To stop to stop thinking of you
at civil twilight

Hey, every other hour I pass that house,
Where you told me that you had to go
I wonder if the landlord has fixed the crack
That I stared at, instead of staring back at you;

My chance to say something seemed so brief
It wasn’t. Now I know I had plenty of time
Between the sunset and certified darkness
Dusk comes on and I follow the exhaust from memory up to the end

At civil twilight
At civil twilight
At civil twilight
At civil twilight

TIM ARMSTRONG - HOLD ON

I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
And if you choose to leave me, girl, I’ll understand
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.

Just like the Mississippi
Our journey starts in Minnesota
Take I-35 to 90
Soon, through South Dakota

Big “Hi,” to that country road.
Are we gonna make it on down?
She said, “Yeah, Tim.
Aw, Good to see ya.
Hope you all stay around.”

The future’s not the hardest to see.
Do what you do girl,
but please don’t leave.

I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
And if you choose to leave me, girl, I’ll understand
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.

Get down when I wanna, man.
Get through the darkest night.
We were born to ride, now baby,
ride until the morning light

Took a trip down to Kansas,
Missouri, then Arkansas.
Stayed with her sister,
that girl’s above the law.

The future’s not the hardest to see.
Do what you do girl,
but please don’t leave.

I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
And if you choose to leave me, girl, I’ll understand
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.

It’s a mad house, baby.
Fast women, cocaine, and booze.
Toughest of the roughest, (right)
I got nothing to lose.

Before I met ya,
everything was going wrong.
It’s been a long journey, now
girl I wanna take you home.

The future’s not the hardest to see.
Do what you do girl,
but please don’t leave.

I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.
And if you choose to leave me, girl, I’ll understand
I’m gonna hold on to you as long as I can.

MAY  

Let me look at those eyes.
I want to know how you are.
—Rainer W. Fassbinder

Look. May has come in.
It’s strewn those blue eyes all over the harbor.
Come, I haven’t had word of you in ages.
You’re constantly terrified,
Like the kittens we drowned when we were little.
Come and we’ll talk over all of the old same things,
The value of being pleasant,
The need to adjust to the doubts,
How to fill the holes we’ve got inside us.
Come, feel the morning reaching your face,
Whenever we’re saddened everything looks dark,
When we’re heartened, again, the world crumbles.
Every one of us keeps forever someone else’s hidden side,
If it’s a secret, if a mistake, if a gesture.
Come and we’ll flay the winners,
Laughing at our self leapt off the bridgeway.
We’ll watch the cranes at work in the port in silence,
The gift for being together in silence being
The principal proof of friendship.
Come with me, I want to change nations,
Change towns. Leave this body aside
And go into a shell with you,
With our smallness, like sea snails.
Come, I’m waiting for you,
We’ll continue the story that ended a year ago,
As if inside the white birches next to the river
Not a single additional ring had grown.

Copyright © 2007 by Kirmen Uribe, English translation copyright © 2007 by Elizabeth Macklin. Reprinted from Meanwhile Take My Hand without the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota.,

ALKALINE TRIO - TIME TO WASTE

There’s someone down below blowing you a kiss
They watch from their windows
As all arms fall to their sides
And all eyes fix on the death of tomorrow
And you found everything you need
To make a life complete
Completely revolting and they have safety and relief
For sale on the street
I see you in line everyday

You had time to waste and I’m not sorry
Such a basket case, hide the cutlery
I had time to kill its dead and buried
You’ve got guts to spill but no one trustworthy

These creatures are waking up in these dark trees
Waiting like vultures
Eyes roll back turn white in time to feed
They salivate in hunger
For you and everything they need
To make a death complete
Completely unnatural and salvation lies
Behind those dead eyes that watch you while you sleep every night and…

You had time to waste and I’m not sorry
Such a basket case, hide the cutlery
I had time to kill its dead and buried
You’ve got guts to spill but no one trustworthy

You had time to waste and I’m not sorry
Such a basket case, hide the cutlery
I had time to kill its dead and buried
You’ve got guts to spill but no one trustworthy….

JOHNNY CASH - GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John go do My will!”

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down

Words by Langston Hughes, from Jericho-Jim Crow: A Song-Play (1963)

Girl Lithe and Tawny

Girl lithe and tawny, the sun that forms
the fruits, that plums the grains, that curls seaweeds
filled your body with joy, and your luminous eyes
and your mouth that has the smile of the water.

My sombre heart searches for you, nevertheless,
and I love your joyful body, your slender and flowing
    voice.
Dark daisy, sweet and definitive
like the wheat-field and the sun, the poppy and the water.

  — Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973), Chilean writer and Communist politician.
     Translation by W.S. Merwin